Xplay

Hi, everyone.

It's me, Adam Sessler, a co-star of GeForce X-Play.

Very happy to be here in the year of our lord, 2010, on the IndieHeads podcast with my dear friend, Morgan Webb, and of course...

The host of the IndieHeads podcast, Marty Monroe.

That is poised to be the number one show in America.

I put all of my stocks in Human Wrecking Balls.

And of course, X-Play, which is where me and Morgan will review video games coming out on all of the hottest consoles.

And just so you know, Maddie, you will be judged on this episode.

This week's question comes from Don Lionheart.

I recently saw a Kingdom Hearts 2 X-Play preview from 2006, and I was somewhat struck by the tone.

It seemed very unserious, almost mockingly so, and it led me to ask this question.

Did X-Play and similar slash predecessor shows do more to harm the industry than help it? Was it the wrong call to lean into the derision that gamers experienced in that era instead of sticking up for the art form? You and Matt have both said some of the sketches from them wouldn't fly today.

So I'm curious if maybe it's actually the show's structure itself that was the problem.

Did it harm the image of the games industry and its participants rather than Elevate? The first thing I'm going to say is that there were no other shows, Don.

And it was failing and I had just joined the show.

I worked on the last season of Extended Play and we basically were told, like, if we don't change the show in some significant way and boost the ratings, that it was going to be canceled and we were all going to lose our jobs.