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Hello everybody, and welcome to Some Patches Required. Every other Wednesday, your hosts Aaron and Zak use their backgrounds in game development and analysis to discuss various facets of the ever-turbulent games industry. From interviews with AAA/indie devs to deep dives on timely topics, the duo hopes to entertain and educate you on this wild medium we all love.
109 Episodes
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This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss some pretty massive changes over at Xbox, namely the retirement of long-time CEO Phil Spencer and the quiet disappearance of his heir apparent, Sarah Bond. In their place, we find Asha Sharma, a seasoned executive who most recently led Microsoft's CoreAI team. The why of it all is a bit murky at the moment, but that leaves plenty of room for speculation, with one big question at the heart of everything: what's next for Xbox as the brand navigates i...
This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to chat with Ashley Ruhl, the Narrative Director at Broadsword Online Games, currently in charge of Star Wars: The Old Republic! She was kind enough to tell us a little bit about her role working on SWTOR before moving on to the... ahem, meat of the conversation: romance! Specifically, romance in video games, how it can be approached thoughtfully, and where we'd like to see it go in the future. Please, enjoy. Check out Ashley's recommended reading! D...
This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss yet another curious case of misguided marketing — this time with fewer questionable hats. Highguard, which secured the headlining spot at The Game Awards 2025 thanks to Geoff Keighley's personal fondness for the title, launched last week to overwhelmingly negative reviews on Steam and a rapidly dwindling player count. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Does the game deserve all of this hate, and will it ever be able to overcome it? Pl...
This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss how a series of PR... er, let's call them "miscalculations," arguably torpedoed Splitgate: Arena Reloaded (formerly Splitgate 2) before it even had a chance. This story has it all: politically-charged headware choices, petty Twitter arguments, $100 million investments, off-putting apology videos, and much, much more! Please, enjoy. Sources: Splitgate 2 Live Service Relaunches, Immediately Dies A Second Time… Splitgate Dev Insists Steam Charts Are...
This week, Zak and Aaron are back in hell to discuss the pending acquisition of Warner Bros. by Netflix. They touch on what the merger could mean for the future of movie theaters before diving into the main topic at hand: the fate of WB Games and its treasure trove of IP. Spoiler alert: things are looking bleak. Please, enjoy. P.S. Aaron recorded a portion of this episode while holding a sick pupper, so if you hear any coughing, please be kind to Louie. Sources: The Battle for Control o...
This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss Valve's new, ambitious hardware plans, especially the announcement's headliner: the brand-new Steam Machine. With the form-factor and convenience of a console and the hardware heft of a gaming PC, the cutely nicknamed "Gabe Cube" seems poised to disrupt the market as we know it... but will it? A better question may be, is it even meant to? Please, enjoy. Episode References: Linus Tech Tips - The STEAM Machine Won't Cost What You Think YongYea: Valv...
This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to chat about another (increasingly rare) industry success story: the brand-new Telltale-style adventure Dispatch! How, despite facing doubt from publishers over the game's fairly niche genre and episodic release structure, did AdHoc Studio's debut title release to rousing numbers and enviable review scores? Only one way to find out... Please, enjoy. Listen to Beach Girl on Spotify Check Out MosscatMarket on Instagram
This week, Zak and Aaron finally get around to discussing one of the most significant events in the recent history of the games industry — the $55 billion purchase of Electronic Arts by a consortium of private investors, including the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners, among others. In addition to running through the myriad issues tied to such politically troubling hands meddling with one of the world's largest publishers, there is one significant ques...
This week, Zak and Aaron are delighted to present a conversation with Chris Knight, a 2D artist based in Austin, TX. Chris was kind enough to share some insights from his career, some funny (and not-so-funny) stories, and his frank opinion on what it takes to succeed in the games industry – especially in an incredibly crowded field. Please, enjoy. Check Out Chris' ArtStation! Take a Look at PolyCarp! Have a Gander at Good Knight Art! Listen to Beach Girl on Spotify Check Out MosscatMarket ...
This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to talk about Xbox GamePass' recent price increase... again! That's right, the fabled "best value in gaming" just saw a 50% jump in cost, barely a year after the last jump. What's more, there's a compelling argument to be made that the subscription service is actually removing value for players rather than adding it to compensate for the increased asking price. Please, enjoy. Listen to Beach Girl on Spotify Check Out MosscatMarket on Instagram
This week, Zak and Aaron... actually have something positive to talk about for once! Namely, the predictably smashing release of Hollow Knight: Silksong, which, after nearly a decade in development, launched to platform-crashing numbers and fairly rapturous praise. On top of celebrating an indie success story, they discuss the game's refreshingly reasonable $20 price point and highlight the many benefits of keeping development costs and team sizes lean. In short, this is almost certainly the ...
This week, Zak and Aaron kindly beg your attention to a very serious matter: the censorship of thousands of NSFW games across Steam and Itch.io at the behest of payment processors like Mastercard. Prompted by a grassroots organization with far-right connections called Collective Shout, this incident could have far-reaching implications for free speech, result in LGBTQ+ erasure, and mean that corporations become the arbiters of what does and does not constitute art in the future. Please,...
This week, Zak and Aaron dig into a topic that's as absurd as it is concerning: the CEO of Roblox wants to officially incorporate dating into the platform. Completely ignoring the fact that the game's core audience is mostly children, David Baszucki seems to believe that bringing horny adults into the fold will act as a balm to soothe the "loneliness epidemic" plaguing the modern world. What could possibly go wrong? Please, enjoy. Listen to Beach Girl on Spotify Check Out MosscatMarket on In...
This week, Zak and Aaron delve into the nitty-gritty of the Stop Killing Games movement — an initiative with the simple goal of persuading publishers to, well, stop killing games. From preservation to protecting consumer interests, Stop Killing Games aims to solve a lot of high-level problems, and your hosts have many thoughts to share. Oh, and feel free to jump ahead to Chapter 3 (or the 29-minute mark) if you don't want to hear two goobers explain what the initiative is in exhausting detail...
This week, Zak and Aaron sit down, inexplicably inspired by a meme, to discuss the rise of so-called "FriendSlop" games. These are titles like Repo, Lethal Company, and the recently released Peak, all of which are currently laying waste to the Steam charts as we speak. Why are these games so successful at the moment? What differentiates them from others on the market? What could this be saying about the industry at large? Your intrepid hosts are ready with, if not answers to t...
It finally happened! A set of entertainment juggernauts — Disney and Universal — are taking the fight to AI in a big way. This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss the new lawsuit against image generator Midjourney, why it's happening, and what it could mean for the future. They also spend some quality time complaining about generative AI in general, because, well, there's a lot to complain about. Please, enjoy. Listen to Beach Girl on Spotify Check Out MosscatMarket on Instagram
This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss the absolute onslaught of video game movie adaptations coming down the pike at breakneck speed. From questions of quantity over quality to musings on which projects have the most potential, your intrepid hosts dig into what may be the next Hollywood craze - or an unsustainable bubble building towards an inevitable burst. Please, enjoy. Listen to Beach Girl on Spotify Check Out MosscatMarket on Instagram
This week, Zak and Aaron take a moment to celebrate the runaway critical and commercial success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33... and then dig into why it won't matter at all to big publishers and the money-making machine behind them. Tragically, the narrative that breakout hits in the singleplayer space can somehow make them appealing to investors again is misguided, and Clair Obscur is just the most recent example. This is why we can't have nice things. Please, enjoy. Watch: The games i...
This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss Bungie's newest project, Marathon! The dig into everything from the upcoming extraction shooter's aesthetic to its narrative to its choice of genre in service of answering one question — will this finally be the game to make good on Sony's lofty live service ambitions? Please, enjoy. Listen to Beach Girl on Spotify Check Out MosscatMarket on Instagram
This week, Zak and Aaron dive into a new controversy that may have long-lasting implications for the industry at large — Nintendo's decision to price some first-party AAA games at $80. The duo discusses why this price increase is not only unnecessary and bad for consumers, but also how it stands to open the floodgates for greed among big publishers looking to make the all-powerful line go up for shareholders. They also spend some time dissecting why the argument that games need to i...
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