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Listen "Is EA now a political pawn? Plus Xbox completes its euthanasia arc."
Episode Synopsis
EA sold to Saudi Arabia & Jared Kushner, to owe $20 BILLION in debt
Link: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250929186526/en/EA-Announces-Agreement-to-be-Acquired-by-PIF-Silver-Lake-and-Affinity-Partners-for-%2455-Billion
https://news.ea.com/press-releases/press-releases-details/2025/EA-Announces-Agreement-to-be-Acquired-by-PIF-Silver-Lake-and-Affinity-Partners-for-55-Billion/default.aspx
https://steamcommunity.com/id/Abdullah_Al_Saud
We usually espouse the benefits and virtues of being privately owned… and in a sense EA is privately owned… by Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Firm and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners. The reason why these two in particular are so important is due to the governmental ties. Saudi Arabia is obvious, yes, but for those who may not know Jared Kushner has ties to El Presidente due to being married to his daughter, Ivanka. This should raise serious red flags, regardless of what political party owns EA.
Xbox Game Pass Price Increase
Link: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2025/10/01/xbox-game-pass-ultimate-premium-essential-plans/
https://x.com/Wario64/status/1973423496610124281
Xbox Game Pass was once touted as the best value in gaming… but that value diminishes as time goes on. The price of Game Pass Ultimate has gone up from $20/Month to $30/Month, a 50% increase in price. And previously they raised the prices from $17 to $20 a month as is. Compare that to the highest end PlayStation subscription, PlayStation Plus Premium, which is currently $160. Microsoft however has added benefits, such as Ubisoft+ (which by itself is $16/Month) and Fortnite Crew (which by itself is $12/Month) and that you can earn $100 in points a year by gaming. But gamers are furious and have been attempting to cancel Game Pass subs in droves, with Wario64 on Twitter commenting that the page for cancelling Game Pass subs has been overloaded.
ROG Xbox Ally / ROG Xbox Ally X ships early due to Amazon France blunder
Link: https://xboxera.com/2025/09/30/amazon-france-ships-xbox-ally-x-units-over-two-weeks-early-user-impressions-posted-on-reddit/
Over in the US, the Xbox Ally devices are sold at Best Buy, Microsoft, and ASUS’s store. But in the EU, more specifically, France, Amazon sells them. However due to a blunder, Amazon France shipped one over two weeks early. Why this happens to random people and never me, I will never know. The original Reddit post has since been deleted, but the semi-review from the Redditor suggests that that the most significant gains are at the midrange, about 17W, with good battery life.
Is The World Ready for Pay-Per-View eSports Events? Capcom says YES
Link: https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2025/sep/28/cc12-pay-per-view-announcement/
I only ask this because Capcom Cup 12’s top 16 brackets will be pay-per-view as if you’re paying to watch boxing or UFC.
Discord Hacked Sept 20th - Over a Month after Implementing Age Verification
Link: http://discord.com/press-releases/update-on-security-incident-involving-third-party-customer-service
“Discord recently discovered an incident where an unauthorized party compromised one of Discord’s third-party customer service providers.” The service in question is their customer support / trust & safety agents. That said, Discord ITSELF wasn’t hacked, but given some of these inquiries had to do with age verification… it’s not a good look. A list of compromised materials…
Name
Government ID
Discord ID
Email
Other Contact Info (if provided)
Last 4 of Credit Card / Purchase History
IP Address
Messages with Customer Service
Some Corporate Data (training materials & internal presentations)
“Teen” threatens to kill Epic Games Employees, pleads guilty
Link: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/teen-who-threatened-to-kill-epic-games-employees-pleads-guilty
So this “teen” is actually 19 so legally an adult. But yeah, don’t make death threats to developers. I’m glad devs are cracking down on this shit.
Rock Band 4 to be delisted by the time we release this episode, October 5th
Link: https://www.gematsu.com/2025/10/rock-band-4-to-be-delisted-on-october-5
Rock Band 4 turns 10 on October 5th, 2025… just in time for Harmonix to delist the game from Xbox / PlayStation stores. The Music Licenses for Rock Band 4’s base game are expiring. If you haven’t bought the game already, it’s too late. Thankfully it’s not a live service game so you can still play your copy if you own one, and the DLCs are still downloadable if you own them too.
El Presidente brings back the threat of 100% tariffs on foreign movies
Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g78e809zqo
100% tariffs on movies is crazy given how global movie making really is. I noticed he brought up the threat of this happening when two big foreign movies made it. One was Ne Zha 2 a while back and now he brings this back up when Demon Slayer Infinity Castle 2 too. A lot of anime nerds want to back El Presidente but they don’t know that he’s about to send them back to the stone ages.
Talent Agencies reportedly scouting AI “actress” Tilly Norward
Link: https://deadline.com/2025/09/talent-agent-ai-actress-tilly-norwood-studios-1236557889/
AI Talent Studio Xicoia is reportedly in talks with multiple talent agents who want to sign on their first AI creation, an actress called “Tilly Norward”. Should this deal come to pass and some talent agency signs this AI on as an actress, it would be the first to have such an agency. Also of note is that former AI “artist” Puhm notes that all of the big studios are working on AI assisted projects, but due to the nature of NDAs, she cannot specify which ones are.
Sora 2 - The Death of Video Making?
Link: https://openai.com/index/sora-2/
Sora 2 makes videos using AI. There are MANY ramifications to this… but for now we should gloss over some of these examples, many of which are on Twitter.
Sam Altman Steals a GPU from Target
Sora 2 Anime
Sora 2 Anime… but in Japanese
Sora 2 Visual Novel
Mario gets pulled over by the police
Rick & Morty
Epstein Island Toy ad
Cyberpunk Gameplay completely recreated
Sora 2 Pouring Water Into Glass
📢 Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a comment, and follow us on your favorite podcast app.
