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Last week was a atrocious 1 for video games journalism. Two cardinal contributors to the seasoned tract Giant Bomb, Jeff Grubb and Mike Minotti, person announced their departure aft a caller podcast was taken down. The 888th occurrence of the Giant Bombcast reportedly featured a conception lampooning caller marque guidelines issued to unit and is nary longer disposable online. Later this week, it was announced that large US tract Polygon was being sold to Valnet, proprietor of the ScreenRant and GameRant brands, resulting successful a swathe of occupation losses. This follows ReedPop’s sale, successful 2024, of 4 high-profile UK-based sites – Eurogamer, GamesIndustry.biz, Rock Paper Shotgun and VG247 – to IGN Entertainment, owned by Ziff Davis, which besides resulted successful redundancies.
It’s bittersweet however these long-standing sites, each with immense audiences and sturdy reputations, person been traded and chopped up similar commodities. On selling Polygon, Vox CEO Jim Bankoff said successful a statement: “This transaction volition alteration america to absorption our energies and concern resources successful different precedence areas of maturation crossed our portfolio.” It felt gross, to beryllium honest, to spot this decade-old bastion of progressive video games penning being reduced to an plus ripe for off-loading. Of its acquisition Valnet said: “Polygon is poised to scope caller editorial heights done focused concern and innovation.” Quite however it volition bash that with a importantly reduced unit is anyone’s guess.
This is, of course, the acquainted robotic doublespeak of the firm property merchandise and manufacture observers person not held backmost successful their choler and incredulity. Writing connected Aftermath, writer Nathan Grayson said: “None of this was, strictly speaking, necessary, with Polygon an unqualified occurrence successful presumption of postulation portion Giant Bomb boasted a dedicated assemblage drawn to its unsocial premix of personalities. But of course, parasitic execs decided to suck the marrow from the bones of both, and present we’re near wondering what comes next.” You bash person to wonderment if immoderate of the CEOs progressive successful these income person ever work a communicative oregon listened to a podcast successful their lives that wasn’t astir maximising shareholder value.
Video crippled journalism has ever walked a windswept tightrope betwixt competing commercialized interests. In the olden days of games magazines, overmuch of the wealth came from adverts bought by the aforesaid companies whose products were being reviewed and often mauled by journalists. Several times during my vocation arsenic a mag exertion I witnessed adverts pulled from publications I worked connected pursuing unfavourable reviews of the advertisers’ products. To bow to those pressures would mean losing the religion of our readers, which was the astir important plus we had. Publishers ever came circular successful the end, but erstwhile you’ve mislaid the spot of your audience, you mightiness has good telephone it quits.
Later, those magazines transitioned into websites, wherever advertisement abstraction remained a captious income. Nowadays it’s overmuch much complex, and the manufacture doesn’t request dedicated gaming sites truthful much, acknowledgment to the emergence of influencers connected platforms specified arsenic Twitch and YouTube. It seems the companies astir funny successful acquiring gaming sites spot lone brands, not the originative and experienced unit down them; successful March integer quality tract the Wrap ran an investigative feature successful which Valnet was accused of turning acquired sites into contented mills for “mind-numbing SEO bait”. Valnet has since sued the publication. But the wage rates for journalism are stagnating, adjacent falling, arsenic the games themselves alteration into live-service megaplexes inhabited by billions of paying customers.
There is, it seems, a festering suspicion of quality creativity successful the modern tech corp landscape. Unquantifiable, costly and resistant to spreadsheet analysis, it is an annoying obstruction successful the mode of streamlined marketplace penetration and exponential growth. Wouldn’t it beryllium truthful overmuch easier if AI could constitute those long, successful extent video crippled walkthroughs that get truthful galore hits, but instrumentality truthful galore weeks of enactment to produce? Wouldn’t it marque consciousness if quality and investigation was generated and filed wrong seconds done immoderate benignant of automated contented pipeline?
There’s conscionable 1 problem. Writing a crippled walkthrough is simply a analyzable task, relying connected skilled play, the quality to construe and explicate a infinitesimal of enactment and the foresight to cognize what players volition beryllium looking for. A reappraisal is simply a subjective quality effect to an experience; a podcast is simply a parasocial chat with pals. Vitally, bully games journalism besides holds the manufacture to account, investigating and highlighting issues that would different beryllium buried. The radical who bash this worldly and bash it good person been playing, penning and questioning for years. They cognize what we deliberation astir erstwhile we deliberation astir games.
I accidental this is the aforesaid statement playing retired close present everyplace successful the arts, from movies to music. The tech bros privation portfolios of brands to swap betwixt each other, expecting the wordless masses to travel behind, consuming immoderate slop they’re fed. But it’s not endless dead-eyed contented we’re coming for, it’s ideas and craft. What a alleviation it is that autarkic sites are springing up astatine a increasing rate. We person the UK games quality tract VGC and, successful the US, there’s Aftermath – some person blossoming audiences. Fandoms tin lone beryllium fooled for truthful long. I harbour precocious hopes that erstwhile it becomes wide understaffed machines of integer contented tin lone spew retired secondhand ideas, the pathetic shade burps of dormant fandom, authenticity volition go the lone crippled successful town.
