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With Lotus on the International Space Station this week, John and Niki wasted no time discussing these completely relevant topics: MoisturizerHaircarePelotonTchoukball Okay but they did get down to the most important games news of the week, including: The Highguard team quit their shadowdrop plans to take a slot at The Game AwardsCould Geoff not fill the last slot of the evening?What does it mean for next year's pricing for trailer space?Why Highguard's reworked launch strategy might not pay offWhy the Highguard preview event could've worked in their favor with a different strategyDr Disrespect lied about attending the Highguard preview eventVampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 missed expectations as Paradox is down year over year in operating profitJeffrey Epstein was banned from Xbox Live in 2013Peloton lays off 11% of its staff amid AI failuresShould we kill the CEOs in our heads?a...

This week, Niki, John, and Lotus confront the biggest gaming stories of the week, including: Ubisoft's major reorg, including game cancelations and new structuresTencent getting into podcasts, which we're sure will go greatMarathon gets a release date and a surprising collector's editionCapcom experiments with generative AI to stop being creativeFable takes a baffling stance on morality in the year 2026Highguard is out so very soon We played: Animal Crossing: New HorizonsSéance at Blake ManorPocoTR-49 Also, we answer your burning HIVE QUESTIONS from our lovely Discord.

This week, Lotus, Niki, and John set out to dissect the price sensitivity opus laid out by Peak's devs in an interview with Stephen Totilo. Is eight bucks really five bucks? This and much more, including: AGDQ's haul and interesting futureHytale's long path to Early AccessMeta's VR investment goes toe upSteam Community Awards face major changesSpry Fox spinning out of NetflixInverse & The Verge see games-related layoffsSteam rewrites their generative AI disclosure rules We played: Animal Crossing New HorizonsAngeline EraType Help Also, your burning HIVE QUESTIONS are answered from our lovely Discord.

This week, Lotus, Niki, and John are back and ready to tackle the first fresh news of 2026, including: The passing of Sega cofounder David RosenDiscord files for an IPONew Life is Strange is leaked to ratings siteJason Schreier causes Take-Two's stock price go down, kindaMinecraft getting new baby animalsLarian's CEO still doesn't seem to understand Gen AIIndependent Games Festival nominees announced We played: Vital Shell Also, your burning HIVE QUESTIONS are answered straight from our lovely Discord.

This week, John, Niki, and Lotus stare down the barrel of a very slow gaming news week, so they tackle some additional stuff, too, including: Twitter's Gen AI CSAM and sexual violence catastropheMicrosoft's CEO begging us to stop calling Gen AI "slop"GOG cofounder buys GOG from CD PROJEKT (which he also cofounded)GPUs are going to get even more expensiveSplitgate sequel is not going very well We played: Formless Star, the follow-up to sublime FrankenFinal Fantasy IX, perhaps the best of the entire franchise We also answer your burning HIVE QUESTIONS straight from our lovely Discord.

Note: a better quality audio upload will be available in a couple days. Hello! Another year has flown by and Niki, Lotus, and John are here to talk about their favorite games and gaming-adjacent things from 2025! Included in the GOTY chat: Donkey Kong BananzaHades IIAvowed*Ball X PitPokemon Legends: Z-ABlippo+KinophobiaMario Kart WorldThe Nintendo Switch 2 Also, the news of the week! Star Citizen will eclipse one billion dollars in investment soonClair Obscur's Indie Game Award was rescinded for AI inclusionVince Zampella dead at 55 We answer your burning HIVE QUESTIONS from our lovely Discord! *Microsoft and Xbox are still complicit in the genocide in Gaza. Go to nogamesforgenocide.com for more information and to sign the pledge today.

This week, Niki treats John and Lotus to the first ever VGBees Podcast Edition of Scam Text Theatre! After this momentous occasion, the crew turns its sights to the biggest news of the week, including: Larian's CEO decides to drag his company into a gen AI quagmirePeople Make Games boycott Xbox (and transforms John's thinking in the process)League of Legends is getting a massive reworkNaughty Dog is already crunching on Intergalactic: The Heretic ProphetJK Rowling likely to pocket a ton of royalty dollars on the Harry Potter x Fortnite collaba...

Editor's note: this week's episode failed to upload individual stems of each recording, which means this final product is a bit rougher than usual. This is John and Streamyard's fault. Jordan did a great job with it. This week, Niki, Lotus, and John are all here to discuss the Biggest Night in Gaming™ aka The Game Awards. Included in the overall discussion: Casey Hudson's Star Wars RPGLarian's horrifying trailer for DivinityCapcom flubbing Leon Kennedy and Mega Man, somehowControl Resonant isn't quite what we want but that's okayStar Wars Galactic Racer is the Y2K game our failing economy yearns forThe Street Fighter movie's vibes are off-the-charts badGang of Dragon sure does look like a YakuzaAce Combat 8 is also here to remind us that the economy is in great shape4Loop and Highguard are both incredibly DOA gamesCoven of the Chicken Foot is cute, but what else?Jon Blow's Order of the Sinking Star is a bunch of other stuff in one kind of confusion packageTrailers allegedly cost anywhere between $450,000 and $1,000,000 to show at the event19,000 games were released on Steam in 2025 and 49% of them have fewer than 10 reviews We played: Angeline EraMetroid Prime 4: BeyondPokémon Legends: Z-A As always, we answer your burning HIVE QUESTIONS from our lovely Discord.

