Hey everybody, it's Nathan, also freshly back from the doctor just like Gita last week, but with my own unique aches and pains that I'm beginning to suspect stem in part from my big pink gamer chair that I bought as a bit during pandemic lockdown. My neck and spine are telling me it might finally be time to buy an office chair for grownups, and they might just be right.
To answer Gita's question from last week, my favorite celebrity rivalry is Tom Cruise vs every famous tall object on Earth. Now then, onto this week's stories, decidedly un-tall tales – we're not gonna lie to you, after all – but ones which I'm sure Tom Cruise would still enjoy if he wasn't so busy diving off things all the time. If you like what you see, please consider subscribing to the site. We literally cannot do this work without you, and every bit counts. |  | What Does Xbox Even Mean Anymore?
While the idea of releasing Xbox-exclusive games on PlayStation might seem incendiary to anyone whose brain has been turned to paste by decades of console war, it's also the only possible outcome here. Nobody forced Microsoft to buy first Bethesda and then Activision Blizzard. But they went and did it anyway, and are probably now finding that those companies relied on multiplatform sales for a reason.
So of course, releasing Starfield on PlayStation makes sense on a tactical level. But at a strategic level it also completely undermines the point of Xbox, at least as we know it today, and makes me wonder if this is something the company had planned all along (a rarity over the past decade), or something it has just fallen into doing as a result of scrambling to fix past mistakes (maybe more likely!). As long as it has existed, Xbox has been primarily identified as a hardware platform, a brand synonymous with owning its own video game console. It felt weird to even type that, to even have to spell it out, because that's just what Xbox is.
But if, as these reports suggest, big changes are afoot--these games would be just the first wave--then what even is Xbox anymore? Sure, there's still a console on the shelf you could theoretically buy, but if this really is the start of a wider change in strategy it would turn Xbox into more of a publishing house than a platform holder. Combined with the fact Xbox exclusives have long been available on the PC, Microsoft's cloud gaming efforts and the financial success of Game Pass, you could even argue it signals the company's final steps in a move away from releasing its own hardware entirely, steps that would definitely explain the reports of internal dispute over Xbox's direction. |  | IGN Is Forming A Union
IGN's unionization comes after a rough few years for journalism, particularly games. In the recent past, Tencent laid off most of the staff at its gaming vertical Fanbyte. After Vice laid me off in 2022, it went on to shutter gaming vertical Waypoint the following year. