Shoutout to @playstack.com for sending over a code for @raccoingame.bsky.social! @samheaney.bsky.social bringing you coverage soon! (If he can pull himself away from it)

If you were someone pinging critics with ‘it’s just lighting cleanup’ a few days ago, I need you to use this as a jumping off point to thinking about your susceptibility to talking points and marketing rhetoric more generally. It was right there in front of all of our faces.

I don’t think people understand how bad this is The guides industry has taken a huge beating due to SEO-driven media networks pushing writers to create guides for low pay. Ranging from legitimate aid to totally incorrect information Imagine an AI scraping all that and spitting out bizarre answers

While anything can happen long term & I’m open to this backfiring on Sony, I currently believe this is 1000% the correct move. Without the hardware & latent revenue, PlayStation is basically dead. I’m willingly to support pivots like this that keep the hardware platform as healthy as possible.

Re: Xbox — all I can think about is the Double Fine PsychOdyssey documentary scene where Matt Booty essentially tells all creatives on the team that their ideas are property of Microsoft even if their game idea isn’t green-lit You can see the creativity stifled in real time

there's obviously very useful reporting here from @tomwarren.co.uk, but it's hard for me to read this and not feel like bond is being thrown under the bus for the failure of a strategy that was dictated more or less from the top of MS to Xbox. www.theverge.com/tech/883015/...

Anyone who believes that Xbox will either: 1. Stand a meaningful chance of regaining mindshare in the console space at this point. 2. Return to exclusivity without it blowing up in their studios faces. 3. Commit to their "plans" for longer than 12 months. Hit me up, I need some of that good stuff

So crazy that Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond have been removed from GamePass without any forewarning. What the hell Xbox - they were top of the backlog smh

I simply don’t understand how you can’t find something for Bluepoint to do, especially when you’re swimming in IP. Unbelievably talented studio. Horrible news.

I don't normally comment on stuff like this because I've given up on understanding this business, but I'd have to think the remasters Bluepoint was known for are maybe the closest thing we had left to a predictable business model?? I get that everything is volatile but that part feels pretty safe???

What in the actual fuck. Seriously just losing the will at this point

✊

Locked in for every category. Six to one.

SISTERS, ATTENTION TO THE SKY PLEASE 🗣️ We have been nominated at the 2025 PS Blog Game of the Year Awards for: ✨ Best Story ✨ Best Art Direction ✨ Best Independent Game If you loved 1000xRESIST, please do vote for us as it'd mean a lot to our small studio! 💙 blog.playstation.com/2025/12/01/p...

I can see this winding up a more borked and confusing hardware launch than Xbox One. Supposedly an insight to the “future of Xbox” where “everything is an Xbox” & you can “Play Anywhere”. Yet this is the furthest thing from an Xbox they’ve ever made, & Xbox aren’t correcting errors.

So does this mean it can be my 2025 GOTY as well? Long overdue and couldn't be happier I get an excuse to experience it all over again

We have some upcoming news that we are VERY excited to share next week. Thank you for making the future of 1000xRESIST so bright. Hekki grace. 💙 In the meantime, here's a little sneak preview of what's to come...

The difference between THIS bad-news cycle for Xbox compared to others is that it's more about the brand itself now, which seems not as fixable as their previous lack-of-great-games problems. The damage now – exacerbated by retailers cutting bait on Xbox – feels unrecoverable. (1/2)

Not that Xbox and Microsoft have given me a litany of misleading quotes and broken promises and countless reasons to not trust them but - oh wait, what’s that?

One of the things that has me curious given the rush to cancel Game Pass is about how significant the attrition rate was expected internally at MS. Any time you change a service offering or increase pricing, there is an expectation you'll price out some of your customers.

*maniacally laughs*

A new State of Play airs September 24. Tune in for 35+ minutes of reveals and news from PlayStation Studios and developers around the world: play.st/4mtkL4c

Reading this considering how abhorrent the pricing on those ROG Ally handhelds’ll be:

For Mouthwashing's 1-year anniversary, Lost In Cult, @wrongorgan.bsky.social & @cr-games.bsky.social proudly announce Mouthwashing: Design Works – a premium book documenting the design & development of this cult horror hit. Launches Tuesday 30 September, 6pm BST. www.lostincult.co.uk/mouthwashing

Play. This. Goddamn. Game.