This week, John and Lotus celebrate the return of Niki to the show by immediately yelling at them for saying no one knows who Ron Gilbert is. Also! Netflix is buying Warner Bros. for $82.7b, including WB's gamesRon Gilbert's Death by Scrolling had big trouble finding publisher moneyHorses banned by Epic Games StoreEA's buyout is going 93.4% to the SaudisMina the Hollower needs to be a huge hit, Yacht Club admits for some reasonNo Players Online is back on Steam after spurious DMCA takedownTim Cain is back...well kind of he wasn't ever really gone it seems like...at Obsidian We played: Metroid Prime 4: BeyondHorsesPokémon Legends: Z-AAsbury PinesAngeline Era Also, we answer your burning HIVE QUESTIONS from our lovely Discord.

This week, Lotus and John dissect the biggest news stories of the week, including: Horses banned from Steam and the oddities surrounding itSplash Damage enters consultation ahead of layoffsCoatsink to lay off roughly half their studioNintendo to acquire 80% of Bandai Namco Studios SingaporeDDR5s and SSDs face massive price hike amidst shortageDemonschool does something fun with their credits Here's what we played this week: HYPERBEATMorsels Finally, we answer your burning HIVE QUESTIONS from our lovely Discord.

This week, Lotus and John are feeling particularly thankful for the handful of absolutely bananas stories that dropped in their laps! Including: Tencent's ultimate investment in UbisoftYoko Taro's projects keep getting canceledUnity coming to UnrealMegabonk withdraws from The Game AwardsUnknown Worlds vs Krafton gets unbelievably weirdRoblox CEO says the wildest things you can imagine on a podcast Also, Lotus and John played/watched/listened to: One Battle After Another (film)Lingo 2Berserk B.I.T.S.The Phlegms' new album Gulp (album)Pluribus (television show) We, of course, answer your burning HIVE QUESTIONS from our lovely Discord.

This week, Lotus and John tackle an absolute boatload of games news and notes, including: Valve's Steam Machine, Frame, and Controller all due in 2026Halo Infinite's final update coming this monthThe mishandling of The Game Awards Future Class is another black mark on whatever legacy Geoff Keighley is trying to leaveSony's fiscal report shows 40% share of software revenue to live service gamesMarathon apparently coming by the end of March 2026Arc Raiders uses AI voices and people are weird about people being weird about itAmbrosia Sky suddenly has a complicated release structure for some reasonThe Indie Game Awards are back on December 18thThe average games industry salary is $142,000 but please do not believe thatThey gave Samus Aran a shitty little sidekick in Metroid Prime 4 Also, John & Lotus played: The Meow Wolf Grapevine missing kid ARGDreamfather Loves YouThe Good Old DaysSkies of Arcadia Legends We, of course, answer your burning HIVE QUESTIONS from our lovely Discord.

This week, Niki returns after a taxing move to talking to Lotus and John about a game they played called Life's Eternal Puzzle. Not out on any consoles I can find but still interesting! Also! Grand Theft Auto VI is delayedRockstar's fired employees were allegedly leaking information (uh huh)Protests erupt outside RockstarTexas sues Roblox (get ready to get acquainted with Ken Paxton, one of the worst dudes in the world)Borderlands 4 sales laggingAvowed 2 might be coming (according to disgraced Obsidian founder)Surprise! Executives believe Steam has a monopoly on PC Games market!Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra has been delayedConcord is fodder for UK House of Commons debateSquare Enix lays off over 100Square Enix wishes to move 70% of QA and debugging to generative AIUnbeatable delayed at the finish line This week, the crew played: The Outer Worlds 2KinophobiaSettlemoonPokémon Legends Z-AMarvel Snap Also, we answer your burning HIVE QUESTIONS from our lovely Discord.

From the VGBees Bonus Feed -- join The Hive today to get bonus episodes like this all year. John gave himself such a strange and wonderful birthday gift this year by asking Joe from the Joe Is Hungry YouTube channel for ninety minutes of his time. Joe, kindly, obliged. And this is the result. If you've never watched Joe Is Hungry, it is a fast food review channel with a growing and vocal fandom. You'll understand. Interview includes: Joe's background as a nursethe origin of the huge knifethe cats!Joe's video editing philosophies and how he learned the tradeJoe's feelings on the GoPro 10Joe's origins on the webJoe's stance on drive-thru AI botsand much, much more If you like bonuses like this, please tell your friends to JOIN THE HIVE.

This week, Niki has been taken by the Swamp Monster so Lotus and John are fending for themselves. Lucky for you, they love to yap! Included in the gab sesh: EA's generative AI tools all suck and no one likes themAmazon is cutting tens of thousands of jobsMany Amazon Games projects have shut downAmazon Games was apparently (???) competing with Steam the whole timeDon't Nod is working with Netflix IP for upcoming projectHuge Animal Crossing New Horizons update is comingNintendo is selling a huge Breath of the Wild vinyl setTake-Two & Rockstar do some union bustingStasisDeep Sleep TrilogyKinophobiaNinja Gaiden: RageboundShinobi: Art of VengeanceOnce Upon a KATAMARI Plus, we answer your burning HIVE QUESTIONS from our Discord.