This morning Sony decided to keep up with the Joneses over at Xbox and announce a double whammy of bad news—the PS3 and Vita PSN stores are shutting down for real this time and there will be no more physical games produced for PlayStation consoles starting in January 2028. Here's Sid Shuman on the PlayStation Blog:

After nearly two decades of supporting the PS3 console generation, we wanted to let you know we will be closing the PlayStation Store on PS3, as well as on PS Vita...

...As a result, we will need to close PlayStation Store on these devices in the timeframes as follows:

• Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua – PlayStation Store on PS3 will close starting August 2026.
• Additional Latin American and Middle Eastern countries – PlayStation Store on PS3 will close starting late 2026.
• In all other countries, PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita will close in July 2027.

We know this news may be disappointing to PS3 and PS Vita players who hold a special place in their hearts for this generation of gaming. PS3 and PS Vita represent an important era in our PlayStation history, so this was not an easy decision for us to make.

And a separate post about physical games:

As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital, physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028.  Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only. This transition has no impact on games that already released, or will be releasing, prior to January 2028 in disc format.  

This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs. This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.

Like a friend said to me, awfully big balls over there at Sony to announce no more physical games alongside the announcement of digital storefront closures.

This is a major blow to folks like myself, still buying and playing new physical games. The collector in me is gutted by the reality that my shelves will be potentially lined with PlayStation 6 boxes that are empty shells—if there are even PS6 boxes to buy. Besides my selfish preferences, this is detrimental to boutique publishers, mom & pop shops, preservation, access, and consumer costs.

Stephen Totilo at Game File seems to have been the only outlet briefed of the news before announcement. He had a free article go live upon announcement.

Sony has been reporting to investors in recent years that PlayStation games have been increasingly purchased as downloads, not as discs. The most recent figuresshow nearly four in five purchases of full games for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 were purchased digitally in the past year.

It's hard to ignore an eighty percent figure like that. The writing has been on the wall, right? The fate of disc-based games has had The Cloud™ looming over it since the PS4 and Xbox One generation. Although, at the time, you wouldn't think that PlayStation would be the first to announce its final days.

As the current generation began, signs increased with the likes of digital-only versions of the PS5 and the Xbox Series S. Let's not forget Xbox's rumored "adorably all digital" Series X redesign back in 2023. Nowadays, we have disc-drive add-ons for the PS5 and Grand Theft Auto VI being digital only.

The end of physical games has come much sooner than I anticipated. I figured the PS6 would be a final generation, while companies figure out messaging for breaking backward compatibility. It's worse than I feared though. Back to Totilo, emphasis added:

New games sold for PlayStation consoles will only be available digitally and won’t be sold on discs effective January 2028, Sony has announced.

The move applies to all PlayStation games released from that point on, including those made by Sony and those released by third parties.

This is a killing blow to any boutique publisher that prints a disc. The likes of Limited Run Games, Lost in Cult, iam8bit, and many more now have a clock for striking deals and making physical PlayStation games.¹ I suspect Xbox isn't far behind and Nintendo will remain the last player in the space for now. Physical indie games will vanish. Mom and pop game shops, which I am quite fortunate to live near quite a few, now have a cut off for new games and future console generations. These new games will never enter the used market impact the retro scene in a major way.

You might think, "Well, this is what happened to movies, television, music, and books years ago. Games are just behind the times." The key difference is physical media for all of those is still produced, manufactured, and sold by many different companies while also being accessible on a wide variety of devices. Companies can license new physical copies of films, often alongside restorations or simple re-prints. It seems like every musician releases their albums on not just vinyl records, but cassette tapes and CD too as collector's editions. The film and music exist in physical space grooves and pips on an object you can hold and appreciate and use with no need for internet or services or subscriptions. For instance a new favorite film of mine, The Dirties, is not available anywhere on streaming. The original print was some 100~ physical copies. Last year, Umbrella was able to produce a Blu-Ray run. It has since sold out, but there's a copy sitting in my cabinet and I can watch it whenever, despite it being unavailable for so long.

If the PlayStation 6 does not have any means to read a mythical PS6 disc, that market can never come to fruition, no matter how far down the line. There can never be a Criterion Collection equivalent business for masterpieces that are yet to come.

Last year, I praised Nintendo's approach to game codes in a box with the Game-Key Card.

I'm sorry, but Game-Key Cards are genius, both pro-consumer and pro-business as we inch toward an all-digital future. A major trend over the last generation was physical boxes in stores, but with a piece of paper and a code inside to download the game. Once the code is used, the game is tied to the redeemer's account. No way to sell or share—one and done. The Game-Key card is a solution to this problem. Pop the cartridge in your console and you will be able to download the game. Then you just have to insert the card whenever you want to play. Done with the game and want to sell it? Go for it. Want a friend to borrow the game? Hand it over! This gives value back to the consumer who purchases a "physical" version of a digital game.

