Stephen Totilo

The game's lead dev says he's heard from workers at some western museums who want to assist with the game

A fascinating project about where art comes from and where it belongs

(The story is paywalled, though I'll be removing the paywall on it next week, given the topic and its global relevance)

A buffalo at the Met, and a video game about stealing African art held by western museums The upcoming heist game Relooted is an Africanfuturist fantasy, and it has already garnered some surprising support.

NEW: In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, there is a silver figure of a buffalo from western Africa that was "collected" in the 1890s by French colonial forces

In the upcoming game Relooted, you can steal it and other real artifacts--and return them to Africa

www.gamefile.news/p/reloooted-...

But I have wondered whether the backwards compatibility of Switch 2 with the first Switch will diminish the appetite for Switch 2 games.

And I assume Nintendo has at least imagined the same: hence the push for Switch 2 Edition upgrades for top Switch 1 titles

Switch 2 hardware sales are undoubtedly great.

One analyst I spoke to this morning said they were actually impressed with the Switch 2's software number, too, citing the lack of first-party games at launch.

Note that back in June 2017, they were not showing Snipperclips in the Switch 1 software rankings. Not sure if it's because it was download-only or because it hadn't hit a million

That said, back in 2017, they at least bragged that the Nintendo-published, download-only Snipperclips was downloaded over 350,000 times in the weeks right after the Switch's launch

No figures for Welcome Tour and no boasts about it in today's Nintendo earnings report

One mystery: How many copies did the $10, download-only Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour sell?

Nintendo did not list it in their first-party million-sellers for the quarter, nor did they rank it in their list of top-selling Switch 2 games. But it's possible they exclude digital-only games

- S2 owners owned a Switch 1 and were happy to play their S1 games on S2; didn't feel need to get as many new games
- S2 owners DID buy a second game but it was for Switch 1 (24 million S1 games were sold during April-June 2025)
- S1 had two packaged Nintendo-published games at launch. S2 had one

Some Nintendo sales notes:
- 5.8 million Switch 2 devices and 8.7 million S2 games sold June 5-30. That's 1.5 games per Switch 2 owner
- COMPARE: 2.7 million launch Switches sold March 3-31, 2017 and 5.5 million games sold. That's 2 games per Switch 1 owner

A few possible explanations:

Didn't realize it was out! I'm excited to play. Buried Treasure makes me life better, yet again

-"this is Battlefield back on form"
-"feels like the culmination of many of the franchise's best pieces"
-"Battlefield is back to what it does best"

The first previews of Battlefield 6 are glowing. Hopefully the game's great. But the above quotes are from previews of Battlefield 2042. Wait and see?

Sorry, deleted and reposted due to a typo!

Plus, you can unlock new skins for your fire tongs!

www.gamefile.news/p/chillin-by...

In a time when we're seeing big AAA games that try to do everything struggle under their own weight, we've got games like Peak and A Game About Digging A Hole thriving as they focus on doing one or two things really well.

In that regard, Chillin' felt like the Direct's best announcement

The big shock from Nintendo’s Switch showcase today was a campfire game (that's pretty good!) PLUS: Conspicuous omissions from the Nintendo Direct, Microsoft’s PlayStation boast, an update on Take Two worker pay and more

NEW: Amid a worrisome dearth of indie games made for Switch 2, Nintendo surprise-announced Chillin' By The Fire today.

It's an indie game about building campfires, from a Japanese studio, Oink, that mostly makes board games

I played it and like it!

www.gamefile.news/p/chillin-by...

These console platform splits are getting really confusing.

New Katamari is on PS5, Xbox Series and Switch, but no indication of a Switch 2 version

Pac-Man World 2 remaster has PS4, PS5, Switch 1, Switch 2 and Xbox Series versions

interviewed @playables.net about time flies and wrote about why i'm absolutely delighted by it:

What's with AAA games from Swedish studios turning Brooklyn's DUMBO neighborhood into a battleground this year*?

And did Massive's Division team and DICE's Battlefield 6 crew go on their research trips together?

(*Yes, I know The Division had already been there before)

A “tip” telling players they can climb above the ceiling in Super Mario Bros world 1-2 to get to the warp pipes

Warning: Nintendo is posting spoilers on the Nintendo Today app

bsky.app/profile/step...

Microsoft says its headcount as of June 30, 2025, just before it laid off 4% of its workforce, was 228,000 people. That's the same figure it gave a year prior, with a slight regional tweak. Now breaks down as 125k US, 103K international

• Gaming revenue increased $2.0 billion or 9% driven by growth in Xbox content and services, offset in part by a decline in Xbox hardware. Xbox content and services revenue increased 16% driven by the impact of the Activision Blizzard acquisition and Xbox Game Pass. Xbox hardware revenue decreased 25% driven by lower volume of consoles sold.

For the 12 months ending June 30, 2025, Microsoft gaming revenue was up 9%. Specifically: Gaming content and services revenue up 16% with help from buying Activision Blizzard, but hardware revenue down 25%, compared to the year prior

Overall gaming revenue was $23 billion.

The War Over Credit Cards Censoring Games Is Just Getting Started Free expression advocates are flooding Visa and Mastercard call centers hoping to break through

I linked to @ethangach.bsky.social's superb piece about that in yesterday's Game File. No other plans at the moment, but as the story develops, we'll see...

kotaku.com/steam-itch-i...

Crackdown on sex video games goes wide, alarming developers Thousands of NSFW games currently can’t be found when searching the popular itch.io marketplace. [CORRECTION: Some award-winning titles not impacted as feared]

We've corrected Game File's post about NSFW games being de-indexed from @itch.io to reflect that, per Itch's Leaf Corcoran, the games Consume Me and Last Call weren't impacted by the de-indexing of NSFW games. Both weren't searchable for unrelated reasons. Apologies
www.gamefile.news/p/itchio-ste...

No, you were right that I messed that up. Wilds outsold Rise in Q1, but not by much. I corrected my thread

Investors have even been grumbling a bit to management about the game.

In June, an investor asked if Wilds suffered due to talent being "recruited away." Capcom said it was "reviewing user feedback" and assured that MHW had series vets on the dev team

Capcom sales chart showing Monster Hunter Wilds showing 477,000 copies sold, vs. Monster Hunter Rise's 389,000

CORRECTING a thread I had just posted (sorry!)

Capcom's Q1 results (April-June 2025) show Monster Hunter Wilds, which had a hot start, barely outsold the older and cheaper Monster Hunter Rise.

Capcom called Wilds' Q1 sales "soft"

That's not normal and one sign of several that Wilds has issues.

Oh, and I should mention that Capcom referred to Wilds' Q1 sales as "soft"

YouTube video by Enterrise Channel スマスロ モンスターハンターライズ　ティザームービー

Can't tell, as they don't offer that breakdown. But I'd prefer to think it's because people got excited about Rise after playing the new MHR pachislot machine released last year www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQFA...

In June, a shareholder even asked execs if the game had suffered due to dev talent being recruited away.

Capcom said it was "reviewing user feedback" and said MHW had many series vets on staff