Impact of Tariffs on Gaming and Technology Industry

And welcome to a new episode of Digital Coffee Gaming Brew, and I'm your host, Brett Deister. You please subscribe to this podcast on all your favorite podcasting apps. We, a five star review really does help with the rankings and let me know how I am doing. But this week we're gonna talk about Marathon Star Wars B. Apparently hacking is terrible on there. Schedule one is the first content update. Also an unfortunate. About the voice actor of SSIR in the Witcher video games. Also, stupid reporter that apparently doesn't read about the 2025 influencer marketing report and how it pertains to gaming. We are going to talk about as well. Ens shrouded in the new updates. Marvel rival, season two is out, and a little bit about tariffs situation because that just seems interesting in general. So let's get on with the show. That's good. All right, so Marathon, the game that Bungee is redoing, because that was actually their first game on Mac, if you can actually believe that. In the nineties, they actually, their first game they created was Marathon on Mac. It was basically a doom clone, specifically a doom con. 'cause it was, everything was a wolfenstein slash doom clone back in those days. But it was actually pretty good and people liked it. A pretty good game for Mac. So they decided to make the new game and Marathon will not require a PlayStation Network account to play on P Box series X and S, but Bungee confirms information on their official Discord server, and the requirement for that only applies to the PlayStation five version of the game. So you're welcome that we've. I bitched about it so much that bungee's and so it's not really worth the hassle to do this anymore, which is good because I really don't wanna have to do another game with another account on something else when I can just play it on steam. And it's fine that way. It's just really weird that we have to do this, but we don't actually have to do it anymore. Moving on to Star Wars, Battlefront two, and apparently on PC and only on PC because it's always fun when hacking goes on in pc. Our reporting that the games online modes, particularly galactic assault and supremacy are. Due to hacking a hack prevents players from spawning in matches affecting all 40 player modes. Complaints about hackers and battle front two have been going on for months or years with a specific hacker known as Blix taunting players. The current hack has been updated to auto load in every match or. Difficult for players to find unaffected games. Some players report that hackers are posing, posting inappropriate messages in chat, impersonating EA, admin accounts. Previous hacks have ALS also disrupted gameplay such as one in 2022 that made characters. VA forms are filled with complaints in the current situation, but there has been no response from EA as this. As of the article's publication, IG has reached out as the publications have found, they have reached out for comment and console players. Reportedly unaffected by these hacks as the downside of PC is that we actually have to deal with this and it's not really very fun to deal with this in general, but. Unfortunately that's just how the state of it is. It. It really is unfortunate. I do hate hackers in general and this just makes it yields and carries having fun ruining your fun. So you might as well just play new games or a different game. I know, just play the bow front. Classic games. Probably the best ones to play right now until EA actually responds and does something about it. But if they're not gonna do anything about it, which is mo, you're outta luck unless they figure out a way of doing private servers and making sure that actual admins kick these people out because they're not gonna do anything against him. He has free will and free reign to do whatever he wants. Is doing it to the full extent because he knows that EA will do absolutely nothing. 'cause they're focused on Battlefield six. They do not care about Battlefront two anymore, and those that enjoy playing, it sucks. Maybe play the original Battlefront if you can this alternative or play the classic ones that were remastered is probably your other way of going, but anything beyond that. Not really gonna work very well. All right, so schedule one is gonna have its first content update, or it did actually April 10th. And the update introduces a new pawn shop where players can sell various items to a character. To name Mick 'cause well. That's what it is right now. The update includes new items such as a gold watch, six paintings and a toilet, as well as improvements like our stack size and enhanced meeting icons in the map. App players using the beta branch of this game can access the new features. Instructions for access to the data branch are provided. The developers, the developer, which is just really one, mentions that future. Include fixing bugs, ensuring employee reliability and improving safe files. Integrity with assistance from Valve and the game remains. The top selling title on team two weeks after launch, which really goes to show that unfortunately for drug dealer going well for you because. I know you're looking in to see if there's any actual wrongdoing or copyright infringements, but probably, sure. It's not gonna be much, even though things look the same, it doesn't actually mean that it's going to be that way. So that's where we're at. But it is one of those things where it, it is it's fine. It's fine. I'm pretty sure that developer is going to be doing really well, which it's not, but this is actually good news because playing the game when you do have extra things, you actually just have to discard them and it's nice that you can actually sell them back for money. So I'm happy about that because really just needs to sell 'em for good money. Get some. Some of the money back that you actually spent can actually upgrade your equipment. You don't have to discard it all the time 'cause that was the only way of doing it. So I like this update. This is actually pretty good. If you have not played schedule one, I highly recommend it 'cause this is actually really fun. Alright, moving on to William Roberts, the voice actor. Emir in cd. Project Reds, which are video games, has died of the age of 80. His death was first reported by The Guardian in February, and an obituary written by his former wife, Nicolette Roberts. Roberts was born in Oregon and built his career in Britain as an actor, director, voice artist, and writer. He worked. Programs generated audiobooks from the Royal National