Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast
Naughty Dog Unannounced Game in Development for 3 Years?! - Kinda Funny Games Daily 03.28.25
Fri, 28 Mar 2025
Go to http://get.stash.com/KINDAFUNNY to see how you can receive $25 towards your first stock purchase and to view important disclosures. Naughty Dog has been working on an unannounced game, it’s been claimed, The Zelda movie has a release date, and a Hogwarts Legacy expansion was cancelled. Run of Show - 00:00:00 - Start Author of Good Game, No Rematch: A Life Made of Video Games kindafunny.com/drucker 00:07:15 - Housekeeping Today after, KFGD, you’ll get: GAMESCAST - OFFICIAL FINAL Nintendo Switch 2 Predictions After Gamescast is Game Showdown There is no afternoon stream today. If you’re a Kinda Funny Member: Today’s Gregway is 12 minutes about how we hijacked the Nintendo Direct yesterday for the Tim Gettys Farewell Tour. Thank you to our Patreon Producers: Delaney Twining, Karl Jacobs, & OmegaBuster The Roper Report - 00:09:55 - Naughty Dog Has Been Working on an Unannounced Game For Three Years, It’s Claimed - Grant Taylor-Hill @ Insider Gaming 00:19:20 - Nintendo Uses Its New App to Announce the Release Date of The Live-Action the Legend of Zelda Movie - Wesley Yin-Poole @ IGN 00:31:10 - Ad 00:32:30 - Warner Bros. Cancels Planned ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ Game Expansion - Jason Schreier @ Bloomberg 00:41:25 - Amazon Luna gets EA games and is launching in more countries - Umar Shakir @ The Verge 00:46:06 - Wee News! 00:53:00 - SuperChats & You‘re Wrong Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts of this episode and what is the introduction about?
What's up, everybody? Welcome to Kinda Funny Games Daily for Friday, March 28th, 2025. I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller, alongside Comedian. writer, and the man who made Greg Miller what he is, Mike Drucker. Hello, Mike.
Hello. Hello. I don't think that last part's true, but hello.
Up at Noon changed the game for me. All right. That changed the game for who Greg Miller is and what people thought of him. It's all because you, of course, were the writer of Up at Noon. Mike, how are you? I'm doing very well. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Of course, after you left up at noon, your career went downhill. Yeah. You know what I mean? What did you do? The Tonight Show? Sure.
Whatever. Tonight Show. Samantha Bee. Samantha Bee.
Mystery Science Theater 3000.
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Chapter 2: What is Mike Drucker's new book 'Good Game, No Rematch' about?
Emmy-nominated writer is what it says here. I don't know. But after you left and you quit IGN, you were just dead to me. Until right now, where, of course, you have your own memoir coming out April 1st. Good game. No rematch. A life made of video games. Tell me all about it, Mike.
Sure thing. So basically, during the 2023 writer's strike, I wasn't allowed to write movies or TV shows or at least pitch them. And so I wanted to write something that I knew I could like sell and like focus on during the strike. And so I had a few ideas for books and this was the one I was most excited about. So I pitched it to my agent who then helped me put together a pitch.
We pitched to HarperCollins and they bought it. So what it basically is, was. I've been reading a lot of books about movies and music where people write about how they influence their lives, like Patton Oswalt's Silver Screen Fiend, you know, a lot of like, I don't know, even like Chuck Klosterman stuff that we all used to like.
And people just don't really do that about games, or at least there's no like book where it's just sort of like about a very on the ground, how it influenced my life in a funny way book. And it's not that I saw a hole in the market that I wanted to fill. It was more like, oh, this is something that I want to talk about. If other people aren't doing it, I would love to do it.
And so I wrote this book, which is a series of comedy essays about events in my life where I've humiliated myself in some form with video games. The stories about like crushes that failed, bad cosplay, a time at Nintendo when I got shot, shot during a paintball gunfight. It's just it's kind of it's supposed to be a very, very fun light book about video games and how much we all love them.
I love that. Of course, you sent me a copy of it. I got to read about it. I was selfish and jumped right to the IGN chapter. I wanted to know what you thought. It's a lovely book, Mike. You should be very proud of yourself. I hope you are. I know you're usually so self-deprecating. You did good here. You did really, really good here.
