General trivia:
- Extended Play WAS actually the original title of X-Play, but the show couldn't call themselves that at first, due to the ownership of Ziff Davis. Instead, a GameSpot.com format had to be settled on. That all changed, when the company ended its relationship with the network in 2000.
- In the Tech TV episodes of X-Play, a stock metal song called In the Crossfire, performed by Bryan New, was used for the end credits. It was released in 2002.
Specific trivia:
- Executive Meddling: In a March 2013 interview given by Adam Sessler
, he stated that during its fifteen-year-run, there were instances of executive meddling on the show. Below is a list of examples.- In 1999, in response to the Columbine Shooting, the executives gave the cast and crew orders not to show footage of people shooting other people in games, or even talk about how cool it was, fearing it would glorify gun violence and inspire more school shootings in real life. This was (mercifully) averted when the show became X-Play in 2003, and moved to late nights, allowing the cast and crew to do their thing.
- Unfortunately, in 2004, reality came back to haunt the show, when Comcast and G4 bought out Tech TV and required much of the original cast and crew to move down from San Francisco to Los Angeles to keep their jobs. Not mentioned in the interview, but there were rumors about who was going to L.A. and who was staying. One rumor was that they were going to get rid of Adam and keep Morgan, but she protested to keep him, otherwise, she'd threaten to leave, too. The show struggled with G4 for the next 8 years on one of the most hated channels ever.
- During E3 2006, when X-Play was covering Microsoft's Press Conference and doing it live, there were issues regarding the conference constantly going into ad time, due to FCC regulations, and the fact that G4's taping was tied to the East Coast feed. For example, one moment, they would be showing the Mass Effect trailer, and then the next moment, there would be a commercial break right in the middle of it. It turned out that the conference would end with the reveal trailer for Halo 3. And the fact that this was when streaming video sites like YouTube started becoming big didn't help, either.
- Things began going from bad to worse a year later in 2007, when G4 moved into the E! building; G4 was thrown out of their own building to make way for entirely for E!'s Chelsea Lately, which took over the just-constructed AOTS set. In addition to the fact that the G4 and E! crew members did not get along with each other at all, there was also much more at stake, and things started going from lighthearted to serious in an instant.
- During the last five years, Sessler and his team had to fight very hard for exclusive content—always an unreliable process—and they found it increasingly difficult to get audiences to wait until evening for what they could see online any time for free.
- The end of Sessler on the show became ever-so-apparent, when in February 2012, he flew out to Las Vegas to cover the DICE Summit, but found out G4 didn't want him to do anything there. He then found out that they didn't want him to cover GDC in San Francisco in March, either. During the first three months of 2012, there were rumors among friends and colleagues about his departure from the show. Kotaku got a tip about such a thing as early as April 19, 2012, but couldn't verify the story, so they didn't run it. The story was confirmed a week later. Now given how much he had contributed to the show, one would think he would get a proper sendoff. But sadly, he never did. His last episode, which aired on April 25, 2012, was a little-seen 'week in review' segment recorded for G4's Xbox Live Video portal. After the taping of the segment, he left the studio and never came back.
- Keep Circulating the Tapes: The series was never released on DVD or made available to buy online for obvious legal reasons. As such your best bet is to check out the few recent reviews uploaded on the G4 YouTube channel during the shows final run, or the even fewer episodes uploaded unofficially on YouTube if you want to see any of the series. In general, finding full episodes of the series, especially from the early seasons, can be quite a chore.
- Thankfully, some are making a concerted effort to keep the show, at least partially, archived.
- Thankfully, some are making a concerted effort
- No Budget: The first G4 episode (aired 9/6/04) was filmed in Sessler's L.A. apartment, homemade production values and all, due to the fact that their new set wasn't ready yet. As a matter of fact, it was the first of three episodes that they did around L.A. and the G4 studios, while the new set was being built.Disembodied Voice: "And you thought that their low production values couldn't get any lower. It's Adam Sessler and Mooooooooooorgan Webb!"
- Same Language Dub
- The 7/16/03 episode featured a review of the PC version of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, with Adam doing the narration. But when the same review was shown on the 9/25/03 episode, as part of a special "Games Your Mama Wouldn't Like" Clip-Show edition, for some reason, the entire narration was redubbed with Morgan's voiceover.
- The same thing happened three years later with their review of Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire, which was initially narrated by Adam and redubbed by Morgan.
- Schedule Slip: In the Spring of 2004, there were about three episodes they taped that were supposed to air prior to E3, but never did, due to the G4tech TV merger affecting things. These eventually aired after. They consisted of an episode with Sessler and Webb interviewing actor Ben Afleck, an episode of Sessler wearing a Dik Dik shirt that he received from a fan during an autograph session in Pasadena a few weeks ago for Tech TV's Digital Digs Giveaways, and an episode featuring a review of Bomberman Jetters. In addition, from May 3 to August 24, there were two instead of three new episodes airing per week. While the remaining cast and crew was getting settled in their new home in Los Angeles, 24 episodes that they had banked from the week of May 24 to the week of July 12 (3 per week) were being shown. These were mostly just clips from past episodes.
- Un-Canceled: Officially (along with fellow G4 original series Attack of the Show!) as of January 2021 to which is set to return in the summer of 2021.
- What Could Have Been:
- In the original pilot for the show, porn star-turned MTV VJ, Simon Rex, was seen as "The Lord of the Games". Also, the original format featured the typical reviews, previews, and tips, as well as on-camera head-to-head matches, among other elements that never made it to the finished program.
- When Adam Sessler auditioned as the host for the official series on June 16, 1998, he almost didn't make it. In the aforementioned 2013 interview, Sessler admitted to not playing a lot of video games during his College years, and was depressed for two-an-a-half-years as a banker, following his graduation from UCLA in 1995. Meanwhile, he was seen on a VERY low-budget San Francisco public access show called Chip Weigh Magnet Down. For the audition, Sessler made sure to brush up on his gaming history, and memorize two big games of 1997 in Final Fantasy VII and Resident Evil 2. Sessler felt he failed the audition, but then he found out that the woman auditioning him was the same person who ran the Public Access station that his show aired on . She LOVED Sessler on that show, and asked him to do his imitation of Irish dancer Michael Flatley, which he did. If it hadn't been for this coincidence, Sessler's career on television would have likely ended, before it even got started. But Sessler got the job, and the first official episode of GameSpot TV aired on Saturday July 4.Explanation
- X-Play could have been cancelled in 2004, when Comcast killed off Tech TV, and "merged" it with G4 in order to get into more homes. Their original plan was to cancel every single Tech TV show, until only G4 programming was left. But Comcast saw potential in X-Play, which G4 had been interested for quite some time, as it was Tech TV's highest rated program, with totally original content and writing, not seen anywhere on G4.
