CORE 513: Ramdemic

Nerdtacular 2026 tickets holding at early bird pricing, plus a swag bag-only option now available at frogpants.com.

News:

- NetEase pulls funding for Gang of Dragon — future of the game unknown

- Valve still targeting 2026 for Steam Machines despite RAM shortages; rumored to be a factor in Sony/Xbox strategy shifts

- EA lays off Battlefield staff post record-breaking launch

- Jeff Kaplan on his Blizzard exit — plus his one Overwatch regret: making it too team-focused when players want to shine individually

- Fortnite raising V-Buck prices

- Timberborn hits 1.0

- Xbox pushing “everything is an Xbox” / Project Helix, leaning into Windows 11

- Valve reports 6,000+ games made over $100k on Steam last year

Shared Play: Slay the Spire 2 — all three played it, early GOTY contender

Scott: WoW: Midnight (great time, nearly max level, campaign a little cheesy), Thysiastery (turn-based dungeon crawler, very positive on Steam).

Also: The Instance now posting Fridays at frogpants.com/instance.

Jon: Finished and 100%’d Resident Evil Requiem

Beau: Slay the Spire 2, more Star Trek Voyageur, dipped into new Diablo IV season (may have bought the Doom skin)

Feedback: Listener thinks he catches Scott being simultaneously terrified by AI and delighted by one-button AI rotations in WoW. And he is wrong about it.

Uncut Video: https://youtube.com/live/_Ns-L3tlMd4?feature=share

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