Some Patches Required
Hello everybody, and welcome to Some Patches Required. Every other Wednesday, your hosts Aaron and Zak use their backgrounds in game development and analysis to discuss various facets of the ever-turbulent games industry. From interviews with AAA/indie devs to deep dives on timely topics, the duo hopes to entertain and educate you on this wild medium we all love.
Episodes
90 episodes
Nintendo Switch 2 Prices: Changing the Industry $80 at a Time
This week, Zak and Aaron dive into a new controversy that may have long-lasting implications for the industry at large — Nintendo's decision to price some first-party AAA games at $80.The duo discusses why this price increase is not only...
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Season 4
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Episode 90
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1:15:31
United Videogame Workers: Is This the Moment Devs Have Been Waiting For?
This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss the newly formed United Videogame Workers Union — a brand-new collective attempting to bring the power of collective bargaining to every corner of the industry, regardless of company or position....
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Season 4
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Episode 89
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1:01:29
Kevin Messenhimer Interview: A Developer's Journey to Founding Fiveamp
This week, Zak and Aaron sit down for a delightful conversation with Kevin Messenhimer, one of the co-founders of the indie game studio Fiveamp. The trio covers a broad range of topics as they follow Kevin's journey from a member of...
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Season 4
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Episode 88
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1:21:45
Marvel Rivals Layoffs: Why Headlines Matter
This week, Zak and Aaron revisit the world of Marvel Rivals, albeit tangentially and under less than pleasant circumstances. In the wake of some unexpected and unfortunate layoffs at NetEase's Seattle-based studio, the duo noticed some hyperbol...
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Season 4
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Episode 87
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57:27
SPR Reviews Bobby Kotick's Podcast Appearance
This week on Some Patches Required, Zak and Aaron sit down to do something they've never done before: review an episode of another podcast. Then again, they've never encountered one that prominently features ex-Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kot...
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Season 4
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Episode 86
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1:09:29
Marvel Rivals: Quality, Quantity, and Post-Launch Content Cadence
This week, Zak and Aaron return to the world of gaming topics not as friends, but as rivals... Marvel Rivals™!Inaccurate and misleading introductory statements aside, your intrepid hosts sit down to discuss the latest chart-topping game ...
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Season 4
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Episode 85
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58:02
Meta's AI Bots: How to Ruin Society With Artificial Intelligence
As 2025 begins in earnest, we have some phenomenal news for you! Everybody's favorite dewy salamander, Mark Zuckerberg, is going FINALLY going to rebuild trust in our most hallowed institutions, enrich your social life, and help stave off those...
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Season 4
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Episode 84
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57:45
Handheld Gaming: Xbox and Sony's Next Big Bet
Xbox and PlayStation, two brands locked in what may be an eternal conflict for market superiority, seem to have found yet another field on which to clash: the rapidly growing world of handheld gaming. This week, Zak and Aaron sit d...
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Season 3
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Episode 83
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46:28
Sony Looks to Acquire Kadokawa: What Could it Mean for From Software?
Well, would you look at that? It's consolidation time again in the games industry! Who knew 15 minutes could pass so fast?Jokes aside, this is a big one: Sony is looking to acquire Kadokawa Corporation, which is best known as t...
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Season 3
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Episode 82
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49:08
GTA 6: The Game to Save All Games?
This week, Zak and Aaron take some time to discuss Grand Theft Auto VI, but not in the "WHEN FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WILL IT FINALLY RELEASE" way to which you may be accustomed on the internet. Instead, they dig into the industry-wide perception th...
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Season 3
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Episode 81
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1:00:39
Halo Studios: A New Dawn?
This week, Zak and Aaron take some time to discuss the newly renamed Halo Studios (so long, 343! We're sure Xbox didn't rename you because of all that bad press you've accumulated!) and chat about some of the big changes coming down the pipe fo...
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Season 3
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Episode 80
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1:03:56
Ubisoft: A Desperate Situation
Brace yourselves for a shocking revelation: Ubisoft is in serious trouble again. Or still... or, maybe, both.This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss the newest plan to wrest control of the storied French studio/publisher away from ...
