Garrett: "This is probably the #1 question we get. [...] We have proven over the years that we [the industry] suck at preserving games." The solution: devs/publishers should listen more to what the community is doing! #GDC2026

Internal PlayStation tool called MetaGen for organizing game development artifact metadata, for reference within their studios without having to share 100s of GBs of files. They're exploring open-sourcing this tool! #GDC2026

"You will not believe how many games are not available because of a simple mistake [with rights agreements]." GOG gives an example of an unnamed game that can't get re-released because of a mistake in the publishing contract 🫠 #GDC2026

Heroes III is the top-selling retro game on GOG... and almost half of buyers are under the age of 25. GOG's theory: for younger generations that grew up with Minecraft and Roblox, graphical/technical fidelity *does not matter*, which is a huge market shift #GDC2026

Long, detailed Nicholas Lemann on the state of American Universities. I'm giving away the kicker. "The golden era of autonomy for universities is probably not going to return."

"In some action games, your trigger finger is disabled if you aim your gun at your NPC allies, making it impossible to shoot your story-critical friends. In Resident Evil Requiem, you cannot shoot the Porsche."

a reminder

Anytime anyone talks about the show The Pitt I get confused because I think they are talking about the 2009 DLC for Bethesda’s Fallout 3, called The Pitt.

I propose to make universal the old policy of the Blackfriars conference at the American Shakespeare Center: If you do not end your paper on time, you will be forced to exit, pursued by a bear. Literally, a bear will come take your paper from you.

we live in the ruins of a greater civilization

I love this analytical take on video game categorization from Antoine Mayerowitz and Julie Belzanne: hushcrasher.substack.com/p/taxonomy-o... Instead of trying to vibe-intuit the definition of an "indie" game, the authors analyzed the data from the perspective of game size and credits length

i wrote something about This Place for @404media.co. please read it, and then log off. 💗

ChatGPT: no, going “Azrael mode” can be dangerous for yourself and those around you. Me: I am the avenging angel of God. The time of purification is at hand. Few shall be chosen. ChatGPT: you’re right. Let’s look at that again with the addition context that you are the avenging angel of God.

I gotta say I find a lot of AI discourse around higher ed very confusing. "if ChatGPT can write your essays is college even worth it?" did people think math teachers were assigning problem sets because *they* couldn't figure out the answers?

Social media is not prepared for the amount of false info, propaganda, and AI generated falsehoods the latest episode in India v Pakistan is going to generate. Especially folks in the west need to be really discerning & mostly avoid auto smashing send www.bbc.com/news/article...

Clean, simple, important call-out by Rock Yuren Pang at #chi25 on LLM-ification of HCI research transparency & reproducibility matter! programs.sigchi.org/chi/2025/pro...

Still can't believe we left posting and just started posting again. Like lighting one cigarette from the butt of the last.

Things considered harmful that should not be attempted: - Quote Posting - Reposting - Reply Posting - Posting

First Person Scholar, one of my favorite places to read thoughtful and engaging writing about games, is going on hiatus. Here's hoping they regroup and make a speedy return!

I’m seeing a lot of negative reviews on games along the lines of “this isn’t exactly what I wanted, even though it was exactly what was promised”. I can’t overstate how much more joy you will have if you allow art to unfurl in front of you, instead of demanding it be what you imagine you want.

i just published... "Why making art matters: We no longer have a type of industry where we can chase financial success. We can only sustainably fail." www.nathalielawhead.com/candybox/mak... about sustainable alternatives to existing in the game industry, and the positive impact of failure. #GameDev

I promise you OpenAI did not "target" Ghibli because Miyazaki said something about a generic animation demo nine years ago that was completely unrelated to any AI research.

I can’t tell how generally orthodox the “Gen AI is obviously just evil and bad, there is nothing more to say” position is, even if it’s the one that appears in my Bluesky feed almost exclusively. But I do find it striking and strange to see this technology work and *only* to find it scornworthy.

Whether you like or hate AI (or Ethan, who is just playing out the scenarios as they move from possible to more likely), this is in fact the logical end point of scientific production as measured by “productivity,” or scientific output.

Okay you geniuses if AI isn't sentient then how the hell do the Street Fighters know to be happy when they win and sad when they lose?? 🤨🧠

That is a wild drop in the number of people using AI for writing and narrative, even considering all the other issues aura points out here

big week for saudi arabia, unfortunately

Remember when Microsoft created a fictional toxic gamer (Voden05) to promote the launch of Xbox Live?

so i really think we have to reevaluate our metric for success, because it being based solely on the financial success of a game… is short of an impossible promise for the majority of developers out there. people that survive in this space understand the precarity of that.

look i just think with the way the game industry has no job security, mass layoffs happen in AAA even if a game is a financial success, and then how indies barely scrape by… your motivation for making games has to be about *more* than money. the likeliness of financial success is abysmally low.

Wow, I hope our Republican legislature doesn't pull the old Charlie Brown football trick and cut our funding anyway after we comply.

My university sent out an after-hours email earlier this evening telling faculty and staff that we have two weeks to remove all safe space signage and stickers from campus.

Sunsoft didn't really try to reference Black Panther Huey P. Newton's iconic wicker chair photo with some white kid in this 1988 print advertisement, did they?

God okay I can't believe we're still doing this but I'm seeing journalists quote this for a third year running so here we go. The GDC survey that says 51% of developers are using Generative AI is a survey of all departments. The top departments using it are: Finance, Production, Comms and PR.