The reason the Square Enix CEO sounds less enthusiastic in 2024's New Years letter than the last two is because it's from a completely different person. Yosuke Matsuda resigned in the middle of last year. The current CEO is Takashi Kiryu.

Oh my god, Bowser is channeling... well, Bowser.

@a-merk check it out online, if you roll all of your winnings from the big score into certain stocks at certain points of Lester's assassination missions, you can become a billionaire quite easily 🚀

Such pain.

Games we played this week include: 
In Stars and Time (16:00)
Loop Hero (27:25)
Dave the Diver (31:00)
Knuckle Sandwich (42:00)
Lonovo Legion Go (49:50)
Yakuza 0 (53:05)
Deadly Premonition (54:50)
Laika Aged Through Blood (1:07:50)
---
News things talked about in this episode:
Layoffs at Unity, Free Radical and Fishlabs (1:12:40)
https://www.polygon.com/23980876/unity-layoffs-weta-digital
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/embracer-ceo-confirms-timesplitters-studio-faces-closure-before-christmas/
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/embracer-lay-off-around-50-people-at-chorus-and-galaxy-on-fire-developer-fishlabs
Full-screen ads interrupt gameplay in Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft claims technical error (1:15:15)
https://www.pcgamer.com/assassins-creed-players-started-having-their-games-interrupted-by-full-screen-pop-up-ads-but-ubisoft-says-it-was-a-technical-error-and-quickly-patched-it/
Court docs reveal Google wanted to acquire Epic with the help of Tencent (1:18:45)
https://www.pcgamer.com/google-considered-buying-epic-games-according-to-updated-court-documents/
EA filed patent for using player’s voice for generated character speech in games (1:20:55)
https://www.veryaligaming.com/ea-player-voiced-characters-games/
---
Buy official Jimquisition merchandise at thejimporium.com

Find Laura at LauraKBuzz on Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon. All her content goes on LauraKBuzz.com, and you can catch Access-Ability on YouTube every Friday.

Follow Conrad at ConradZimmerman on Twitter/Instagram/BlueSky and check out his Patreon (patreon.com/fistshark). You can also peruse his anti-capitalist propaganda at mercenarycreative.com.

Podquisition 466: Rubber Baby Tuggy Bumps

Talk to your doctor.

Games we played this week include: 
In Stars and Time (11:20)
While the Iron’s Hot (26:25)
PS Access Controller (36:10)
Gangs of Sherwood (45:05)
Pinball M (1:04:15)
---
News things talked about in this episode:
Layoffs at New World Interactive and Codemasters (1:12:40)
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-embracer-spiral-continues-as-insurgency-sandstorm-studio-new-world-interactive-lays-off-employees/
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/f1-developer-codemasters-affected-by-layoffs
Electronic Arts frees a few more accessibility patents (1:15:15)
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/ea-shares-more-accessibility-patents
You could have a branded Yorkshire Tea controller (1:18:45)
https://www.eurogamer.net/you-can-get-yorkshire-tea-xbox-and-playstation-5-controllers-for-150
---
Buy official Jimquisition merchandise at thejimporium.com

Find Laura at LauraKBuzz on Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon. All her content goes on LauraKBuzz.com, and you can catch Access-Ability on YouTube every Friday.

Follow Conrad at ConradZimmerman on Twitter/Instagram/BlueSky and check out his Patreon (patreon.com/fistshark). You can also peruse his anti-capitalist propaganda at mercenarycreative.com.

Podquisition 467: A Vas Difference

Back to the drawing board.

Games we played this week include: 
Vampire Survivors (18:35)
Grand Theft Auto V (26:40)
Thirsty Suitors (33:55)
Persona 5 Tactica (39:25)
---
News things talked about in this episode:
E3 officially pronounced dead after years on life support (41:15)
https://kotaku.com/is-e3-dead-2023-canceled-esa-1851092261
Zelda producer thinks older style Zelda games are worthless garbage now (49:10)
https://www.ign.com/articles/zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-interview-nintendo-eiji-aonuma-hidemaro-fujibayashi
The Day Before imploded a few days after (53:05)
https://www.eurogamer.net/the-day-before-publisher-apologises-for-game-as-steam-refunds-open
Union workers at Zenimax get historic win over use of AI (1:02:30)
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/zenimax-union-strike-tentative-agreement-over-ai-usage-in-workplace
---
Buy official Jimquisition merchandise at thejimporium.com

Find Laura at LauraKBuzz on Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon. All her content goes on LauraKBuzz.com, and you can catch Access-Ability on YouTube every Friday.

Follow Conrad at ConradZimmerman on Twitter/Instagram/BlueSky and check out his Patreon (patreon.com/fistshark). You can also peruse his anti-capitalist propaganda at mercenarycreative.com.

Photo Credit: Tony Knox

Podquisition 468: Accident Prone Planning

Oh, yeah, that thing is about to happen isn’t it?

Games we played this week include: 
Vampire Survivors (18:35)
Midnight Suns (19:40)
Grand Theft Auto V (25:24)
Pokémon Scarlet/Violet (33:25)
Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising (41:15)
Diceheart (53:20)
Slay the Princess (1:00:00)
---
News things talked about in this episode:
Ransomware group releases trove of material stolen from Insomniac Games (1:07:15)
https://www.cyberdaily.au/culture/9959-snikt-rhysida-dumps-more-than-a-terabyte-of-insomniac-games-internal-data
Internal Sony documents give candid view of concerns over ABK acquisition (1:19:15)
https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/microsoft-could-disrupt-and-threaten-playstation-business-sonys-alleged-xbox-fears-laid-bare-in-massive-hack
ABK studios are ending hybrid work (1:21:50)
https://www.eurogamer.net/abk-workers-alliance-responds-to-activision-blizzard-ending-hybrid-working
ABK settles California worker discrimination suit (1:24:20)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/activision-blizzard-to-pay-around-50-million-to-settle-lawsuit-that-spurred-microsofts-takeover-4dc1178b
Valve delivers festive DOTA 2 bans (1:26:00)
https://www.polygon.com/24002666/dota-2-frostivus-2023-bans-valve-toxic-lump-coal
---
Buy official Jimquisition merchandise at thejimporium.com

Find Laura at LauraKBuzz on Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon. All her content goes on LauraKBuzz.com, and you can catch Access-Ability on YouTube every Friday.

Follow Conrad at ConradZimmerman on Twitter/Instagram/BlueSky and check out his Patreon (patreon.com/fistshark). You can also peruse his anti-capitalist propaganda at mercenarycreative.com.

Photo Credit: Daderot

Podquisition 469: Suddenly Seasonal

The future is inevitable.

Games we played this week include: 
Tekken 8 (23:35)
Grand Theft Auto V (26:50)
Midnight Suns (40:55)
---
News things talked about in this episode:
Switch flash cartridge announced, internet immediately links Gary Bowser to it (14:55)
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/jailed-nintendo-hacker-gary-bowser-denies-link-to-new-switch-flash-cart/
Square Enix will commit even harder to AI in 2024 (47:10)
https://kotaku.com/square-enix-president-artificial-intelligence-ai-games-1851133573
As Kotick leaves ABK, former employees point out how he made games worse (1:21:50)
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2024/01/former-call-of-duty-dev-says-decisions-made-by-bobby-kotick-made-our-games-worse
---
Buy official Jimquisition merchandise at thejimporium.com

Find Laura at LauraKBuzz on Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon. All her content goes on LauraKBuzz.com, and you can catch Access-Ability on YouTube every Friday.

Follow Conrad at ConradZimmerman on Twitter/Instagram/BlueSky and check out his Patreon (patreon.com/fistshark). You can also peruse his anti-capitalist propaganda at mercenarycreative.com.

Photo Credit: Hamed Saber

Podquisition 470: Crone's Unease

Just because you’re miserable doesn’t mean we all should be.

Games we played this week include: 
God of War: Ragnarok (7:45)
Luck be a Landlord (15:50)
Grand Theft Auto V (22:25)
Lies of P (23:15)
Buckshot Roulette (26:40)
Pokémon (30:10)
Orc Massage (33:25)
---
News things talked about in this episode:
Another round of layoffs hits Unity, Twitch, and Bossa Studios (43:30)
https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/8/24030695/unity-layoff-staff-25-percent
https://blog.twitch.tv/en/2024/01/10/a-difficult-update-about-our-workforce/
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/bossa-studios-lays-off-one-third-of-its-staff
Netflix considering plan to insert ads into its published games (49:30)
https://www.wsj.com/business/media/netflix-eyes-ways-to-make-money-from-videogames-in-potential-pivot-705bd3b3
SAG-AFTRA makes AI deal for game voice workers seemingly without consulting them (52:15)
https://www.pcgamesn.com/sag-aftra-ai-voice-actor-reaction
Lawsuit claims discrimination at Activision-Blizzard against old, white men (59:40)
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/ex-activision-exec-accuses-publisher-of-discriminating-against-old-white-guys
Xbox bans Baldur’s Gate 3 players who have default share settings on while saving sexy content (1:05:45)
https://www.pcgamer.com/xbox-insists-its-willy-nilly-bans-of-baldurs-gate-3-players-from-its-online-services-are-not-automatic-suggests-turning-off-its-opt-out-feature-to-avoid-horny-upload-crimes/
---
Buy official Jimquisition merchandise at thejimporium.com

