https://popkulturist.com/ Essays on games, screens, and the culture around them. Independent pop culture criticism by Ben Touati, written from a European perspective. en Tue, 04 Aug 2026 06:30:00 +0000 https://popkulturist.com/games/gamescom-sold-out-layoffs/ https://popkulturist.com/games/gamescom-sold-out-layoffs/ Tue, 04 Aug 2026 06:30:00 +0000 My first Gamescom begins on Monday, 24 August, at gamescom dev, where a keynote asks what the industry’s ‘reset’ has done to the people inside it. The public arrives on Thursday to halls full of people who still love what it makes. Games Gamescom 2026 https://popkulturist.com/screens/spaceballs-found-the-money/ https://popkulturist.com/screens/spaceballs-found-the-money/ Mon, 27 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Rick Moranis came back, Mel Brooks found the money, and 'Spaceballs' arrived at Comic-Con with an eleven-phase cinematic universe. The flamethrower now looks restrained. Revival https://popkulturist.com/screens/big-bang-theory-dressed-as-you/ https://popkulturist.com/screens/big-bang-theory-dressed-as-you/ Fri, 24 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 The Stuart spinoff premiered last night, at the end of day one of San Diego Comic-Con, and the laughter is gone at last. The new show gets a fair hearing here. The old one has run out of appeals. Argument https://popkulturist.com/essays/a-machine-took-my-job-so-i-audited-realitys-books/ https://popkulturist.com/essays/a-machine-took-my-job-so-i-audited-realitys-books/ Tue, 21 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Argument This will make you question reality in the happiest way possible. A true story about the moonwalk, Tom Bombadil, and why you're on the clock right now. https://popkulturist.com/essays/your-duolingo-streak-outlived-the-people-who-made-it/ https://popkulturist.com/essays/your-duolingo-streak-outlived-the-people-who-made-it/ Wed, 08 Jul 2026 06:00:00 +0000 Argument Duolingo staged a funeral for its owl and an offboarding for its translators. Only one got a resurrection. The streak explains why nobody left. https://popkulturist.com/games/played-sitting-down/ https://popkulturist.com/games/played-sitting-down/ Mon, 06 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Love Letter Summer Games Done Quick 2026 opened on Sunday with 'Donkey Kong Country 2' and runs until Saturday, a week of speedrunning for Doctors Without Borders. From Stockholm, the best seats are the ones an ocean away. https://popkulturist.com/essays/you-realize-youre-confessing-right-now/ https://popkulturist.com/essays/you-realize-youre-confessing-right-now/ Wed, 01 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Drugs, Frankly I ordered sleep gummies that were legal in the Netherlands when I bought them, and earned my first criminal record at forty-eight. On Sweden's drug-policy problem, and the cocaine its lawmakers can't keep out of their own parliament. https://popkulturist.com/essays/the-hero-turtles/ https://popkulturist.com/essays/the-hero-turtles/ Mon, 29 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Love Letter In Germany they were the Hero Turtles, the censored cut with the nunchaku edited out. A love letter to the Turtles and the 1990 film, and a wary eye on the 2028 reboot. https://popkulturist.com/machines/a-datacenter-outbid-you/ https://popkulturist.com/machines/a-datacenter-outbid-you/ Thu, 25 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Ledger I bought both Steam Decks on day one, so the misgiving comes from inside the cult. The Steam Machine's price is not about games. It is about who is bidding against you for memory. https://popkulturist.com/games/the-most-successful-game-nobody-has-played/ https://popkulturist.com/games/the-most-successful-game-nobody-has-played/ Mon, 22 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Futures Grand Theft Auto VI is the most valuable entertainment product of the decade, and it does not exist yet. How anticipation became an asset class you can bet on. https://popkulturist.com/screens/the-amazing-digital-circus-beat-hollywood/ https://popkulturist.com/screens/the-amazing-digital-circus-beat-hollywood/ Mon, 22 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Ledger A free YouTube cartoon topped cinema charts across Europe, then posted its finale online for nothing. How The Amazing Digital Circus beat the studios at their own game. https://popkulturist.com/screens/pixar-built-the-screen/ https://popkulturist.com/screens/pixar-built-the-screen/ Wed, 17 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Handover The villain of 'Toy Story 5' is a tablet. The studio warning your kids about screens is the one that taught a generation to sit still and watch. https://popkulturist.com/games/ten-years-of-other-peoples-monsters/ https://popkulturist.com/games/ten-years-of-other-peoples-monsters/ Mon, 15 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Anniversary