Handheld Gaming’s Future, Roblox Safety & Gen Z’s Decline | Ep 42

Welcome back to Off the Console, the greatest podcast, the most amazing podcast out there.

And we cover everything regarding gaming, tech, handhelds, whatever it is.

And we have a pretty spicy lineup today, including uh Roblox and Jim Hansen, or Chris Hansen, not Jim Hansen, are teaming up.

That would be...

There he is, Chris Hansen are teaming up.

uh And we also have the biggest uh and baddest handheld competing with the actual biggest and baddest handheld.

So uh we have a pretty good stacked lineup here today.

With me is HiTech Lowlife.

And Gardner is not able to make it right now.

He might pop in at one point, so don't be surprised.

He is having internet issues.

And so uh hopefully he can pop in at one point.

So how you doing, high tech?

Well, it's good to be back.

Back from my Japan trip.

It's been...

It's been one heck of an experience, you know?

Yeah, you've been gone for like what almost two weeks?

That's right, been gone for almost two weeks.

That's crazy.

Like you were able to join us for the last episode and then the last week's episode we weren't able to do due to technical difficulties on both your side, AKA you were just in a

completely different time zone and Gardner having something come up and I had work stuff that also came up.

So it just was like a cluster F.

Yeah, so we didn't have an episode last week, but hey, the episode before that was a banger.

It was the most viewed episode of our podcast, which is crazy.

Which is awesome, and that's thanks to everyone.

So make sure to like, subscribe, and uh comment.

Let us know.

We need to start reading comments again, so please start commenting again.

And if you have to, just add us or something.

Yes please, eh someone in the last episode commented, it's the black shirt boys, uh, funny story, you can't see it right now, but I'm wearing a black shirt.

your avatars wearing a black shirt too.

But yeah, damn, wow, we really are the Black Shirt Boys.

Alternate podcast name.

Man.

I wear black just because it's easier.

Yeah, but summertime's not the best time for that.

I don't go out in summer, so I don't know.

uh I stay with an AC.

Well, know, typically I do that, but vacation time was not so kind in terms of weather.

Japan can get pretty warm and humid.

It was very humid and it was record-breaking heat last week.

uh Not this past week that uh this past week was kind of rainy, but like the week before then.

It was like hot and miserable and humid and I was in the urban jungles of uh Osaka.

see.

All right, so I guess it's time for me to talk about the Japan trip.

So the first day I was in Tokyo.

We stayed there for a day and then we went to our actual first destination, which was Osaka.

There was a to do there.

There was a place by, there was a city by Osaka called Nara, and it's home to the Nara Deer Park, and it's so cool.

I don't know if you guys have heard about this, but they have the deer park there, and the deer, when you feed them, they bow to you first before you feed them.

It's awesome.

Yeah, it's a really interesting park.

I've never been, but I've seen stuff on it.

That's really awesome.

I'll have to add it to my list.

I'm sure my kids would love that.

And I would love it too.

And then we went to the night market, Dotonbori, a couple of times.

It was awesome.

Okay.

Where else did you go?

Well, a few days later we went to Kyoto.

And uh in Kyoto, that's where Nintendo is headquartered.

did not...

Unfortunately, I was talking smack, I said I'd bring my Steam Deck out, take pictures in front, but I didn't have the time.

And it was really hot.

Would not have been good for my Steam Deck.

mean, if you had it on, guess, playing it for a while maybe, but yeah.

I can't believe you chickened out on that.

You talked up a big game.

liar, I'm such a poser, but Kyoto was pretty cool.

I didn't actually visit Nintendo HQ either, because that was actually kind of far from where we were staying.

So we visited Mount Inari, which is home to the mountain trail with all of the torii gates lined up in a row.

It's absolutely surreal when you go through and see it.

cool.

I've been to Kyoto and it's really cool.

Kyoto is also home to uh Kyoto Animation, also known as KyoAni in the anime community.

And I think a couple of years ago, uh the headquarters got burned down because of an arson attack.

And we didn't visit KyotoAni, but I just wanted to mention that they're there too.

Yeah, it was really trying- yeah, couple people died because of that too.

It was unfortunate.

Yeah.

it's, they have like what?

One of the oldest wood castle, no, not castles, but like wood houses there.

yeah.

also, we went to Osaka Castle back in Osaka.

I forgot to mention that.

Well, it's funny story.

Actually, this happened twice to me.

But my group and I were interviewed by like a bunch of like Japanese elementary schoolers who were doing like a summer project.

It's just like a it's like just like a little Japanese girl and her mom.

And they asked us a bunch of questions in English because it was part of like an English.

It's crazy that they're learning two languages in elementary school, man.

Most of the kids I knew in fuckin' elementary school and even middle school couldn't handle two languages much less one.

Yeah.

Welcome to Asia, Europe, pretty much honestly, most of the world handles two or three languages.

Yeah.

m

and America is still concerned with just one language, and the other language being Spanish only because most kids can't be bothered to pick a language they're interested in.

Yeah, it's sad and most people complain about having to learn Spanish, which is...

I I learned Latin because I thought about being a doctor at one point.

I did pretty good.

anyway, so Kyoto was fun.

also got this.

There was just so much that happened.

I all of the convenience are really good, too.

The convenience stores, the Family Mart, the 7-Eleven, the Lawson's all really good.

them.

They're great to go to, they have tons of food, it's packaged.

You can get balanced meals if you want, or you can go really decadent.

but it was insane.

can just, the food, all of the food there was just so good, man.

And like, I look at a 7-Eleven in the US and I'm like, ugh.

I mean, it wasn't ever really good to begin with, but like, I just look at it in disgust now.

Like, why can't our 7-Eleven be that good?

news though is that funny enough, 7-Eleven broke off from, so the 7-Elevens in Japan, they broke off from the ones in America and then the ones in Japan bought back, or bought the

ones in America.

So they're gonna be bringing some of the Japanese conveniences to here is what they're supposed to be doing.

What- aw dude, what they should do- aw, the first thing they should bring are the fucking egg salad sandwiches they had.

Man, those are- aw my god, they're so good!

And not to mention the actual Japanese food that we've had too, like, I had some really good fatty tuna at one place, it was like 15 bucks for like a couple of them, it was

amazing.

It's the best sushi I've ever had, and it was just from like, Tsukiji Food Market- Food- the fish market in Tokyo.

That's because it's really fresh, I'm sure.

it is really fresh.

Yeah, I don't think I've ever gotten any sushi that fresh or that good in America, and I probably never will.

to go, okay, here's a little bit of a harsh take.

I did not have the best, and I had sushi a few times in multiple places in Japan when I went there.

I don't think it was anything special.

It was good.

I just don't think it was anything special.

ah It was fresh, but it was.

least, it was probably cheaper in Japan.

It was definitely like the price was awesome.

If you go to coastal areas here like Seattle, San Francisco, there's a lot of Japanese immigrants that know how to do it and it's fresh caught stuff.

ah

wish I lived anywhere near the...

fucking west coast has everything and like the east coast has jack squat.

mean, I guess Maine has lobsters, but I don't fucking live in Maine.

the East Coast also has hurricanes, right?

So you got that going.

yeah, that's true.

The West Coast also has earthquakes too.

True.

oh

Yeah, and Japan has earthquakes too.

We didn't have any earthquakes in when we were there, but...

Japan has so many earthquakes.

Yeah, man, man, Tokyo was awesome.

We went to Shinjuku, we went to Harajuku, we went to Takashita Street, and man, we were with a co- so my party consisted of me, my cousin, my young cousin, my uh older bro, his

wife, his kids, and his in-laws.

And it was pretty big party, so it made things a little more difficult than expected.

Especially since his kids are like a baby and like a three year old.

So degenerates, American degenerates, okay.

No, I could just imagine taking my young ones over to Japan.

we went to Takashita Street and that's like the fashion street.

Man, it's full of Asian girls, not just Japanese girls, Asian girls wearing fucking elegant gothic lolita dresses and shit like that.

was insane.

Also, tell me if you've heard this before.

You've heard about how Japan has an immigrant, has a problem with tourists, right?

Yeah.

So I thought, like when I first heard that, I thought maybe they were talking about like a bunch of white people causing trouble, like Logan Paul style or or yeah yeah Logan Paul,

yeah it's no it's they're actually referring to the like amount of like Chinese and Korean tourists that are there.

From my understanding talking to people there, it's Chinese first and then Americans, I think.

Like the Chinese are, I'll be very blunt, they're assholes.

As tourists, they're very ass-holy over in Japan because they kind of just like button line and Japanese do not like that.

Yeah, I saw, I encountered three incidences in my week and a half in Japan of Chinese people.

And this is not to be like racist or anything like that.

It's a cultural issue, I think.

Just being yelled at, or not being yelled at, but like them yelling at like staff and whatever it is, it was crazy.

I fucking...

I agree man, tours fucking suck dude.

Especially the ones in fucking...

Alright, so we went to...

Okay, I got...

So we went to the Shubia Scramble, the famous one that was in like Tokyo Drift and all that stuff, and also a bunch of other like things about Japan.

And the first thing people would do when the lights turned green were run like as fast as they could to like the center so they could take out like a photo op.

And it's bullshit man, that's so fucking stupid.

There were some other content creators trying to interview some Japanese girls and I was tempted to photobomb them because, you know, nothing...

that'd be so awesome.

are some Japanese content creators that will interview Japanese and expats.