Thank you very much. I think the fact that I sent one person at Nintendo a PDF and then I think everyone at Nintendo got that PDF. And the fact that they've been very nice about it is very nice.
If you want a non-PDF version, maybe a hardcover, maybe Mike narrated the audiobook on Audible, you can go to kindoffunny.com slash Drucker. That'll take you to the Amazon page. You can pick up Good Game, No Rematch, A Life Made in Video Games. I do have bad news, though. When you sent me the PDF... I sent it over to Nick Scarpino on Slack, and I said, hey, Nick, Drucker wrote an autobiography.
There's a chapter on IGN slash Up at Noon. It's very sweet. Thought you might like to look at it. The book is out in April. And then Nick immediately responded, I don't live in the past, and we've never talked about it again. So I don't know if Nick ever looked at the PDF, but, you know, probably not enough mentions of him. Plenty of mentions of me, which I appreciate.
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Chapter 3: What games are Mike Drucker currently playing and what are his gaming preferences?
You son of a B. Well, I'm sure Kevin's already doing that while I get ready to tell you. Of course, we're going to get into the nerdy news you need to know about because this is Kind of Funny Games Daily.
Each and every week to a variety of platforms, we run you through the nerdy video game news you need to know about live on YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games, Twitch.tv slash Kind of Funny Games, and podcast services around. the globe. If you like that, we'd love you to pick up a kind of funny membership. Of course, you could give us $10 a month and get all of our shows ad free.
That's more than 20 a week. Of course, you'd get good karma for supporting a small independent business and you get your daily dose of me, Greg Miller in a podcast slash video. We call Greg way where I yap at you for like 15 to 20 minutes each and every day. No buck stops our way, no big deal.
Of course, you should subscribe, youtube.com slash kindoffunnygames, twitch.tv slash kindoffunnygames, podcast services around the globe, wherever you get it. Of course, your Patreon benefits, your youtube.com slash kindoffunnygames benefits, Spotify and Apple benefits, that's part of the membership, and we hope you pick them up.
housekeeping for you we are an 11 personal 11 person small business all about live talk shows uh today after kind of funny games daily you are getting the kind of funny games cast the official final nintendo 2 nintendo switch 2 predictions podcast drucker you've always been a nintendo fan boy where is your hype for nintendo switch 2 next week it's being announced on wednesday
Next week, it's very high. I also have some friends from Nintendo in town, and I'm supposed to get drinks with them, and I'm going to try to do the most around-the-world prying. You know, just being like, I know you can't talk about anything, but like... It's a mouse, right? I just want that. I don't know. I'm very hyped for it.
The only thing I wouldn't say, the only reason I'm probably not as hyped as I was for the Switch is this does feel a little more like when I upgrade from a crappy phone to a really good phone, where I'm super excited for that new phone, but I also know it's not going to be a life-changing thing like the Switch was.
This feels like a known quantity in a lot of ways, right? Like, okay, cool. It's going to be what the Switch was, but better. How much better? We'll figure out. And it's Nintendo, so I'm not expecting top of the line, top of the line, but it'll run things better and look better, and that's what I want.
100%.
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Chapter 4: What is the rumor about Naughty Dog's unannounced game in development for three years?
Naughty Dog was most recently in the news after Neil Druckmann kind of suggested there might not be another Last of Us game. He later expanded on those comments by stressing that he'll take each project as it comes and that right now the team is focused on delivering Intergalactic in all new IP. However, a recent claim from an insider might point to Naughty Dog working on something else in secret.
Per a recent report, it seems Naughty Dog has a game in the works that has been taking shape for more than three years, and it's being led by Sean Eskai, who formerly directed Uncharted The Lost Legacy. The claim that Naughty Dog is working on an unannounced game that has been in development for three years comes from Daniel RPK.
The report was posted to their Patreon and since shared more publicly in the game post. It reads, quote, Naughty Dog has a second project. Not The Last of Us Part 3, directed by Sean S. Guy. It's been in development for three years now. End quote. Drucker.
Yes. Can you believe Naughty Dog's making another game? Yeah. They must be crazy to do that.
What are they thinking of this economy? Good Lord.
Not a good time. Not a good time. Don't make games people.
