Absolutely essential viewing from @chrisbratt.bsky.social on Rockstar’s sackings, which appear to be the single most flagrant example of union busting in the history of the videogames industry. Rockstar has provided absolutely zero evidence to support any of their claims. youtu.be/c9nOwjeznjI?...

Oof

Callous is a strong word but I do get where he's coming from. Obviously Team Cherry have the right to shadow drop a date, but given their blast radius it might have been better had other games (particularly smaller ones) had more heads up thisweekinvideogames.com/news/hell-is...

Oh we eating good this weekend. Review on the 25th of September #ghostofyotei

Not long now. In just a short time we'll finally be playing it (Garfield Kart 2 - All You Can Drift).

Such a great write up from @superdonk.bsky.social. He's a long time Skate enjoyer and honestly, his perspective is so illuminating since I only really remember the series for its funny bails. There's was so much more to it, and it seems as though big chunks of that stuff is missing in the reboot.

Idk what dial YouTube turned but they definitely did something. Viewership is inexplicably down around 30% for myself and many channels I watch/follow. I've never blamed the algorithm for anything in my 10 years on YT, but this is too obvious to ignore. Spoken to others who have noticed it, too.

Extremely excited to have @victoriatran.bsky.social on board as a monthly columnist, providing insight into the world of indie games development and community management. Fantastic first piece too, covering the plague of clone games that plagiarize the work of game makers.

This is how Zack Snyder should have marketed Man of Steel.

Played about 2 hours of the Battlefield 6 beta. Absolutely floored by how well it runs, how stable the netcode is, how excellent the maps are, how solid the gunplay/sound design is, how well classes/squads work. Could not be more of a contrast from the first impression of 2042 all those years ago.

Pretty big stuff out of Sony: an expected launch window for Marathon (this financial year), an announcement that Bungie will become a PlayStation studio in a more traditional sense, and acknowledgement of Sony's live-service blunders to this point.

Ralph "SkillUp" Panebianco has built a successful YouTube career with more than one million subscribers. So naturally, his next move is... to start a video game website? I spoke to Panebianco about his new venture ("no ads, no AI") and why he's doing it: www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

This is insane. Payment providers should not have the power to do this.

We asked the 1047 Games CEO how it could cost so much to maintain Splitgate 1. Here's what he had to say:

Splitgate developer 1047 Games is shutting down the original Splitgate, claiming that maintaining it was costing them 'hundreds of thousands of dollars'. The game was averaging 130 peak CC players on steam. Can any game devs enlighten me as to how it was costing 1047 that much to keep the game up?

Just rolled credits on Donkey Kong Bananza. Utterly insane how back-loaded this game is. It simply never stops getting better from about the halfway point on. Another generational W for Nintendo. Man, if this thing was day one on Switch 2 launch, it would have been a totally different conversation

How did @skillup.bsky.social get his start on YouTube? What advice does he have for folks looking to build a successful YouTube channel? Don't miss the latest MinnMax Interview! youtu.be/SJeB-MB0gVg

Delighted to be doing a monthly column for this. Ralph's a thoroughly good egg, the site's great, and the idea of a video guy pivoting to text is just proper world-gone-mad stuff, love it. Have a look!

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.

Holy fuck aftermath.site/xbox-microso...

Disgusting

After 2 months of work, the Clair Obscur Expedition 33 video is here. I interviewed most of the game's senior leadership team asking one simple question: how did you do this? Their answers were inspiring and moving, and it's no surprise that COE33 is as remarkable as it is: youtu.be/mXLOLgC2V2Q?...

Love getting home after a long day to play my Switch 2 like this

Severance Season 2 started super cool but ended up being super bad. I'm ready for what comes as a result of this post.

Got to have a chat with @skillup.bsky.social and @danryckert.com about our time playing Death Stranding 2 at Kojima Productions for an entire week. First half are just my impressions. 2nd half is the group convo. www.youtube.com/watch?v=W61d...

I spent 4 days playing Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, and it's just as brilliant as the first one. My spoiler- free impressions: youtu.be/Wzk_KJQh-FA

ABC projecting Dutton to lose his seat LFGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*smh sighing deeply* can’t believe they made a good MCU movie in 2025 (Thunderbolts)

Can’t review Expedition 33 this week as I’m in Tokyo so lemme just say this: it’s absolutely peak and one of the best debut releases I’ve played in a hot minute. Do whatever you have to do to play it right now.

Guess where I am…

Sony has announced a price hike on the PS5 in Europe and ANZ. Really missing the days when console prices would go down 4 years into a generation, rather than up: blog.playstation.com/2025/04/13/p...

Bungie's Marathon shows great promise, but it's still missing something at the very core of its extraction gameplay loop, making it difficult to predict how Marathon will launch or where it might one day end up. My hands on impressions: youtu.be/bZVwBavB0Mg?...

Oh no, I like Magic: The Gathering now.

When they wind them back, they're gonna refer to them as the Biden Tariffs and be like 'we had to do them because of the economy that Biden left us. The Biden Tariffs were terrible, folks, but we got rid of them. We got rid of Biden's terrible tarifs and now America is back in business'.

I’m not even remotely joking when I say that messing with the price of videogame stuff will be the thing that brings him down. It should have been a million other things, but it’ll be this.

A hell of a trip. Expect some big videos on the channel soon #Switch2 #Marathon

This direct’s ’one more thing’ was a series of post-direct reveals and announcements, each more disappointing than the last.

The $80 USD game has arrived: www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nintend...

I've run the numbers and it would have been statistically impossible for Nintendo to have cooked any more than they did with this Direct.

120fps Metroid Prime

Incredible strength and courage from Zelenskyy. Standing up to a room full of bullies in an orchestrated, stage-managed ambush. Never backing down. Never letting the lies take root. Absolute hero for the ages.

South of Midnight isn't looking to define itself by its platforming or its action combat. It's far more about the characters, setting, music and story - all of which are looking superb. youtu.be/o9RVFj3tY4c?...

Bruh

Sony walking back the PSN requirement for PC. Will be optional for a number of titles, offering in-game unlocks as an incentive to sign on: blog.playstation.com/2025/01/29/n...

Eternal Strands is lean and focused, but that allows it to double down on a brilliantly inventive sandbox that punches well above its weight given that this is a debut title from a small team. Austin's review: youtu.be/lnhyG1t8bSs

Thinking about the legendary Mic Gordon today, for no particular reason.

5 hours with Assassin's Creed Shadows reveals a game that is unsuccessfully trying to remix the core Assassin's Creed gameplay loops, splitting them out across two separate characters in a way that feels awkward and poorly thought out. My impressions: youtu.be/aAlobYH_zzM?...

Holy shit, South of Midnight looks fantastic.

BlueSky is popping off, but it won't be complete until we have him back.