I've watched them.

Japanese.

They were like white.

They were white.

They white, okay.

Were they American?

They sounded American.

So yeah, I have to like, if you're gonna be a tourist, this is way off topic of the whole podcast, but if you're a tourist man, don't be an asshole.

Yeah, respect the culture, do as they do.

I was very polite.

I was very cordial.

I learned a few, you should learn a few Japanese phrases before you go over too.

And learn some manners too.

There, you know, there are a lot of different manners that you have to learn, like, uh like slurping noodles is a sign of respect for the food and the chef.

You have to slurp your noodles for eating ramen, of course.

I did that.

I mean, like, I think Germany has a thing where if you ask for salt and pepper, it's like a, it's like,

You don't like the food or some shit like that, right?

Yeah, it yeah, there's for sure like it will indicate that they didn't season it properly Japan is also You you know the way you even handle your chopsticks you don't just shove

them into the food Stuff like that where people might think it's weird But it's like dude if you're gonna be there for a week and a half two weeks Whatever it is like you can learn

to have some manners for two weeks or just don't go

Yes, and so my yeah, and then so we also went to Odaiba We saw the big Gundam in front the big Gundam unicorn in front and this was not planned at all But there was a fucking idol

concert happening like right in front of it, too It was it was pretty wild and then uh my cousin and I went took a trip to Akihabara the last day and it was it was as It was

surprisingly more tame and more degenerate.

I thought it was at the same time

So it didn't smell, so I was expecting to smell like shit because like, you know, a bunch of sweaty nerds like act in place.

No, they're not.

At the very least, the Japanese nerds know how to clean up their odors.

I think anyone that would have smelled that bad probably doesn't get out of the house much.

The funnest part about Akihabara is going up the multi-story stores and just seeing how weird it gets the higher you get.

Yeah, so I only went to the third floor.

I did get some souvenirs from Akihabara and some other general Japanese souvenirs.

I got a Hatsune Miku figure because, you know, it'd be a waste if I didn't get a figurine from Japan, right?

In fact, let me send the picture to you on Discord.

I haven't unwrapped it yet.

do it.

Yeah, I got a Gundam.

I still need to put it together.

I still have to put together over these years.

also have some model kits too for my cousin.

My cousin's super into Gundam model kits after we got him some Gunplum models uh like when he was a kid.

There, I just sent the picture of the Hatsune Miku figure.

You gotta show it on there.

You have to show it in the episode when, hopefully when Gardner gets to editing it.

It's gonna be on display soon.

But uh...

gonna get it on here sharing.

Show your degenerate side.

Let's see here.

So not gonna let me share oh, okay, okay, I was a little worried there for a second

Yes, that's my computer desk.

I got a new desk while I was in Japan.

Well, actually, it was shipped to my house while I was in Japan.

I haven't assembled it yet because it's huge and I don't feel like doing it right now, to be honest.

I'm going to do it at some point.

I had to get a...

Did you go to any of the uh animal cafes?

I really wouldn't mind going.

I would like to go to the Otter one.

We saw a ton of animal cafes on Takeshita Street in Harajuku.

There were kappibara cafes, were dog cafes, cat cafes, and maid cafes, of course.

I didn't go into any of them because...

Okay, so in Akihabara, there were literally maids on the street passing out pamphlets advertising champagne sessions.

the fu...

Like, sure, you like...

And like...

That kinda skeeved me out a little bit because I wasn't- I thought it was gonna be a little more wholesome.

Wholesome?

I guess so.

Yeah, like, just ma- like, you know, they serve you food, they- they, like, are in maid costumes.

I didn't-

the thing.

In Tokyo, there's an interest that probably exists as a cafe or something.

Right.

Right, right, but champagne session sounds like prostitution.

I'm not gonna lie.

It does sound like it, but you know.

I think.

Actually, I don't remember how they I we don't need to get into that.

We should probably start getting into a little bit of the episode, but first, are you done?

Going over Japan, we can go over some more.

I love talking about it.

I just don't want to.

For now, for now, we can go back to it when it's relevant.

just got back, so I gotta recollect my thoughts.

Okay, no problem.

Okay, so that's what you did the last two weeks.

ah I just want to shout out one more time this game because this what I've been playing.

It's the aviatic uh factor.

Does that even pronounce it?

Not abiotic?

It's no, but it's probably a BI.

I don't know English isn't my first language No, I'm just I'm just kidding.

It is it's my first I I'm one of those Americans that don't know how pronounce things my Russians better than my English not really but But yeah, no this game is definitely This

is an unreal by the way unreal five So further proves that like you can have games in unreal and not make him look like unreal it

It is like Half-Life very much, and I've already talked about this last time.

It is six player co-op and it is a blast.

It's got the survival aspect.

It's like if Half-Life met um some type of survival game like Left 4 Dead, or not Left 4 Dead.

uh

Company?

Yeah, you could say lethal company.

Yeah.

And so it's.

It looks like lot of fun though, yeah I am watching the trailer right now, it does look like lot of fun.

It is super both unique and also, I don't know, the graphics are, bother me at all and just gives me nostalgia for Half-Life.

I think it's very well done to what the way it looks.

Yeah.

graphics are like, I don't wanna say they're the least important thing to me, but they're not super important.

And I wish devs would understand that kid, like, Gen Z doesn't play graphically demanding games.

Like, Fortnite is not a super graphically demanding game.

And Roblox especially, which we'll talk about later, is not super graphically demanding, and zoomers eat that shit up,

Yeah, they are also aging into and we'll see how they go as they age up but yeah, it is more important to have fun game than it is a graphically demanding game But I will defend

graphics and style do still matter and that's like this is one of those examples where I don't like D makes too much.

I don't like I've played so many games back in the 90s and stuff like that where

I like a little bit more fidelity.

And this is about where I like to start is something like this where you can see what everything is.

You have a pretty good idea of what things are, but it is just, ah shouldn't say low enough quality, it's it's detailed enough that it shows off a lot of weirdness that I

like.

Yeah, and plus, honestly, the lighting looks a lot better than you would probably get in a game from the 90s, which, you the models look like it would be from the 90s, like Unreal

1999 or whatever, right?

Yeah, 100%.

But yeah, the lighting is definitely uh unreal.

But it's not so uncanny.

They did a good job.

It still feels somewhat natural for the game.

I think they'll have more content and everything throughout the years too.

It's got really good reviews.

um probably gonna be, I wish it was a little cheaper for what it is.

It is 35 bucks, but so far I've put 10 hours, not 10 hours, but seven hours into it.

And I have, you know, I probably only scratched the surface so far, so.

Well, I mean, hey man, could play it.

That looks a lot of fun, I might have to pick it up at some point.

It's definitely worth it.

I hope Gardner's picked it up soon because it's definitely because it has a Half-Life-esque feel and it's also like it's an indie game.

think he'd like it a lot.

I felt like you would like a lot too.

It might be more of a double A, but it feels like an indie game.

then, um yeah, with that being said, let's, let's get into the, to the indie handheld that I want.

And I say indie handheld because it's a modern handheld.

Mmmmm.

I kind of want this, but I kind of don't because it's so massive.

So.

me.

Yeah, modern builds gaming handheld powered by an RTX 4090 laptop GPU and an Intel i9 1400.

The system supports a 12.5 inch 4K display and it's...

Jesus Christ.

175 watt mobile GPU.

Jesus Christ, what the fuck,

So this has almost 10,000 CUDA cores just as a reference with 16 gigabytes of VRAM.

So.

Ugh, god damn it.

I don't, the battery lasts about 15 to 20 minutes runtime.

Well yeah, I mean, no one would realistically use a 4090 laptop on a

True, no, you're not wrong per se, but yeah, like you couldn't game on it.

You can maybe do some other stuff and let it run a little bit longer, but yeah, it is kind of crazy that this has a 50 watt battery in it.

It's not even that big.

watt battery?

Oh my god.

That's part of the problem.

I mean, they made the handheld.

They could just make it little bigger.

Okay, alright, I can see a use case for something like this if it was just like a tablet.

And then you...

Alright, so like if you had detachable controllers and did it that way, I could see that being very useful.

Kind of.

Like a Legion Go, but like way more powerful.

Or they could do...

Or they could just make it like a...

Like a switch where, you know, you could play it...

handheld and you use Nvidia Optimus or whatever to like switch between integrated graphics and you know, 4090 graphics.

Here's the thing I Would probably play something like this because where I usually play my games.

It's either on my love slack or like a couch or my bed Where I'm always next to an outlet these days Or on an airplane where I can slap it on the tray and just plug it in there

that being said I don't know if an airplane well They have a see outlet so I'd assume to be a little the charge 175 watt

or like be able to handle a 175 watt power adapter.

would be interesting to see.

I I don't know how we would get in contact with this guy to try it out, but I kinda wanna try it out.

Same, or build my own, but that takes so much work and money.

there any pictures of the back though?

That's a good question.

Also, it looks like, well, if you go up, there was like a slideshow.

Oh, is it a slok?

Okay, it is a slideshow.

Okay, there we go.

Ah!

Let's look at the I.O.

Now that looks like a DIY job right there.

You got all the ports.

You've got two USB-A's.

You've got what looks like a barrel jack.

No, that's a headphone jack.

Never mind.

headphone jack.

You've got one Type-C port, I think.

You've got your micro SD card reader.

HDMI.

Is that a RJ-45 jack?