Israel is using Microsoft Azure to store recordings of every phone call made by Palestinians in the occupied territories, then using AI to analyze the contents and select targets. Microsoft is (dubiously) claiming ignorance.

BREAKING: Xbox is canceling Contraband, announced in 2021 from Avalanche Studios (Just Cause), after four years of radio silence, sources tell Bloomberg News. This news arrives weeks after a mass layoff in which Xbox canceled several other big titles.

Excellent interview from @samhallofgames.bsky.social w/ @remysiu.com Truly insightful conversation & thrilled that my questions got through to Remy, and got *great* answers - even the VO offer I submitted as a joke… or, was it? 👀 Just cementing my adoration for 1000xResist & @sunsetvisitor.studio

It’s been about 7 months since I played through 1000xResist & I’ve thought about it often. But somehow a random wave of emotion just hit me out of nowhere tonight while listening to the OST in a way that it hasn’t since my playthrough ended. Take that as a sign a replay is due @sunsetvisitor.studio

The big day is finally here: www.ThisWeekinVideogames.com is officially live! It's 100% ad-free and you can sign up for free to get access to our news, reviews and previews, or become a supporter to get more exclusive content.

NEW: In March, Xbox boss Phil Spencer was so impressed by the demo of a Zenimax game codenamed Blackbird that Matt Booty had to tell him to stop playing so the meeting could continue. Yesterday, they canceled it. Inside one of Xbox's most shocking cancellations: www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

There's something to be said about projects going over time & budget, meandering, struggling, and eventually the need to make a decision. Fine. But let's also note: the management who allowed projects to struggle like that for so long, to get to this place -- remain in heartily-paid work today.

Microsoft never should have been allowed to acquire Bethesda and Activision-Blizzard-King, it should have been blocked for the clear monopoly making move it was, and anyone with pattern recognition could've seen this coming, because voraciously acquisition always comes with mass layoffs.

Disgusting

BREAKING: Mass layoffs at Xbox have started. Candy Crush maker King told employees that it is cutting 10% of staff, or 200 jobs. Bethesda's Europe offices were hit too. U.S. offices are expected to inform people this morning. More to come shortly www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Microsoft's own dedicated handheld is essentially canceled as the company focuses on Xbox's new software platform, according to The Verge (via Tom Warren). Next-gen Xbox still coming but hardware from PC makers like ASUS likely also be considered next-gen Xboxes. #Xbox

Had the pleasure of being one of @samhallofgames.bsky.social’s first guests on his new interview podcast. Great conversation (where we found we share more in common than just a first name), and lamented it was over so soon. Top bloke, and look forward to seeing more from him in the future.

Oof

Ending a showcase with Black Ops 7 when there’s tonnes of other first party stuff to show and see updates from is the most phoned-in, boring, & predictable move I’ve seen from Xbox in a while. Show lacked momentum the whole way through, and that last trailer sucked the air out of the whole thing.

Set in an impossible future, experience ALLMOTHER's memories and uncover her lies. 💠 Relive a 1000-year-old memory 💠 Reclaim a 1000-year-old legacy 💠 RESIST a 1000-year-old lie The hyper-cinematic narrative adventure #1000xRESIST is available now: 💠 bit.ly/1KXRSteam

He’s back again with a serpentine vengeance. And by he, I mean me. Give the thing I did a like, if you’d please. youtu.be/4Bk3rCA3foo?...

Play Return of the Obra Dinn you uncultured swines

If you’d have told me a few years ago that I’d be able to write guides, and then script, capture & provide VO for an IGN video, I’d have called you insane. Can’t thank the @ign.com team enough for the opportunities & their continued faith. One step closer to Beyond! youtu.be/J50gG6K54cA?...

As a kid, I used to ask why the Nazis filmed and photographed every atrocity in detail. Like, it’s clearly horrible shit. And I’d always get told, “They were actually proud of it.” I honestly never understood that, and yet here we are and here that is