Find Laura at LauraKBuzz on Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon. All her content goes on LauraKBuzz.com, and you can catch Access-Ability on YouTube every Friday.

Follow Conrad at ConradZimmerman on Twitter/Instagram/BlueSky and check out his Patreon (patreon.com/fistshark). You can also peruse his anti-capitalist propaganda at mercenarycreative.com.

Photo Credit: Santosh Kumar

Podquisition 471: Weather or Naught

Sounds like a cozy spot, doesn’t it?

Games we played this week include: 
Luck be a Landlord (4:25)
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (17:20)
Last of Us Part II Remastered (24:30)
The Gnorp Apologue (33:15)
Legend of Grimrock (39:25)
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (39:25)
The Shopping List (49:40)
The Witcher 3 (51:20)
Pokémon Scarlet/Violet (51:55)
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (53:40)
---
News things talked about in this episode:
UK retailer GAME ends trade-ins because locations are increasingly in Sports Direct stores (43:30)
https://www.eurogamer.net/uk-retailer-game-to-cease-video-game-trade-ins-staff-say

Rockstar and Remedy Games in a legal tiff over their logos (49:30)
https://www.gameinformer.com/news/2024/01/16/rockstar-parent-company-take-two-files-trademark-dispute-over-remedys-logo

Lost Boys latest studio hit by Embracer layoffs (52:15)
https://www.pcgamer.com/embracer-owned-lost-boys-interactive-reportedly-undergoes-sizable-layoffs/

GameShark re-emerges as AI company and drops a Switch 2 release date rumor (59:40)
https://kotaku.com/switch-2-release-date-leak-ces-gameshark-ai-shark-1851159992

---
Buy official Jimquisition merchandise at thejimporium.com

Find Laura at LauraKBuzz on Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon. All her content goes on LauraKBuzz.com, and you can catch Access-Ability on YouTube every Friday.

Follow Conrad at ConradZimmerman on Twitter/Instagram/BlueSky and check out his Patreon (patreon.com/fistshark). You can also peruse his anti-capitalist propaganda at mercenarycreative.com.

Podquisition 472: Lad of Sauces

What a terrible strain.

Games we played this week include: 
Piñata Smashlings (5:35)
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank (16:15)
Last of Us Part II Remastered (28:15)
Palworld (33:35)
Home Safety Hotline (48:05)
Luck Be a Landlord (53:30)
---
News things talked about in this episode:
MiG Switch flash cart could lead to bans for second-hand game buyers (59:05)

Rockstar and Remedy logo thing got settled late last year (1:05:05)
https://www.eurogamer.net/take-two-and-remedy-in-trademark-dispute-over-r-logo

Developer Piranha Bytes seemingly dropped by Embracer Group (52:15)
https://www.pcgamer.com/embracer-owned-elex-studio-piranha-bytes-is-trying-to-save-itself-from-closure-dont-write-us-off-yet/

Riot lays off more than a tenth of its staff (59:40)
https://www.riotgames.com/en/news/2024-rioter-update

After selling off all their previously acquired IP, Square Enix things it needs more diverse offerings (1:10:00)
https://www.ign.com/articles/square-enix-president-says-the-company-wants-to-release-fewer-more-diverse-games

---
Buy official Jimquisition merchandise at thejimporium.com

Find Laura at LauraKBuzz on Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon. All her content goes on LauraKBuzz.com, and you can catch Access-Ability on YouTube every Friday.

Follow Conrad at ConradZimmerman on Twitter/Instagram/BlueSky and check out his Patreon (patreon.com/fistshark). You can also peruse his anti-capitalist propaganda at mercenarycreative.com.

Photo Credit: Rebecca Brown / CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED

Podquisition 473: Phlegm Filter

We’re just not qualified.

