Why not just play chrono trigger then?
Setting up to blame his audience when nobody shows up to watch it?
If he does it this way, he can still play CT, but there is a possibility that he'll be able to use it to hit a 1000k sub goal,
and play the game.
Worst case scenario is that he hits 1000k subs and has to play another retro game he already played once, and can still play CT. At least this way, there is a chance he'll have to play one less game and can get paid to play something he wanted to play anyway.
It's also partly just him experimenting with ways to control the outcome of Viewers Choice marathons so that they can just become a sub grab that results in him playing something he wants to play anyway, instead of fans squeaking in things like Divinity. New restrictions, fancy narratives about gaming epiphanies while Kat twerks to Robo's theme, making them do legwork or he can veto their choices...
Since we know Phil is actively refunding what he thinks are fake tips, I have to wonder why he isn't just disputing them after getting charged back, as he has claimed in the past. If he wins, he can keep the money, so why not just try?
To add to what
@Nixxit said, the problem is also SH. He uses stolen credit cards, which are instant wins as far as chargebacks go, so Phil has no hope when he contests them. If he does, he eats the fees. But he can't tell which ones are SH because he has tipped both high and low amounts, and has sent positive, negative, and no messages.
Phil has said repeatedly lately that he has received 'hundreds' of chargebacks from SH and has insinuated that he has "cost him" $5000-$7000. Assuming records SH has posted are true, this is not remotely correct - he is fucking with Phil, but not to that degree. Assuming Phil isn't intentionally lying, what I'm starting to think is that Phil has actually started to refund potential troll tips. But every time he does, regardless of who it is, he just assumes it was SH. Phil doesn't see this as 'being safe', he sees it as SH being behind it/it being SH's fault directly. His rant last night corroborates this - he blames SH for making him do refunds. So he's probably just crediting it
all to him, when in reality he could be contesting some of them. He just doesn't know which ones.
As to why he isn't at least blindly contesting more, he probably tried too hard a few times and go bodied with Paypal fees, resulting in fewer WWE pulls. If this is all the case, then this is a suitable hell for Phil. He wants so desperately to lie and obfuscate money and not be transparent about what is happening here that he is mired in paranoia and unfulfilled greed, as well as a nagging addiction that he has lied about. But that would require me to believe both him and SH in the little information they've given, and I'm not fully onboard with that yet.