Are you surprised that if this rumor is true, it's not last of us part three though. I guess maybe that's the thing we've all talked about, right? Of well, Neil comes out of the gate years ago and is like, well, me and Hallie have an idea, but it's more. And then he's like, well, it's just an outline. And then basically don't hold your breath for it. But we have intergalactic.
I would think many people would think you'd switch back to last of us there.
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Chapter 5: Who is Sean Eskai and what is his role in Naughty Dog's new project?
Yeah, I kind of think like what it sounds like he's doing is better. Like to me, it sounds like there will someday be a last of us three. But sure, any progress they've made at it, they've either not found the right idea for it or they haven't been happy with, like, you know, the basic concept yet.
But I think that's better than something like, you know, one of my favorite games is that vampire game, Vampire the Menace Great Bloodlines. And that RPG came out before Half-Life 2. That game was a Source Engine game before Half-Life 2 came out.
Yeah.
That's how old it is. And the sequel has been announced again and again over the years, and it's been announced, then it's been canceled, then it's been moved to a new team, then it's been delayed. And to me, that's no different than being like, there might be Last of Us 3, there might not, but it's a little more embarrassing to do that.
Mm. Sure, sure, sure. You know what I mean? Yeah, well, I remember... The Empire of the Masker and Bloodlines 2, right? And this is confusing. Yeah. But I remember...
five it was still e3 so it's still when e3 was still around and it was in person so six whatever i don't even know a long time ago i remember previewing that behind closed doors and be like holy shit this could be awesome and then being like hey we're still a ways out and i was like oh so two years and now here we are at least five to six years later from what that was and this that the other and they just put a release date or said there's i know there's been news recently about it
Yeah, it was like delayed until the end of 2025, but still no release date, I don't think. Got it, got it, got it, got it, yeah.
This is, I'm right there with you. This is obviously not the biggest news of all time that Naughty Dog's working on another game, right? You know that's going to happen. We expect that. Pre-production's interesting. What's interesting to dive in is say, okay, well, it's Sean. And of course, Sean, I've known for a long time through Naughty Dog.
Saw him at the Last of Us premiere on Monday, real quick, just a, hey, hello. Met his wife for the first time. But Sean had been at Naughty Dog, then he had gone over to Chris Dynamics, then he had come back to Naughty Dog, right? And so clearly, I'm on his LinkedIn, he's been there since April 2021, this time around, working on something you'd expect, helping projects out, doing that.
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Chapter 6: Why might Naughty Dog be delaying a new Last of Us game and focusing on other projects?
Well, I mean, that's always the push and pull of like how you how you do this. Right. Where if you were to announce that whatever Sean's working on is an Uncharted, it's not Nathan Drake. It is whatever similar, you know, Lost Legacy. Yeah, that's all well and good, but that gets in the way of Intergalactic, right?
And so I really think back to Uncharted 3 that had, of course, the Last of Us Easter egg in the bar with the newspaper. And then when they dropped the Ant videos teasing that they were going to announce something, we were all like, oh, man, it can't be Naughty Dog. They just put out Uncharted 3.
So I'd love to see Naughty Dog firing on all cylinders like that where Intergalactic is released, hopefully a great game. And then very shortly after, we hear immediately about Naughty Dog's next thing.
Yeah. Drucker, as... You know what I'd like? I'd like a very cinematic Crash Bandicoot. Like, I'd like them to combine all of their history.
You know, that's what they... They talked about that before, right? Where they tried to do Jack and they made it too realistic. And they're like, we just can't. This doesn't... No. In a current PlayStation lineup, this doesn't work. Drucker, talk to me as you are a creative and you work with so many creatives and, you know, you're writing all sorts of stuff.
what do you see in terms of, okay, we want to be able to create something, but we've made something so successful where it is something like the last of us. It is something like uncharted audiences want that, but you have a team that maybe doesn't want to touch that as a creative. What does that look like?
I mean, that could look like a couple things, you know, it's, you know, it could also, it could be just the pressure of it all, you know, like, The Last of Us, and I love The Last of Us, but whether or not you like The Last of Us, it's now one of the big triple-A series. And it's also one of the big prestige television series.
And so when you feel that much pressure, especially pressure from some audiences that didn't necessarily like some of the characters and kind of... maybe went a little overboard with things regarding that. Maybe a little bit, you know, like it's, it's like, it's, it's, it makes you nervous. It makes you question yourself.
