Nicolas Cage & The Cost of Gaming

Welcome back to Episode 50 of Boss Run! Housh here, and we have reached a major milestone episode—but the gaming industry is celebrating by sending our wallets straight to the intensive care unit. This week, we are breaking down the massive sticker shock hitting both hardware and software, tracking the newly launched GTA 6 preorders, and diving into what I'm playing on my desktop and Steam Deck. Here is what we are tackling on the show this week: 💰 The GTA 6 Sticker Shock: Official preorders are finally live, and Rockstar has officially rewritten the rulebook for AAA pricing. While the US saw a standard $10 bump, Canadian gamers are staring down a massive $20 increase. We break down the math and why this release marks the absolute end of publishers giving the Canadian retail market a break on real-world currency exchange rates. 📈 The Great Console Inflation Tier List: It's not just the software. Between Valve's massive premium price tiers for the newly launched Steam Machine, Microsoft's incoming massive global Xbox price hike on August 1st (which completely sunsets the 2TB model), and Nintendo's upcoming Canadian price correction for the Switch 2 in September, staying in the console ecosystem is getting expensive. We compare the launch pricing vs. the reality of buying a console today. 🎮 What I'm Playing & Emulating:Forza Horizon 6: Keeping the pedal to the metal and testing my boundaries on the virtual track.Call of Duty: Black Ops 7: Dropping into the pure, unadulterated chaotic bliss of the new Season 4 Reloaded update featuring none other than Nicolas Cage as a playable operator. Yes, really. Jeanne d'Arc (PSP via PS Premium): Replaying this tactical RPG classic from Level-5 on modern hardware. It absolutely holds up.Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere: Taking to the skies and digging back into the roots of Namco's flight-arcade history.