Nintendo Presentation all done, overall it went well, I had a real good turnout, I got an applause at the end and quite a few people asking me questions afterwards. Unsure how long it will be before the video is online, NZGDC usually takes 6 months to send files but I’ll try get them early

Presentation starts in 20 minutes

My Nintendo Design presentation isn’t until tomorrow but I was surprised to find out today how much the game industry is growing in NZ, annual revenue is almost double that of Australia despite our tiny population😲 I’ve already had a number of devs asking me for intel on GTA 6 and Half-Life 3😆

There is old news circulating of me saying Metroid Prime 4 is $100 million dollar plus game. This isn’t a big deal and it’s easy to work out you just take the average salary in Austin and the amount of Retro devs and multiply it by the years of development. Its a nothingburger lol

I will be heading off to Wellington tomorrow for the NZGDC, I will be giving a short presentation on Nintendo's Game Design Philosophy at 3:10pm on Saturday 27th September. NZ devs feel free to reach to out while I am there, I have interviewed over 150+ game devs so I have a lot of intel.

I'm hoping to have my next interview up for Youtube Members in the next few days and everyone else will have to wait a week or two. This one is a great one for Fallout fans! It took 8 months to make it happen.

Stoked to see @playlynked.com in the Top 10 here in NZ on the eshop. Always cool seeing my boys @vonkoz.bsky.social and his crew at Fuzzybot doing well. :) Its out on all major platforms so check it out and support the devs! Sorry the population is so small here😅

My next interview im recording late next week and it will be with a former dev at Bethesda that worked on Fallout 4, 76 and Starfield We had to delay it 8 months due to his schedule. I am hoping to record and edit it quickly to make it available to Youtube members before heading off to the NZGDC.

Unfortunately, I can’t comment on Metroid Prime 4 cause anything I say will become a headline. Crappy journalists ruined it 🫤

Ive had an interview drought in September cause they got delayed, October might be stacked as a result I'll be doing a review of Silksong with a dev on the Demon Souls Remake in October (makes sense since Silksong is a souls game.) Don't worry my DK Bananza review with ex DK devs is still coming

I was sick asf in the weekend so couldnt do much and after getting frustrated with Silksong, I decided to speedrun Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion and Metroid Dread and beat all my records.😃 Super - 1hr 20 minutes Fusion - 1hr 50 minutes Dread - 4 hours and 4 minutes. Now back to Silksong

My presentation on Nintendo's Game Design at the NZ GDC on the 27th September has now been finalized Thanks to all the Nintendo and former Retro Studios devs for their tips behind the scenes. I made sure to include Metroid quite a bit in the presentation😅 See you soon Wellington!

Silksong is hard asf, I imagine heaps of casual gamers who got the game will have bought into the hype and FOMO but will end up dropping the game out of frustration, not realizing how crazy difficult it is. There shouldve been difficulty options for this game. Hunter's March is infuriating lol

The GTA of Indie games drops on the 4th and Team Cherry are about to make Scrooge McDuck money with Silksong lol. The team deserve it as well. Their contributions to the game industry at large(especially in Australia) as well as metroidvanias will be felt for generations.

I won't be attending PAX AUS to host any panels this year I think doing the combo of Mick Gordon in 23 and Josh Weier (Portal 2's lead dev) in 24 I think created an expectation that I bring out the big guns with these panels. I did try to get some big guests this year but I couldnt make it work

I have multiple things going on behind the scenes regarding interviews but most of it I never make public. I have been quiet since the GOG one primarily due to delays. Guests schedules change, as do mine plus I have my Nintendo presentation at the NZGDC which I am putting the final touches on.

From next year I will start to interview non-english speaking game devs (once youtube rolls out its custom dub feature) If you can speak Japanese, Mandarin, or Spanish on top of English and want to be a translator for my interviews on air, then let me know.

Given how sublime Hollow Knight's soundtrack is, I am hoping Silksong's ends up in my Top 25 Game Soundtracks. I listen to more video game soundtracks than I do play games lol. I've interviewed a number of the composers on my list, hopefully one day I can interview all of them.

Happy 18th Anniversary to Metroid Prime 3!!! This is my 4th favorite Metroid game behind Prime, Super and Dread. What I love about this game is that it switched it up rather than doing the traditional one planet, multi layered labyrinth.

Yes it is true!! I have never played a Final Fantasy game and I am at the point now where jumping in is way too daunting for me however never say never. I will say, I have listened to most of the soundtracks and FF VII Remake is my favorite game soundtrack ever! #FinalFantasyVII

On top of working 2 jobs and doing interviews my wife and I look after international students (predominantly from Japan) I get quite attached to them so it gets quite hard when they leave. This letter was from one of our girls🥹 I hope to get to Japan someday to visit them.

Its crazy my two most anticipated games for the rest of the year (outside of Metroid Prime 4) are two indie games.

Does anyone have a contact or know of someone that has a contact at Warner Bros/Amazon that can help me get on the press junket for the MK II film and S2 of the Fallout series? I've interviewed 150+ game devs and speaking to the cast/crew for game adaptations seems like the next logical step

Glad this is finally releasing. This is my September game! Team Cherry have been one of my most requested guests to be on my show for the longest time, I have always gotten radio silence when I have reached out so maybe I will have more luck once this has been released.

I will be appearing on @nintendoprime.bsky.social Nintenbyte podcast tomorrow at 8pm CT to talk about all things Nintendo. Im looking forward to chatting with everyone, see you there :-)

I am happy to announce I will be doing a presentation at the NZ GDC in late September on Nintendo's Game Design Philosophy. I am one of the last speakers of the whole conference (No pressure lol) The whole presentation will be filmed, so I will upload a copy to my Youtube channel at some point.