I saw people immediately assume this was all Switch games. Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition is going to be all on the cartridge. If CD Projekt is putting that monster of a game all on the cart, I think we will be fine. As someone with a massive physical collection, am I thrilled at the idea of fewer games really and truly being physical? No. But I am thrilled to see a physical, reusable solution to the code on a piece of paper that publishers have been using since the PS3 and 360. This is a compromise I am more than willing to accept.

I stand by that. In the face of an all-digital future, at least the Game-Key card gives a semblance of ownership back to the consumer. Digital games offer no way to lend or resell a title. It's an all or nothing approach. And when the manufacturer controls the storefront, the prices may not drop as the market has come to expect. Dustin Furman points this out by sharing images of prices of physical Sony games compared to their digital counterparts. You don't even need to guess which copy Sony wants you to buy. For those adverse to Twitter and for posterity, here's a table of the examples shown.

This isn't to say that digital games never go on sale (they definitely do), but Sony dictates the amount and when. It's a very Nintendo approach and I understand the financial appeal. Don't get me wrong, these games are worth full price. I bought them all at launch—and three of them at a higher priced edition. But I also understand the value of waiting for a deal or just being fiscally responsible and buying less, like I wrote about my collecting habit earlier this year. Waiting for deals or borrowing a game is an important part of the consumer experience that will be dying.

The video game community and experience is losing the ability to lend a game when you are done, the chance to borrow that game from a pal down the street, or finding a gem at the local shop for a great price (or an expensive one). In the world of where the hobby is more expensive than ever, consumers will lose any leverage they had in selling their games for new ones. We are borrowing licenses that can be taken away or deleted at a legal moments notice.

With the PS3 and Vita stores finally being inaccessible by next summer, you have to ask yourself about investing your digital library in the future of PlayStation. In 2033, will the PS4 store and library be inaccessible? Will the PS5 store go offline in 2040? Perhaps Ubisoft will remake Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag again and you won't even be able to buy the original or the current remake. Perhaps Sony will just increase prices of old versions to make you buy the new ones like they did with Horizon Zero Dawn.

As I have sat here this morning (in mourning), I think the biggest impact will be one Sony may not realize for years to come. They are priming themselves to lose a generation. Without the likes of physical games, you lose the excitement of a midnight launch save once a generation when the hardware itself hits the scene. And then, folks will be walking out with a console and the promise of hundreds of gigabytes to download at home. A community will have to be formed around watching streamers to convince you to buy a game instead of just lending your friend a copy. I can't help but pair this idea with the years long development cycles these games have now and how iconic franchises are losing younger gamers to them. How can you draw in newer, younger fans when your prices won't change and there's no affordable way into the market? When the classics talked about amongst tier lists and forums and old heads like me are digital dust behind shuttered stores?

Perhaps I am just scared and concerned for myself? Perhaps my way of gaming is ancient. The kids already watch streamers to decide what to download. In a sea of free-to-play and Fortnite and Roblox, all of which have no form of permanence, perhaps the world of single-player experiences is fading.

Except that isn't true at all, right? Single player exclusives drive console sales. I can't help but associate those games physicality with their single player nature. Yet, the biggest game of the generation is single player and digital-only. Perhaps the only thing that is true is that I am apart of the first and last generation to play games on discs.

We are going back to Raccoon City! So pack your zombie survival kits and uncover the mysteries with Max Roberts and Logan Moore alongside special guests Michael Ruiz and Ricky Frech! Can action and horror be perfectly balanced or are those ambitions better off buried like RC was nearly 30 years ago?

• Download (53MB) — Episode Transcript

Read more →

"Pixel Symphonic is a show about video game music. We’re here to learn and talk about it with the people who make it, the people who listen to it, and everything in between."

I was perusing the Original Soundchat podcast feed the other day, as one does, and was shocked to see a new episode for a new podcast by Joe DeVader—published back in March 2026! Oh the delight I felt when seeing the episode and the new show's first guest.

I'm half way through the catalog already and if you are like me and miss OSC or love video game music, you should queue up Pixel Symphonic ASAP. I'd love to see insaneintherainmusic or 8-Bit Music Theory on the show, if you'r seeing this Joe.

If you want more music talk, check out the show I did with 8-Bit Music Theory. It's been quiet awhile since that chat, but should be timeless as ever.

Video essayist Kohana joins Max to have a retrospective chat about the June 2026 Nintendo Direct before diving into the differences between a review and a retrospective, good/bad thumbnails, and then their own reviews of Mina the Hollower.

• Download (40MB) — Episode Transcript

Read more →

I finished 007 First Light yesterday at 2:00 AM and after coming down from the endgame high, my thoughts went back to a lingering question—what does John Gruber think about this new Bond game?