It makes you, you know, even though they're at the very top of things, they're kind of like, Oh God, what if we do this? And it ruins everything. And also, I think, like, you know, when you look at things like Mass Effect 3, you know, that was a game that they proudly released.
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Chapter 7: What is Nintendo's new app and how was it used to announce the Zelda movie release date?
No, I need to still download it. I mean, the music one I downloaded day one. The moment they announced the music one, I grabbed it. But this one I have to still download.
I'm going to download mine now while you talk more about this. Because it's like... What a world to live in. And it's like, because it was, I was on Blue Sky and it was like, hi, Jan, and in GameSpot, you could tell they were all scratching their heads of like, they just put up this image. They didn't tell us. They didn't tell anybody. They just put it up on the app. It's like, wow, wow.
And now you're forced to do it because, of course, I'd imagine, I don't want to be left out of
pre-orders for the switch to right like i'm gonna be there day one ready to go so if this is the way if i need to have this is the app going to be up for that is it going to are can it maintain that level of traffic like there's too many questions uh about what's going on but i have to have it now i have to have it
10 years ago when Nintendo was like, we will never release an app. We will never release an app. And then they were like, hey, we kind of like this.
Oh, hey, this is nice just to own it ourselves, operate it ourselves, not worry about anything else going on. Shocking no one, number one in lifestyle and entertainment on the App Store right now as I download it to see what's going on. What are your hopes for the Legend of Zelda movie?
You know, I think... I kind of want to keep that sense of wonder, you know, something like that I've always loved about the series. And this applies to almost every game in the series is that sense of like you walk into the field or the world or you're overlooking on a mountain. And it's just such a sense of wonder and discovery.
You know, going back to Miyamoto's whole thing of the game being inspired by exploring like caves and gardens near his house as a kid. I think that. that quality is what I want to feel. Like, I want to feel like I'm discovering something new. Like, with the Super Mario Brothers movie, that felt like I was playing Super Mario Brothers.
They were doing backflips, they were jumping off blocks, and I felt like a little kid again watching it. And I kind of want something that evokes that feeling, but the feeling that Zelda gives.
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Chapter 8: What are the expectations and hopes for the live-action Legend of Zelda movie?
I'm like, damn, this is a good movie. This is funny. This is great. He loves Mario, which I enjoyed in the theaters, but he loves just watching. I find something new to enjoy every time. I look at this, and I'm like... This is one that matters to me. Zelda means something to me from back in the day. So it's like, I want it to be great. I really hope it will be.
And again, this is a weird swerve, but stick with me. The way Nintendo is taking control of their own destiny with the app, with the Mario movie and having Miyamoto so involved, I have no reason not to believe they don't understand what they're doing here. They're going to get it. Do you agree? Yeah. I absolutely agree.
Now, that might not mean it comes out perfect, because Nintendo has released games where we were like, ah, you missed the target a little bit. But, like you said, they're not licensing it to another company with slight oversight. They're co-producing every one of their movies. And from what I have heard from people who are in the know, he is involved heavily. It's not marketing hype.
It's not them saying that to make it seem better. He is spending a good chunk of time on these movies, Miyamoto. And so... I really do have confidence. At the very least, it's going to be not trashy. I don't know if it'll be my dream movie, but I don't think it'll be bad.
When you talk about Miyamoto being so involved in this, and you talk about Neil Druckmann being so involved in The Last of Us, what's that like for you? Again, you bridge this interesting line where obviously you're a video game guy, whatever, but you're one of us that's then gone out and become a Hollywood name and all this stuff.
I got to imagine at some point in your career, you were like, I'm quirky because I know video games so well, and now the people who are there are accepted by Hollywood and making these movies. Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely. Although there's still moments like I tried to recently pitch a Robotron 2084 show. God damn it, Drucker. God damn it, Drucker. That was kind of their reaction. They were like, this is a great pitch. We don't know if anyone wants this. Use your powers for good, Drucker. It was very friendly. It was a great pitch. I had it all set out and, and they were very positive on it.
It was just at the end, they were like, we don't think anyone would watch this. I was like, yeah, you're probably right. Good day.
What for you? Sorry. Yeah. We're telling the story. Sorry.
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