The Dropshot

GTA 6 isn't even out yet and the Miami Heat are changing their name for it. On November 18th, the night before launch, the Heat become the Vice City Heat — new jerseys, a new court, a "Welcome to Vice City" sign, all on ESPN. Raz and Jake try to figure out what Rockstar paid, why the NBA said yes, and why Coca-Cola still bothers advertising at all. Then the GTA 6 ESRB rating drops, and it says more than Rockstar has: decapitation and dismemberment, strip club private dances, and cocaine you can carry around and snort straight off your hand. Plus the NFL fining a guy for a fake beer celebration and cutting straight to a Bud Light ad. Also: Steam's record $1.7B September, why gaming is the most cost-effective hobby on earth, Gears of War: E-Day, MW4 and DMZ, and everything changing in Wardogs Season 2 — progression wipe, rain maps, trait system, and the economy rebalance. And to close it out: David Grusch's alien species lineup on Joe Rogan. Grays, 7-foot reptilians, "very beautiful" blue-white beings. Jake is convinced there are alien bases in the ocean and that we've explored way more than 5% of it. Raz brings up the Antarctic. Nobody wins. 0:00 - Intro 1:08 - Pre-show recap: does texture even matter? 2:35 - Patreon shoutouts 4:18 - What we're playing: Blood of Dawnwalker & Tarkov 5:55 - Open-world fatigue is real 9:38 - Crusader Kings 3 & a W for targeted ads 13:53 - GTA 6 is six weeks away 14:22 - The Miami Heat become the Vice City Heat 20:21 - The NBA's squeaky-clean image 25:16 - Why does Coca-Cola still advertise? 32:51 - What did Rockstar actually pay? 35:43 - GTA 6 ESRB rating: M for Mature 37:24 - Buying Vice City as a kid 38:15 - What the ESRB rating reveals 40:43 - Snorting coke off your hand in GTA 6 43:04 - NFL fines a fake beer, airs a Bud Light ad 47:12 - Will your nose collapse in GTA 6? 49:24 - Steam's record-breaking September 52:08 - Gaming's up 54:19 - Gaming is the best hobby, prove us wrong 1:00:18 - Real friends from video games 1:02:55 - Why Steam is a great company 1:05:54 - Ace Combat 8 & the origin of "Razinon" 1:06:33 - Gears of War: E-Day 1:08:39 - Star Wars Galactic Racer? Skip. 1:09:37 - MW4 & everything hinges on DMZ 1:10:55 - Wardogs Season 2: the progression wipe 1:12:38 - Rain maps: snipers and helis nerfed? 1:16:37 - Night matches in Wardogs? 1:17:11 - Economy rebalance: infantry needs a buff 1:19:47 - Give us a loadout builder 1:21:22 - Teased: anti-air, Molotovs & jets 1:23:02 - David Grusch on Joe Rogan 1:24:00 - The alien species lineup 1:29:41 - Disclosure before Trump's term ends? 1:31:31 - Underwater alien bases 1:32:15 - "We've only explored 5% of the ocean" 1:38:01 - Map our own planet first 1:39:40 - Why would aliens be beautiful? 1:40:19 - Outro 1:41:05 - Post-credits: the James Cameron argument _Note: timestamps may be slightly misaligned on podcast apps (but not on YouTube) due to dynamic ads._ The podcast is available wherever you listen to podcasts, and ad-free & early access versions - as well as bonus episodes - are available to all of our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/thedropshot) supporters. We stream the podcast live on our YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/thedropshotpodcast) every Saturday morning at ~9 o'clock Pacific Time. We typically start the stream 30 minutes early to answer viewer questions, banter, and chat. Links for everything are below. Thanks for checking us out! 🔹Streaming schedule (Pacific time): 🔸Saturday ~9 AM: Gaming news and stories of the week 🔹The Dropshot: 🔸Website: https://www.thedropshot.com 🔸Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDropshotPod 🔸Discord: https://discord.gg/B4Nsarq 🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thedropshotpodcast 🔸Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedropshot 🔸Donate: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=YVR98VF4S945G 🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedropshotpodcast/ 🔸TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedropshotpodcast 🔹Razinon: 🔸Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/razinon 🔸Twitter: https://twitter.com/razinon 🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/razinonttv 🔹Jakedown: 🔸Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/jakedown_ 🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jakedown #TheDropshot #Dropshot #DropshotPodcast #GamingPodcast #GTA6 #GrandTheftAuto6 #ViceCity #Rockstar #Wardogs #Steam #PCGaming #MiamiHeat #ESRB #DavidGrusch #JoeRogan #UAP #Aliens #Podcast #GamingNews #HotTake Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft just handed the next mainline Halo to Activision, and two guys who ran a Call of Duty show for years have thoughts. Raz has been saying for five years that Halo should have made a battle royale, and he explains why it might already be too late. Jake makes the case that Halo is in such a bad spot that new developers can't make it worse, and asks what Call of Duty's monetization playbook will do to it. Then Warzone's new operator skin toggle: MW4 lets you swap every Nicki Minaj and Squid Game skin for a grounded military operator, but only on your screen. Is that the best of both worlds, or a way to please nobody? Plus Call of Duty getting Community Noted, MW4's locked carry-forward guns, and the rumored Game Pass tier with ads. GTA 6's $400 collector's edition doesn't come with GTA 6. We go through every item in the box, and it turns out to be a cocaine bundle. Rockstar's Miami takeover, the city council vote on GTA 6 beach umbrellas, and whether this is the first video game that could actually move crime numbers. Also: the WARDOGS price increase drama, Sombra moving to support in Overwatch, and Arc Raiders adding a PvE-only mode. 0:00 Intro 3:11 Patreon news and the hangout recap 8:51 Raz on Twitch and Pathfinder 10:30 Why Raz always plays evil 15:05 The BG3 dog dilemma 16:36 Remember Craigslist? 17:42 Halo is a Call of Duty studio now 20:07 Halo should have made a battle royale 22:46 Can Activision save Halo? 26:55 Bring back Forge mode 33:35 First CoD thing in the next Halo 35:57 The Halo show and video game movies 41:10 Obsidian, Rare and the Xbox shuffle 42:24 Is Xbox still a console company? 43:40 Game Pass with ads 48:27 Warzone's operator skin toggle 50:16 MW4's locked carry-forward guns 54:43 Call of Duty gets Community Noted 1:00:35 Would we turn the toggle on? 1:03:16 GTA 6's $400 collector's edition 1:05:40 It's a cocaine bundle 1:12:43 Rockstar's Miami takeover 1:16:01 Miami Beach votes on GTA 6 ads 1:20:37 Spotify x GTA 6 1:23:56 The biggest entertainment launch ever? 1:25:11 Why everyone plays evil in GTA 1:26:04 Does GTA 6 marketing even matter? 1:28:46 WARDOGS price hike drama 1:31:47 Sombra moves to support 1:37:18 Arc Raiders adds a PvE mode 1:41:00 Abandon hope, Arc Raiders fans 1:46:51 Wrap-up: Halo of Duty _Note: timestamps may be slightly misaligned on podcast apps (but not on YouTube) due to dynamic ads._ The podcast is available wherever you listen to podcasts, and ad-free & early access versions - as well as bonus episodes - are available to all of our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/thedropshot) supporters. We stream the podcast live on our YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/thedropshotpodcast) every Saturday morning at ~9 o'clock Pacific Time. We typically start the stream 30 minutes early to answer viewer questions, banter, and chat. Links for everything are below. Thanks for checking us out! 🔹Streaming schedule (Pacific time): 🔸Saturday ~9 AM: Gaming news and stories of the week 🔹The Dropshot: 🔸Website: https://www.thedropshot.com 🔸Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDropshotPod 🔸Discord: https://discord.gg/B4Nsarq 🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thedropshotpodcast 🔸Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedropshot 🔸Donate: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=YVR98VF4S945G 🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedropshotpodcast/ 🔸TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedropshotpodcast 🔹Razinon: 🔸Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/razinon 🔸Twitter: https://twitter.com/razinon 🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/razinonttv 🔹Jakedown: 🔸Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/jakedown_ 🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jakedown #TheDropshot #GamingPodcast #PodcastClips #GamingTalk #Halo #Activision #Xbox #Warzone #MW4 #CallOfDuty #Overwatch #ArcRaiders #WARDOGS #GTA6 #GTAVI #GTA6CollectorsEdition #GamePass #GamingNews #HotTake Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Call