Yeah.

And what are those two below it?

Are those even?

Are those?

No, those must be the on and off button, right?

That must be the off button, the on button, right?

those are.

They're almost like the size of like, what is it?

It's one of the display ports, like a display port, like a micro display port or something like that.

Yeah, I feel like the mini display ports are bigger than that though, right?

I don't know.

Let's see what the other picture looks like.

I don't know, either, all I know is it's...

there we go.

I think those are those those might be volume buttons.

And man, that doesn't look that that makes it look way less appealing, to be honest.

What?

Oh, you know what?

That is a power out...

power...

Yeah, like I said, that was a barrel- yeah, so that is a barrel jack.

Wait, so there's no headphone jack in this thing?

You're kidding.

Maybe it's on the bottom.

Yeah, maybe it is on the bottom.

It is a mod job, okay?

It's not like it's the manufacturer that made this.

Okay, alright, but I'm on the internet.

I have free speech.

I'm allowed to criticize whatever I want, regardless of any reason.

No, you are.

You're allowed to criticize.

Even if it's even if it's cruel and unusual.

It's not unusual.

It's just cool.

But, I mean, it's a pretty cool project.

It looks like he's using 3-DS parts.

The D-pad and buttons, I mean.

Oh.

The D-pad definitely looks like it came from a 3DS.

Or at least, a 3- yeah.

interesting

I don't know about the rest of the buttons, let me be honest.

And I'm hoping...

I'm interested in seeing what would happen if you were to open it up.

There's no pictures of it open, there?

No, it probably I'm curious how they have the they probably pieced apart the laptop in such a way that they were able to lay this in.

But that's.

That's crazy.

China has better access to the raw chips.

People desolder these GPUs and stuff and they add them to substrates.

I've seen that you can buy a motherboard with an integrated mobile CPU.

Or you can even buy mobile CPUs that are just soldered to a substrate and just...

insert into a CPU socket that's compatible.

I've seen that happen.

I've seen...

CraftComputing does that a lot, actually.

Oh, we should get him on the show, too.

I'm curious.

I know but...

I just...

Curious if you could fit something like that in an easier way.

I agree.

Now I'm more intrigued.

I want to see the inside of it.

um Also, this runs about 72 Celsius degree, like degrees Celsius when maxed out on a AAA 4K game.

um

how much, how many degrees Celsius?

72?

which is going to be around what 140.

That's not bad at all.

Honestly, keeping the 4090 cool even if it is just a mobile version.

Yeah, no, it's a yeah God of War Horizon Forbidden West all played at native 4k really well.

That's what the article says Yeah, it's See it has 64 gigabytes of RAM in it by the way two terabyte SSDs dual like two of them so They max this thing out

like the ODM for the uh device was Tong Feng who makes a bunch of laptops and then a bunch of companies like Manegear and stuff rebranded for the US.

Well don't know about Manegear but I know some of the others do.

Yes, companies like Mingir, yeah.

Yeah, but I mean it's a pretty cool project that you can recycle an old laptop.

I have a I have that Lenovo laptop that they sent over.

I need to do a review on that one day.

But I have that Lenovo laptop.

I'd be interested in turning that into a handheld one day, but it'd be a little bit big for my hands to be honest.

I would, yeah, it'd be a fun project, I just, anytime anyone mods something, does stuff like this, where they just go like, I feel like this is the extra mile, like this is fun

stuff.

Would I buy something this big?

I'd just buy a laptop, honestly.

Once you get like 10 inches and above, like I just, I'd rather have the laptop.

I'm a PC gamer anyways, and I play a lot of my games with keyboard and mouse.

ah

And anything else I don't play with the keyboard and mouse, usually will try to play on my Steam Deck.

I mean that's totally valid dude.

Yeah.

And so, but, they're like, this is unreasonable, especially since there's been companies that have built devices kind of like this, but not this powerful, but with like a bigger

screen, right?

But you're not gonna see this come to market.

What you will see, and because technically if this came to market, this would be the king of handhelds in the sense of both how fucking large it is, but also how powerful it is.

But the true king is the GBD Win Max 5 that um officially launched.

so, yeah, with this, GBD Win 5 launches as world's most powerful gaming handheld with the Ryzen AI Max Plus 395.

Damn their titles.

Their naming convention is so, uh so bad.

So, was there already a GPD Win 5 that used a weaker one at some point, or was it the Win 4?

I'm thinking of-

That's one of the things I thought the Win 5 was already out, but maybe it wasn't.

My biggest problem with the Win 5 is that it looks like a PSP.

And albeit I like the PSP or the PS Vita like a lot for what it was, they were not very comfortable.

Right.

I mean, but also the Vita was a lot smaller.

Like, it was very small.

So you could accept it.

It was actually pocketable, we'll just say.

yeah, know, 100%, easily pocketable.

This, I don't know, like I'd have to try one out.

I'm sure they're fine.

It's just even them showing the picture with the hand, it doesn't make it look very comfortable.

I think.

if it's...

We could ask him if it's pocketable.

I think the GPD win four, maybe even the five, like this is his favorite lineup, I believe.

I've seen him uh tweet about this a bunch.

And so like, he quite likes this lineup, which go for it.

Like we all have our favorites.

um

Yeah, GPD.

I think he- I mean, that was what he started out with, I think.

The GPD handhelds.

He was- He was there since the beginning.

And so he's a true OG.

Yeah, he's the one that I watched one of his videos like two years, oh my gosh, it's been three years.

Three years ago and bought the GBD Win Max 2 um back then, which is like a mini laptop that has controllers built into the, in a very weird way.

I really liked that laptop, I really did.

It's just.

I sold it because I just, I had no use for it after I reviewed it and used it for a little while because yeah, just didn't have a use for it.

But 55 to 75 watt TDP is pretty crazy for this.

Damn.

it's supposed to have a 4060 level performance, 4060 mobile level performance, which is crazy.

well it's got 40 compute units based on the RDNA 3.5 architecture and in comparison with the Steam Deck it has about Let's see The Steam Deck OLED contains eight compute units

based on the RDNA 2 architecture.

So this is One and a half generations newer architecture doesn't necessarily mean it's gonna be like amazingly better per se there's other optimizations that go on with that

Right.

Well, the Fox, well, last I recall the Fox says that this is absolutely killer for like low wattages too, because he doesn't just play the highest end games and says, it's great,

calls it a day.

No, he like goes deep into it.

He goes balls deep into these tests, especially the little water tests as well.

Yeah, no, and that's another thing with a lot of these things where they're like, yes, it has a max wattage, but a lot of these devices you can limit it down.

So it's not like it's the end of the world.

It's just, it's nice to know if I want to dock it or if I'm going to be playing it with, know, um plugged in.

Yeah, of course I want to max it out as much as I can.

And then when I, you know, on the go, I'll play certain games where they're not as maxed out.

So.

It's just nice to have the opportunity.

Whoa, it supports 128 gigs of RAM.

That's crazy.

128, it will support up to 128 gigs and then it supports up to four terabyte SSD.

It has an 80 watt external battery design, a unique detachable 80 watt external battery design.

That is crazy.

Is there a picture of that?

Hold on, so does it not have an internal battery?

I don't think so, think you can swap the battery out.

That's a big deal.

That is a big deal, Especially if, like, even the Steam Deck doesn't have a replaceable battery per se.

I you can replace it, but it's replaceable, but it's not user-accessible, I should say.

It's not easily accessible and then you also need to use a heat gun to get some of the stuff off.

Yeah, and I would just rather not, to be honest.

I would.

Yeah, I mean, I would.

Yeah.

But this, you could like bring two batteries.

You get one battery, play your game, yada yada yada.

your battery's getting low, save it, and then turn it off.

Swap with the new battery.

Yeah, well, if it has a man, it'd be amazing if it had like a USB C port so you could charge other devices with the extra one so you could use it as a, you know, portable

battery bank.

Hold on, go back down to the dock picture.

Where's the, is that the dock?

Is that the bat?

Is that the battery?

uh

A PC Power Rater.

AI PC Power Adapter?

AI PC Power Adapter?

What the fuck?

Okay...

Yadda yadda yadda...

okay, this is something honestly much more enticing.

I'm going to give you the biggest downside to this right now.

Can you guess what it is?

It's the weight.

No, it's the cost is $2,300.

I'm not, I'm not, well, is that just for the most expensive baller skew, or is that?

ah Mind notes do not say that.

Let's see.

While pricing hasn't been officially announced, GPD indicates it will cost less than the 20...

Okay, it's gonna cost less than $2,300 of the ASUS ROG Z13 Flow, suggesting a sub-2,000 price point for this premium.

It's gonna cost probably about 2,000.

Okay, so what you're saying is it could cost anywhere between zero and two thousand dollars.

Well, yeah, it's not going to cost.

If they get this thing around $1,200, I'm buying it.

Probably.

You passionately rapping right now, I kind of want to try it out too.

ah Cause not only would I like to be able to detach and charge a battery and then replay, you know, I like that.

I like the setup.

I like that.

I just, I'd have to, I don't know.

I'd have to maybe I'll watch the Fox's video on it and see how comfortable this one is.

I'm a little skeptical on that, but, it's a seven inch screen.

I want a bigger one, but I had been wanting, like I've mentioned, I want, I've been looking for a device.

preferably with a bigger screen that I can use as my main daily driver for gaming that I can plug into an eGPU.

