Industry Analysis
18articles · no PR · no bullshit
We Need a New Category in Gaming. The Industry Is Too Scared to Create It.
Expedition 33 won Best Indie Game with 412 credits and $10M budget. Balatro was one person. They should not share a category. The AA label needs to exist.
25 May 2026 · 10 min
The Machine Behind the Score: How Mixtape Got a 10/10 and 285 Players
IGN gave Mixtape a 10/10. 285 people were playing it three weeks later. Press kit nobody disclosed, the review mechanism, and the Ellison connection.
25 May 2026 · 23 min
Sony Has Written Off Nearly $1 Billion on Bungie. Here Is Exactly How It Happened.
PlayStation reported a $765 million impairment loss on Bungie in 2026, on top of a $204 million write-down the year before. Nearly a billion dollars written off in 18 months. This is the story of how a legendary studio systematically destroyed its own value: the bad games, the politics, the talent exodus, and the spectacular failure of a pitch that Sony should never have believed.
14 May 2026 · 11 min
Mixtape Has a 79% Positive Score on Steam. English Speakers Give It 66%.
Mixtape has an 86 on Metacritic and 285 concurrent players. English speakers rate it 66% positive. The data behind 2026's biggest review score controversy.
13 May 2026 · 9 min
GTA 6: Everything We Know, Everything We Don't, and Why November 19 Feels Like a Lie
GTA 6 launches November 19, 2026. Two trailers. Seventy official screenshots. Zero gameplay footage. Zero price. Zero PC date. Zero Trailer 3. The most anticipated game in history is six months from launch and Rockstar has gone completely silent. Here's everything confirmed, everything speculated, and why the silence is starting to feel deliberate.
6 May 2026 · 13 min
Nintendo's Fastest-Ever Console Is Already in Trouble. Here's Why.
The Nintendo Switch 2 broke every launch record in gaming history. Then the 2025 holiday season happened, Nintendo cut production by 33%, sued the US government, and started thinking about another price hike. Here's what's actually going on.
4 May 2026 · 8 min
Saudi Arabia Just Bought EA for $55 Billion. Here's What to Expect From the Largest Acquisition in Gaming History.
The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia is acquiring Electronic Arts for $55 billion -- the single largest acquisition in gaming history. They've done this before with Scopely. Here's what the track record actually shows, and what it means for Battlefield, The Sims, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age.
4 May 2026 · 10 min
Sony Keeps Replacing Male Leads With Women and Wondering Why the Numbers Drop
The God of War Faye spinoff rumour isn't the issue. The issue is a pattern Sony keeps repeating: take a beloved male character, sideline him, and act surprised when gamers notice. Here's the track record.
1 May 2026 · 10 min
Pragmata Made Men Want to Be Dads and Critics Are Losing Their Minds Over It
Capcom's Pragmata is one of the best games of 2026. It also made a lot of male gamers feel something unexpectedly wholesome. The discourse that followed says more about the critics than the players.
1 May 2026 · 8 min
Hades Is Not a Roguelike and Calling It One Misses What Makes It Special
Hades is the most acclaimed roguelike of the last decade. It is also not really a roguelike in any meaningful sense. The distinction matters because it explains why nothing else can replicate what Supergiant built.
24 Apr 2026 · 9 min
Game Pass Killed the Mid-Budget Game and Microsoft Doesn't Care
Hi-Fi RUSH won every award. Microsoft shut down the studio that made it eight months later. This is not a coincidence. It is what Game Pass does to the games that don't generate subscriptions.
24 Apr 2026 · 9 min
The Elden Ring Difficulty Discourse Is Exhausting and Everyone Involved Is Wrong
Every time FromSoftware releases a game, the internet spends two weeks arguing about whether it should have an easy mode. Both sides of this argument are tedious. Here's the actual take.
23 Apr 2026 · 10 min
The Last of Us Part II Is a Better Game Than the First. The Backlash Was Embarrassing.
The Last of Us Part II is a more ambitious, more technically accomplished, and more thematically complex game than the original. The online backlash against it in 2020 was one of the ugliest things gaming has produced.
23 Apr 2026 · 10 min
The Witcher 3 Is Overrated. There, I Said It.
The Witcher 3 is not the greatest RPG ever made. It is a very good open world game buried under 100 hours of filler, a mediocre combat system, and a fanbase that will not hear a word against it.
23 Apr 2026 · 8 min
Dave the Diver, Stardew Valley, Hades: Why Cozy Games Are the Fastest Growing Genre
The average gamer is in their mid-30s. They have jobs, families, and limited time. Cozy games exist for them. Here's why the genre is exploding and what it means for indie developers.
17 Apr 2026 · 9 min
Hollow Knight: Silksong Has Been in Development for 6 Years. Here's What That Tells You.
Silksong was announced in 2019. It's 2026 and Team Cherry is still working on it. This isn't a scandal. It's a case study in what it actually takes to make a great game.
17 Apr 2026 · 10 min
Balatro Is the Best Game of 2024 and It Was Made by One Person. Think About That.
One developer, 2.5 years, expected ten sales. Balatro sold 5 million. Why solo-dev constraints produce better games than hundred-person studio budgets.
17 Apr 2026 · 11 min
Why AAA Gaming Is in Crisis (And Why That's Good for Everyone Else)
EA, Ubisoft, and Microsoft have closed 30+ studios since 2020. Why AAA gaming is collapsing — and why that is good news for the rest of the industry.
17 Apr 2026 · 8 min