Long time readers of Daring Fireball will know that John is quite the fan of 007. That also includes the stone cold classic GoldenEye 007 on the N64. Heck, he once had a software company named Q Branch with a notes app called "Vesper." Like many, Gruber was nervous about the creative rights to the iconic series heading to Amazon MGM Studios lat year. I think we should all still be nervous until we see the next movie. Well before that deal though, IO Interactive of Hitman franchise fame, struck a deal to create and publish the first new James Bond game in eons. Nearly six years later, the game is out and IO has stuck the landing. I am going to have a hard time picking a personal game of the year between this and Marathon.

I am curious to know what Gruber thinks though. I am not sure how many modern games he plays, but I think this one would would garner special attention. Even if he gave his thoughts on the original James character design IO created with a performance from Patrick Gibson or perhaps the title sequence, bits of my curiosity would be satiated.

I think the writing, world, performances, and design all nail the Bond aesthetic in superb fashion. I think it'd be a shame for Gruber to miss out on a genuinely new and worthy 007 story and game.

"...But this time around, now that I have a tool installed that warns me if a game or demo includes generative AI content, Steam Next Fest has become a very depressing experience, one in which more than half the games I checked out featured an AI content disclaimer...

...I sympathize with indie devs trying to create something cool and then having to dedicate even more of their limited time and resources to making a demo that might not even get seen because Steam is flooded with new games every hour. It sucks. The allure of genAI in that situation is proving harder and harder for some devs to resist.

The whole situation just makes me sad. I don’t want devs to suffer for their art, yet I am dreading a future in which it’s practically impossible to play a game, big or small, that was made only by humans. If the flood of AI warnings popping up as I browse Steam Next Fest are an indication of what’s to come, I guess I’m happy I have a massive backlog."

Should someone tell Zack?

If you don't want AI used in your game development, I suspect you will be playing the backlog until it is complete. After that I guess it'd be retro games?

This year at Xbox's Games Showcase, new CEO Asha Sharma made the announcement that Gears of War: E-Day would be an Xbox console exclusive.¹ And that reminded me of an Xbox Gamescom announcement 12 years ago with another console exclusive—Rise of the Tomb Raider.

And because I am now old enough to have been blogging that long, my well thought out opinion on that matter lives forevermore.

"Game exclusivity blows. Today’s Tomb Raider news at Xbox’s Gamescom press conference was the straw that broke the camel’s back. How is this fair to the consumer at all? It’s not. Corporate puppet masters are pulling strings to raise profits as they strip a product away from select audiences. They are punishing consumers for not owning their game box.

And yet, I am a hypocrite. I love exclusive titles. The Last Of Us is my favorite game of all time, which is exclusive to PlayStation products. As I think about it, if Joel and Ellie made the jump to Xbox or PC, I would feel a tad betrayed. Then I realize that thousands more get to experience a game that moved my heart and soul. It is not fair that Xbox gamers can’t play The Last Of Us."

I can promise you I did not feel betrayed when both The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II came to PC outside of their poor performance each time. I concluded my piece with this sage advice:

"If we don’t buy it, companies won’t produce these exclusivity barriers. We can do it. Break down the walls of exclusivity and let’s help bring games to gamers."

I suppose congratulations were in order sometime during the last decade because both Xbox and PlayStation ostensibly gave up the platform exclusive by, at the least, porting major titles to PC. The last Gears of War game came to PS5. Halo arrives next month. We've seen cross-platform releases from Sony like Marathon, God of War, and Ratchet & Clank on PC.

And now, the industry finds itself back to the exclusive.² Xbox's return to its roots is boldly declaring previously unannounced PS5 games to, in fact, not be coming to their competitor. That's why the likes of Halo and Fable are still making the leap. They can't take them back.

PlayStation has come to the same conclusion. You won't be seeing Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, Marvel's Wolverine, or God of War: Laufey on any PC.

This is good news. The bit that Xbox, PlayStation, and 20-year-old Max had wrong was that making everything available everywhere makes your platform less unique and desirable.³ Having your online multiplayer live service title be cross-platform makes total sense—those titles live and die by their community—but those single player titles are the lifeblood of the console.

Nintendo is the obvious counter to the "no exclusive" argument. They build time and time again unique consoles that their developers leverage tremendously, despite usual power limitations. When the hardware sells because of its possibilities and exclusive libraries, the third-parties will follow (or not as with the Wii U), but the core Nintendo games like Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda are never at risk of ending up somewhere else. If you want that next Mario game, you better pony up.

That's what PlayStation and Xbox need to do again and stick with it. There is immense value in having experts for your bespoke hardware. Extracting every ounce of power and efficiency out of your silicon for an experience no one can get anywhere else.

As for us, the consumer? We need to buy these exclusives. Don't just buy them all. Buy what interests you. Let these companies know what you want more of, which is hopefully beautiful, unique, rich titles that push the medium forward.