Institute of Blind People and other companies and acted in radio production such as Batman and Judge Dread. He appeared numerous video games including Time Splitter two Crisis Age Code in Battlefield Bat Company kills zone twos. Thank Elite Dip Ponyia. Star Wars Bow Front Horizon Zero Dawn, a Way out The Medium and Atomic Heart. No, he did a lot of really big video games besides the Witcher Mir. His most recognized role is Garrett's mentor in the Witcher series. Roberts was known for and sensitive reading of works by authors like, melville Poe and Lovecraft. In 19 80 80, he voiced Tom Texas, Tom and ads on for Texas Home Care, DIY tours. He trained as a pilot later in his life in biography under the name we Roberts. So it's unfortunate, but he did live a long life. But yeah, no more voice actor for Emir. He is no longer with us. And as always thoughts and prayers go out to his family because, it's always a difficult time when you lose of how old they are. It's still rough. Alright, moving on to apparently Game biz industry decided that they needed to talk about the. 2025 influencer marketing report. They claim that there is a pay male and female influencers and that it's terrible because we're in 2025. And the pay gap exists not just for any reason, just that it's just mails are worse because we get paid more. But actually it's not. It's basically because. It's like a 40% pay cut or pay gap between female and male influencers. But there are possible reasons for this. One is the abundance of female creators because it is female creators to like a 28% male creators. So you have. A ton of female creators out there. That could be, I don't know, driving down the price a little bit and especially the micro influencer levels results in price prices influ female and down compared to their male counterpart. Which they're being less males than female influencers. The males naturally command a higher asking price due to limited supply. So supply and demand surprise. Also, it's because that males actually focus on their niche and females. Stuff like beauty and all that other stuff. So there are actual reasons for this. It's just that he decided to leave it out because males are bad for getting more money than females are. 72% of the mark of influencer marketing is females. Yeah. I just don't understand. I get that you're reporting this and it's interesting and important, but it's just one of those things where it's I don't really need to know that. I don't really care about your opinions about this and saying that always mail well, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Also, if you look in the breakdown. Most marketers use Instagram or TikTok because it gives the better price point. But if you want more money, you use YouTube. And so there is that type of thing. Plus the pay $83, it's not a lot. I know it's 40% or something like that, but when you actually look at the money wise, it's $83. So we're. It's not a whole lot it's just weird. In 2025, we have to about this and care about the gender pay gap because the first time people were like, oh, it's terrible because of this. And it's there are actually factors. Males work in more high or highly dangerous jobs. Females take more time off than males do. Male males tend to work longer. Females will, maybe not in the, my generation or the generation after me, will actually get, have babies, have families and stuff, so they'll take more time off for that. That's usually the reason for it. But. People have to not care about the actual stats and care about agenda pushing. And this is another one. So when you see that report out there, it is not, they're not really telling you the truth until you actually read through it. And I had to, and it's a long article and it's very interesting, but I had to go down through this one blurb about g. Even in the top 10 most popular niches technology is, which could be gaming too. But technology is a really big swath of consumer tech, gaming, vr, and a bunch of other stuff. Ai, also, it pays to be gay apparently, because the highest paid niches is lgbtq plus is $316 point 78 cents per collaboration. Then it's comedy, then it's vegan, then it's family and children athletics. Yeah. To be gay, you're also looking for. The platform pricing trends, YouTube is the highest at $675. So just so you know, anyways. Two enshrouded and the throttles of twilight will launch in May. The game has reached a milestone of 4 million players. The update will introduce new gameplay mechanics, including weapon mods, gem gym crafting, and deconstruction, new weapon and combat balance. This update, new Emmys will be added, although specific details about these Emmys were not provided. ENS shrouded features a day and night cycle lasting about 30 minutes and to 12 minutes in real time, respectively. At night, players can catch fireflies and counter rare enemies like zombies, which, and the update. In the upcoming update, we'll provide players with a new reason to explore during nighttime through specific details. We're not disclosed yet, so developer in shrouded is still creating the game. It's still very popular game in its own right. It's still an early access. It's still a fun game. Game that you can play with friends or by yourself, which is great 'cause you don't have to worry about people like stealing your stuff. And then you have to start over again, which is nice. You don't have to worry about that too much so you can play by yourself. So it's got a nice blend. It's not like rust where Rust was kinda like, you're with everybody now. Now you really have to figure out what you're gonna do with everybody there. So moving on to Marvel Rivals season two. It is out right now and the new tank hero is Emma Frost. She is a brawler, so she has a, she has two forms, which is like mantra from Overwatch two, and her real form abilities like S Psych spear mind. An diamond form, which includes carbon crush and crystal kick. Her diamond form enemies interrupt their ultimate abilities. Ros abilities allowed her to shift between mid-range and close range combat. Effectively. The developers' priority to is to ensure players have fun, even if it leads to balance issues with characters. And I. A whole bunch of reworking on the hero team ups as well. So it looks like Scarlet Witch and Dr. Strange are gonna have a hero team up. It looks like Hulk and Nemore and or Ironman are gonna be those types of things as well. It looks like Captain. Gonna have a team up and it's gonna be lost with rocket. Rocket and Punisher are still gonna be the same thing. So it looks like they're rebalancing it, making more interesting, which I'm in favor of to rebalance and try to do different hero team up. And it just keeps it fresh and more interesting. It's still better than Overwatch two, but Overwatch two is getting better perks and eventually the stadium coming out. But we will see once. It's already from Overwatch two. 