Here, listen: if you're reading this and you've ever been the one to decide on a Monday morning embargo, I just want you to know I don't like that and I want you to please stop it and never do it again or else.

A lot of talk about Game Pass etc and cannibalisation of sales, their knock-on impact on layoffs, etc. When I spoke to FM boss Miles Jacobson he had a pretty different perspective: for them it’s led to a 9x increase in players and 2.5x increase in revenue. “We don’t see any cannibalisation.”

Re. RPS freelance, I now have a budget for irregular (maybe 6-12 pieces a year) 2000-3000 wordish, more granular and specific reporting and investigative criticism that broaches a new topic or addresses a gap in knowledge regarding something familiar.

This is *sublime*

Who does not love loading up a game and spending 3 minutes clicking through all their useless microtransaction related "rewards"? I adore seeing various game assets with hideous colour variations with minor stat differences. It really gives me a feeling of accomplishment.

Opportunity here to write for the best publishes-good-writers-doing-good-writing games site out there. As a commissioning editor seeing a million pitches from new writers a day, I genuinely see an RPS byline as probably one of the clearest green flags when I'm wondering "can this person write good".

A glorious, bumper length Donlan review of Silksong. Must-read stuff:

An excellent weekend longread for you here from Matt, on the story of Until Dawn at 10:

Donlan. On. Silksong. Alert. (more to come)

Absolutely magic review here from one of the best around, which does that thing all great (positive) reviews do: makes me *absolutely convinced* I now have to find time to watch this show

I saw a bunch of 007: First Light & quizzed many of its leads from the perspective of a Bond /and/ Hitman mega-fan who always saw major pitfalls in IO taking on this character. They seem to be nailing it. Here's a preview, the first of a series of features: www.eurogamer.net/007-first-li...

NORCO's EDITIONS release comes encased in a premium slipcase with original artwork from @geographyofrobots.bsky.social's own Yuts. Inside, find exclusive cover art by @esanchezill.bsky.social, an essay and developer interview booklet by Eurogamer Deputy Editor @christapsell.bsky.social + much more.

🌍 W E L C O M E 🌍

Yeah we did! Site's having issues atm (it's not us, it's Squarespace) so bear with. Time for me to highlight our writers: round of applause to @christapsell.bsky.social who has done an incredible job with the Norco booklet, and to Christian Donlan (!) for the definitive essay/Q+A on Arco

Massively honoured to have been asked to work on the Norco booklet here. A special game of alienation and meaning in the modern word. Even more beautiful and relevant today than it already was on release. And talking to @geographyofrobots.bsky.social was a total delight.

@tahk0.bsky.social ... Y?

Had a very nice chat with the lovely folk at King Art Games about Dawn of War 4. My uninteresting take is that they sound like good people who are knowledgable and sincerely want to make a cracking DoW/RTS game. Interview here: www.eurogamer.net/dawn-of-war-...

Editor brain-rot kicking in here but if you’re ever had to deal with me fussing over “idiomatic language” or “overused phrasing”, this sums up my issue quite aptly. It makes writing sound like it came from a machine. Like it could be from anyone, and therefore from no-one. It makes you anonymous.

Play DoW 4. It's very good. I am excited. www.eurogamer.net/ive-played-w...

👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

Waxed lyrical about the wonder-filled perspective of Sword of the Sea for @eurogamer.bsky.social. Also featuring director @mattnava.bsky.social on trippy IRL snowboarding experiences, sumptuous shaders, and going on Caravaggio pilgrimages as a kid. www.eurogamer.net/video-games-...

Here's my Sword of the Sea review. I think it is very, very good. Don't typically go for "it's X meets Y" game descriptors but also, look at this: it's a *bit* like Zelda by way of Journey, Tony Hawk, Lonely Mountains: Downhill, Sable, and Sayonara Wild Hearts. www.eurogamer.net/sword-of-the...