The E3 dust is settling and there was a lot announced this summer. The final announcement of them all was one we heard about back in March—a full remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

And as the Direct came faded out, my reaction was not one of celebration, but a frustrated cry of "that's it?!"¹ I was living out what I wrote about when the leaks occurred and the "rumors" of Super Mario Titans:

It is far less exciting when the leak is just a statement on a podcast. If Star Fox is announced next month, it'll have a little "eh, I knew that was coming." More crucially, now we enter the phase on imagination, which has its own ramifications.

"Leaks have immense power to shape perspective. If you like the leak and it doesn't come to pass, you can become disappointed. Same happens when inverted. I think lots of folks forget to bring along their big chunks of salt to these conversations and revel in the fun of it."

Nintendo is remaking one of the greatest games of all time in 4K and releasing it within six months and I walk away bummed out I didn't see more? What is wrong with me?

What's wrong with me was the leak and a loss of perspective. Kit and Krysta talked about this on their podcast episode after the Direct.

"I think it had a huge effect. Like, if that was actually a surprise and there was a teaser of an Ocarina of Time remake at the end of a Direct, I think people, like, it would be insanity. But it's we've known about this since March. Yeah. We've been talking about this for at least two months. We have we have we have gone in circles around talking about here's all the myriad myriad of ways that they could do this all these and we got this little teaser of him sleeping on some dirt."

"Leaks have immense power to shape perspective" indeed past Max. Just a year ago, I was all aboard the Hype Train heading into the Switch 2's debut Direct, not for the leaked hardware, but the mystery and excitement of games unknown at the time, like Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza.

Sure, the hardware itself leaked months and months beforehand. But what is truly exciting about tomorrow is the games. Nintendo's lineup has been a complete mystery with genuine leaks being basically nonexistent. The mystery surrounding the launch window titles is captivating. That is why I am riding the Hype Train.

Brian Altano at IGN reminds me why this remake is coming at the right time and reoriented my hype.

"Imagine being a 10 year old who walks out of the Zelda movie, heads home, grabs their Nintendo Switch 2, and plays Ocarina of Time for the first time in their lives. It’s hard not to be envious of experiencing a moment like that. Also, consider this: it’s been almost three decades since the original game launched, and it seems pretty likely that a sizable number of people who played it back then now have children of their own. Hmm, if only there was a Zelda game about experiencing how the world changes from the perspective of a child and the perspective of an adult…"

My own kid isn't quite old enough for 3D Zelda yet, but man, to play a game like Ocarina of Time for the first time again. What a moment! I am envious of the kids and people that will get to experience this game in that way. I am also reminded that this is not solely for gamers like myself. There is a whole world of folks about to dive in for the first time thanks to the movie. Back to Altano,

"The Legend of Zelda is about to have a gigantic big screen moment on April 30, 2027 – just a few months after the Ocarina of Time remake is set to be released. A live-action Zelda movie hitting theaters will introduce a whole new audience to this series for the first time. Having a stunning new remake of the most iconic Zelda game on store shelves and at the top of the Nintendo Switch 2’s eShop in time for the movie’s premiere makes perfect sense. After all, it’s happened before: Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 got Nintendo Switch remasters six months before The Super Mario Galaxy Movie premiered. Kids saw the Mario movie, wanted a Mario game to play, and Nintendo made sure they had something ready, even if it was something many of us played ages ago."

Taking a beat and reassessing has me excited. This game is out so soon and knowing nothing can be a good thing. I remember not knowing a ton about Breath of the Wild before its release, so much so that Nintendo made statements confirming towns and villages. The thing we have to watch out for is that our imaginations not run too wild and trust in the developers and the game's known formula. It'd be really hard to mess up Ocarina of Time.

I hope that Nintendo does seize this opportunity to shake up the game though. Perhaps open its dungeon structure up a bit or fully integrated ideas in the Master Quest. I haven't played them yet, but my understanding of the Final Fantasy VII remakes is that the team subverted expectations to surprise and delight while making a new game and a remake. I think there is immense potential for subversion with the time mechanics alone. I doubt it, but a boy can dream. Nintendo is not usually one for drastic redesign in their remakes.

Speaking of Final Fantasy VII remake, I remember sitting in a movie theater in that summer of 2015. I had never played Final Fantasy VII. I had no clue what was happening. But I remember the eruption at the reveal and the news that it was a remake. I don't recall leaks or rumors, but perhaps there were. All we got was a CG cutscene in a very Tetsuya Nomura way. There was no gameplay. No date. It didn't come out for another five years. The other parts are still coming out to this day. There is much to celebrate about this remake of Ocarina of Time and I plan to stop letting leaks rob me of joy.

There has been a vocal sentiment in video game production over the past few of years that only seems to be getting louder as more companies use AI. That's right. The AI corpos have come for Tomb Raider, Crazy Taxi, and maybe even Kingdom Hearts.¹ The knee-jerk response I see every time this kind of information is discovered is "The devs used AI? I'm out! Nope! Never!"

