The Tokenpocalypse Is Here

Is the Best Game of the Year a Failure?

Remap Radio’s Rob Zacny and Emanuel dive deep into their current favorite game, Marathon, and what its middling success says about the future of games. If you listen to the 404 Media podcast by now you probably realized that Joe and I are a little obsessed with a game called Marathon. I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve played it for almost 300 hours since it was released in March. But as much as we’re enjoying it, and there are thousands of players who feel the same, Marathon so far has failed to find the audience we’d expect from the developer that made Halo, Destiny, and which a few years ago acquired by PlayStation for more than $3 billion. It’s bad news for Marathon fans and a good sign for how much the video game business has changed over the years. I wanted to have Remap Radio host Robert Zacny on the podcast because much like me and Joe, he’s been obsessed with Marathon as well. One of Rob’s greatest skills is dissecting how and why games get their hooks into us, and what a game’s popularity, or lack thereof in Marathon’s case, might reveal about the state of the industry and culture more broadly. Remap Radio: https://remapradio.com/ 00:00 Rob Zacny Introduction 03:08 What Is an Extraction Shooter? 08:42 The Genre's Evolution 14:48 Why Marathon Works 18:36 Bungie's Design 22:27 Cryo Archive 34:02 The Thrill of Extraction 47:33 Is Marathon Dead? 52:22 Can Bungie Save It? 58:50 The Business Problem 1:05:20 A Millennial Medium? 1:12:59 Aging Out of Gaming 1:13:40 The Rise of Sweats 1:20:06 Bungie's Layoffs 1:23:09 The Destiny Era 1:28:00 The AAA Dilemma 1:34:22 Sony's Big Bet YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/K4U4mWObX84 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

The Tokenpocalypse Is Here

Go to surfshark.com/404Media  [http://surfshark.com/404Media]to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN, with the reassurance of a 30-day money-back guarantee, or just use code 404MEDIA at checkout. That's surfshark.com/404Media [http://surfshark.com/404Media]. We start this week with Joseph’s story about the Tokenpocalypse, which is companies scrambling to stop spending so much on AI after providers started charging per AI token. After the break, Joseph and Emanuel tell us about the ways companies are trying to do this, including using a tool to make their LLMs talk like cavemen. In the subscribers-only section, Emanuel explains how entirely fake AI-generated flowers are all over eBay, Etsy, and Amazon. * The Tokenpocalypse Is Here: Companies Are Scrambling To Stop Spending So Much on AI [https://www.404media.co/the-tokenpocalypse-is-here-companies-are-scrambling-to-stop-spending-so-much-on-ai/] * Companies Are Making Claude and Codex Talk Like Cavemen to Stop [https://www.404media.co/companies-are-making-claude-and-codex-talk-like-cavemen-to-stop-ais-soaring-costs/] * AI’s Soaring Costs [https://www.404media.co/companies-are-making-claude-and-codex-talk-like-cavemen-to-stop-ais-soaring-costs/]Scammers Sell Seeds for Exotic AI-Generated Flowers That Don’t Exist [https://www.404media.co/scammers-sell-seeds-for-exotic-ai-generated-flowers-that-dont-exist/] Youtube Version: https://youtu.be/Sia4LZGNkVs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

How Brands Use Reddit to Poison AI Search

This week, we're doing a deep dive into how marketing companies are poisoning AI search results by manipulating Reddit. You may remember when Google’s AI search results first launched, it recommended that people put glue on their pizza. Well that happened because it scraped a 10 year old Reddit comment. We’ve learned over the last year or so that this sort of thing can be done on purpose, and brands are taking advantage of it. There’s been the rise of AEO or GEO, which stands for AI Engine Optimization or Generative Engine Optimization. Basically this is trying to get mentions of your brand into web content that’s likely to be scraped by AI tools. It’s the new version of SEO and lots of marketers and companies are trying to do it. The most reliable, easiest way to do this appears to be by putting brand mentions onto Reddit. Reddit’s volunteer mods have noticed an increase in bot accounts and entire sequencing efforts—where a post and its comments are all basically done as a stealth ad—intended to boost brands. I wrote an article about this a few weeks ago, about r/biohackers banning mentions of peptides, which were a popular promoted class of product. After we wrote that article, researchers from Cornell University reached out to me about a new study they had just done. The research is called “Deep-research agents can be poisoned via user-generated content,” which provides a mechanism for the ways reddit, wikipedia, and other sites that allow users to post are being attacked by brands doing AEO: "We show that a tiny snippet—just 13 words—of retrieved text on a UGC website like Reddit, Wikipedia, Quora, or Facebook can change AI agents to output spam / scam content pretty consistently," the study says. We spoke to two of the researchers, Hal Triedman and Tingwei Zhang, about this problem and what, if anything can be done about it. Deep-Research Agents Can Be Poisoned via User-Generated Content: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.24245 Youtube Version: https://youtu.be/2uG8ohZHOD8 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

If AI Is Sentient Then So Is ‘Age of Empires II

Take control of your data footprint risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Go to  [https://www.google.com/search?q=https://incogni.com/404Media]incogni.com/404Media [http://incogni.com/404Media] and use code 404MEDIA for 60% off an annual plan. That's code 404MEDIA at  [https://www.google.com/search?q=https://incogni.com/404Media]incogni.com/404Media [http://incogni.com/404Media]. Our listeners can buy one pair of glasses and get 20% off any additional pairs at WarbyParker.com/404 [http://warbyparker.com/404] — and using our link helps support the show. We start this week with Matthew’s story about a fascinating paper that argues if LLMs are sentient, then by those metrics so is the classic game Age of Empires II. After the break, Matthew tells us about a wild story out of Texas with a data center being built on land that was donated to be a park. In the subscribers-only section, we talk hacking and basketball. * If AI Is Sentient Then So Is ‘Age of Empires II’ [https://www.404media.co/if-ai-is-sentient-then-so-is-age-of-empires-ii/] * A Farmer Donated Land to Turn into a Park. The City Is Building a Massive Data Center Instead [https://www.404media.co/a-farmer-donated-land-to-turn-into-a-park-the-city-is-building-a-massive-data-center-instead/] * Hackers Publish Knicks and Madison Square Garden Data Online [https://www.404media.co/hackers-publish-knicks-and-madison-square-garden-data-online/] * Madison Square Garden Made Dossier on Activists Who Opposed Facial Recognition [https://www.404media.co/madison-square-garden-made-dossier-on-activists-who-opposed-facial-recognition/] YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/LlWJTM18z3E Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Stopping Tech Company Censorship (with Jake Hanrahan)

Go to surfshark.com/404Media [http://surfshark.com/404Media]to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN, with the reassurance of a 30-day money-back guarantee, or just use code 404MEDIA at checkout. That's surfshark.com/404Media [http://surfshark.com/404Media]. Our listeners can buy one pair of glasses and get 20% off any additional pairs at WarbyParker.com/404 — and using our link helps support the show. This week Joseph speaks to Jake Hanrahan, creator of the independent conflict-focused media company Popular Front. They talk all about conflict journalism and how to get your journalism out there when platforms like YouTube make it all that much harder, sometimes. * Popular Front [https://www.patreon.com/cw/popularfront] * Away Days [https://awaydays.tv/] * Plastic Defence: Secret 3D Printed Guns in Europe [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlB2QV5wVxg] Youtube Version: https://youtu.be/Yf51H5IuRcM Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]