Popkulturist's Ledger pieces, newest first. Who owns the games, who is buying the studios, and what quietly changes hands when the money moves.
Yesterday, for the first time, developers marched at six Xbox studios at once. They were protesting the one Microsoft product that never slips its date. On the layoff as an annual release, the accounting that files hits as losses, and the $190 billion going to AI instead.
Twenty-two months into Nintendo's lawsuit, 'Palworld' just hit 858,562 concurrent players on Steam and put the same game in the all-time top 15 for the second time. The most Nintendo can now win, after its own patents started failing, is about $30,000.
Valve meant to sell its living-room cube for around 750 dollars. It costs 1,049, and the missing three hundred did not go into the machine. It went into a bidding war for memory and storage against the data centres, and you were never told you had entered it. I bought both Steam Decks on day one, and I will be sitting this one out.
A free Australian YouTube cartoon topped cinema charts across Europe, then posted its finale online for nothing. How a Sydney studio beat the studios at their own game.
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.
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.
