Zero Counts

Ian Bogost on the Post Games podcast disucssing his new book: My wife plays not like Candy Crush, but one of those match three mobile games that are Candy Crush clones, not obsessively, but regularly, right?

IGN: Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, who has been at Microsoft since he joined as an intern in 1988 and with Xbox since the software giant launched its first console in 2001, is retiring, sources familiar with the matter who are not authorized to speak…

I came across this article reflecting on 10 years of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in September 2001 issue of EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly).

Christopher Dring, The Game Business: My argument is that Resident Evil is more a competitor to Stranger Things than it is to Clash of Clans.

Flow has bubbled up to my attention through the book ”Designing Your Life” by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, as well as various TED talks and podcasts.

“I won’t cry if you leave.”

Brendon Bigley and Stephen Hilger, Into the Aether Podcast: S7E48 - “BB’s Romhack Shack”: Brendon Bigley: I just want more portrait mode games on my iPhone.

Are you missing Polygon as much as I am?

Aftermath’s Luke Plunkett posted a brutal comparison of Polygon’s masthead from last week vs today on Bluesky.

Brendon Bigley, Wavelengths: I’ve been reading Polygon since the day in launched in 2012.

Grayson Morley on his Backlog newsletter: I’m a fiction writer who wandered into games criticism.

Here’s a 13 part documentary on the creation of Polygon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Jay Peters of The Verge, reporting on the sale of Polygon to Valnet: Polygon, The Verge’s sister site dedicated to gaming and entertainment, has been sold by Vox Media to Valnet, a company that owns brands like ScreenRant, GameRant, and Android Police.

Phil Bothun, 70 Percent Complete: Which makes sense: after the less-than-stellar sales of the WiiU, Nintendo has had 8 years of massive success, enjoying the success that comes from smart, innovative design and long tail growth from lowering the barriers…

The internet is awash with Nintendo Switch 2 takes, from hands-on impressions to business analysis to uncovering the things unsaid by Nintendo.

Lewis Gordon writing for this gorgeous article on The New York Times (Note: This article is walled off.

Last week, I welcomed games journalist Andy Robertson to Y-Button to talk about his new project Ludocene — a video game recommendation deck-builder in the form of a simple dating app.

An article from The Atlantic by Derek Thompson titled “The Anti-Social Century” (Atlantic link; free Apple News+ link) has been making the rounds in my feeds.

With Nintendo’s announcement and teaser of the Switch 2, a few thoughts have been percelating in my mind.

Stephen Totilo on his excellent Game File newsletter (paywalled): I might have the games-movies-TV comparison on my mind because of Arranger’s Netflix connection.

Kyle Orland, Ars Technica: A 16-year-old who was sinking all their free time into Diablo II when it launched in 2000 is pushing 40 these days.

Matt and the Evil Empire team announcing a delayed release date for Ubisoft’s upcoming The Rogue Prince of Persia: So it’s been a bit of a crazy week for us!

Bobby Allyn, NPR: “There is a herding effect in tech,” said Jeff Shulman, a professor at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business, who follows the tech industry.

Gita Jackson, episode 2 of the new Aftermath Hours podcast (edited for clarity): Microsoft is beginning to gear up for their first financial meeting where they’re discussing the impact of the Blizzard Activision acquisition.

Shigeru Miyamoto, in an interview with The Guardian’s Keza MacDonald: When Miyamoto started at Nintendo, video games were still yet to be defined.

Today, I’m launching Y-Button: a podcast that asks why we care about video games.

An excerpt from the book “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World” by David Epstein: From a technological standpoint, even in 1989, the Game Boy was laughable.

Maddy Myers, Polygon: In 2023, it may sound absurd for Blockbuster to stage a comeback.

Jack Billings (Billy Crudup), Hello Tomorrow!

I advocated using Tunic’s No Fail Mode in ”My Favorite Things of 2022”.

A passage from “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin: “‘Zweisamkeit’ is the feeling of being alone even when you’re with other people.”

Simon Carless, the GameDiscoverCo newsletter (weekly free issue) We’ve been sitting, mulling on this subject for a few weeks now.

Alex Barasch detailing the origins of HBO’s The Last of Us for The New Yorker: When Druckmann expressed confidence that the show “will be the best, most authentic game adaptation,” Mazin said, “That’s not the highest bar in the world.”

Jeff Cannata and Christian Spicer hypothesizing on Nintendo’s next console during their “Bold” and “Cool Ranch” predictions of 2023: Jeff Cannata: Your number 3 “Cool Ranch” prediction… Christian Spicer: The next mainline Nintendo console — I don’t know if

Gilbert Cruz in The New York Times: The Morning newsletter: The world of video games is large indeed.

Stephen Totilo, Axios: Video games will move to the center of the entertainment and pop-culture universe next year.

Playstation.Blog: Through conversations with accessibility experts and incredible organizations like AbleGamers, SpecialEffect and Stack Up, we’ve designed a highly configurable controller that works in tandem with many third-party accessibility accessori…

This is a seriously impressive fan-made Mega Man project.

David Yee, posting on Mastodon: Something dissonant about the way that my Twitter feed is currently fully in desperation over the terrifying critical injury of Damar Hamlin, a 24-year-old football player, on a field in Cincinnati—a communally-experienced…

My daughter!

Monique Judge, writing for The Verge: If what is happening on Twitter hasn’t demonstrated it, our relationship with these social media platforms is tenuous at best.

The Besties Podcast discussing Marvel Snap during their Game of the Year bracket: Justin McElroy: Recently, I’ve found the Locations that will pop up are so wild and random and significant that it sort of makes all your deck building and even the playing…

Ben Thompson: Forty years of context may seem like overkill when it comes to examining the FTC’s attempt to block Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision, but I think it is essential for multiple reasons.

I was humbled when NovaNine asked for a custom Game Boy mod to commemorate their debut album.

Today, I stumbled upon the Rands in Repose 20th anniversary post.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is tight.

Reggie Fils-Aimé discussing the Wii U’s struggle to perform in his new memior “Disrupting the Game: New versions of key software in the Mario Kart and Legend of Zelda franchises were not coming until 2014 or later.

The Dev Game Club podcast sat down with Halo: Combat Evolved designer Jamie Grisemer to discuss the origins of Halo’s development, constraints that turned into boons, and design considerations that have become staples in first-person shooters today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?

German Lopez, The New York Times: Hades is the first video game in history to win a Hugo Award, the prize for science fiction and fantasy that has historically honored books, graphic novels and other written works.