🎙️ New podcast out now with @gog.com , we talk about game preservation, DRM, Offline Installers, Japan's complicated laws and more.... WATCH HERE ➡️ youtu.be/4m8C6qP4tfs

Over the next month my interviews might be going on the back burner due to something important I’m doing involving Nintendo. I will be announcing exactly what it is next week.

Got my Switch 2 back from repair!! Nintendo Of Australia tried to charge me $52AUD even though it was under warranty😒 so dodgy, luckily the retailer covered it. Anyways all sorted now.

Less than 500 subscribers away from the big 20,000 subscribers🙏

My wife and I look after a lot of Japanese students as a supplementary income (every single one of them love Nintendo, it’s nuts! It really puts into perspective how popular Nintendo are in Japan.) Our two girls today made us breakfast this morning. I can get used to this lol

My next interview is with a couple of employees at GOG we talk about game preservation, japanese publishers supporting DRM, DRM laws globally, stop killing games and more.... It will be available in the next few days for Youtube Members, everyone else will have to wait a bit.

I've received a few DM's about the Tsunami threat, I appreciate the concern, it means a lot😊 but I will be fine. Statistically I live in the safest part of New Zealand, no volcanoes near me, 30 minutes away from the coast, no earthquakes where I am. So I am safe🙏

🎙️ New podcast out now with David O'Reilly, who was an environmental artist on GTA 5, RDR2 and even GTA 6!!! We talk about his work on all 3 games, Rockstar's culture, his Youtube Channel GameWorld Art and more.... WATCH HERE➡️ youtu.be/DtKzFeNf_ug

With any interview, I spend huge amounts of time on research beforehand. I try not to ask cliché questions, and I don't go in with an agenda for scoops, so it's always nice to get that acknowledgement from guests, either subtly or outright.😊

It hasn’t even been 3 weeks and my Switch 2 is broken and since Nintendo has no presence in NZ they have to send it to Australia for repair and it could take up to 30 days, not impressed. 😒 Good thing I already finished DK Bananza

My next interview is with David O'Reilly an environmental artist on GTA V, RDR2 and GTA VI!! It drops on Sunday 27th July, 11am PDT. As is the case with all my Rockstar interviews, I suggest watching it ASAP in the event I have to take it down. #gtavi

Come on man? Really? Since when did I go from being an 'interviewer' to becoming not just a 'leaker' but an OUTSPOKEN LEAKER. Don't believe this crap by the way, I never leaked anything, I gave an educated guess, that's it.

I think I definitely need to do more game reviews with former devs going forward considering the great response I had for the Oblivion Remastered Review Plus it’s something that’s quite unique and no one is doing and I’m one of the few who can pull it off. DK Bananza is next🙂

🎙️ New podcast out now with The Elder Scrolls Lore Master Kurt Kuhlmann! We dive into how he became the lore master, his work on Fallout & Starfield, his thoughts on Elder Scrolls VI & more. A must-listen for Bethesda fans! ⬇️WATCH/LISTEN here⬇️ youtu.be/_KoqJlyWA54

GTA VI is going to be 30FPS no doubt about it. Youll have to wait till next gen to get the 60FPS version lol.

🎙️ New podcast out now with @obbevermeij.bsky.social We dive into his work on the GTA Trilogy & IV, his thoughts on GTA VI, Rockstar’s culture, AI's potential effects on the industry, his indie game Plentiful & more... WATCH HERE➡️ youtu.be/AYcdZTGvIBs

Retro Studios released no games between Tropical Freeze(2014) and MPR(2023) and no layoffs, they're now about to release a GOTY contender with Metroid Prime 4. Devs arent going to work at 100% productivity when they have to worry about layoffs, Microsoft are asinine.

Podcast with the former Techincal Director on the GTA Trilogy and GTA IV, Obbe Vermeij will drop on 3rd July 11am PDT. This is a must-watch for any Rockstar/GTA Fans!! We cover his work on GTA, his thoughts on GTA VI, AI's effect on games (and how it helps GTA VII) his indie game Plentiful and more

It's unlikely that I will ever do Youtube full time, it would be at the expense of the quality of the show The downside is it means my show will probably never BREAKOUT majorly because Youtube rewards consistently posting videos. I keep myself really busy anyway

Game Youtubers arent freelancers, they're employees of an algorithm, it's their boss. If they don't do what the boss says (clickbait) they're hurt monetarily. They need to put food on the table like everyone else. I dont support it, just stating the reality, don't hate the player, hate the game.

I want to take a moment to thank @grantkirkhope.bsky.social as he was the very first game dev I interviewed. I never wouldve done interviews with devs from Nintendo, Sony, Bethesda, Valve etc. without him letting a little Hobbit from the bottom of the world speak to him back in 2020 🙏

This game is Sakurai's passion project. He was burned out from working on Smash Bros constantly since 2012 so as a negotiating tactic offered to do another Smash if he could do Kirby Air Riders first. Nintendo are in a bind with Smash Bros as Sakurai is irreplaceable currently.

Something I have never told anyone publicly is in 2014 I reached out to both Nintendo Of America and Australia for a job and I got turned down. If I had gotten a job, I never would've started Kiwi Talkz, which means I never would've interviewed game devs, funny how life works.

Location scouting is ongoing in NZ for the Legend Of Zelda film.I've heard through the grapevine that Mt Taranaki a dormant volcano will be used as the backdrop for Death Mountain. I managed to snap this photo when I was there in the weekend. Hope it's true.