'cause Overwatch two has to deal with Marvel rivals 'cause they're just doing so much better at what Overwatch two should have done better. Six V six. Six V six is the best thing for it and it should have never left that. Alright. All right. Moving on to the switch. I know, I don't wanna talk about cons too much. The GPU market and just the market in general with the tariffs. So tariffs are about 145% now for China because China is the special one that gets the tariffs because they they don't really care about the United States too much. They do and they don't. N Nintendo has been a lot hot water because now the switch to. Is on hold indefinitely because of the tariffs. Also, their games are gonna cost $80 for digital and $90 for physical for whatever reason, because the physical ones also might just carry a key, so it doesn't really matter 'cause you're not getting any game files on there. So there's that and there's price hike on from the switch to the switch two. It seems like a lot of the switch two features are locked behind their subscription paywall, which really is annoying. The voice chat, you can't do it unless you have a subscription video chat as well. But who really cares about all that stuff? You also have there's some nice features, but it's not really wanting me to buy it. Plus, with just how expensive the games are gonna be. What's the point of getting a game when I can just get a steam deck, which I'll bet might be more expensive, but it also offers me a lot more functionality, features. I can turn my steam desktop, I can use it as a desktop. Can't do that with a switch. Switch is just. Whatever they give you. Plus with their switch to welcome game, that's $10 weird. Which leads me to the high performance GPUs in Taiwan. So it looks like they can circumvent, ship it from China or Mexico, and then they filter it back up through United States. This is the only way they can keep the prices down. 'cause if they don't, they'll have to raise prices too much. We also have the issue with peripherals. 'cause the majority of peripherals China. I've worked with two different ones and I know exactly how it is. They mostly innovate it. The designs and everything through Taiwan have a factory in China, usually Shanghai I think is probably the one they actually do it in. And then. To the United States, usually how it is, usually the person that has the warehouse or the company that has the warehouse will steal the tech and reuse the tech and there's nothing you can do about it. They've been stealing RFPs for quite a while and including the technology stuff, I'm pretty sure gaming is no. So the. The problem is that we, that for gaming, they have to now figure out where they're going to go. Vietnam, if they make a deal with the United States, Malaysia, or bite the bullet, figure out how to make it in the United States and you, and in the process, make the production cheaper as much as you can through automation and then. That way you can localize your product distribution within the United States and you don't have to worry about what we went through Covid and everything else with just a string ahold from China saying we won't lot of stuff to you. And now with China actually saying we're gonna withhold where minerals that puts a squeeze on the Texas sector even more may not actually hit the keyboards. But we're all gonna fill it eventually. It's why Apple decided to fly five plane loads of iPhones to the United States when this was happening. It's why a lot of other Amazon canceled a lot of Chinese specific products. And this isn't going to really resolve itself until China United States actually come to a mutual deal, which. Favor of, because they've been screwing us over for decades. They've been screwing us over, they've been making cheap products. They've been destroying our industries and they've been stealing our tech. China doesn't make anything. China doesn't innovate anything. So this whole thing about they made an alternative HTMI, that is a ma, probably not true because they did that with their AI system. And it turns out that it really wasn't that efficient and they spent a bunch of money trying to get a GPUs. And so it became one of these things where really it's not that. So we're in this pickle right now. We have to figure out how to get out of this. And the only re way to really. Stranglehold China and make sure that they're not stealing our tech anymore is to go to the other countries and produce it in Vietnam. Malaysia, like I said before, you're not gonna get around this. They're probably gonna be a lot of tariffs on China for the foreseeable future because they're gonna fight this and the United States, I don't think it's gonna balk anytime soon. It could be four years, it could be two years, it could be even longer. But we're now in a trade war. So that means that you can't really produce all the cheap stuff, cheap check stuff in China anymore unless you wanna incur the cost or put the cost to the customer. And so that's gonna make the marketers go, oh gosh, how are we gonna creatively figure out how to save things? We're not really raising prices, and so we'll just add new quote unquote tech features to our product line to make it look like we've added more features. We really haven't. It's just the, it's just the tariffs or just a minute saying, you're going to have to eat the costs 'cause we're not going to. So we have issues with Nintendo and. What they're doing. We have issues with peripherals and what they're doing, and so this is going to be a very interesting time to see what is actually going to happen and it's going to be expensive. So I would be prepared. You can buy now and then wait a couple years and you may be able to, you may be able to actually get something. But this is where we're at right now. So with that, this is the end of digital coffee gaming Brewer. Really do appreciate it, and I do this podcast and all your favorite podcast. Again, leave a five, five star review. Really this help with the rankings. Let me know how I'm doing and join me next week. Let's talk about what's going on in the gaming industry. Alright guys. Stay safe. Get to getting the gaming peripherals that you need now. Let's see you next week later.