This reaction, as far as I can tell, is always in regard to visual art assets; something the player could see or hear or "touch."

And I can't help but feel like this instantaneous rejection is shallow and lacks nuance these folks often provide to the medium. I've been chewing on this for the past few days and hope I can provide some of that nuance. Here's Liam Triforce on his new blog,

"Personally speaking, I refuse to give an inch in this regard. While many studios have adopted the use of AI to create schedules or expedite the administrative processes that would otherwise interfere with the creative side of game development, many have also used it to outsource the creative elements as well, and as soon as you use it for that purpose – you’ve lost me. No matter how “small” they claim this use of generative AI to be, I find any use of it to be an active betrayal of what it means, intrinsically, to be an artist, and that’s not even mentioning the high power and environmental costs of the models they use."

Liam rightly calls out efficiencies in scheduling or administrative desk jobs. AI certainly is used all over the office. His rejection is in response to "creative" elements, like Crazy Taxi's background assets or Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's use of some generative art.

To that I say, is coding not a creative art?

The 1s and 0s that make up the digital fabric of masterful tapestries like The Last of Us, Journey, Outer Wilds, or The Legend of Zelda were all written and tested by coders, a word which here means "a person who writes code for computer programs." Author means "a writer of a book, article, or report." Painter can mean "an artist who paints pictures." A coder is an author of code, an artist working with bytes instead of paints.

There are endless stories of coding prowess, hacking, and ingenuity that led to seemingly impossible worlds magically appearing on our tiny TV screens 20 years ago, let alone the scope and scale of modern titles. Just last month, Mark Brown of Game Maker's Toolkit put out a video about the sheer wizardry Rockstar Games did to make Grant Theft Auto III run on the PlayStation 2. Another favorite example of mine is this interview with Naughty Dog co-founder Andy Gavin about they hacked the PlayStation to make Crash Bandicoot run. Here's the opening excerpt,

"Memory was so short in Crash Bandicoot that I took to stealing little bits and pieces of extra memory from the Sony libraries. I would like just try erasing parts of them that I thought I wasn't using and see if things still worked. If they did, I would mark them as available and I just hacked their code by just changing the byte codes. I'm like, you can do this. Look, I fixed it.

If they wouldn't fix it for me, I was just gonna like edit their code. It was free memory. The memory was finite. But you were definitely not supposed to do that."

The whole video is excellent and for even deeper dives, just check out Andy Gavin's blog detailing many years of endeavors at The Kennel.

Given my experience with coding—a CSS and HTML class in college, running a Wordpress blog, and telnet—it is no wonder that I am amazed by the likes of Claude Code when I redesign my entire blog while cooking dinner. It is magic. At the same time, it is no wonder that when I hear stories like those memory hacking tales I am also amazed.

All of my friends and coworkers in the coding world are using these types of tools. From writing, review, and fixing bugs, there is little these AI tools don't touch in the process. I fail to see a world where the industry at large is not using these kinds of tools in the creation of video games. So is that not okay? Are we supposed brand them like Sneetches on the beaches with Steam labels. Then we can post a Steam chart and amplify the echo chamber of zero AI that could end games, stop sales, etc.? Has an inch been given by default? Liam ponders this aftermath,

"Somehow, the responsibility falls on me to make the right decisions so as not to betray my own values, because if I retroactively discover that a game used generative AI – I would feel like I had given my money to people that I do not respect, and I had, unfortunately, 'given an inch.'"

I think this means leaving games behind entirely, unless you seek out and confirm not an Watt of AI was used at any moment in its development. If you consider video games art and therefore consider the game's code art this standard becomes too high to uphold. It'd be like vowing to only read books that didn't use spellcheck. Granted, thousands of books were written ages before the notion of a notion of an inkling of an idea of spellcheck was conceived. But certainly the list of books written without it in the 17 years since Mac OS X system-wide spell check was introduced is few and far between. I wonder how many millions (billions?) lines of code were written after a Google search and landing on Stack Overflow?

Okay, so maybe we can't consider code and AI to be the line because it would erase too much. We aren't Neo looking at The Matrix after all. Let's just focus on that stuff we see and touch. When I think of "AI" used in a visual way, my brain goes to Peter Jackson.

Back in 2018, Peter Jackson's They Shall Not Grow Old was released. It is a World War I documentary assembled out of 100-year-old archival footage. Where "AI" enters the picture is in the machine learning and software developed to take unstable, grainy footage and to transform it by upping the resolution and restoring it. Then the crew went in and added color and sound. It's a remarkable documentary.

OpenAI was still a non-profit organization then. The marketing buzz around slapping "AI" on ✨everything✨ wasn't common practice. These techniques were referred to by the more accurate title of "machine learning." Training the computer on film grain, framerates, scratches, and dirt. Jackson would do similar work with his documentary The Beatles: Get Back by training software on instrument sounds and vocals to isolate tracks never recorded that way.

It is no different than the likes of PSSR, FSR, and DLSS to upscale low resolution video games to make performance gains or creating frames for smoother experiences with frame generation. Focused tools that usually enhance the artistic experience and give players a better time.

That does not mean that the computers can't get it wrong. Just take a look at DLSS 5 and its initial reveal. Woof. The tech there may be cool, but that ain't Grace Ashcroft. I think that's where the nut of it lies. The people using the tool are responsible for the final output, not the computer. Capcom wasn't involved with the DLSS 5 demo. Their artist didn't factor in this lighting tech when making the models. Nvida slapped a layer on top, like an old Hollywood studio smearing color on a black and white film just to re-release it. When used in a thoughtful and considerate way, the tool can elevate a work.

This zero tolerance approach to AI in games development is the wrong one to take, I think. I do understand it though. I won't buy from Limited Run Games anymore. A more extreme example is I won't listen to Michael Jackson music when I can help it after I watched the Leaving Neverland.

Much smaller stakes include not backing video game development on Kickstarter or not buying games published from companies owned by the Saudi Royal Family. They own SNK. That's fine. I don't play that stuff. They're trying to buy EA? That'll be okay, I think. They mostly make sports games anyway. Wait. They own how much of Capcom? Nintendo too?! At least that stake went down...

I hope that little tangent illustrates my point. All or nothing gets messy. The responsibility does, in fact, fall to you and me to not betray our values because they are ours. You have to draw your lines and make amends if you accidentally cross them. When it comes to AI in game development, I make the call when I see it. Does the game look good, play great, and resonate? The devs used the tool the right way. If it looks sloppy, I say that's the developer's fault, not the tool's.

I have always been obsessed with getting my handheld games on the big screen. From the Game Boy Player to the Analogue Pocket to modding my 3DS, I have had a lifelong pursuit of tiny games on big screens.¹ Growing up playing a Game Boy in the back of a minivan meant playing smaller, weirder, divergent titles. I cut my teeth on the likes of Pokémon Blue, Mega Man Battle Network 3, and Link's Awakening. In fact, the first time I played Yacht Club Games' Shovel Knight was on my 3DS during a road trip. When I got back home to my Wii U weeks later, I immediately bought the home console version.

I've been a champion of Yacht Club ever since. I bought the game for my friends, visited the team at PAX East 2019, and reviewed quite a few of their games over the years. When Mina the Hollower was announced in 2022, I closed out my blog post with this:

"The current window for Mina The Hollower is December 2023. That’s a solid two more years of development time. Eager to see how this one lands."

Nearly three years after the original target date (making games is hard!), Mina the Hollower is out in the world. Mina is a modern fusion of the aforementioned Link's Awakening, Castlevania titles, and modern "Soulslike" ideas all gelled together with Yacht Club's signature retro-inspired, modern-infused design principles. On paper, it's a dream game for the likes of me.

In reality, it is a grandiose, modern title crammed into the constraints of handheld games of yore. Yacht Club Games' ambitions do not fit in this box. Mina is dense. Mina is irritating. Mina breaks my heart.

Read more →

"3Beans emulates the 3DS at a low level, which means that it runs the entire OS as if it were on real hardware. It can boot the home menu and launch some games, but it's still young and has plenty of issues. It has both software and hardware GPU rendering, but CPUs are still fully interpreted."

First emulator of its kind that I have seen. 3DS is a tricky one and when Citra got shut down a couple of years ago, I stopped looking at the scene. Apparently, there are quite a few 3DS emulators out there. None of them have a name as good as 3Beans.

Also, a Mac version out of the gate from a developer that seems to main macOS. Certainly doesn't use Windows based off the video. Good for him.

Microsoft Office 2019 for Mac Will Soon Stop Letting You Edit Documents by Tim Hardwick at MacRumors via 512 Pixels

Microsoft will prevent Office 2019 for Mac owners from editing their documents from July 13, a restriction the company is attributing to the productivity suite's expiring digital certificate...

Microsoft has actually renewed the suite's certificate, but the fix can only be delivered through a software update. That means users of Microsoft 365 and Office 2021 are in the clear – they'll receive the update, so neither will be affected. However, Microsoft stopped offering support for Office 2019 on October 10, 2023, and the suite has received no updates since. As such, it won't be updated to version 16.83, which is the release that includes the renewed certificate.

Microsoft says the problem can't be fixed by reinstalling Office 2019. Instead, it suggests affected users turn to the company's free Microsoft 365 web apps, take out a paid Microsoft 365 subscription, or make a one-time purchase of Office 2024.

You know what still works today? A copy of Microsoft Word 5 loaded on Infinite Mac.

Get your act together Microsoft.