All right, and I think this is almost it, isn't it?

Almost.

This is almost it, but I'll be honest, you're never gonna get a perfect handheld at this point, but that detachable battery is a huge win for me.

I really like that idea that I can charge um multiple batteries at the same, like, so I could, if it had a little dock for the battery and I can charge it, awesome.

And I can charge my battery plugged into the AC outlet and...

get ready like when I'm traveling.

That's mainly what I'm thinking about.

Like when I travel, when I've traveled in the past, it's nice for this type of stuff because then I get on airplanes and I don't like to plug it in because the ports are so

annoying.

I could see it.

could see it.

Ah man, I want one of these.

It looks so cool, to be honest.

I'm hoping the controllers are comfortable.

Let's go back up to the...

I want look at the ergonomics, because that's like the most important thing for me here.

So, I mean, if it's comfortable enough, I mean, I can handle a PS Vita.

It's not uncomfortable.

I just want to know how...

I just want to know how...

because it's supposed to be like almost a kilo.

Yeah, it's almost a kilo with the battery.

It's like 900 kil- It's like 900 gr- 900 plus grams.

I'm just seeing an extra workout.

I've been working out a lot more lately.

You got to up your, your, your gains high tech.

Got to get on the weights.

Don't worry man, I've been climbing mountains in Japan.

Oh yeah, I also saw monkey mountain too, that was pretty cool.

Honestly, you're complaining about the weight of this, it's skill issue.

I wanna know how it feels in my hands, because there's more to these ergonomics than just the weight, because the Steam Deck sounds heavy, but it doesn't feel like bad at all.

Well, because it fits your hand so well.

I don't care about the weight.

I know some people don't like the weight of this Steam Deck.

I don't care.

It fits so well on my hand.

I also want to know if this is pocketable.

Even if you have to detach the battery and put the battery in one pocket and then put the device in the other pocket.

I really don't think this screenshot with the hands is real.

Because if it is, that's very pocketable.

Damn it, you know what?

I know what to do.

Let's ask the fox right now.

I can DM him right now.

Is...

is the win five pot...

kit-able?

He's...

Yeah, does he wear cargo pants?

Because maybe.

Don't worry, the Fox will give us a detailed answer, hopefully before this episode ends.

Uh, yeah, so I, yeah, it's looking pretty strong.

It's looking pretty strong, but

I don't know man, it's I want it But I also don't want to spend over to I also want to spend that much money on I don't want to spend it like $1,900 on it

Yeah, yeah, 100%.

uh It's very promising.

Come to think of it, have you tried your, like, I don't know if you had a PSP, but have you tried any of the PlayStation portables lately, the old ones, like the Vita?

Um, I still have my Vita.

ah

But have you tried it lately?

Because um I have both and I tried them after having the Steenbeck for a while and I'm like, okay, this is kind of hard to go back to.

shit well I have I've held in my hand for a little bit if it still feels pretty decent my hands I have small hands so like it's not a big deal for me but like yeah

I got sausages and so they don't work very well with the big devices.

um

Yeah, so with that, anything else you wanna cover on this?

Because I think we've pretty much covered everything without getting like a really good detailed video and watching that of it being like, let's say taken apart or seeing how

people use it.

I'd have to see more to be honest.

We can probably cover it like another day.

yep, we'll wait and we'll let you know more about it, but right now it's very promising.

ah It's making me think more about what my next handheld's gonna be and what I'm gonna pick and choose because like I said, I really would like to have an eight inch screen and

make sure that it can be, um it's compatible with the GPU.

Those are my two favored specs for my next, like.

favorite features from the next one, but detachable.

I didn't realize I really wanted the detachable power bank or whatever.

I don't know if it's a bank, but you know.

want though is a Steam Deck 2.

And I wish Valve would give us something on it.

I know they're probably waiting for U- They're probably waiting for, like, what was it again?

UDNA, I think it was, that was rumored.

Maybe UDNA is not rumored.

It's UDNA is, you mean for Steam Deck or just coming out?

Oh, yeah, that is the rumor that there, UDNA I believe is ready for the most part.

So they could announce it if they really wanted to.

Cause I think UDNA comes out next year or is it the end of this year?

Come on, Valve, you know what you need.

Come on, Valve, do it.

Just do it, Valve.

I know you wanna.

There's rumors, so we'll see.

I think this fall we'll find something out, but we'll see.

We'll see.

Either it's going to be Half-Life X project or I think they have something.

That's all the rumors and all the people are saying is that there's something coming, but we'll see.

It's not like I don't get disappointed by Valve all the time.

So.

Speaking of Valve disappointing.

ah PayPal.

Didn't they get, no, not PayPal.

That's another one that we're gonna be talking about.

I already F'd it up.

No, uh but no, let's get into the Chris Hansen, not the Jim Hansen, which would be, that would be next level.

But uh yeah, everything is coming up Roblox as, let's, let me get to it, sorry.

Um

This is such a weird team up situation that is.

Chris Hansen and Schlepp dig into its predator problem.

So Chris Hansen, former NBC's To Catch a Predator host and YouTuber Schlepp are independently investigating online predators targeting children on roadblocks, which has

over 70 million daily active users.

um What a weird team up.

So, I mean, I don't know what more to s- Oh, I can't hear it.

Yeah, I don't have the audio up, but I'm kind of curious.

yeah, so I mean, all we really need, it's what it says, Roblox has a serious problem with predators or kids being in like private spaces where the shit can happen.

I'll be honest, this is so bizarre because didn't he, if I thought, I could be wrong, but I thought Chris Hansen was like, ended up being a predator himself or something like that.

Or is that like a fake story?

No, that's a fake story.

Cause I thought I heard that like he was actually, he was caught something.

I don't know if it was actually like being a full on predator, but.

Come

That's what it was.

Yeah, he was caught in some drama.

I just didn't know what it was.

uh

dude, if the guy behind to catch a predator was a predator himself, that would be some bullshit.

That-

you what, right now.

I'll tell you what, right now.

I think the Silk Road is like a anti-child sex trafficking group.

The leader of that got caught for sex trafficking.

So uh irony is not dead in today's world.

Like it is crazy how many people get caught for what they kind of are trying to prevent and stuff like that.

So I wouldn't put it past, but I'm not saying, this is an acquisition at.

I just heard some drama, so I heard wrong.

And Hi Tech, thank you for correcting me.

You're welcome, you're welcome, always glad to help out with that.

anyway, so Chris Hansen is teaming up with Schlepp and we gotta explain who Schlepp is.

Basically, he was a content creator who engages in pedo hunt, uh, pedo hunting.

P- so I can't say pedo, you get demonetized on YouTube.

gotta call it PDF hunting, so to speak, cause fucking YouTube language is bullshit, They call it un-

Okay, before I get started, I just want to say YouTube language is bullshit.

You gotta self-censor yourself.

You gotta say you unalive- they unalived.

No, they're fucking dead.

Yeah, you don't need to censor that as much now.

There's certain words that go in and out of what you can like censor on, that you'll have to censor on YouTube.

ah It doesn't make sense.

I understand certain ones, but if you're trying to make something educational or talk about something in a serious manner, that's just crazy to edit out.

then the other word is PDF file, which is stupid.

Like, hey, I hate Adobe as well, man, but come on,

You can...

Dude, it's bullshit, man.

Like, I see a video and they're talking about some serious shit, but then they say PDF finally just takes me out of the entire experience.

And I don't know who to...

I know who to blame.

It's YouTube that's to blame, which I guess we'll talk about that later.

uh Anyways, he hunts down these, uh, predaters.

And, uh, essentially...

He's gotten a few arrested, too, actually.

But the thing is that Roblox apparently doesn't ban these accounts until like much social pressure.

But they ended up banning him.

And not just banning him, they are also suing him as well.

And they're asking to cease and desist his actions.

I don't think that's going to end well for Roblox, personally.

It's not.

I also find it super interesting that this is happening around the same time that America is trying to set up legislation.

Okay, I know we didn't want to get political, but America is also doing legislation that's trying to censor the internet because of kids or some bullshit like that.

No, Utah is a part of that and then they just lax because fun thing for Utah, that's where I live right now.

They just laxed a whole thing on um kind of the child interactions, I should say, with people 18 and up, because of someone that's involved in the uh legislation.

having a kid that got involved in such a thing.

They're not, they don't care.

I know this is, I'm trying to get very vague because I don't want to, I'd have to use more harsh language, but they don't care.

They do these weird blocks on like what you talked about with censored internet and certain websites and stuff like that and then they loosen up laws in the real world.

Speaking of which, Louisiana also recently decided they're gonna sue Roblox, like directly.

The Louisiana Attorney General is.

They call it the perfect place for PDF files.

Damn it, now I'm saying it.

I'm gonna switch it over.

Okay.

Alright, but yeah, it's crazy how much of this is happening all at once.

Also, Roblox is nuking the public trust, but the kids don't know Jack Squad about lawsuits.

Is this going to stop them from playing Roblox?

No, I can just say because when I was a kid I wouldn't have potentially But I would have just know I would have wised up of like I'm not gonna talk to certain people I'm not gonna

like I'm hoping more and more kids also like kids and parents wise up to if they're playing this like Just know that you're gonna be extra cautious.

Like you can't trust everyone On the internet and this is like goes beyond roblox, but roblox they it's another problem with like

companies making so much money and not actually protecting the people that make them that money.

They don't do very well.

You have someone that's reporting and now, from my understanding, Shlepp has uh actually gotten in little bit of trouble because of some of the predators he's gone after where he

kind of like hurt the case and made it so it was easier for the predator to get away per se.

ah But in this case,

If roblox is gonna monitor their shit like I'd prefer at least someone and then report them and then actually look into it and they didn't do anything about it and they just you

know banned him which is Bizarre

to ban the whistleblower and pretend like the problem doesn't exist.

That's really what this is saying is that roblox does not care.

They don't want to put resources into caring They haven't cared for a while and they're showing like it's so blatant that they're also showing their They want to turn into a

dating platform and which it's already a dating platform.

It's just a dating platform for PDF files apparently I Don't want to it

Yeah, well, Gardner would be the one editing it, be honest.

if he can get this internet working.

Well, yeah, that's true as shit.

like, anyways, it's bullshit, man.

It's fucking...

Roblox.

I don't understand the logic behind wanting more adults.

mean, are the ones that are the demograph, and they beg their parents for money, and their parents just give them money because parents are an ATM machine, apparently.

But once you have kids, you just realize, like, you want them to be happy, you also don't want to be inundated with a bunch of crap all day long with, please, please, please, and

then, like, if you deny them too much, then it just causes other complexes, so it's a balancing act, It sucks.

I don't get the people that give them a ton of money, though, for stuff like this, but...

True dat, true dat.

Honestly man, I don't know what to make of it dude.

All I know is that...

Roblox bad.

Video game's good.

Give him a Super Nintendo.

Give him a Super Nintendo and like some of the best games.

when your kids' friends are playing everything else that's popular, like Fortnite and everything, they wanna play that too.

It's not, some people forget that they need to go back to when they were a kid and what they like.

Like, Nintendo 64 for me, PlayStation.

was stuff like that where I was like, always wanted a Nintendo 64.

I ended up getting a PlayStation and I was a little jealous, but I had friends that had N64s and I played with them.

their popularity in the, like, especially in the teenage,

Pre-teens, teens is very big, like to want to do what your peers are doing.

I guess that's fair enough man, I mean...

least it's not drugs, guess, right?

Hardcore drugs.

drugs, that's crazy.

Yeah, don't know man.

Kids are just...

I don't know man.

I don't know what to make of it.

I wish kids had better taste in video games.

But that's just me.

I agree.

And I would say I didn't have good taste, but I had good taste.

had StarCraft, Half-Life, growing up, man, I had good stuff.

Dude, kids don't have kids don't have an RTS to cling on to.

No, the biggest problem is that big companies have found addictive um algorithms and addictive, ah they know how to utilize addictive patterns or dark patterns, black

patterns, they are, that Gardner says, he's not here to correct me.

ah To entice kids to play more, and that's whole thing with Fortnite with Roblox.

And at the end of the day,

I don't know how to make of it.

If my kid wants to play, uh let's say, um one of these games, it'd be heavily monitored and limited.

So, Fortnite, not that big a deal.

It's just don't spend your whole day playing it, because it's addicting.

I don't know man, I don't know what to make of this topic anymore man, ROBLOX is just too much for me man, I thought it-

man, whatever.

I honestly if I was okay like the um

I'll watch the- yeah.

was law enforcement, if you really want to catch predators, your best bet is probably somewhere in the Roblox sphere.

It's like they gave it to you.

All you need to do is play Roblox all day and pretend like you're an eight-year-old and you'll figure it out, I guess.

You'll find all of them.

Dude...

I'd watch- I'll watch the- I'll certainly watch Yo, I'll certainly watch the video Chris Hansen puts out though.

It's gonna- I'm sure it started to be very interesting.

Hey, maybe we should do that.

Just like react to it one day.

That'd be fun.

We could get it on here.

We can watch and react to it a little bit.

um But I'm thinking he's getting ahead of the news item.

I think he's one of the predators on Roblox.

So I'm just, I'm sorry.

We're gonna get sued for defamation.

uh

Dude, don't say that, man.

Chris Hansen is not a predator.

It would destroy everything he's ever done.

And destroy the rest of the internet too, to be honest.

It would probably destroy the entire pedo-hunting scene that happens.

no, people are hypocrites all the time, but yeah, no, he's not that I know of.

So I'm gonna stop spreading misinformation.

We can continue on with Valve and uh it's fun times of banning games because payment processors wanna ban.

The story get like more and more.

It gets worse.

More and more my take a couple of weeks ago gets worse of like, I mean, it's not that big a deal.

I don't know.

It's not going to be necessarily slippery slope.

This is like a stupid group that's tried doing this stuff before.

Now it's like, okay, we're, we're in the slippery slope kind of territory because it gets worse every week.

know last week, itch.io, there was a story about itch.io banning more games and it started affecting like LGBTQ games.

Safe for Work LGBTQ games and we called it.

We called it.

I just want to say we were right.

I wish we weren't right, but we are.

that it's, yeah, it's so disgusting that we can't have regular games, or even if, let's say, same-sex couple kisses.

So the fuck what?

Like, you two guys don't have to play it.

Your kids are going to experience it at one point in their lives of someone caring about someone else.

It's probably their parents every other day or something.

I remember when most straight guys thought that girls kissing was hot.

That was like the early- that was like the 2000s.

What happened to that?

That still...

is a thing.

It's just...

doesn't sound like it's a thing anymore.

It sounds like people hate that shit.

Now, it's only small groups, that's the thing.

A lot of small groups are the ones that really care about this.

ah I grew up in circles, and this is why I have a hard time with the political stuff a little bit, because of how I grew up.

But it's like this, small groups really tried to affect, they almost banned the Grand Theft Auto in the 90s and 2000s.

multiple companies and this is the first time because I think it's because the administration is because the the way our political sphere is right now that this and this

is why politics matters guys if you're even if you're a gamer it matters who you vote for and I think they're gonna get more bold and the companies will just fold to whatever they

feel like is the top voice of the day and apparently it's just a minority group in Australia

fucking Australians.

sorry that-

How dare you?

are not, no, it's, that's the thing.

Most Australians aren't like this.

They actually have some pretty decent laws over there, but then they also crack down on the stuff too, I guess.

But ah it's bizarre.

It's bizarre.

And I'm sure there's groups here, but I don't even hear about the groups in America as much on this type of stuff.

So I'm just shocked that PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa are just,

really cowtowing to this so much.

They're just like, okay, yeah, we don't like this more and more.

it's, it is, it's going to come for the LGBTQ stuff, which is crazy.

Yeah.

a topic in Discord.

We can talk about that later.

Okay.

But yeah, I mean, it's crazy.

It's crazy to me that, uh

that we allowed this to happen, essentially.

Like...

We've kind of allowed it to happen.

also like it comes down to what do you mean allowed?

Like gamers didn't want this.

I understand banning some games from certain stores.

I will say that.

And I'm still kind of like, if Steam wants to do adult only games, I don't care.

Some of the adult only games are kind of weird and bizarre, but as long as they age gate them properly, that's what I care about.

That's it.

Yeah, that is fair.

That's all I care about.

ah I don't want my kids to get into like scat stuff and all that.

I'm just saying, I'm trying to be like a little, not trying to get too deep into it.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, that's fair, that's totally valid.

I mean...

some things I don't care as much and some things I'm like, just don't like, especially with their developing brains, it's just not good.

So I think it's fair to have age gating and some stuff when it comes to adult content.

To an extent, it's fair, especially if it's a store-based system like valves, Steam.

But...

Banning payment processors making this decision is not good.

And if they keep on showing this power, it's going to get worse.

I I don't know what more we can...

I mean, what can we do to be honest?

What can we do?

Because, you know, MasterCard just says, we didn't do that shit.

And they also say, these games are actually illegal, even though, you know, we've...

I mean, what can the user do, though?

Because it's kind of hard to boycott MasterCard and Visa in the US.

Like, if you went to Japan, Japan's a cash-based society.

You still have to use cash in a lot of places.

I thought they were going a lot more to cards, some places.

some are doing more and more cards because of tourists, but a lot of places still take, like, cash only, especially a lot of the, like, good dives in Japan, like, food and stuff.

Tokyo tends to be more...

I think...

yeah.

like Kyoto and Osaka that needs more cash.

Yeah, it's it's uh, aliskirts.

Yeah.

No, I crypto Get get on some trump coin

Dude, my god, I was at an airport in Houston and they were advertising fucking Texcoin.

Texitcoin or something like that.

Yeah, was my layover before and after Japan.

Texas They're so fucking bizarre so I'm Once again, like I'm been in the crypto industry on and off like I'm not against certain crypto currencies a lot of them are just pump and

dumps though and There's only like a couple of cryptocurrencies you could use to circumvent this like I've mentioned before Stable coins and stuff like that.

The other stuff I think is too volatile for valve

which makes sense.

You don't want a very volatile currency when you're buying stuff like this.

I don't think people understand that.

ah

remember a couple years ago, Valve actually allowed Bitcoin purchases back when it was still...

Back before crypto...

Back before Bitcoin boomed, so to speak, in value.

To be fair, if they would have kept on doing that, they would have made a lot more money than, and if they would have taken the Bitcoin and then held onto it, they would have made

a lot of money, because it kept on going up.

Yeah, but at the same time though, it was like super unstable when they implemented it because, you know, the values kept changing substantially.

They kept having to draw more money.

I don't know, man.

It was a rough time to do it.

stabilized a little bit.

ETH is a little bit more volatile, but then you can just do like a fiat, like a, what is it?

A stable coin that is tied to a fiat like the US dollar.

And there's a couple, there's like, think a coin that's tied to every single one.

I've talked about this already.

That being said, they also have potential questionable stuff.

don't know, people always question all that.

That's one option.

Or going with, I think we've talked about,

potentially just the Steam wallet, but I have a feeling that that ties to directly into MasterCard.

Yeah, I have a feeling that if MasterCard could, would, they would just...

cut off payments entirely.

That said, you can still buy games through PayPal on like Humble Bundle and whatnot.

I'm sure they would more...

I mean, that's more curated though.

It's not like an un- I don't think there's a single one of those stores that sells adult games, like Steam keys for adult games.

.

Not that I know, not that we know of at least.

So did we mention exactly what's going on with PayPal and Steam?

um I don't know, but essentially what's going on is that PayPal has cut off support for all currencies except for six different currencies on Steam.

Yeah.

which some people are saying it's tied to the MasterCard, right?

Valve has confirmed to RPS that this withdrawal of support for Steam transactions by one of PayPal's acquiring banks is regarding content on Steam related to what we've previously

commented on surrounding MasterCard.

yeah, it's regarding PayPal and certain currencies.

So is it regarding some companies that are banning some of this content?

Cause there are companies that are not companies, countries.

that do ban some of the content that's on there.

Um, well, I feel like, well, if that were the case though, they can already ban those games from being sold in countries without having to do it through PayPal, banning entire

currencies.

But PayPal is being pressured into, yeah, I don't know.

It's so bizarre how this all going.

Well, PayPal's acquiring banks.

The question is what acquiring banks?

Because if it could be that MasterCard is doing it, acquiring PayPal.

I don't know.

Let me see.

Let me see who's acquiring PayPal.

Wait.

Is PayPal being acquired or are they acquiring banks?

No, I wanna...

paid?

acquiring beings.

eBay owns PayPal, if you guys recall.

Do they still own PayPal?

Well, they broke off into separate companies, but...

wait, no they don't anymore.

They spun off from PayPal.

uh Wait, so I don't understand what Valve means by this.

See, so is regarding content on Steam related to what we've previously...

So we don't know if...

So I don't think it has to do with MasterCard.

I think PayPal is just doing this independently on their own as well.

Which is bullshit.

Interesting.

That is interesting.

So.

So anything that's not a euro, a Canadian dollar, a Great Britain pound, a yen, Australian dollars, or USD.

Those are the only currencies allowed on Steam.

the only currencies that matter in this world so...

Okay.

No ruble.

No rubles.

No...

have a couple of thousand rubles and I can't use them now.

uh

Chinese you want as well.

Yeah, I'm kind of curious what's going on with all this.

I think it's gonna unfold more more.

We'll see if they get more bold with bans and stuff, but it is weird that it's, is MasterCard going after much else right now?

Usually, like in the past when these card processors have gone after companies, it was after like internet companies.

It was after like so many different companies to like ban even porn being bought with this stuff.

And so.

I'm seeing that PayPal's blocking purchases for Wuthering Waves as well, which is a gacha game.

Let's see, PayPal.

No, let's see what's going on.

Yeah, this is going to be a topic we're going to learn about a lot, I think, over the year.

the hell is going on with these payment processors?

Are they all just banning against video games?

That'd be too much money for them to lose.

Yeah, they're if there's one thing they love money So they're gonna go after the stuff that probably doesn't hurt them the most and makes them look good To certain companies

which is weird because most gamers.

I don't think care about Whether or not like they can buy some of the more NSFW stuff They're like I just don't think people care meaning if they're not into that there's like

whatever we don't care if we could buy it or not We're not gonna buy

wonder if Gabe Newell might have pissed off uh one of the big banking CEOs and they're just trying to go after him.

You know what, that's a good theory.

He probably has won too many super yachts more than the CEO of MasterCard, so.

Welcome, welcome to, I know it's probably not the case, but welcome to the new world.

Like billionaires can be very petty.

Dude, I wanna be rich.

I wanna be filthy rich enough to be a petty billionaire.

I don't, that sounds miserable.

I don't care about what other people do with their money.

would be...

Alright, I'm not saying I'm gonna be a petty billionaire, I'm just saying I'm gonna be as rich as one.

Now, if you're gonna do like a TV show and you become a petty billionaire, I'd watch that every day.

But this sounds miserable otherwise.

It does sound miserable.

Dude, I don't know, man.

I don't know what these guys are up to.

I don't know what's happening anymore at this point.

I've been too unhooked from the internet in Japan, ironically enough.

Which was probably nice, wasn't it?

It was pretty nice, yes.

I've been posting a lot of Japan pics in various places though.

And they've been eating it up.

Oh, I have a bunch of meal pics too, if you want to see those on my Twitter.

Well, let's do it later.

But speaking of Japan, Japan's PC gaming population has decreased by 3 million in the past decade, studies suggest.

Huh, and this is interesting to me because the past couple of years they've been talking about how the Japanese PC gaming industry has been going up and up.

I wonder if it's because people can go back outside.

Well, I'm curious why, okay, so yeah, if it's been going up and up, but then they say in this that the PC gaming population has decreased by 3 million in the past decade.

What did they mean by that?

Like, is it popularity gone up, but the population is decreasing?

Cause the population of Japan is decreasing.

there's, so according to, yeah, so according to this website, Japan, or

because show 2025, Japan's PC gaming population has declined by three million users over the past decade, dropping from 17.49 million in 2015 to 14.52 million in 2024.

This contrasts with increases in both console and mobile gaming population.

Ah, this could be a problem going forward anyways with Gen Z during the same period.

like key points, PC hardware prices in Japan have risen 40 % in the past six years.

Damn, with some components tripling in price, PC shipments hit their lowest point since 2007 through 2024, saw a temporary spike due to Windows 10 end of support replacements.

Meanwhile, mobile gaming has exploded from 14.11 million to 42.77 million users, becoming the dominant platform in Japan.

Well that's not that surprising, that's always been the case.

But the thing here though is that...

The yen has also been decreasing in value.

And it was actually good because it used to be a while ago.

I don't know how long ago it was, but like it used to be nearly like one USD to like 100 yen.

Yeah.

Now it's like $1 to like 165 yen, which is a crazy decrease in value.

So yeah, the problem is, did you say $1 to 65 yen?

Oh, I was gonna say, I'm like, that's actually a good, yeah, that is crazy.

I know that they didn't have inflation.

I think they set their inflation rate to an artificial zero or something like that.

that could be part of the problem that caused some issues.

And then now they've gone away from that, but.

40 % hardware prices, 40 % is crazy.

Is that like, cause I know when I was in Japan, like prices were not cheaper for hardware.

I don't know about for you, HiTech, but like when I saw consoles and stuff like that, if it was a Japanese console, yes, but anything else was not cheaper.

It was more expensive.

Yeah, so I actually went to Dosbara, one of the few PC places, to try to smuggle a GPU.

It was about the same price there as it was here.

It was a little...

Well, was pretty close to MSRP, would say.

Probably like $50 more than MSRP for a 9070 XT.

Are we going to leave this report with you because 40 % more doesn't sound like that.

I'm just kidding.

the prices, the price of components have been going up, though, like price, GPUs are way more expensive than they used to be.

Yeah, like.

So it's not just like a Japan only issue.

It's a, it's just a worldwide issue.

Yeah, but given how Japan's birth rate has been declining, I think it's in the negatives right now.

Yes, and also the fact that mobile gaming is super duper dominant in Japan and has always been.

It's a recipe for disaster in the Japanese gaming industry, especially PC gaming industry, especially given how companies like Capcom have been reporting that PC is their main

platform.

Also, I wonder if it's because, well, maybe this has always been a thing, but they have a strong worker culture of like working too much, right?

Of overworking.

And I'm wondering if they're being worked even more to where they can't even do anything relaxing.

it's always it's already been an issue to the point where like you can't even like they can't even have kids It's not that they don't want kids.

It's that they don't like all the career men and women in Japan don't have time for kids

Yeah, same things happening in the West, like here in Europe and a lot of places where you see a birth rate decline.

Like if you don't have popular.

If you don't have stuff to help with that, let's just say.

And you're overworking, you're just going to have a decline, which sucks for PC gaming, I guess, because we're all going to die off or a dying breed.

oh

gamers will die with our generation I don't know but like the real gamers but like it's an issue yeah it is an issue here too because like they just did a report about how more

there are more homeowners like above their 70s and there are homeowners under 35

Yeah, I mean, in your 20s, I can get like not really owning a house or stuff like that, but once you get into your 30s, you should.

And on the West Coast, like we talked about, it is nice on the West Coast, but it is so expensive.

It is unreasonably expensive, yes.

I mean, thankfully that's the one good thing about living in the East Coast, not in New York.

Because housing is relatively affordable.

Unless you live by DC, that's super expensive as well.

Yeah, but that's, mean, when you get into the big cities, it does, but it's still not that much more expensive.

Like in some of those big cities where you have a lot more to do, it's the same price probably as in Utah, where I'm at, which is crazy.

It's really expensive here.

Well, it's dropping, but yeah, we don't need to, I could talk all day about housing prices because I'm looking to move, but yeah.

This, ugh.

I'd love Japan to embrace PC gaming more because I want to see more games come out of there that's PC oriented, but we'll see.

I would like to see Vanillaware on PC.

Also, one more thing too, we didn't talk about this last week, because we didn't have a show last week, but the price of the Nintendo Switch went up.

Like, original Nintendo Switch went up in price.

This is the- I think this is the first console generation where prices didn't go down.

Right?

Yeah, well, I have a feeling it's two things.

One, inflation.

Two, they know they can get away with it.

So they're...

are an undisciplined, like, they're an undisciplined, uh, demograph where they just, they just pay for whatever the fuck.

you think that's what it is, then why weren't they doing that a decade ago?

Cause they didn't have this- what do mean a decade ago?

They weren't doing it back then either.

Remember?

Remember?

They didn't drop the price of like the 360 at one point.

I thought they did.

yeah, yeah, yeah, I thought you were talking about they were more disciplined back then.

Gamers definitely were not more disciplined back then.

They were just as bad.

Every time we talk about gamers organizing boycotts or some bullshit like that, it never works out.

um Nothing.

But specifically for gamers, the picture that always comes to mind is that one...

group, Boycott Modern Warfare 2.

It's a list of users in that group and they're all playing Modern Warfare 2 on Steam.

Here's my thing if you don't like a game don't play it I don't I don't know I have a hard time like Boycotting like I kind of want to boycott EA cuz I'm like I want dead space to

to be remade but at the same time I Want to support devs and so if a good game comes out and if it's EA I'm probably would still buy it if it for the devs sake if I like the devs

Yeah, that makes sense.

But if you really want to kill a game, don't just not buy it.

Also just stop talking about it too.

Cause, you you're giving it attention.

Attention does drive a lot.

We're in an attention economy essentially, so

Yeah, like if you wanted to boycott, let's say, what was the last big game that needed to be boycotted?

Hogwarts Legacy.

There was a boycott surrounding that because of JK.

was, but it was so sad because like the developers, like a bunch of them were actually in the LGBTQ community.

Cause they're here in Utah actually.

The developers that made that game are in Utah and they actually don't have the same views as the creator of of whatever, yeah, of Harry Potter universe.

She is a hack and it's sad because

you boycott that those developers suffer.

I think the game was really good for the I never finished it, but my wife finished a few times.

But then you so you hurt them, but you don't give her money, but she's gonna have money.

don't you know, boycotts are a weird thing.

Yeah, I don't know what to say.

I think the only way to really stop some things is through laws and and

Well, what I'm also saying is if you really want to boycott something just stop talking about it Yeah

gonna be, it's really hard to though.

Why you have to some regulations to help with it.

Cause you couldn't stop talking about, let's say gambling in like, let's say a Fortnite type of the game or something, know, or gotchas or stuff like that where they get, it

could be predatory for kids.

Even if you stop that kind of, the kids are gonna keep on doing it.

Like especially kids are not disciplined because they're just, their brains are function, are developing.

So you gotta regulate it.

That's fair, man.

I know we don't like regulations at times, but I think that's the only way to get through some of this stuff.

And I think to help with like games dying off, you know, stop killing games kind of movement, you got to regulate it.

It's the only way to really fix it.

ah Companies do not have your best interests, they have their best interests.

well, with that being said, I'm really curious what YouTube's best interests are for this uh AI age verification system that they're putting in.

sorry.

um

So YouTube launches AI age verification in the US, which will automatically restrict users estimated to be 18 or under 18 years old.

YouTube is launching an AI age verification.

Sorry, I'm continuing with the explanation, but regardless of the birthday they've entered, the system uses machine learning to analyze account activity and longevity to

estimate age.

Users identified as under 18 will have teen accounts protections.

automatically enabled, including non-personalized ads, digital wellbeing tools, limited content recommendations, and blocks on age-restricted videos.

If users believe the AI estimation is incorrect, they can verify their age using government ID, a selfie, or, I love the selfie thing, a credit card.

YouTube says this change may impact creators through shifts in audience, demographics, and potentially uh decreased ad revenue as teen viewers only receive non-personalized ads.

I will say, and this is a hot take and please correct me if you think I'm wrong in the comments, this is gonna be a very spicy take a little bit.

I kind of like this.

As my kid likes to get on, but like I said, my kid likes to get onto my YouTube.

Maybe I didn't mention it, maybe I mentioned it off the podcast episode, but my kid will get onto my phone or something like that.

I'll let him get on YouTube Kids every once in while.

They like to switch over to my YouTube and get onto shorts, which I don't like them getting on the shorts, because you know.

But because of that, it royally fucks up my algorithm sometimes.

That being said, I'm not against putting in my government ID if I have to for this.

I'm for it, but I don't think it should be required of everyone.

So I don't know.

What do you think I take on this whole thing?

So it really depends on how uh this is implemented, because this was actually implemented three days ago.

uh So we haven't seen the effects of it just yet.

I'm sure we'll be seeing more of it next month, when it's had some time to marinate and get people's current viewing, yada yada yada, data, whatnot.

uh What I'm concerned about, though, is...

This is the government ID, because, I mean...

company like you can't really trust a lot of third-party companies with when I when I say third-party companies I mean anyone that's not the government with your ID like I

understand it for certain things like you know buying alcohol and stuff but like

there's verification services to handle this.

So if they use the right third party verification system, that's what matters.

And I don't know what YouTube does.

And not everyone knows the trust or not trust.

I do think that like having a selfie or a credit card does help, but the selfie is stupid.

That one's not gonna work.

People are gonna buy.

people have bypassed it too.

In the UK, people have been using uh Death Stranding uh to get basic bypass.

They've been using Norman Reedus's face.

a different one.

That's not in YouTube, right?

I don't think so.

which is gonna be a different algorithm.

they could have, like YouTube could have it already trained to recognize that.

And if uh it's any technique that they use multiple times that they can verify, like this is the same person for a hundred different accounts, they can block that person.

Like it's really easy with machine learning to fix that if they really care to, we'll see.

so Norman Reedus can't use YouTube anymore because his face has been on too many accounts.

That'd be hilarious.

Here's the thing, if he uses a government ID or credit card, he could.

Yeah.

I'm just saying I'm not too big on the whole government ID thing for YouTube.

But they gave us two other options, which I think is actually very fair.

It's much better than other options I've seen from some other places.

It really depends on how this is implemented, because none of us have actually seen this uh need to verify on YouTube.

Not yet, at least.

I've seen a lot of people wanting to boycott YouTube, which I'm just, there's reasons to boycott YouTube.

I don't know if this is one that I heal, I would die on.

have a kid, or I have two kids and I don't want them to get into, there's a lot of threads you get into YouTube and get into a lot of like really sketchy content that teaches you

weird, bizarre stuff.

I prefer them not to get into that.

And I know that, and I can't watch them when they're, let's say when they get,

in their teens.

I can't watch them when they get away from the house if they're going to go to other people's houses.

So I don't know.

No, it's all good, I mean, at this point though, might have to be- it might get to the point where you may have to make your kids, like, separate, like, kids YouTube account.

Yeah.

but they're not 13 yet and they have laws in it for 13.

Or not rules and stuff.

I can, I'm honestly because of this and how well it does, I might just do that.

But at the same time, because there's so much educational stuff that my kids will watch.

They love the educational stuff on YouTube.

But then they'll get recommended something that then, and a lot of YouTubers have done this, where they will.

they'll start watching stuff from a fresh new algorithm and then see just them clicking like the next thing that launches, right?

Like have it on auto play so it plays the next video that's recommended.

And within let's say 20 videos, they're into some weird shit, you know?

And so it's been verified time and time again that at least for me, YouTube is listening somewhat.

Cause I think this is important for teens to be able to have like digital wellbeing tools.

limited content recommendations.

I actually think this is important for kids, for feeds.

But when it comes to limiting the internet itself, I don't know if I, you I don't think I agree with that, but these companies like Facebook and YouTube, the feeds are designed

with dark patterns.

I don't want them to be using dark patterns on my kids.

I don't know what to make of this situation, man.

I have to see this happen more in action.

You do have some good points about, you know, your kids and whatnot, and I mean, it is fair this is entirely for the kids themselves.

I just don't like the idea of having- of this being foisted on all of us.

I just don't know how else you're gonna be able to do it.

especially depends on what kind of stuff you're watching.

It's understandable if you're watching stuff that's explicitly marked as YouTube kids, but what if you're watching stuff that kids are interested in, but you kind of are too, like

video game videos?

The two game videos are not gonna be like that.

I think it's gonna come down to, uh they already have been flagging all our accounts.

So if we swear, probably won't get recommended to kids.

This podcast will probably not get recommended to kids.

And I'm sure.

What?

No, kids gotta learn about this stuff someday.

I'm just kidding.

It will be interesting to see how this all goes because there's a lot of videos that get past the age gating that should be age gated.

Because they already have a system.

Here's the thing, they already have a system to where if you upload the video, you can mark it as for kids or not.

And some people will mark it for kids when it's not supposed to be and some of them get away with it.

ah I'm curious to see if this will help it a little bit more.

And I think just to have the inconvenience of putting in your credit card or something like that is not that big of an inconvenience to help with, I think, protect kids, but I

could be wrong.

am curious what people are gonna, sure, tell me in the comments ah why I'm wrong, but I'm curious.

Yeah, I think this is a wait and see sort of situation.

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how it goes.

um I know that, yeah, just to kind of end on it.

