Legally Activated | The Grinding Gear Podcast #136

Nintendo Direct! New HOTS patch! The problem with game music. AND SO MUCH MORE! SupportOurBromance.com or… well we won’t enshittify. So, thanks for the support!

The tubes are on fire. Or maybe they have been for a month. In a massive conspiracy turned reality, YouTubers found that they’re views have dropped by half in the month of August due to YouTube’s new features. Indie games don't know how to price themselves in the wake of Silksong’s release. We got the Yoshi P interview round up covering all the teases and perhaps walkbacks on the upcoming job update. Blizzard continues to C&D classic plus private servers. Hollow Knight, Expedition 33 and more.  Supportourbromance.com if you're a player who likes change, but also for everything to remain the same, with exciting changes on the horizon.

Expedition 33 talk later, news first. Silksong is only $20 but Monster Hunter Wilds certainly wasn't. Blizzard shuts down Turtle wow, or plans to. Yoshi-P asks people to be nicer. Then our thoughts on the first 3 hours of Expedition 33. Emails and More

Video games! More are coming and the ones that are here are under debate. Thats Gamescom 2025 for ya. A few winners grabbed our attention. Kyle is playing Hollow Knight. Crossovers be damned, MTG Airbender is looking real good. World of WarCraft showed off its newest expansion Midnight. Pick your side, because FFXIV mods lovers and haters are at each other this week. We got the full rundown to help you pick your side. Garrett’s watching Evangelion as an adult. All this and more. 

The merch cluster is under attack. Pokemon Worlds took place in Anaheim this week and it was invaded by SCALPERS. While Garrett and Kyle attempt to fathom this, Japanese McDonald’s was also forced to end their Pokemon Happy Meal tie-in early. Gamescom is tomorrow, and World of Warcraft is set to show its newest cinematic for Midnight. Dandadan, Alien: Earth, and so much more.

The World of Warcraft news cycle has begun with the approach of their Midnight expansion Cinematic. WoW plans to get rid of Addons, going the FFXIV route and freeing themselves of their ever escalating arms race. WoW has also claimed massive success with their recent One Button rotation option. Final Fantasy XIV has sales down by 23%, but what does that even mean? We watched Kpop Demon Hunters, Dandadan and more.

We’re back after our collective grass touching. Garrett and Kyle have toured Florida and return to, what ever all this is. Collective Shout is taking down Games with the help of Mastercard? GameStop is getting in to the business of “graded” Pokemon Cards. There was some weird FFXIV drama while we were away, but ultimately the Live Letter did have some surprises, including a key-like-system. Pokemon, Metroid and Castlevania have all been streamed! Let’s see how it went. Supportourbromance.com or he will never stop coming.

It’s that slow summer time for gaming news, and the bad news rings loud and clear. The Microsoft layoffs have rocked the industry, stopping some games while they were deep in production. The company claims everything in the 2025 Showcase is safe, but what about the games we didn't see? In good news, Stop Killing Games finds its footing after a rocky start. Plagued with misunderstood goals and dismissive assumptions, it seems the EU based initiative has finally taken off after finding its villain. FF14 pulled a weird thing in there cash shop. We spent the weekend playing MTG. All this and more. Supportourbromance.com or you’ll be thinking about cheesecake.