of Duty is done with Black Ops, and Modern Warfare 4 is the "epic conclusion" of the Task Force 141 story. We think it's the smartest call Activision has made in years. It only matters if the next series changes the game as much as jetpacks did, and a new name and new villains won't do that. We also make a prediction: Call of Duty will copy WARDOGS. It happened with PUBG and Warzone, then with Tarkov and DMZ, and now WARDOGS has sold over 2 million copies and peaked at 428,000 concurrent players on Steam. Raz guarantees Infinity Ward is already being told to build it. Also covered: WARDOGS one week into early access, the drill-spam meta, the mortar complaints, why we still think no monetization is a mistake, and the Bulkhead CEO crunch controversy (we don't see the problem). Then GTA 6 Online reportedly landing in 2027, why the PC version probably comes with it, and what GTA 6 does to MW4 and WARDOGS in November. We finish with WoW Forever, Aion 2, and an investigation into whether any elves have round ears. Raz still wins either way. 0:00 - Intro: Big Jacob of Nibiru 2:05 - Patreon hangout & Death by AI 6:01 - WARDOGS one week in: 2M sold, 428K peak 9:24 - Balance complaints & the drill meta 13:40 - There Will Be Blood is overrated 15:01 - Bulkhead devs on Twitter & the loadout fix 17:16 - Mike Tyson's impregnable defense 20:09 - You either love a game or you're good at it 23:29 - No monetization is still a mistake 30:38 - Still in the honeymoon phase 33:07 - WARDOGS CEO crunch controversy 38:26 - Treyarch is done with Black Ops 42:20 - CoD needs a jetpack-level shake-up 46:33 - Future setting vs. grounded CoD 49:24 - Prediction: CoD will copy WARDOGS 57:08 - DMZ2 is going to fail 1:01:41 - CoD fans: don't get excited yet 1:03:53 - Wolverine hand-holding & NICKMERCS on Tarkov 1:06:30 - Why extraction shooters must be hardcore 1:10:22 - Mads Mikkelsen & MW4 1:11:07 - Does Raz come back to CoD? 1:15:53 - GTA 6 Online in 2027 1:21:52 - GTA 6 PC will launch with Online 1:24:15 - What GTA 6 does to MW4 & WARDOGS 1:30:47 - WoW Forever enters beta 1:32:45 - The elf investigation 1:34:49 - Aion 2 1:37:49 - Outro _Note: timestamps may be slightly misaligned on podcast apps (but not on YouTube) due to dynamic ads._ The podcast is available wherever you listen to podcasts, and ad-free & early access versions - as well as bonus episodes - are available to all of our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/thedropshot) supporters. We stream the podcast live on our YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/thedropshotpodcast) every Saturday morning at ~9 o'clock Pacific Time. We typically start the stream 30 minutes early to answer viewer questions, banter, and chat. Links for everything are below. Thanks for checking us out! 🔹Streaming schedule (Pacific time): 🔸Saturday ~9 AM: Gaming news and stories of the week 🔹The Dropshot: 🔸Website: https://www.thedropshot.com 🔸Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDropshotPod 🔸Discord: https://discord.gg/B4Nsarq 🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thedropshotpodcast 🔸Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedropshot 🔸Donate: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=YVR98VF4S945G 🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedropshotpodcast/ 🔸TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedropshotpodcast 🔹Razinon: 🔸Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/razinon 🔸Twitter: https://twitter.com/razinon 🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/razinonttv 🔹Jakedown: 🔸Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/jakedown_ 🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jakedown #TheDropshot #GamingPodcast #PodcastClips Gaming topics: #WARDOGS #CallOfDuty #BlackOps #ModernWarfare4 #Warzone #DMZ2 #Bulkhead #GTA6 #GTA6Online #Treyarch #WoWForever #Aion2 #GamingNews #HotTake #Prediction #GamingTakes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