Here’s me with a quick piece on Dawn of War - Definitive Edition, and refusing to let my millennial nostalgia turn to sadness over celebration.

I think it’s nice when an outlet takes the time to restate how or why it’s going to do journalism, or tweak its approach. It’s also nice when that rationale is firmly in the interest of journalism www.eurogamer.net/eurogamer-is...

Gonna share my Eurogamer article on the Disco Elysium larp 97 Poets of Revachol again because why not www.eurogamer.net/surviving-a-...

Great to have Lewis on a great piece here re Mafia and... everything

Amongst everything else, I have a little mini backlog of previews of wonderful games I saw earlier this summer that I'm finally chipping away at now. Here's one: the glorious Sword of the Sea (and a great chat about it with the very smart Matt Nava)

I loved this reflective, on-the-ground piece from Alexis we ran today - on roaming the Panglossian, supposedly connections-focused world expo with Death Stranding 2 on the mind

Toot! Some big Eurogamer news, and prob the biggest single change on the site since we added a guides team. If you saw me harping on about originality being the only way forward recently, this is what I'm on about. Something I've wanted us to do for literally years, but never quite been feasible...

Wonderful game, go buy it

I am going to need everyone to just Chill Out with shadow dropping extremely cool stuff now pleaseeee

Delighted for our friends at DF who've absolutely earned their independence & then some. Some fav memories of my time here are tied to what DF got up to. Have long missed the office era of turning around to see @cataferal.bsky.social's multi-desk, multi-TV, many-multi-external-HDD setup Good luck!🦾

No Mafia review on EG for a few days I'm afraid, here's why (it's the usual):

Got to be interviewed by Donlan, life's goal achieved:

King of kings, man.

Was riding a CitiBike right after finding out about Ozzy and half my ride was behind a massive motorcycle dude in a union shirt playing No More Tears at maximum volume… hell yeah

R.I.P. Ozzy and thanks for everything! Ozzy Osbourne website in 2001

Donkey Kong Bananza's glitchy visual weirdness is a sign of Nintendo at its supremely confident, gameplay-trumps-all best, and I'm completely in love www.eurogamer.net/donkey-kong-...

Enjoyed this quick little thinkpiece from Donlan on Link getting a face - as in, a human and weirdly permanent-feeling one - with the Zelda movie. What does that do to a series (and character) that's always aimed to be universal?

My review of DK Bananza, a game about a girl and an ape that somehow at the very end made me quite emotional. It's uneven in places, but it's also home to several all-time-great Nintendo moments. I dream of a Starfox reimagining with this much heart.

Look at ittttt

Quick piece on the thing I find so hard with Ghost of Tsushima/Yōtei. Does this series wanna be the really serious, po-faced, High Art melodrama it keeps positioning itself as, or does it want to be the popcorn flick it actually is? Where do you meet it as a critic? www.eurogamer.net/ghost-of-yot...

Goddamn, what a review.

Think just the Madrid rout isn't really evidence of much on its own, but also it's true isn't it. PSG basically that point 3 years into an FM save where you've signed all the existing wonderkids and won everything before they even hit their peak. But now also with petro-state billions.

Promised snaps of the lovely @ongamesjournal.bsky.social Vol 2, where I speak to the excellent Dr Lava of @didyouknowgaming.com and wonderful @tahk0.bsky.social about mystery hunting, data mining, nostalgia, and the fact that mysteries and myths have always been the secret to Pokémon’s wild success.

Sublime taste from Matt as expected. Also hello ON Volume 2 is out today!! I've been flicking through and generally just sort of poking at it for about a week - having actual physical words in print for the first time, and in such a gorgeous journal of all places, is a properly special one.

Good post from @ongamesjournal.bsky.social this morning!

I GOT MEW! 🥰 Love you, @ongamesjournal.bsky.social!

activision put at least 60% of the entire western video game industry workforce on CoD so that they could make this