Game Buoy Podcast Episode 195 – Summer News Catch Up
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Ahoy, mateys, and welcome to the GAMEBUOY.ORG video game podcast – your port of call for gaming news and views that maybe aren’t on your radar, but most definitely should be! On this episode, recorded Sunday, August 16, 2026, Captain Spike and First Mate Slaggy McWaggy catch up on summer news with some extended discussions on the latest topics in gaming!
HOT TOPIC IS THE WAY THAT WE RHYME
- Final Fantasy XIV MMORPG Reveals Bastion Job, New Areas for ‘Evercold’ Expansion in Videos
- Everything Announced At FF14’s Berlin Fan Fest
- Kingdom Hearts’ Canceled Mobile Game’s Intro May Have Leaked
- As Kingdom Hearts 4 fans await an update at D23, Disney says the JRPG series is now a $1 billion franchise
- Kingdom Hearts ‘Anime’ Announced for Disney+, Kingdom Hearts IV Game Launches in Late 2027 Including Coco World
- Kingdom Hearts IV Game Presents 4-Minute Trailer
- Nvidia GPUs see yet another price hike of up to 30 percent, as the generative AI hardware crisis worsens
- PlayStation reports flat Q1 sales, says it’s “cautiously moving forward” with halting physical disc production | GamesIndustry.biz
- Marvel’s Wolverine “fully playable” on disc when it releases, Insomniac clarifies, perhaps making it one of the last few PlayStation games that will be
- Marvel’s Wolverine Limited Edition PS5 console bundle and accessories announced
- Now It Will Be Sonic Who Gets To Have A Gun In Latest Fortnite Update
- Ghost of Yotei narrative expansion, new combat survival mode launch October 1 alongside Complete Edition
RELEASE UPDATES
- The Lord of the Rings: War in the North – Legacy Edition now available for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, Switch, and PC
- Suikoden Star Leap Game Reveals August 7 Release Date in Japan
- Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed coming to iOS, Android on September 16
- Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter Remake Game Streams New English Trailer
- PATLABOR the Case Files launches September 17
- ENDLESS Legend II launches September 17 for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC
- Harvest Moon: Echoes of Teradea delayed to October 15
- STEINS;GATE RE:BOOT for Xbox Series delayed to October 29
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV delayed to December 3
- Koei Tecmo’s Attack on Titan 3 Game’s Video Reveals December 10 Release
- God of War Laufey launches February 16, 2027
RETRO RELEASE UPDATES
- Console Archives 7-23-26 – The Conveni (PS1, HUMAN, 1997)
- Arcade Archives 7-23-26 – Armadillo Racing (Arcade, Namco, 1997) Racing
- Console Archives 7-2-26 – Doraemon (NES, Hudson, 86) Mascot Platformer Action
- Arcade Archives 7-30-26 – TX1 (Arcade, Tatsumi, 1983) Racing
- NSO Classics Virtual Boy – 8-4-26 – D Hopper
- NSO Classics Virtual Boy – 8-4-26 – Zero Racers
- Console Archives 8-6-26 – UFO A day in the life (PS1, ASCII, 99)
- Arcade Archives 8-6-26 – Combat School (Arcade, Konami, 1987) Beat em Up
- Console Archives 8-13-26 – Touki Denshou Angel Eyes (PS1, Tecmo, 97) Fighting
- Arcade Archives 8-13-26 – V’Ball (Arcade, Technos, 1988)
- NSO Classics GCN – 8-13-26 – Super Mario Sunshine
CULTURE CLUB
- Pokemon Pokopia becomes second best-seller on Switch 2 after its first DLC launch, as Nintendo confirms the cozy spin-off has hit over 5 million sales in 5 months
- Sonic Frontiers sales top five million
- Meccha Chameleon has now sold 20 million copies in two months
- Beast of Reincarnation director “truly sorry” that Pokemon dev’s new action-RPG hasn’t “provided a sufficiently enjoyable experience”
- Rising Cost Of PS5 And Xbox Is ‘Not A Good Thing,’ Says Take-Two CEO, But He Doesn’t Think It Will Hurt GTA 6
- Amazon Can Use Your Twitch Content to Train Its AI—Unless You Opt Out | WIRED
- Twitch Won’t Label Which Streams Are And Aren’t Using AI, So Streamers Are Doing It Themselves
- Amazon steps back from MMOs, transfers operations of Throne and Liberty and Lost Art to NC and Smilegate
- Nintendo Offers Free Repairs To Consoles Damaged In Kumamoto Earthquake
- Here’s Why Wolverine’s Suit Heals Itself In His New PS5 Game
MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO
- ‘Monkey Island’ Creator Finds Wealthy Investor for Next Game
- Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls Reveals Phoenix Cyclops DLC, Opening Movie Animated by Studio Sanzigen
- Super Robot Wars Y DLC ‘Anniversary Expansion Pack’ launches August 5
- Super Robot Wars Z II: Ruination Remastered announced
- Analyst data: Assassin’s Creed Odyssey experiences surge in daily active users following Christopher Nolan film
- Xbox Backward Compatibility on PC announced; four titles now available
SO CONTROVERSIAL
- Saber Interactive denies replacing former Rideshare Stimulator lead writer with ChatGPT, but does say the driving game uses AI out of “necessity” in an experimental mode
- AAA studio CEO needs Claude AI assistant to remember fired narrative writer, denies she was replaced with AI but wishes she was “in retrospect”
- Saber finally adds AI disclosure to Rideshare Stimulator amid CEO’s public feud with a former writer who claims she was replaced by ChatGPT
- Pokémon Bank App Ends Service in February 2027
- Pokemon Bank shutdown will make 5 Pokemon unobtainable in modern Switch games, and fans want to know when that changes
- Blizzard takes rare World of Warcraft mount from players as the MMO’s latest crack down on real-money transactions continues
- Marvel Tokon Players Report Fixed PC Issues After Arc System Works Launches Update
- Marvel Tokon sold 485,000 copies in a week but it could have been “closer to 1M” with a better PC port and Steam reviews, analyst says
- Marvel Rivals devs respond to Storm summer skin controversy, promise to do better but say harassment “is not acceptable”
DOOM AND GLOOM
- Netflix Closes Two More Game Studios, Expects Us To Believe It Still Sees ‘Opportunity’ In Games
- Witcher multiplayer spin-off Project Sirius hit by fresh layoffs
- Supermassive Games announces layoffs, up to 75 workers may be affected
- Double Fine Productions cuts 23 roles as it becomes independent from Xbox
- Switch Game Some Players Paid $60 For Disappears In A Cloud Of Virtual Smoke
- Id Software Vet Claims Xbox Doesn’t Understand Art Or Games
- Electronic Arts Officially Belongs To Saudi Arabia, Private Equity, And Jared Kushner Now
- Abandon single-player, move development to Saudi Arabia, “reduce labour”? Experts on what EA’s huge buyout debt could really mean
RUMOR HAS IT
- The Simpsons: Hit & Run “is coming back in some form,” says Matt Groening, but it looks like he wasn’t supposed to
- This leaked Legend of Zelda 40th anniversary Switch 2 console better be real, because I’m already desperate to buy it
- Marvel Tōkon Datamine Both Delights And Underwhelms With Potential DLC Characters
WHAT’S UP
Captain Spike has been playing Final Fantasy XIV, Disgaea 7, Spider-Man, and Marvel Tokon. First Mate Slaggy McWaggy played the Marvel Tokon beta weekend and has also been playing Final Fantasy 7 and EarthBound.
EXITLUDE
SHOUT OUTS – “FRIENDS OF BUOY”
- Orange Lounge Radio IIDX, where every geek has a voice
- Aftermath, an independent, worker-owned website about video games, other media and internet culture
- Game Mechanics, where TTRPG designers “kick tires and run diagnostics on tabletop experiences”
- Walloping Websnappers! A Spider-Man Podcast, a dive into every Spider-Man cartoon ever made
- Neo Geo Go!, a show that takes on the Neo Geo library chronologically and quickly.
- The Bobby Blackwolf Show, a weekly internet radio show and podcast discussing the latest news in gaming as well as sometimes reminiscing about gaming’s history
- Video Game Realness, a dose of gaming chit chat among friends
- Nintendo Pow Block, a dive into the week that was in the world of Nintendo
- Super Phillip Central, a video game blog that is your source for video games with a heroic touch
- Standard Issue Computing, retro and modern computer games, hardware, software, and history
- Sasha’s Retrobytes, “bytes” of vintage gaming including magazine scans and photographs
- Defunct Games, your daily source for modern video game reviews, exciting trivia competitions and old school magazine analysis
- Thomas Game Docs, where each video covers “a different aspect of video game history”
- Craig,
Slaggy McWaggy’s robot boyfrienda multi-track voice channel recording bot for Discord