WARDOGS launched into Early Access on Thursday, peaked at roughly 340,000 concurrent players on Steam, went straight to the #1 seller spot — and got review bombed down to Mixed at the same time. Raz has 8.5 hours in since launch. Jake has 0.0, because Tarkov currently has him in a chokehold. So this one is a split: what WARDOGS actually plays like two days in, and what the launch looked like from the back of a 138,000-person queue. We get into whether a negative Steam review about a queue is a legitimate review, what Bulkhead actually did to fix the bottleneck overnight, Valve's rate limits, the wrongful ban wave, and the accusation that Shroud and every other big streamer got whitelisted while paying customers sat in line. Then it turns into the streamer economy: TimTheTatman calling WARDOGS boring and getting cooked for it, ARC Raiders reportedly offering him six figures to come back, and whether paying a streamer $100,000 actually sells a single copy. Plus the drill strat that's quietly deciding matches, and why $40 for forty hours is the cheapest hobby on earth. One of us thinks most people never read a review before they buy. The other refuses to believe it. 0:00 - Intro 1:53 - Welcome to Episode 604 3:04 - Patron Shoutout + the "What Is Hardcore?" Bonus Ep 5:47 - 8.5 Hours vs 0.0 Hours 7:16 - 340K Players, Mixed Reviews 7:57 - First Impressions: "Varied" 10:41 - The 12-Kill SKS Run 13:33 - What Changed From the Beta 15:14 - Why Jake Hasn't Touched It 16:31 - Tarkov Has Him in a Chokehold 19:28 - The Recon Grind and Starter Gear Pain 24:07 - "The SKS Isn't Good" 27:47 - Looting Better Gear Off No-Lifers 28:01 - The Queue: 138,000th in Line 29:24 - Review Bombed to Mixed 32:55 - What Did They Actually Do to Fix It? 38:38 - Did Streamers Skip the Queue? 43:12 - The Miami Nightclub Argument 47:53 - Valve Rate Limits and the CEO's Panic 50:18 - Wrongful Bans and Where Refunds Start 54:33 - Bulkhead Are Gamers and It Shows 56:00 - The CEO Reacted to a Whole Review Video 58:14 - Joe Brammer's Pea-Shooter Sniper Excuse 1:01:08 - Is a Launch-Day Negative Review Legit? 1:05:04 - Which Streamers Are Still Playing 1:06:01 - TimTheTatman Says WARDOGS Is Boring 1:11:41 - Should Streamers Care What Chat Wants? 1:17:40 - Will Anyone Still Be Playing in a Week? 1:20:25 - ARC Raiders Offered Him Six Figures 1:24:24 - Do Paid Streamers Actually Sell Games? 1:34:24 - Cutting Boards vs Video Games 1:42:34 - The Project Zomboid Counterexample 1:43:18 - Make a Good Game, People Will Play It 1:45:51 - $40 for 40 Hours 1:53:54 - Tabling the WARDOGS Deep Dive 1:54:56 - The Drill Strat Is Winning Games 1:57:38 - How the Meta Is Already Shifting 2:02:31 - Starting Late? Here's the Play 2:03:26 - Looting Your Teammate Before Reviving 2:04:54 - Do We Recommend WARDOGS? + Outro _Note: timestamps may be slightly misaligned on podcast apps (but not on YouTube) due to dynamic ads._ The podcast is available wherever you listen to podcasts, and ad-free & early access versions - as well as bonus episodes - are available to all of our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/thedropshot) supporters. We stream the podcast live on our YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/thedropshotpodcast) every Saturday morning at ~9 o'clock Pacific Time. We typically start the stream 30 minutes early to answer viewer questions, banter, and chat. Links for everything are below. Thanks for checking us out! 🔹Streaming schedule (Pacific time): 🔸Saturday ~9 AM: Gaming news and stories of the week 🔹The Dropshot: 🔸Website: https://www.thedropshot.com 🔸Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDropshotPod 🔸Discord: https://discord.gg/B4Nsarq 🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thedropshotpodcast 🔸Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedropshot 🔸Donate: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=YVR98VF4S945G 🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedropshotpodcast/ 🔸TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedropshotpodcast 🔹Razinon: 🔸Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/razinon 🔸Twitter: https://twitter.com/razinon 🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/razinonttv 🔹Jakedown: 🔸Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/jakedown_ 🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jakedown #TheDropshot #GamingPodcast #GamingCulture #WARDOGS #Bulkhead #EarlyAccess #ExtractionShooter #TacticalShooter #EscapeFromTarkov #ARCRaiders #TimTheTatman #Shroud #ReviewBomb #SteamReviews #StreamerDrama #GamingNews #FPS #PCGaming #PodcastClips #HotTake Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The first FPS