Link: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250929186526/en/EA-Announces-Agreement-to-be-Acquired-by-PIF-Silver-Lake-and-Affinity-Partners-for-%2455-Billion
https://news.ea.com/press-releases/press-releases-details/2025/EA-Announces-Agreement-to-be-Acquired-by-PIF-Silver-Lake-and-Affinity-Partners-for-55-Billion/default.aspx
https://steamcommunity.com/id/Abdullah_Al_Saud
We usually espouse the benefits and virtues of being privately owned… and in a sense EA is privately owned… by Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Firm and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners. The reason why these two in particular are so important is due to the governmental ties. Saudi Arabia is obvious, yes, but for those who may not know Jared Kushner has ties to El Presidente due to being married to his daughter, Ivanka. This should raise serious red flags, regardless of what political party owns EA.
Xbox Game Pass Price Increase
Link: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2025/10/01/xbox-game-pass-ultimate-premium-essential-plans/
https://x.com/Wario64/status/1973423496610124281
Xbox Game Pass was once touted as the best value in gaming… but that value diminishes as time goes on. The price of Game Pass Ultimate has gone up from $20/Month to $30/Month, a 50% increase in price. And previously they raised the prices from $17 to $20 a month as is. Compare that to the highest end PlayStation subscription, PlayStation Plus Premium, which is currently $160. Microsoft however has added benefits, such as Ubisoft+ (which by itself is $16/Month) and Fortnite Crew (which by itself is $12/Month) and that you can earn $100 in points a year by gaming. But gamers are furious and have been attempting to cancel Game Pass subs in droves, with Wario64 on Twitter commenting that the page for cancelling Game Pass subs has been overloaded.
ROG Xbox Ally / ROG Xbox Ally X ships early due to Amazon France blunder
Link: https://xboxera.com/2025/09/30/amazon-france-ships-xbox-ally-x-units-over-two-weeks-early-user-impressions-posted-on-reddit/
Over in the US, the Xbox Ally devices are sold at Best Buy, Microsoft, and ASUS’s store. But in the EU, more specifically, France, Amazon sells them. However due to a blunder, Amazon France shipped one over two weeks early. Why this happens to random people and never me, I will never know. The original Reddit post has since been deleted, but the semi-review from the Redditor suggests that that the most significant gains are at the midrange, about 17W, with good battery life.
Is The World Ready for Pay-Per-View eSports Events? Capcom says YES
Link: https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2025/sep/28/cc12-pay-per-view-announcement/
I only ask this because Capcom Cup 12’s top 16 brackets will be pay-per-view as if you’re paying to watch boxing or UFC.
Discord Hacked Sept 20th - Over a Month after Implementing Age Verification
Link: http://discord.com/press-releases/update-on-security-incident-involving-third-party-customer-service
“Discord recently discovered an incident where an unauthorized party compromised one of Discord’s third-party customer service providers.” The service in question is their customer support / trust & safety agents. That said, Discord ITSELF wasn’t hacked, but given some of these inquiries had to do with age verification… it’s not a good look. A list of compromised materials…
Name
Government ID
Discord ID
Other Contact Info (if provided)
Last 4 of Credit Card / Purchase History
IP Address
Messages with Customer Service
Some Corporate Data (training materials & internal presentations)
“Teen” threatens to kill Epic Games Employees, pleads guilty
Link: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/teen-who-threatened-to-kill-epic-games-employees-pleads-guilty
So this “teen” is actually 19 so legally an adult. But yeah, don’t make death threats to developers. I’m glad devs are cracking down on this shit.
Rock Band 4 to be delisted by the time we release this episode, October 5th
Link: https://www.gematsu.com/2025/10/rock-band-4-to-be-delisted-on-october-5
Rock Band 4 turns 10 on October 5th, 2025… just in time for Harmonix to delist the game from Xbox / PlayStation stores. The Music Licenses for Rock Band 4’s base game are expiring. If you haven’t bought the game already, it’s too late. Thankfully it’s not a live service game so you can still play your copy if you own one, and the DLCs are still downloadable if you own them too.
El Presidente brings back the threat of 100% tariffs on foreign movies
Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g78e809zqo
100% tariffs on movies is crazy given how global movie making really is. I noticed he brought up the threat of this happening when two big foreign movies made it. One was Ne Zha 2 a while back and now he brings this back up when Demon Slayer Infinity Castle 2 too. A lot of anime nerds want to back El Presidente but they don’t know that he’s about to send them back to the stone ages.
Talent Agencies reportedly scouting AI “actress” Tilly Norward
Link: https://deadline.com/2025/09/talent-agent-ai-actress-tilly-norwood-studios-1236557889/
AI Talent Studio Xicoia is reportedly in talks with multiple talent agents who want to sign on their first AI creation, an actress called “Tilly Norward”. Should this deal come to pass and some talent agency signs this AI on as an actress, it would be the first to have such an agency. Also of note is that former AI “artist” Puhm notes that all of the big studios are working on AI assisted projects, but due to the nature of NDAs, she cannot specify which ones are.
Sora 2 - The Death of Video Making?
Link: https://openai.com/index/sora-2/
Sora 2 makes videos using AI. There are MANY ramifications to this… but for now we should gloss over some of these examples, many of which are on Twitter.
Sam Altman Steals a GPU from Target
Sora 2 Anime
Sora 2 Anime… but in Japanese
Sora 2 Visual Novel
Mario gets pulled over by the police
Rick & Morty
Epstein Island Toy ad
Cyberpunk Gameplay completely recreated
Sora 2 Pouring Water Into Glass
📢 Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a comment, and follow us on your favorite podcast app.
In God we trust