All Popkulturist games coverage, newest first. Reviews from someone who plays them long enough to know whether they're any good — and, now and then, a piece about the industry that makes them, which doesn't require playing anything.

Futures

Grand Theft Auto VI Is the Most Successful Game Nobody Has Played

It is the most valuable entertainment product of the decade, and it does not exist yet. On anticipation as an asset class, the Polymarket bet, and the week you could finally pre-order a game nobody has played.

Grand Theft Auto VI cover art: the criminal couple Jason and Lucia in Vice City
Anniversary

Ten Years of Other People's Monsters

Dead by Daylight turned ten and is bigger than ever, the live-service game that lived while the blockbusters died. A note on how a cheap, weird horror game outlasted Bungie and Concord by renting everyone else's monsters.

Dead by Daylight 10th anniversary key art, a crowd of licensed horror killers around a gold 10 and the Dead by Daylight logo
Revival

You Cannot Remake the Greatest Game of All Time

Nintendo closed its June Direct by announcing an 'Ocarina of Time' remake and calling it "reborn", the word you reach for when you would rather not say what you have built. A note on remaking the one game the whole medium agreed was the best, from a Nintendo kid who has a stake in it.

The 'Ocarina of Time' title logo, the Master Sword crossed over the Hylian Shield in gold, set against a deep red woven Hyrule tapestry
Festival Dispatch

The Game Industry Solved the E3 Problem by Having Eighteen E3s

The games industry replaced E3 with eighteen separate showcases in eight days, all of them running on Los Angeles time. A note on what the new arrangement fixed, and the one thing it quietly broke.

A figure slumped over a coffee at night, watching a row of glowing screens that all show the same clock reading five to midnight, a European skyline behind them
Ledger

The House Always Owns

The publisher of 'Balatro' is being sold to Integrated Media Company, the private-equity group that also owns Metacritic, the single most important number in games. A note on what happens when the people who keep the score start owning the games.

Balatro key art: the BALATRO wordmark across a swirling red and blue background with an Ace of Spades at the centre
Ledger

EA Sports FC Has New Landlords

Some of my friends play 'EA Sports FC'. None of them has noticed that Electronic Arts is about to be owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund. A note on the most-played football game on earth, from someone who doesn't play it.

Two Saudi national team players in green kit on a floodlit pitch in EA Sports FC 26
Festival Dispatch

Five Indies From London Games Festival 2026 That the Tube Ride Didn't Erase

You learn a games show by its handouts. London Games Festival's Pocket Guide was folded into thirds: a venue map of Level 1, a numbered key to ninety-six games, and the Playlist Rewards card. It fit in a back pocket.

Featured image: London Games Festival 2026 Pocket Guide