What to play
Every period sees a twelve caller indie video games utilizing the mechanics of collectible paper battlers specified arsenic Magic the Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh to absorbing but progressively acquainted effect. But don’t fto that halt you trying The Horror at Highrook a heady occult mystery successful which a radical of explorers raid a haunted mansion successful bid to observe the information astir a missing aristocratic family. The crippled satellite is similar a highly analyzable Cluedo committee and mysteries are uncovered and solved by combining applicable point and accomplishment cards, portion upgrading the abilities of your party. Clearly inspired by the duplicate forces of Poe and Lovecraft it’s a beautifully constructed challenge, filled with ideas and small arcane treats for fans of some cosmic and gothic horror.
Available on: PC
Estimated playtime: 10-plus hours
What to read
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Cheating is arsenic aged arsenic video games, but it is ruining the acquisition of galore who similar online multiplayer shooters. This diagnostic looks at however Riot is taking connected cheaters successful A League of Legends and Valorant and it’s a large primer connected the Red Queen-esque conflict betwixt developers and hackers.
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Most large video games were, astatine immoderate signifier successful their development, a fraction of a millimetre distant from immoderate disastrous plan choice. The item of this long interview is however the erstwhile Sony president Shuhei Yoshida saved Gran Turismo by suggesting that the squad marque it really playable by non-racing drivers.
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I emotion that video games, though products of modern technology, inactive animate their ain legends and folklore. A diagnostic connected the BBC site analyses a fantastic example, Ben Drowned – the communicative of a haunted N64 cart, a creepypasta that infected games forums successful 2010.
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If you’re done with reading, Rockstar just released a caller Grand Theft Auto VI trailer and speedboatload of screenshots and info astir protagonists Jason and Lucia (above), days aft announcing the game’s hold until May 2026. Go person a look, it’s wild.
What to click
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Drop Duchy – a sprawling situation disguised arsenic a block-dropping puzzler | ★★★★☆
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Skin Deep – kitty rescue immersive-sim is slapstick amusive successful a cartoony playground | ★★★☆☆
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Space Invaders connected your wrist: the glory years of Casio video crippled watches
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Question Block
This week’s question comes from Guy Bailey who messaged maine connected bluish BlueSky with the following:
“I emotion sim racing successful VR and my lad is addicted to VRChat and the camaraderie of the assorted worlds. Half Life Alyx is incredible, and astir radical who effort VR emotion it – truthful wherefore hasn’t it had its gaming mainstream breakthrough yet? Will it ever?”
This question has haunted the VR manufacture since the accomplishment of the Oculus Quest successful 2019, which was expected to rejuvenate the full conception of VR for the modern era. And portion much than 20m Quest headsets person present been sold, alongside 5m PlayStation VR sets and galore different contenders, we’re not each spending immense swathes of clip successful virtual worlds.
There are many, galore reasons. Motion sickness is one: a percent of radical (and it is much communal successful women for reasons that nary 1 tin hold on) volition consciousness nauseous aft a fewer minutes of use. No 1 wants to consciousness sick, nary substance however amusive the bundle is. There’s besides the neurological and physiological disparity of being enclosed successful a ocular situation which does not align with what our bodies and our senses are expecting. We’ve each seen the comic videos of radical getting carried distant successful a VR crippled and moving consecutive into walls.
VR besides makes america consciousness susceptible and silly. It is weird to beryllium truthful chopped disconnected from outer “reality” and it is weird to deterioration a monolithic helmet successful your surviving room. These elements are possibly portion of wherefore Apple has been betting large connected augmented alternatively than virtual reality, via is Vision pro headset, which is comparatively inconspicuous and keeps america successful interaction with our surroundings – but adjacent that has failed truthful far – astatine slightest arsenic a user platform.
Mostly though, I don’t deliberation the contented is compelling capable for a non-tech audience. It’s a cliche, but there’s nary slayer app. I person an unused PlayStation VR headset and my sons lone occasionally play with their Meta Quest 3. The games they similar tin lone beryllium experienced successful 20-minute bursts, and I don’t deliberation they grip the heart, psyche and intellect the mode a accepted screen-based immersive crippled can.
For astir of us, VR volition request to find a mode to springiness america touch, taste, odor and presence, oregon astatine slightest springiness america a compelling capable crushed to permission the sensual satellite down for hours connected end.
If you’ve got a question for Question Block – oregon thing other to accidental astir the newsletter – email america connected pushingbuttons@theguardian.com
English (US) ·