Games Show happened, and the two biggest things in it both came from the guy who's had Escape from Tarkov in beta for a decade. Nikita opened the whole showcase with Fragmentary Order — sci-fi, Unreal Engine 5, maps four to five times the size of Tarkov's, and a promise that it'll be "more complex, more punishing, more painful." Then Battlestate turned around and launched a publishing arm for hardcore games nobody else will fund, with devs keeping their full IP. We go deep on both: whether a game more complex than Tarkov is a game anyone actually plays, why Tarkov's bloat (two types of croutons, twenty types of Keter ammo) is the thing a fresh start fixes, and why every extraction shooter after Tarkov has failed for the same reason — they weren't hardcore enough. Also: Bulkhead built this entire showcase because a trailer slot elsewhere runs $300,000 for 60 seconds, then immediately fumbled their own big Wardogs announcement into a clip contest. Plus Tarkov's PvE player base hitting 50%, and Star Wars Zero Company. Timestamps below. Let us know if Fragmentary Order is going to be a bust or a banger. 0:00 - Intro 2:35 - The FPS Games Show 4:21 - The Wardogs beta and what's coming at launch 7:03 - Fragmentary Order: first impressions 9:03 - Tarkov's three real problems 10:52 - It's not Battlestate — Nikita's new studio 12:50 - "More complex, more punishing, more painful" 18:33 - Tarkov's bloat problem 20:09 - How sci-fi is this actually going to be? 25:55 - "Not an extraction shooter" — Nikita's combat simulator 30:18 - Why Unreal Engine 5 37:41 - Is there a release date? 43:14 - When will Fragmentary Order actually be playable? 45:21 - Tarkov is old and it looks it 48:47 - Battlestate Games is a publisher now 58:09 - What does a game publisher actually do? 1:02:04 - "Make hardcore live forever" — mission or marketing? 1:04:27 - Extraction shooters aren't dead, arcade shooters are 1:08:00 - Does this change the Tarkov roadmap? 1:12:44 - $300,000 for 60 seconds 1:14:42 - Genre showcases vs. the big generic ones 1:19:28 - Bulkhead's Wardogs announcement flops 1:23:15 - Who actually wins the $100K? 1:25:18 - Everything else from the show 1:26:39 - Road to Vostok, Ready or Not, Hell Let Loose 1:28:30 - Beautiful Light 1:32:49 - Gray Zone Warfare is "entering alpha" 1:34:50 - Tarkov PvE is 50% of the player base 1:40:05 - Is seasonal PvP actually worse? 1:47:11 - Star Wars Zero Company 1:53:50 - Grievous vs. Darth Maul 1:55:21 - Outro _Note: timestamps may be slightly misaligned on podcast apps (but not on YouTube) due to dynamic ads._ The podcast is available wherever you listen to podcasts, and ad-free & early access versions - as well as bonus episodes - are available to all of our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/thedropshot) supporters. We stream the podcast live on our YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/thedropshotpodcast) every Saturday morning at ~9 o'clock Pacific Time. We typically start the stream 30 minutes early to answer viewer questions, banter, and chat. Links for everything are below. Thanks for checking us out! 🔹Streaming schedule (Pacific time): 🔸Saturday ~9 AM: Gaming news and stories of the week 🔹The Dropshot: 🔸Website: https://www.thedropshot.com 🔸Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDropshotPod 🔸Discord: https://discord.gg/B4Nsarq 🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thedropshotpodcast 🔸Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedropshot 🔸Donate: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=YVR98VF4S945G 🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedropshotpodcast/ 🔸TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedropshotpodcast 🔹Razinon: 🔸Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/razinon 🔸Twitter: https://twitter.com/razinon 🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/razinonttv 🔹Jakedown: 🔸Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/jakedown_ 🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jakedown #TheDropshot #GamingPodcast #PodcastClips #FragmentaryOrder #EscapeFromTarkov #Tarkov #BattlestateGames #Nikita #ExtractionShooter #WARDOGS #Bulkhead #FPSGamesShow #ARCRaiders #ZeroCompany #StarWars #UnrealEngine5 #GamingNews #FPS #HardcoreGaming #HotTake Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices