Video game media watch

[Potato]

Seen a gaming media article that made you think, "There's something fishy going on here." 

Seen something so profoundly stupid that you just can't help but say, "What a fucking retard!" 

Post it here. 

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Leaderboard for fuckwit games journalists mentioned in this thread: 

1. Dalton Cooper 1
   
2. Rik Henderson 1
   
3. Jez Corden 1
   
4. Ed Nightingale 1
   
5. Dominic Tarason 1
   
6. Scott McRae 1
   
7. Luke Plunkett 1
   
8. Eric van Allen 1
   
9. Anthony McGlynn 1
   
   

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I'll start with this one, which is very clearly a Microsoft press release. If the "journalist" had any self respect, he'd punch himself in the dick live on stream so he could count himself as having achieved at least something of even minimal entertainment value in his pathetic life.

It really has it all:
✅ Reads like a press release
✅ Absurdly hyperbolic language
✅ Idiotic pop culture references
✅ SEO guff
✅ A hypothesis at odds with the reality of the market

https://gamerant.com/best-xbox-game-pass-games-2025-play-now/

Xbox Game Pass is Having Its Avengers: Endgame Portal Moment

By Dalton Cooper

The Xbox Game Pass subscription service is currently on a wild hot streak with a seemingly never-ending supply of big new game additions. While the first few months of 2025 saw their fair share of high-profile, critically-acclaimed new Xbox Game Pass games, things really started picking up in April. April 2025 may very well go down as one of the absolute-best months in the history of Xbox Game Pass, with GOTY contender Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 added as a day one release alongside the brilliant first-person puzzle game Blue Prince and the surprise debut of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered.

Xbox Game Pass kept the momentum going strong in May 2025 with the addition of the highly-anticipated day one release Doom: The Dark Ages, and June 2025 has really picked things up with fresh game additions like The Alters. The rest of the year is looking bright for Xbox Game Pass as well, with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 and Wuchang: Fallen Feathers both coming in July, Gears of War: Reloaded on deck for August, and a trio of day one games in October in the form of Ninja Gaiden 4, Keeper, and The Outer Worlds 2. And assuming it's not delayed yet again, it seems fans can expect to play Hollow Knight: Silksong through their Game Pass subscription before the year is out as well.

Exciting new games keep getting announced as day one Xbox Game Pass titles. It's like the service is having its Avengers: Endgame portal moment, where fan-favorite characters showed up on the scene in one of the most memorable moments in MCU history. But many would agree that is where the MCU peaked. Avengers: Endgame's portal moment was the culmination of over a decade's worth of MCU films and is often hailed as one of the franchise's most memorable moments ever, but after that, things went downhill. The MCU is not nearly as popular as it was pre-Endgame, as evident by the poor box office returns for movies like The Marvels and Thunderbolts.

It could be that Xbox Game Pass will suffer a somewhat similar fate. While there should be no shortage of day one Xbox Game Pass games coming to the service in the months and years ahead, it's entirely possible that 2025 will mark the peak of the service's output. The roll Xbox Game Pass has been on this year has been nothing short of astonishing, and it's hard to imagine a scenario where it can be matched. That doesn't mean that there won't be hit games added to Xbox Game Pass in the coming years. Just like the MCU still has its occasional hits with movies like Deadpool & Wolverine, Xbox Game Pass will still be home to massive day one releases. But they may just not come at the same ridiculous pace that they have in 2025.

We know that Xbox Game Pass is coming out swinging in 2026, but time will tell if next year will have the same impact as this year. It will be hard to top 2025, but 2026 promises to bring the long-awaited new Fable game, the Gears of War: E-Day prequel, a new Forza game, and most likely a new Halo, believed to be a remake of Combat Evolved. It's possible that this is the peak of Xbox Game Pass, but it could also be that the service's best years are ahead of it.

Fuck gaming "journalists".

[simiansmarts]

Bold choice to write this article in amidst of Xbox going through unprecedented job cutting and studio closures partially as a result of game pass devaluing expensive software releases.

Turns out, people actually LIKE paying for their games instead of a subscription service like movies/television

[who is ted danson?]

I only purchase physical media

[Potato]

https://www.t3.com/tech/tablets/redmagic-astra-gaming-tablet-switch-2-beater

"Legitimate" tech site compares US$550 Chinese Android emulation machine with latest console from Nintendo. 

How the fuck did gaming media lose all credibility again?

[Nintex]

I love how Xbro's like Jizz Corden are having a temper tantrum

But this really is the fucking problem. No game is a dream come true. There is no big impactful Xbox game. It doesn't exist. It would never make it out of development.

Sarah Bond will be talking about CoPilot Excel on Xbox GamePass at the next not-E3. Bolting the 32x to the MegaDrive because Corporate wants AI.

  

[Potato]

Absolute banger from Eurogamer this one. 

Nintendo president says children should engage with its characters elsewhere if they can't afford a Switch 2

"We believe the pricing of Nintendo Switch 2 is appropriate for the gaming experience it offers, and what is most important is to provide entertaining experiences that demonstrate the value to consumers." 

"To achieve this goal, we have incorporated various features into Nintendo Switch 2."

"It is true that Nintendo Switch 2 has a higher price point than our past gaming systems. We are creating various opportunities outside of our gaming systems for young children to engage with Nintendo characters and game worlds, with one of the ultimate goals being that they will eventually play on our gaming systems. We are closely monitoring to what degree the price of the system might become a barrier."

"We are still developing new titles for Nintendo Switch, and a vast library of software is already available, so we believe there will be opportunities for consumers to experience Nintendo Switch titles for the first time on Nintendo Switch 2."

I remember Eurogamer being quite decent back in is early days. Clearly they've taken the Kotaku pills and asked for a second dose. Just tabloid gutter trash. The editorialised headline isn't even close to what was said and completely misrepresents his response in order to get a cheap clickbait headline.

[Alpacx]

[benji]

[Potato]

A big dose of   from Scott McRae at Games Radar. 

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/donkey-kong/i-called-it-nintendo-confirms-donkey-kong-bananza-was-actually-the-inspiration-for-the-super-mario-bros-movie-redesign-all-along/

I called it, Nintendo confirms Donkey Kong Bananza was actually the inspiration for the Super Mario Bros. Movie redesign all along

[Alpacx]

Spiralling over 8 people getting laid off 

[Potato]

Probably wasn't a great idea to only focus your outlet on catering to 25% of the video game audience then Luke...you dickhead.

[benji]

Spiralling over 8 people getting laid off 

Sounds like an opportunity for those who know better then.

[Potato]

Luke drank the leftist Kool aid a long time ago. Was a reasonable writer at one stage.

[benji]

I mean, it's basically what Giant Bomb did, Jeff sold it for unrelated reasons which were directly related to Ryan dying suddenly. All these whiners are saying they can't do what Giant Bomb did in a worse environment. Hell, what Polygon did with slightly more favorable sponsors.

The truth is that long established people aren't going to take risks, that's normal in every industry, Jeff "lucked" into the situation or he probably wouldn't have either. But their stupidity leads them to arguing it's some kind of systemic problem when it's the natural lifecycle of every enterprise. They could literally quit and create a startup at any moment, but they hate risk.

The funniest thing is that the industry they cover is one of the most incessant at people leaving someplace that's been bought to fire up a new studio that gets bought and everybody leaves to start up a new studio onto infinity. Yet the journalists never do this. Aren't they the talent of their industry? You're saying you couldn't scrounge up Schreier and Klepek and Mercante and some more losers like that and put something together just on those names that will float along for at least a year or two? You could, absolutely. But aside from prying Schreier away from his employer the real problem is the others don't want to do it, they want the institutional personal safety of the system they decry.

edit: Klepek was publicly crying about the injustice of making six fucking figures for whatever it was he did at Waypoint. And that's with a wife that makes bank and a rich family and even a cheapo house in the Chicago suburbs.

[Alpacx]

To Klepeck and Plunkett's credit they are trying their worker co-op thing after getting laid off from Vice and Kotaku.

Of course they're doing it by chasing after a shrinking part of the market. "Video games wrapped in leftwing American politics" isn't going to be popular to the hundreds of millions of gamers outside America, never mind Americans.

 Aren't they the talent of their industry? You're saying you couldn't scrounge up Schreier and Klepek and Mercante and some more losers like that and put something together just on those names that will float along for at least a year or two? You could, absolutely. But aside from prying Schreier away from his employer the real problem is the others don't want to do it, they want the institutional personal safety of the system they decry.

It's not just the safety of the institutions they want, they want the institutional reputation and clout.

I'm the past 20 years you see a lot of that in the media, NGO, postsecondary education, and public-sector unions. Building up a "trans rights!"/"Kill the (((Zionists)))", "The West is Evil" advocacy group or nonprofit is unlikely to be viable (without Iran/Qatar $$$) and hard work so they take take over something existing with good institutional reputation and twist it to their own ends.

So instead they co-opt the ACLU into a trans rights institution, employees of the Canadian Union for Public Employees spend their time on anti-zionist shit, Universities do Decolonization (without giving up their land or endowments to natives) and the UN hates Israel (okay. that one always has been).

[Potato]

Look at this fuckwit. 

"The Dark Souls of..." was always a stupid reference and it's so already out of date that this is just embarrassing. 

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/the-legend-of-zelda/now-that-the-wind-waker-is-on-switch-2-im-begging-nintendo-to-revive-the-dark-souls-of-zelda-games/

[Potato]

[chronovore]

If they're a small team, they're probably also working on fixes until the bell, and trying to get review-ready copies out in advance of having it on sale is a fucking seventh-level-of-hell proposition.

[Potato]

Click bait at is finest by some clown at *checks notes* MyNintendoNews...

US: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is currently outselling Mario Kart World
Mario Kart World is an excellent video game though it is currently being outsold by the 2017 title Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Nintendo Switch. The information was shared in the recent US video game sales from sales tracker Circana. Mario Kart World slipped from 1st to 6th in the Nintendo Switch software charts. while Mario Kart 8 Deluxe rose from 7th to 4th. Of course, it is worth noting that the original Nintendo Switch has a massive user base compared to Nintendo Switch 2. 

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

It should also be noted that digital sales weren’t factored into the equation

[Eric Cartman]

polygonmariokart8piechart.jpeg