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Season 3
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Episode 79
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1:00:05
John Henderson Interview: Insights From 16 Years in and Around Austin's Game Industry
This week, Zak and Aaron sit down with notable Austinite John Henderson, who has shipped numerous games and made a name for himself in the local development community for hosting Game Dev Beer Night and supporting aspiring professionals as they...
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Season 3
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Episode 78
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57:20
Concord: An Unprecedented Failure
Alas, poor Concord, we hardly knew thee.That's right, Sony's next big foray into the wild world of live service shooters, is no more. And the real kicker? It barely lasted two weeks. This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to...
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Season 3
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Episode 77
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50:37
Monopoly Go!: The Obscene Cost of Games Marketing
When you look at a game like Monopoly Go!, your first thought is probably not that its marketing budget was nearly twice the annual GDP of the Marshall Islands. That's right, Hasbro and Scopley spent a borderline-obscene $500 million t...
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Season 3
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Episode 76
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58:03
Game Pass: Higher Prices, Higher Stakes
Xbox Game Pass has been called the best deal in gaming, and for a while that was hard to dispute. But the times are changing, and with it comes a new era for Microsoft's subscription service - one that costs considerably more than it used to.
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Season 3
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Episode 75
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1:03:09
Elden Ring: Game Difficulty & Accessibility
Every few years, notoriously sadistic game studio From Software releases a new title, and with it comes a heated debate about game difficulty. Well, that time has come again with the launch of Shadow of the Erdtree, the one and only (m...
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Season 3
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Episode 74
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1:12:42
Dragon Age: Homogenizing Video Games
Among the bombastic trailers showcased in the Xbox showcase at Not E3™ — er, I mean Summer Game Fest™ — was one particular reveal that some fans have been waiting for for the better part of a decade: Dragon Age: The Veilguard. And boy ...
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Season 3
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Episode 73
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1:04:35
IGN: Corporate Consolidation's Impact on Games Media
Hello, everybody, and welcome to the latest episode of Consolidation Watch - a show where we puff out our proverbial chests and celebrate all of the excellent acquisitions that mega-corporations have completed recently! This week, we've got a d...
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Season 3
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Episode 72
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54:25
Josh Bowlby Interview: UI/UX Design & Community Building
This week, Zak and Aaron chat with Josh Bowlby, a UI/UX designer (user interface and user experience, for the neophytes out there) who has experience at companies like Virtuix and Wayfinder developer Airship Syndicate, among others.
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Season 3
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Episode 71
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1:02:54
Fallout: A New Era of Multimedia Franchises?
War. War never changes... but the media landscape sure does. With Amazon's new Fallout show dominating headlines and streaming charts alike, Zak and Aaron returned to the vault this week to dust off an old favorite topic: video game adaptations...
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Season 3
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Episode 70
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56:17
Epic vs. Apple Lawsuit: The Fate of Platform Monopolization
Ahh, Apple. Creators of the smartphone, pioneers of industry, the gold standard for excellence, the last bastion of inspiration in a world that's gone dull, and... an illegal monopoly? That's what a recent set of lawsuits allege - and they're g...
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Season 3
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Episode 69
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58:36
Dragon's Dogma 2: Does Review Bombing Work?
Rejoice, RPG fans, for Dragon's Dogma 2 is finally here! The reviews are in, and the consensus is... well, complicated as hell. While critics are stoked overall, fans seem to have some grievances — and they're quite happy to share them...
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Season 3
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Episode 68
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58:07
Suicide Squad: The Desperate State of AAA Games
When you think of AAA games, does your mind fill with excitement imagining what spectacular worlds dedicated artists have crafted for you with the benefit of near-limitless resources? Or do you imagine boardrooms filled with disinterested peopl...
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Season 3
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Episode 67
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58:00
Adam Powell Interview: Union Organizing and the Games Industry
At this point, trying to find a new or clever way to say that the games industry is in turmoil is a profound exercise in futility. There is no one way to "fix" the problems that seem to follow developers from studio to studio, but there's one p...
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Season 3
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Episode 66
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1:12:03