Dead by Daylight turned ten and is bigger than ever, the live-service game that lived while the blockbusters died. On how a cheap horror game outlasted Bungie and Concord by renting everyone else's monsters. https://popkulturist.com/screens/what-scorseses-name-is-for/ https://popkulturist.com/screens/what-scorseses-name-is-for/ Fri, 12 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Handover Martin Scorsese has become an adviser to the German AI firm Black Forest Labs, and the film unions are furious. A note on what a famous name actually buys. https://popkulturist.com/games/you-cannot-remake-the-greatest-game/ https://popkulturist.com/games/you-cannot-remake-the-greatest-game/ Wed, 10 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Revival Nintendo announced an 'Ocarina of Time' remake for Switch 2. A note on why remaking the game with a Metacritic 99 is a different kind of risk entirely. https://popkulturist.com/pages/lost-tolkien-homework/ https://popkulturist.com/pages/lost-tolkien-homework/ Mon, 08 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Argument A lost Tolkien work has surfaced in the Bodleian: an unpaid translation of an 800-year-old sermon, done for no one, and worth more than another saleable myth. https://popkulturist.com/essays/the-machine-cant-make-your-game/ https://popkulturist.com/essays/the-machine-cant-make-your-game/ Fri, 05 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Argument EA cut staff at DICE in Stockholm months after 'Battlefield 6' topped US sales. How the games industry turned the promise of AI into an alibi for layoffs. https://popkulturist.com/games/eighteen-e3s/ https://popkulturist.com/games/eighteen-e3s/ Thu, 04 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Festival Dispatch The games industry replaced E3 with eighteen showcases in eight days, all on Los Angeles time. What Summer Game Fest fixed, and the one thing it quietly broke. https://popkulturist.com/games/the-house-always-owns/ https://popkulturist.com/games/the-house-always-owns/ Wed, 03 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Ledger 'Balatro's publisher has been sold to the private-equity group that also owns Metacritic. What happens when the people who keep the score start owning the games. https://popkulturist.com/games/ea-sports-fc-new-landlords/ https://popkulturist.com/games/ea-sports-fc-new-landlords/ Thu, 28 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Ledger Electronic Arts is being bought by the Saudi Public Investment Fund. What the takeover means for 'EA Sports FC', the most-played football game on earth. https://popkulturist.com/screens/fjord-sitting/ https://popkulturist.com/screens/fjord-sitting/ Tue, 26 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Argument Sebastian Stan refused to laugh at a Trump question on Tuesday. Four days later, his director Cristian Mungiu won the Palme d’Or for “left-wing fundamentalism.” On what Cannes chose to crown. https://popkulturist.com/essays/the-boys-who-cried-woke/ https://popkulturist.com/essays/the-boys-who-cried-woke/ Mon, 25 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Argument Elon Musk called the finale of 'The Boys' "pathetic." He didn't notice it was about him. On a century-old Black American word the anti-woke crowd wears as a costume. https://popkulturist.com/pages/tolkien-slowly-on-purpose/ https://popkulturist.com/pages/tolkien-slowly-on-purpose/ Fri, 22 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Essay On reading 'The Lord of the Rings' the way the slow-reading communities now read it, and what the book does that adaptations cannot. https://popkulturist.com/screens/send-help-review/ https://popkulturist.com/screens/send-help-review/ Wed, 20 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Review A review of Sam Raimi’s 'Send Help': the first one in twenty years where his actual signatures are back. https://popkulturist.com/essays/franchises-were-always-going-to-get-ai-first/ https://popkulturist.com/essays/franchises-were-always-going-to-get-ai-first/ Mon, 18 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Argument How franchises spent twenty years building the exact pipeline generative AI now walks straight into. An essay on why nostalgia was always the first test case. https://popkulturist.com/games/lgf-2026-new-game-plus-indies/ https://popkulturist.com/games/lgf-2026-new-game-plus-indies/ Wed, 13 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Festival Dispatch Festival dispatch from London Games Festival 2026: five indie games from New Game Plus that stuck three weeks later. https://popkulturist.com/essays/i-still-love-pop-culture/ https://popkulturist.com/essays/i-still-love-pop-culture/ Tue, 12 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Manifesto The Popkulturist manifesto: why pop culture criticism needs less hype and more honesty, from a European critic who still loves the stuff.