I have toyed with the idea of running a mailbag feature here on my website. I never opened it up for that, but this recent question, posed to me on X (formerly Twitter), made sense as a mailbag topic. Thus, I am sharing it here. If you’d like to see me open this up as… Read More »
Every time we see the hyper connected, online, games community discuss the very unfortunate event of layoffs, I’m reminded of a very real problem when it comes to gaming discussion: Revenue is not profit, and people often confuse the two financial metrics because they don’t know what they actually mean. “How can we have layoffs… Read More »
It’s definitely an interesting time in the games industry. There are numerous acquisitions in the market, certain products are still difficult to find, and dozens of games are just over the proverbial horizon. That said, today I’m here to talk about the concept of pricing. As you may be aware, the standard “MSRP” of a… Read More »
I’ve always wanted to try my hand at game reviews. If you follow this site, you know that I have used this domain to write out reviews in different formats (short, medium, long), but certainly text-based. While I’ve enjoyed writing those reviews, it always felt like I could serve my time better (and yours) by… Read More »
Editor’s Note: This is part one of a two part series. We spend over two hours talking about the games industry, the role of publishing, and challenges with certain platforms. The first part of the series (this article) is focused on the experience of founding a tech company in a small city, and the general… Read More »
E3 2021 is over and I’ve had some time to collect my thoughts. The normally in-person event was virtual only this year (due to Covid-19 concerns) but all things considered, the show went off without being dragged down by technical challenges. We don’t know the full details on E3 2022 [update: cancelled for 2022], but… Read More »
The year 2020 will long be remembered as a tumultuous year. As a global pandemic raged on, social unrest and the United States political system brought even more news to the table. Regardless, the video game industry marched on, realizing record revenues (partially thanks to stay-at-home orders) and ushering in a new generation of hardware… Read More »
On February 5, 2021, IGN reported that Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment (WB) secured a patent for the Nemesis system used in their Lord of the Rings “Shadow” games (Shadow of Mordor / Shadow of War). At first glance this might seem like nefarious attempt to lock down a video game mechanic, potentially using patent law… Read More »
Update 2/24/2021: In an update posted on Bioware’s blog, Christian Dailey announced the end of further development for Anthem. The cancelation of Anthem Next (or whatever it was to be called) might make this article appear “wrong”, but what I describe here is how projects are modeled. It just so happens that EA ran their… Read More »
There is a pattern emerging within Xbox Game Pass – a renewed exploration of unique, focused, “indie-like”, experiences. Bleeding Edge, Psychonauts 2, Grounded, and Sea of Thieves come to mind, but a quick browse of Game Pass right now demonstrates just how wide a net Microsoft has cast in terms of bringing a variety of… Read More »