Personal news: I'm leaving my Editor-at-large role at Eurogamer & Gamer Network as part of new cuts. I last year approached my move to Eurogamer & VG247's skeletonization with reluctance, but I ultimately greatly enjoyed giving EG a go. But now after 10yrs & in difficult conditions, it's time to go.

Tom is a true veteran who knows the industry inside out and remains unflappable in the face of any crisis. Hire him to meet your editorial/communication needs.

Hoverbikes are cool. Having a fist fight after each race is also cool. www.jank.cool/a-hoverbike-...

The balancing on the email mechanic is completely fucked. You're meant to reply to emails, but when you do so, you're punished by almost immediately getting another email in response which then needs to be replied to. The player is disincentivized from engaging with the core gameplay loop.

Only one of these statements is true.

@justdip.bsky.social hey, Strauss Zelnick did not say this "on the earnings call", he said it in our interview (www.gamesindustry.biz/strauss-zeln...). Please update your story: www.nme.com/news/gaming-...

Hate-filled fake videos about London are everywhere. We've obtained a recording of a TikToker confessing to secretly filming Londoners in their homes for clicks. He says it's not political. He just wants to make money from far-right anger. Read what he says: www.londoncentric.media/p/london-tik...

This is the point at which things start going badly wrong for the three game devs climbing a mountain in Peak: www.jank.cool/three-game-d...

The estimable @grahamsmith.bsky.social, @brendyc.bsky.social and I have launched jank.cool, a blog about PC games. It aspires to be funny and informed and passionate and it is in all respects emphatically uncommercial, so please back it if you're into those things.

eBay seller adding a touch of F1 glamour to my purchase of a cut-price battery for a 25-year-old Mondeo

Having to consider how killing the giant affects house prices in Fable is overpoweringly British energy, solid worldbuilding there Playground.

Went to Chernobyl and walked the abandoned buildings of Pripyat for STALKER. A day of staged gangland activities in Hong Kong for Sleeping Dogs. Three-day road trip in provided supercars for Forza Horizon. And I started *after* the glory days.

We're looking for a News Editor to join TWIV. Ideal candidate would have proven experience with: - Working in news for a games outlet - Conducting original reporting - Mentoring junior writers ...and genuinely enjoy writing news, diving deep, and talking to people. UK timezone preferred. Email me.

I feel for anybody at Ubisoft right now. The cuts just keep coming.

A little Bluesky moment: being told I'm "covering up" a detail that is in the headline, strapline and body copy of a story.

Working in games B2B in 2025 is a very bleak experience.

Management chat aside, I have a nasty feeling that Rockstar will have people bang to rights for sharing internal information that staff didn't consider significant, but was nevertheless restricted by their employment contract. www.gamesindustry.biz/report-rocks...

This week our Patreon operatives' mission is to listen to us laugh at Sam Fisher, in the first of the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell novelisations (it is called Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell). Featuring advanced Krav Maga techniques, and covert spy @johnnyohnny.bsky.social www.patreon.com/posts/text-a...

Outstanding failure of journalism by the Times: cold-mailing "Bill DeBlasio" and failing to check that it was the *correct* Bill de Blasio. This story also gets bonus marks for "interview conducted through Ring doorbell" www.semafor.com/article/10/2...

Friends if you work at a creative tech/games/etc company in and around London, and you'd be willing to hire some internship/placement students for 2-3 months over summer, please let me know! I have incredibly smart and engaged undergrads looking for summer opportunities.

I am enjoying our book club. The actual books, not so much, although the trend is improving.

A new public episode! We gather to discuss important matters of Mario, Silksong and Strange Antiquities, and Nate prepares a quiz about strange things of antiquity. Find it wherever you get your pods.

We're shortstaffed on RPS and need some rad PC-minded freelancers for urgent review work. Specifically: - Borderlands 4 (yes I know it's out already) - Dying Light: The Beast - Silent Hill f Standard rate is £200 GBP per review, make yourselves known at [email protected]

Comiserations to today's Games Media Main Character.

I would absolutely watch this show.

A new public episode! Alice went to Gamescom and she's here to talk about the games she saw, the PR she robbed, and the tractor she stood in front of. Find it on Patreon or wherever you get your pods. www.patreon.com/posts/episod...

In which we launch a series with the single games novel I already owned, which turned out to be terrible. Fun episode though.

@gralefrit.bsky.social You have to see these! A friend of mine has been collating a series of images entitled "Things my students have written turned into Philomena Cunk quotes" and they're just glorious.

Big news from the old country. I'm excited for them. Rich was never short of ideas and that brand has a peerless reputation, I look forward to seeing where they take it.

Here’s to @grahamsmith.bsky.social, signing off from RPS after 20 years in game journalism with the wisest thoughts about games media you’ll read www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-sunday-p...

I wish them every success, but "[ex-big studio person] presents live-service game" feels like an announcement from a different era.

I went to an offsite in... 2010, maybe, at which a speaker from a financial firm stated with absolute certainty the state pension age would be 72 by the time most of us retired. Bleak.

🚨 🚨 🚨 EXCELLENT NEW STAMP ALERT 🚨 🚨 🚨

A new regular episode! Alice is off, so it fell to Nate and Jonty to despair over the Microsoft layoffs, cherish some good news for games media and workshop a Quake 2/Kumars at Number 47 crossover. Available on Acast and wherever you get your pods. shows.acast.com/total-playti...

Big news from Develop: they're finally renovating the MyHotel in Brighton. A cruel twist for the Gamer Network diaspora who endured the previous decor.

This was fun. I now have a slightly deeper understanding of the fact that in the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, and also the loungehammer music is still stuck in my head a month later.

This counts as good news, I think, although that's strictly relative these days: www.axios.com/2025/07/02/k...

A view from the South London diaspora.

Leftfield submissions are now open for EGX London, Oct 24th-26th: airtable.com/appIQDFmYU3o...

A new Patreon episode: papal proclamations to save gaming, while outwitting the dastardly Gamer Satan and his efforts to create Games 2. Just think, in other podcasts that might seem weird. Listen on Patreon or Spotify: www.patreon.com/posts/131820...

Wild data point I heard last week: previous government knew nothing about games. Jeremy Hunt needed to have *FIFA* explained to him. Current administration much savvier, apparently.

A note on how Geoff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez arrived at the Cannes event where she will be feted for her environmental activism. louispisano.substack.com/p/the-bezos-...

I missed the (free!) Warhammer 40k Typing of the Dead game. This feels like something OG RPS would have spent a week on. store.steampowered.com/app/3533730/...

This is bleak and upsetting for lots of reasons, one of which being how little it costs to buy a human head: www.reuters.com/investigates...

This episode includes possibly the most tedious game feature request imaginable. But we also found out how Alice will kill Nate so there's good lore in there too.

New coffee shop trend appears to be croissants which are the size of a cantaloupe melon, resemble the carapace of some alien insect, and explode into a cloud of pastry flakes when you attempt to consume them. Feels like I'm the subject of a prank TV show.

Dusted off my reviewing hat for Revenge of the Savage Planet, which is a good game that is trying too hard to be funny: www.videogameschronicle.com/review/reven...

After all that Brexit "deal" posturing, it's some small comfort to see the UK government on the other side of a duff trade deal that's been rushed through in an attempt to make the instigator look lke they're achieving something.