Games we played this week include: 
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (10:30)
Metroid Dread (26:50)
Granblue Fantasy Relink (32:50)
Interaction Isn’t Explicit (35:30)
Go Mecha Ball (40:30)
Celeste 64 (51:50)
---
News things talked about in this episode:
Microsoft lays off 8% of its game division despite 49% revenue increase in Q2 (59:05)
https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24049050/microsoft-activision-blizzard-layoffs

Eidos Montreal staff laid off, previously unannounced Deus Ex game canceled (1:05:05)
https://www.polygon.com/24054575/deus-ex-game-canceled-layoffs-eidos-montreal

SEGA of America to drop 61 employees in March (52:15)
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/sega-of-america-to-lay-off-61-employees

Early Suicide Squad players had the game finished for them (59:40)
https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league-game-pulled-offline-1235890502

Bloodborne Kart won’t be Bloodborne Kart anymore (1:10:00)
https://www.eurogamer.net/bloodborne-kart-isnt-allowed-to-be-called-bloodborne-kart-anymore-but-it-is-still-coming

---
Buy official Jimquisition merchandise at thejimporium.com

Find Laura at LauraKBuzz on Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon. All her content goes on LauraKBuzz.com, and you can catch Access-Ability on YouTube every Friday.

Follow Conrad at ConradZimmerman on Twitter/Instagram/BlueSky and check out his Patreon (patreon.com/fistshark). You can also peruse his anti-capitalist propaganda at mercenarycreative.com.

Podquisition 474: Horny Goat Jokes

A crisis averted.

Games we played this week include: 
Silent Hill: The Short Message (7:15)
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (27:30)
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (37:25)
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (39:03)

---
News things talked about in this episode:
Rumors swirl around possible changes to Xbox first-party exclusivity (53:20)
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/report-microsoft-rethinking-exclusivity-plans-to-bring-starfield-and-indiana-jones-to-ps5

Development of The Day Before was allegedly a shitshow (1:02:10)
https://www.eurogamer.net/new-the-day-before-report-alleges-employees-fined-for-making-mistakes

Square Enix has decided it wants to make better games (1:04:05)
https://www.eurogamer.net/square-enix-reviewing-overall-game-development-to-improve-quality

---
Buy official Jimquisition merchandise at thejimporium.com

Find Laura at LauraKBuzz on Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon. All her content goes on LauraKBuzz.com, and you can catch Access-Ability on YouTube every Friday.

Follow Conrad at ConradZimmerman on Twitter/Instagram/BlueSky and check out his Patreon (patreon.com/fistshark). You can also peruse his anti-capitalist propaganda at mercenarycreative.com.

Podquisition 475: A Quiet Place

The bar has been raised yet again.

Games we played this week include: 
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (10:50)
Helldivers 2 (16:30)
Mouthwashing (31:10)
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor (34:25)
Final Fantasy Rebirth (40:45)
Destroy All Humans 2 Reprobed (47:15)
Hardcoded (49:20)

---
News things talked about in this episode:
MS to address rumors around console exclusivity (56:10)
https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/12/24070445/microsoft-xbox-business-update-event-future-february-15

French worker unions call for strikes at Ubisoft (58:10)
https://www.pcgamer.com/unions-call-for-strikes-at-ubisoft-studios-in-france-to-protest-wages-we-cannot-tolerate-being-treated-as-expendable-to-mitigate-their-bad-decisions

Microsoft layoffs hit Toys For Bob hard (1:04:05)
https://www.eurogamer.net/microsoft-layoffs-affect-86-staff-at-spyro-crash-bandicoot-studio

The FTC seems irritated by Microsoft’s layoffs (1:01:30)
https://www.polygon.com/24065269/ftc-microsoft-activision-deal-layoffs-appeal

Voice actor responsible for PEGI rating stingers was paid 200 Euros for the gig (1:05:00)
https://www.eurogamer.net/the-voice-actor-behind-pegi-18-says-he-was-paid-just-200

---
Buy official Jimquisition merchandise at thejimporium.com

Find Laura at LauraKBuzz on Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon. All her content goes on LauraKBuzz.com, and you can catch Access-Ability on YouTube every Friday.

Follow Conrad at ConradZimmerman on Twitter/Instagram/BlueSky and check out his Patreon (patreon.com/fistshark). You can also peruse his anti-capitalist propaganda at mercenarycreative.com.

Podquisition 476: The Best Kind of Feedback

Audio home of The Jimquisition, featuring its lovely little podcast, Podquisition - starring Jim Sterling, Laura Kate, and Conrad Zimmerman!

Podquisition 470: Crone's Unease

Jimquisition

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