The VGBees Podcast

This week, Niki, Lotus, and John address the sweeping, disastrous layoffs and closures stemming from the "reset" Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has started.
00:00:00 Intro & Cup Talk
00:11:40 Xbox layoffs by the numbers
00:14:55 Id Software decimated by the moves
00:18:52 Obsidian loses staff and shifts focus to Fallout (a previous report that Avowed 2 has been canceled has been refuted by the developer since this recording)
00:25:32 Zenimax loses over 350 employees
00:29:11 350 others are left without jobs from divested and sold studios
00:32:47 IOI closes Istanbul studio after Xbox divestment
00:41:18 Hardship fund created for laid off developers
00:47:35 Bethesda union holding protests at different cities July 15
00:55:00 Niki proposes an analogy to the US Men's Soccer Team
01:02:08 Do average gamers know or care that this is all happening?
01:14:45 Niki has returned to NBA 2K26 and is having fun now
01:24:55 HIVE QUESTIONS
02:05:00 Outro & Interview Shows
Thanks for listening!
Please leave us a review! We'll read it on the show and it helps us out a lot.
VGBees is ad-free, AI-free, and completely supported by you! https://vgbees.com/join
VGBees is a weekly games media podcast hosted by Niki, John, and Lotus.

Hey! It's a brand new show here on The VGBees Podcast feed. We'll be taking the time every once in a while to sit down and go deep with interesting figures around the games industry and beyond. Our very first guest is Phil Salvador, Library Director of the Video Game History Foundation.
00:00:00 Intro
00:02:05 What is the Video Game History Foundation?
00:03:45 What has surprised Phil the most about the work of games preservation since joining?
00:05:37 What in Phil's life created this fascination with historical preservation?
00:08:11 What's the last thing Phil pulled out of the archive that surprised or delighted him?
00:11:20 How does Phil feel about the end of physical game discs?
00:20:32 Do major games corporations show signs of meeting preservationists halfway?
00:23:04 Notes about the 2023 study Phil wrote about pre-2010 game availability
00:28:50 Is there a notable distinction between preservation and accessibility?
00:32:27 What is piracy's role in game preservation?
00:39:44 What kind of legal team does VGHF engage?
00:42:53 Phil digs into one of his favorite collections added since the 2025 launch of the digital archive
00:49:55 Does the VGHF and its digital archive care about growing its audience?
00:54:58 What is the path from collection acquisition to availability online in the digital archive?
00:59:45 What kind of backend does the digital archive use to organize the collection?
01:02:15 What's the most technically harrowing preservation project VGHF has taken on?
01:09:00 How does the archive decide what is worthy of inclusion?
01:13:15 How is the archive's magazine collection shaping up?
01:17:24 Where does Phil see the foundation and the archive in five years?
01:20:10 John looks up Shenmue in the digital archive
01:22:14 How can you help the Video Game History Foundation and its mission?
01:25:10 Outro
Thanks for listening!
Please leave us a review! We'll read it on the show and it helps us out a lot.
VGBees is ad-free, AI-free, and completely supported by you! https://vgbees.com/join
VGBees is a weekly games media podcast hosted by Niki, John, and Lotus.

This week, Lotus, Niki, and John dive deep into the end of physical discs for Sony (and likely Xbox), the impending closures of the PS3/Vita digital stores, and the potential for Arkane to be on the Xbox reset chopping block.
00:00:00 Intro & everything you need to know about donuts
00:18:50 Sony stopping disc support in 2028; the gang goes long on the loss of physical games media
01:06:30 Sony is also closing the PS3/Vita stores
01:15:05 IOI to lay off staff on Project Fantasy, which was backed by Xbox
01:21:07 Arkane may be part of the upcoming closures at Xbox
01:25:55 Memory manufacturers the target of a class action lawsuit alleging price fixing
01:29:55 Summer Games Done Quick 2026 Preview
01:31:35 Star Wars Galactic Racer is the VGBees Game of Show at Summer Game Fest 2026
01:40:20 Anode Heart: Layer Null strips away the mess from card battling RPGs
01:51:54 A very quick note about the AYN THOR
01:56:20 Niki is dipping back into Slay the Spire 2
01:58:07 Virtua Fighter 5 REVO World Stage adds a welcome single player mode to the game
02:02:30 HIVE QUESTIONS
02:50:12 Outro
Thanks for listening!
Please leave us a review! We'll read it on the show and it helps us out a lot.
VGBees is ad-free, AI-free, and completely supported by you! https://vgbees.com/join
VGBees is a weekly games media podcast hosted by Niki, John, and Lotus.

This week, John and Niki discuss the biggest news of the gaming week, including Grand Theft Auto VI edition details, Steam Machine details, and more price hikes for Xbox consoles.
00:00:00 Intro & when it became Turkiye
00:12:30 Steam Machine is in the wild and available for waitlisting
00:28:13 Xbox consoles increase in price again
00:33:08 Grand Theft Auto VI isn't on disc and somehow people were shocked
00:46:38 Bungie lays off Destiny 2 team; Hermen Hulst writes bad blog post
01:04:00 Tim Sweeney thinks you owe it to yourself to play his games
01:07:07 LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight looks great, feels great, and deftly balances multiple tones
01:10:50 Niki bought NBA 2K26 for cheap and still regretted it
01:20:05 Beatdown City Survivors successfully riffs on a familiar formula, but is it enough?
01:23:42 Niki talks about Carly Rae Jepsen's new album while agonizing over whether to buy a new television
01:27:55 Outlier is a great new online word game you're going to get sucked into
01:33:45 Niki updates us on their NAS system (and hating Linux)
01:39:07 HIVE QUESTIONS
02:00:45 Outro
Thanks for listening!
Please leave us a review! We'll read it on the show and it helps us out a lot.
VGBees is ad-free, AI-free, and completely supported by you! https://vgbees.com/join
VGBees is a weekly games media podcast hosted by Niki, John, and Lotus.

This week, John, Niki, and Lotus go very long on this week's seismic Xbox news, including the numerous studio closures on the table, key departures, and Microsoft CEO's Satya Nadella's curious take on why their gaming arm is struggling.
00:00:00 Intro & Lotus' Big Saturday
00:11:10 South of Midnight developer Compulsion Games is the unsurprising yet disappointing first studio to confirm possible closure or spinoff
00:17:00 A long, great conversation about the games media's role in reporting on these layoffs and closures
00:28:00 How Xbox got here (mostly)
00:48:52 Satya Nadella seems to be confused about how Xbox got into this jam
00:54:00 That Senua sequel was only announced to help fuel a possible sale of Ninja Theory
01:02:14 The weight of working in corporate-owned game development right now
01:06:34 Key personnel leaving Xbox
01:07:56 What's the plan moving forward for Xbox?
01:16:10 EA introducing new in-game advertising platform
01:25:57 UK government is banning teens from social media; plan will not work
01:33:10 Fuck's Quest 2 lacks consistent humor and mechanical clarity
01:37:07 Niki played the first two Sonic games on Genesis (skip this part, Sonic fans!!!)
01:45:10 John decided to give Ocarina of Time another try
01:49:10 Our latest (possibly final) thoughts on 007 First Light
02:02:47 Hive Questions
02:18:12 Outro
Thanks for listening!
Please leave us a review! We'll read it on the show and it helps us out a lot.
VGBees is ad-free, AI-free, and completely supported by you! https://vgbees.com/join
VGBees is a weekly games media podcast hosted by Niki, John, and Lotus.