Andrei Zanescu

Whoa! Time really does fly!

Waking up to news of the PIF EA buyout, on the one hand, and of the pro-EU win in the Moldovan election, on the other.

Wild morning.

I have like 50 questions about the implications for media concentration and control over a large sector of the AAA games industry, but I'm gonna patiently wait for the deep dive.

this feels catastrophic in ways few other big industry deals have

Diving back into media industries work this month and I’m absolutely blown away by @adewaard.bsky.social’s Derivative Media (2024).

His 2020 piece has been on my mind for years and the book is bigger, better and bolder.

If you’re a media industries, cultural studies or coms reader, check it out!

This is so rad!

We've acquired the historic game magazine Computer Entertainer.

As in, we got the rights. We own the magazine. And we're putting it into the Creative Commons for anyone to use for free.

Learn more: gamehistory.org/computerente...

In some ways, you were already correct.

My mom has truly tasked me with a herculean labour, she wants me to find her a Labubu in Canada, and a "reasonable" price.

"why are you wounding us this way"

Good morning! If the latest censorship chaos has been drifting across your feeds but you're still not clear what's going on, we made a podcast episode for you 👇

Horizon Franchise Has Sold Over 38 Million Coppies Sales - Sony As per the law suit today it was revealed that franshcise has passed over 38 Million Copies sold:

One of the strangest (and most frustrating) quirks of the video game industry is that sales data is so opaque, you sometimes only get it when companies sue each other www.resetera.com/threads/hori...

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/...

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More details about this in the future, but for now it's time to get to reviewing literature!

Concretely, I'll be coordinating on-the-ground work on the literature review, data collection (drawing on methods from my doctoral dissertation) and coding the findings, overseeing a team of graduate MA and PhD research assistants.

Focusing on the top 50 AAA titles of the past 20 years (with political economy implications about how we can even circumscribe that category), we use many methodologies including formal analysis, player perception, developer experiences to consider how cultural biases are perpetuated or challenged.

Announcement time! I’m starting a year-long postdoctoral research fellowship here at Concordia University. I’ll be working with Mia Consalvo and @drkowert.bsky.social on a @gamesforchange.bsky.social project studying cultural representation in videogames.

📢 If you would like take part in the workshop, please follow the link in the first comment, read the description, and send an email to andrei.nae@lls.unibuc.ro detailing in around 150 words your relation to postcolonialism and/or postcommunism and video games.

DEADLINE JULY 24

Malta 2025 Highlight: Early Career and Precarious Positions Showcase - DiGRA We are delighted that the first ever Early Career and Precarious Positions Showcase was a huge success at DiGRA Malta 2025. Chaitanya Solanki (Mahindra University, India); Andrei Zanescu (Concordia Un...

Getting featured on the DiGRA early career showcase feels like a fever dream.

Now, I guess my book project anout #GameAwards (including @thegameawards.com) is out in the wild.

digra.org/malta-2025-h...

Well, I know what my late summer reading is gonna be!

"What is the carbon footprint of storing, running and repairing all these zords"

I need to stop telling @michaeliantorno.com how much I think about #PowerRangers, or I'll keep ending up with him making these memes.

There’s a Hindi phrase (usually said by dads) for when someone leaves the lights on that translates to “Is it Diwali again?” A French version is “We’re not in Versailles!” But my favourite version, by far, is the Serbian “Was your grandpa Nikola Tesla?”

Every year I feel like I’m not doing enough, until I have to fill out a departmental progress report and I see everything on the page in front of my eyeballs.

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Decompressing after a conference day and rewatch Dune Part Two, and I still can't believe how excellent the Geidi Prime sequence is. #Dune

This made me puke in my mouth

Video Games between Postcolonialism and Postcommunism Although in recent years there has been a growing interest in the racial politics of video games, the wider context of colonialism is yet to benefit from the same level of academic consideration. More...

Preorders are open at De Gruyter's online store, so be sure to see if your library or institution can snag a copy for you ahead of time!

www.degruyterbrill.com/document/isb...

I can talk about it, finally! After years of tireless work and wrangling a bunch of authors together, @andrei-nae.bsky.social's edited collection "Video Games Between Postcolonialism and Postcommunism" is coming out on December 14th, 2025.

Look out for my chapter, "Anti-Balkanism in The Witcher"!