This article has sat as an open tab in my mobile browser for I guess nine years now. Time to finally share it.

"Last weekend’s New York Times profile of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick had plenty of important revelations about Kalanick and the company he runs, both of which have been facing some tough PR lately. But there was one incidental, almost throwaway line buried in the piece that made me stop in my tracks:

“In other personal pursuits, he once held the world’s second-highest score for the Nintendo Wii Tennis video game.”

...I’ve spent an admittedly ridiculous amount of time looking into this one sentence over the past few days. As it turns out, getting to the bottom of Kalanick’s Wii Sports skill requires delving into the vagaries of human memory, reverse engineered asymptotic leveling systems, and the semantic meaning of video game achievement itself."

Words have meaning. A great examination of hubris and the ubern myth with a deep dive into the nitty gritty of Wii Sports. You would think that Silicon Valley inventors and investors would place higher value on numbers, technology, and their meaning.

"Designed in California is a podcast dedicated to telling stories from across the whole scope of Apple history, hosted by Myke and Jason. We have been discussing Apple current events in depth on the Upgrade podcast since 2014! Now it's time to consider the bigger picture."

Recent guest on The Max Frequency Podcast and friend of the blog, Myke Hurley, is making a new podcast alongside Jason Snell. It's a fusion of Upgrade and their favorite podcast The Rest is History. I am eager to give it a listen later this year and you should be too.

I like the approach of pre-selling annual memberships via Kickstarter. It's a smart and simple approach that gives them permission to pour the time into creating a research heavy show like this. They smashed their initial goal, more than doubling it within 24 hours.

Thanks to Jason Kottke, I came across this art project. Each window is a story. It's fun to see the trends too. I noticed tons of nature, as if the residence are trying to escape the concrete jungle. Plenty of Asian massage parlors and feet. This particular one of a billboard for the law firm Morgan & Morgan being warped in glass actually is an accurate representation of how I perceive John Morgan.

I do find it disappointing that there is some sort of crypto/NFT angle to the art. Somehow, it also feels very NYC.

I am also reminded of Aristotle Roufanis' Alone Together series, which lives rent free in my head.

Logan Moore and Max are back once more to press F to pay respects for the Electronic Entertainment Expo by predicting summer shenanigans from Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, and Geoff Keighley.

• Download (58MB) — Episode Transcript

Read more →

"There are so many aspects that make up a video game, and this means incredible ideas have the opportunity to exist alongside terrible ones, turning the game as a whole into something not all that remarkable despite containing aspects that are. This video is an examination and celebration of a few games that fall into this category."

My pal Razbuten put out a new essay a few days ago. He explores neat mechanics in mediocre games. While I was watching/listening while cooking dinner, I got to thinking about the bygone era of pack-in multiplayer modes. Because I occasionally get on the same wave length as Raz, of course he talks about this too.

But there was one multiplayer niche that felt like it had a moment in the spotlight during this 360/PS3 generation that I kinda miss—asymmetrical multiplayer.

I'm talking Spies vs. Mercs in Splinter Cell. I'm talking the 3 vs 3 vs 2 multiplayer mode in Batman: Arkham Origins. I'm talking Mario Chase in Nintendo Land.¹

Asymmetrical multiplayer hasn't gone away so much as evolved (I couldn't resist) into the social deduction sub-genre of a sub-genre. Think Among Us or SpyParty. At times, I feel like battle royales or (now because I can't get enough of Marathon) extraction shooters have asym design elements in them.

Is asymmetrical multiplayer a "bad" mechanic though? I suppose it is more of a genre. I miss it being the focus though.

Another actual mechanic is miss is a subtle one. I love the few Splinter Cell games that have the color space go black and white when you are in cover and transition to color when you are visible. It's slick and stylish. Mirror's Edge and its Runner Vision could fit here too. More bold colors that make games stand head and shoulders above the rest of the industry while providing gameplay information to the player.

We also need more—I don't really know the term for this—external elements? For example, Metal Gear Solid reading your memory card or the "close your DS" solution in Phantom Hourglass. I've heard a ton about how Eternal Darkness plays with console and TV standards of the time to warp player expectations. Doki Doki Literature Club is a modern example of this too. More games that exist in the world instead of just in the game world, even if it is just for a moment.

That's all I can think of right now, looking back at my shelves of games and this Post-It note that I wrote on while making that dinner. You should go ahead and watch Raz's video.

Season 2 of Marathon looks sick. I continue to be in love with the game and am amped for all this new content and a fresh start. I mean, look at these screenshots and the cinematic trailer!

I think the new level up system dubbed "The Cradle" will be a huge win and change of pace from burying stats in Faction trees. The KKV-9SD and its integrated suppressor sounds so, so fun. The new defensive shell sounds like a proper shake up to team balance and gives the lineup more support/tactical roles.

There is a clear emphasis on the horror elements that have popped their spooky heads up during the game so far. This night version of Dire Marsh appears dark. I might switch back to my OLED for a few matches just to see those colors and HDR pop. I also love that they are bringing design ideas from Outpost's Pinwheel to Dire Marsh. More focused, high risk, access elements please.

The big win out of the gate though is the open play week. I think this is a great idea, when everyone starts at gear zero. A week is a solid chunk of time for friends to get together and get in the groove with the game. I had a friend ask me about it a few weeks ago while at the driving range. I immediately sent this news to him so he can give it a shot with me.

My favorite tidbit though?

"Added new PC and console cursor speed settings."

Can't wait to dive straight into Season 2 - Nightfall next week. With the State of Play the same day and Summer Game Fest on Friday, it's going to be a great gamer week.

I watched a little bit of Google IO this week. If you missed it, here's a great summary. One bit I did see was a demo of Google using AI to develop an operating system.

"So using the new Antigravity and Gemini 3.5 Flash, we asked our agents to take on what we consider to be a highly complex and impressive task: Build a working operating system from scratch. We were surprised by what we found...Over 12 hours, 93 subagents working in parallel made over 15000 model requests and processed 2.6 billion tokens to take an initially empty project to the core of a functioning operating system."

Makes me wonder if this is the power behind Aluminum OS.

"My PSN account was hacked, seemingly as part of an ongoing sophisticated series of moves against both random and "prominent" users.

Indeed, I was told by someone a few days ago that I was going to be targeted, and he was right. (He was also hacked.)"

Colin shared quite the thread on Twitter yesterday afternoon.¹ These types of hacks have been ongoing in the PlayStation community. I remember seeing a headline about the top trophy hunter in the world getting their account banged by hackers earlier this year.

"1.) I wasn't phished, didn't click on any links, didn't randomly put my password somewhere, etc. I am completely positive of this.

2.) At the time this happened, my email started getting spammed with hundreds of random emails from all sorts of sources (SubStack, EA, AliExpress, Slack... s—t I'm not even signed up for).

3.) I then got a text message that my PlayStation Network email address was changed. Then I got a text message saying 2FA was turned off.

Frankly, how can any of this even be possible if someone isn't feeding information from the inside or has some sort of bespoke access to things they shouldn't?"

I saw some replies speculating social engineering scams by calling support and pretending to be said user. PC Magazine did an article with other folks that have been hacked. It's seems like a mix of social engineering and an absolutely unhinged recovery process.

When you initiate an account recovery, you submit a PSN ID, the registered email address, the user's full name, and one other detail:

• The first four and last four digits of the credit card number used on the account.
• Serial number of the first console used to create or log into your account.
• Order number for a recent transaction made on this PlayStation account.

I submitted an order number from 2023. The chatbot processed my request and let me register an entirely new email address for my PSN account. I didn't need to verify the process from the original email address at all...

...I was stunned because the process completely bypassed the passkey I had registered on my PSN account. The chatbot even asked me: "May I know if you also need help to disable extra security measures activated in the PlayStation account?" I said yes, and the passkey was gone.

I am not a betting man, but I'd wager that this chat system is one powered by a LLM, as they have taken over the technical chat support business. But even if you get in touch with a human on PlayStation's support team you can seemingly just keep casting out the phishing line until you get one willing to hand over the account. It all reminds me of "The Snapchat Thief" episode of Reply All. Customer service seems so willing to cater to users and positive reviews that they lack common security sense. In fact, it is identical:

In the meantime, the hijackings have been traced to hackers who are reselling dozens of stolen accounts on social media for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. They're focused on stealing accounts with desirable screen names, often created 20 years ago when PSN launched.

What makes this whole affair even more alarming is that Sony is mostly silent and unwilling to assist. Back to Colin,

"...they told me it will take three weeks for them to get to have any answers, which seems f—g insane. They removed my credit card info, etc., from the account in the interim, but seemingly couldn't mass-change the password and boot others off in the interim? Okay then. If I don't get my account back by tomorrow, I'll file with the Better Business Bureau, as has been recommended."

I am not sure filing with the Better Business Bureau would have helped Colin though. Pete Wenzler did just that and received this reply from Sony.

"...after which Sony told him it was 'unable to assist in gaining access to the account mentioned.'"

Colin went through PlayStation Support. His friends that work at PlayStation reached out and helped escalate the issue. He called Greg Miller. Thanks to all his friends and connections, Colin has his account back. I can't help wonder for how long though...

This is a major issue and Sony needs to address it immediately. While not to the scale of the infamous PSN Outage of 2011 or Insomniac's leak, this is a risk and removes all confidence in account security.² How am I or anyone to trust two factor authentication with Sony? I thought about enabling my first passkey before writing this article, but clearly that matters not based off my research. There is no point to all these security measures if they can be removed with a old order number and zero verification. I am starting to underestimate the power of PlayStation.