We want something to fix with the dark pattern, so we're not so addicted to stuff, but we also don't want to have the companies implement it.

And it's just, I think it comes down to, I just don't know if people know what they really want.

Because you have people that are gonna scream about it, and you have people that aren't gonna, know, and it's always the, there's an exception to stuff, and I know.

I mentioned this with the payment processors, but that's an entity.

maybe this could be, YouTube is the place to go for videos.

uh There's times and decisions they've made that I have not liked.

And this is definitely on the more mild side of, we'll see where it goes.

At least they give us three options, ah which is nice.

ah If Gardner was here, I know exactly what he would say.

I'd help him out.

He would, you would need to go down to a government office, get a license to use the internet to be able to do this.

So.

that would be so funny if that were the case.

That would be to be fair some parts of the internet I I think but then again, I think people that own a gun should be required to take extensive lessons and also be screened

mentally so Yeah

Garner

now we can go on to that.

We're almost done.

We have a very short day today, partially because Gartner's not here.

Just to mention real quick before we get into the last topic, because this last topic is still kind of interesting.

Legion Go S drops to $499.

like, I think, yeah, it's down from $729.

I don't know if it's on sale or not.

but it's, believe, about $499.

And is that like the new, like, is that the go-to Steam Deck?

So for a one terabyte, 32 gigabytes shared memory, Z2 Go APU device that can run both SteamOS and Windows 11, is that like the new go-to for the Steam Deck instead of, you

know, instead of just buying a Steam Deck?

That's a difficult one because it's a good price and the screen, it's an upgrade from the base Steam Deck, we'll just say that.

As for this, it really depends on how much you value the need for a no-led.

OLED's nice, but I'd much rather have performance.

Yeah, the performance, is it just for the Z2 Go?

You said it was for the Z2 Go, right?

Yes, for the Z2 Go.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Don't you have, you have the Legion Go S, don't you?

Yeah.

So you'd like, I don't have one.

Cause I am a lazy mother effer that never contacted them.

But would you, if you were to buy a device right now, which would you choose?

The Steam Deck OLED or this?

If they were both priced at like $500, let's say.

Damn it, that's a hard question.

I think I would go with this over the Steam Deck, to be honest, but honestly the trackpads have been so good it's kind of hard to give

Hmm.

I could easily go to the track pads, even though I do like them.

I do prefer my device to have them.

But right now I'm thirsting for that uh little bit extra power.

Yeah, I mean, that's totally valid, It's a hard question to answer.

One with no perfect answers, but I mean...

But they both do run Steam OS.

A lot of the stuff that makes a Steam Deck great is there, except for the trackpads.

True, And it really depends.

Do you want something that's first party, that's always going to be uh updated?

Because Valve's doing a really good job of continually updating the Steam Deck.

And then it's very consistent with its performance, what you can expect it to perform with games.

And it's got the trackpads and everything.

And it's got good support and everything.

do you go with something like the Lenovo Legion Go S, which I've heard that they're like, firmware updates are a little scant.

And so it really comes down to that.

I don't know for certain.

you know what Valve could do to try to allay all these concerns?

Steam Deck 2.

I don't think Valve cares.

They specifically worked with Lenovo to make sure SteamOS worked with it.

um this is a win-win for them.

I just think, especially in today's economy where people can't even buy games, Gen Z, like our next topic, Gen Z is cutting back on video game purchases, like really cutting back,

according to this uh Reddit post.

So they're only gonna be able to buy

one of these devices.

It's actually an article on Vice, if you open it up.

Well, you should have shared that.

There you go.

So.

I guess probably Legion goes s it's like if you could only buy one device every few years It'd probably be the one that you can get that's a little more powerful.

They'll just last a little longer, right?

That's what I'm assuming but

if you can even afford a console at this point.

True, true.

what's this all about?

you read, have looked into this?

Um, well, let me pull up the article and then I'll point out some of the more important aspects of it.

Uh, so I mean...

Sorry, let me pull it up real quick.

So it's dropped by nearly a quarter.

Spending.

From ages 18 to 24, it's dropped by 13 % from January to April.

And in particular, young Zoomers were spending nearly 25 % less per week on video games than in 2024.

Purchase of accessories, small appliances, technology, and quote unquote, total general merchandise has...

all dropped with adults.

Video games took the lead in things that dropped in purchases.

So yeah, it's not just video games, but it's mostly video games.

It's like the least important thing you could buy at this point.

Rachel Wolf mentions difficult job market, student loans, high credit card delinquency rate among those between 18 and 29.

Yeah, I mean, here's like comparison chart from Matt Piscata Piscatello.

Video game span among games span among 18 to 24 is down sharply.

But then it just like you can see like it's the graph really does help.

It is other age groups.

It's only declined a little bit.

It's only like I'm wondering if this is partially to do with like affordability, but also a lot more gamers are doing

mobile games and I'm wondering if they're getting away with not having to spend quite as much on some of the mobile games.

Or if that's even calculated into this, like some gacha games are.

That's a good question, honestly.

No, think video games would take into account, like, video game spending, like microtransactions.

It would, but it depends on how they do the study.

Without knowing the details.

uh

there's a Wall Street Journal article right there.

Let me click on that and see what they're talking about.

Yeah, but I mean if we look at the graph though it shows everything's down so Yeah, I'm Really feel bad for Gen Z and Gen alpha like they're kind of right now if we don't fix

some of the economic stuff they're fucked

Dude, they're fucked.

I mean, we're just spending less- I mean, Gen Z is just spending less in general.

And, I don't know.

I don't know what to make of this bullshit,

Do see how much stuff costs?

Like they're probably just buying groceries with it.

Yeah, I mean, if you had to choose between food and video games, most gamers claim that they would just not pay their rent and stuff, but like, would they really not pay their

rent?

No, of course not.

Well, if you don't pay a rent and you're evicted, then you can't play your video games anywhere.

Yeah, or some would say they'd rather play buy more video games and food, but obviously that's not the case.

You know, yeah, it's true.

You know what?

I'm gonna start a company where we're gonna sell uh pods where you can live out of the pod.

No, that's, did you, man, next time I go to Japan, I wanna go and sleep in one of the pod hotels ah once.

I mean I didn't do that.

It does sound pretty cool though.

It sounds like it'd be interesting because some of them are, I'd do a more high tech one because they're kind of interesting.

But what an existence that would be.

That'd be so dystopian.

Like not, it's not a good thing.

You could live in one of those manga cafes that they have in Japan.

Can you?

No, I mean, technically no.

see what you're

Yeah, so.

Let's see, does this, so prestigious apparel, sports equipment for furniture, total general, merchandise.

So this doesn't take into account like necessities though.

So I'm kind of curious about that.

If it's all going to necessities.

No, that's my, well, you can spend less on necessities.

That means you're going without, but I'm curious how it compares to necessities if it's all going to necessities.

Well, let's see what the bottom paragraph says.

It's not a promising sign for the industry's future.

Oh, right.

This is definitely going to harm the industry.

I wonder what's going to happen to the games industry when people spend less on video games.

It's not a huge crash like what happened with the Qatari back in the 80s or whatever.

I can see this having a very negative impact on the big video games.

It's gonna have, yeah, once millennials age out a little bit more of some of the, because like for me, I can't play online games as much, I just don't have the time for it.

Plus I also have a lot of other stuff I like to do too.

Like I cannot play games that are consistently online that where I have to buy into it and be like, Destiny 2 is one where I couldn't play it as much as a lot of my friends at the

time because I was going through college and trying to wrap all that up.

And I just didn't have time to keep up with it every day.

And so I missed out on it and I just had to drop it.

And since then, I just don't really play those types of games too often.

How it is.

so as more and more millennials get older, have more families, it's going to end if they do, if they can.

This is a, let's just say this is a dire warning for the economy period.

And we'll see how much, I think indie companies will do better, much better than AAA.

Yeah, because you don't have to spend nearly as much on good hardware.

And the games themselves tend to be a lot cheaper, too.

Yep, they tend to be interesting.

They tend to be created by a younger generation so

I mean, there isn't much more to say besides the economy's fucked.

We'll see, hopefully it recovers.

I'm not very hopeful at this point, but you know, we'll see.

ah Yeah, any last things you want to mention, Hi Tech?

I'll be talking more about the Japan trip at a future date once I really organize everything and all the footage and things I've done.

I don't know if we should do that as like an extra episode, a Patreon kind of thing, where you go do a slideshow and talk about it more with Gardner here.

I definitely think you should wait until Gardner is here though.

I think that'd be fun.

Yeah, I think I will.

have a lot of pictures that were taken of interesting places and things I saw.

enjoy it, so.

Yes.

uh

Okay, with that being said, that's it.

That's all the news.

I'm sure there's a couple things we missed.

If there are, just throw them in the comments, guys.

Make sure to comment, know, like, subscribe, do all that stuff.

If you're on uh one of the many podcasting platforms that we host off, that we host to, host from, I don't know.

But ah Apple Podcasts is one of them.

Spotify's another.

Make sure to subscribe there or follow or whatever is the button that you need to do to help grow this thing and help us out.

But with that being said, that's it.

This is the episode.

Hopefully Gardner can make it next week, his internet is recovered.

Sounds like a really bad outage where he's at, it's not good.

Yeah, hopefully he'll join us soon.

Anyways, have a good day.

Thanks guys, peace out, later.

Alright, peace out.