Hit Points by Nathan Brown

They really do need to give out some more dev kits.

Somebody asking Google Gemini to give them a random 32-character string and it responding with “aBcDeFgHiJkLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZ0123456789”

Lmao this rules so hard

Microsoft Achieved Record Annual Profits, Increased Xbox Revenue, Prior To Layoffs Quarterly Gaming revenue also grew by 10%. The company's 9000 layoffs occured days after the reporting period.

Microsoft has reported record annual revenues and profits, increased quarterly Gaming revenue, and strong Xbox Game Pass performance for the financial reporting period ending two days before it made 9000 layoffs.

thisweekinvideogames.com/news/microso...

Tune into our latest episode to find out what Nathan Brown, former @edgemagazine.bsky.social editor, consultant, and creator of the @hitpoints.bsky.social newsletter, picked for his perfect console.

Listen here: open.spotify.com/episode/0vhq...

(whispering) 40's sick actually.

Happy birthday!

Pretty sure that's an errant bit of moustache rather than a nose hair, but who can really say. I adore this podcast, have been thinking about what I'd pick if I was invited on since the day it launched. Whittling 40-odd years of games down to just five was, nonetheless, absolute agony. Go!

The artistic freedom of game developers is fundamental to games as a cultural medium. Any restrictions improsed by payment service providers or games platforms must not exceed the legal limits. In Germany, thanks in part to the USK, clear, binding and established rules apply that must be adhered to. Furthermore, creative forms of expressions or certain themes in games, such as diversity, must not be targeted by individual interests or campaigns from particularly vocal groups, as is currently observed on Steam or itch.io. The terms and conditions of global payment service providers such as Visa, Mastercard, or Paypal must not conflict with European values such as freedom of expression or artistic freedom. We therefore call on the companies involved to design their rules and offerings in a manner that ensures complicance with applicable laws and prevents overblocking. Signed, Felix Falk, Managing Director of GAME

GAME, the German game industry trade association, released this *damn* good statement on the unjust NSFW game takedowns

www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Hit Points by Nathan Brown A newsletter about video games and the game industry, from writer, consultant and former Edge editor Nathan Brown

And if you like what you hear please sign up to my newsletter which, four years on, I remain absolutely terrible at promoting. Apparently people like it, dunno. (told you I was bad at this) newsletter.hitpoints.co

Pretty sure that's an errant bit of moustache rather than a nose hair, but who can really say. I adore this podcast, have been thinking about what I'd pick if I was invited on since the day it launched. Whittling 40-odd years of games down to just five was, nonetheless, absolute agony. Go!

If you were subbed to the MPC Patreon (which you should be!) you could be listening to this right now www.patreon.com/c/myperfectc...

Miles Davis from Jazz

The Sunday Papers The Sunday Papers is our weekly roundup of great writing about (mostly) videogames from across the web.

If you're lucky enough to work with someone like @grahamsmith.bsky.social who cares deeply about the art and craft of writing, criticism and making a damn good website, HANG ON TO THEM FOR DEAR LIFE.

They're the most important people you'll ever work with.
www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-sunday-p...

Basically punched the air at every bullet point on this list until I got to this bit, at which point I screamed ‘YES’ repeatedly. Graham is the best

All the dire implications notwithstanding it is hilarious how evil this technology is. Billions of dollars spent on this greasy lying stupid thing that was literally built to replace people, and everyone that uses it gets weaker, lazier, dumber, and sadder for having done so. Well done all around.

A moustache-sporting man is wearing a beret and a stripy t-shirt and drinking red wine.

VPN activated.

UK users when the website asks them where they're posting from today.

Adult games are forcing the game industry into a spiritual crisis Itchio joins Steam in pulling games due to pressure from extreme groups with an ongoing campaign aimed at payment processors

I've looked & I could have missed it, maybe its saved in their drafts but @ukieofficial.bsky.social TIGA, BFI, that new video game council. Which UK body representing games is stepping up to publicly speak about the mass censorship of the cultural form they represent?
www.polygon.com/news/615910/...

Just put 50 more of these on sale. I was holding them back to sell at a later date or maybe in person sometime, but I keep getting messages from people telling me they missed out. This is definitely the last 50, though.

Phew!

And that’s the point of reviews: the future. With perspective on the history of an art form and an awareness of its current state—an awareness developed by the immersive diligence of writing reviews on a wide range of recent events—critics see in new works their implications, their promise, the possibilities that they expand, the vistas that they open. They see it not because they’ve heard the artists’ claims but because they see the art dynamically, even prophetically. It’s by reviews that critics stay current, by reviews that critics lay the groundwork for essays, videos, podcasts, and other cross-sectional or survey formats. Any cultural journalist can absorb a (no pun intended) critical mass of movies (or plays, concerts, records, etc.), but it’s only by way of extended engagement with each one of them that the essay or discussion can get past chitchat and reflect the substance and the merits of the works at hand. It’s not a matter of critics taking themselves seriously but of taking art seriously. By all means, newspapers and magazines should feature videos (I do them enthusiastically), essays (this is one), festival roundups (which are also reviews), profiles (I’ve done them, too, and find that their prime value is as veiled criticism, as backdoor approaches to the work itself). But all of those things rest on and are nourished by the fundamental critical confrontation with individual works.

So much to love and chew on in Richard Brody’s new defense of written reviews www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

It's time for a new kind of political party - one that belongs to you.

Sign up at yourparty.uk.

!!!

An in-game render of Ozzy Osbourne, with the logo for Brutal Legend and text that reads, "Free for the next 666 minutes" and the itch.io logo in the bottom right corner

To honor Ozzy's larger-than-life rock and roll legacy, we're making Brütal Legend *FREE* on itch.io: doublefine.itch.io/brutal-legend

But this incredible deal will only last for 666 minutes, as the prophecy foretold. So get yourself clicking, before it disappears like a demon in the night...

🤘 🖤

This Week in Videogames - TWIV Covering the important things happening in the world of videogames. News, reviews, and insights without ads or filler content.

Hello. About a year and a half ago, some guy called Ralph asked me if I wanted to make a new videogame website.

We're launching it today. Maybe you can even visit it if people stop hammering the server for a second.

Really enjoying Donkey Kong Bananza

Delighted to be doing a monthly column for this. Ralph's a thoroughly good egg, the site's great, and the idea of a video guy pivoting to text is just proper world-gone-mad stuff, love it. Have a look!

Ok so when Microsoft was making the first Xbox I was doing Flash ads for them and they had an 800 page brand standards binder and when I used a green that was, and I quote, 6% off, I got my ass chewed out. Fucking losers now. Have some goddamn self respect.

Another shout for Ghost, another warning to avoid Substack

"What is it that distinguishes Rayman from Mario? OK, besides the enormous and immediately obvious gulf in charisma. Next to Mario’s megawatt starpower, Ubisoft’s own platforming mascot comes off like an energy-saving bulb. There’s another thing, though. Two things: the fists."

Need a break from fretting about this, that, or god forbid, the other? Here's a free article about the joyful musicality of movement in Rayman and Prince of Persia.
www.patreon.com/posts/peel-p...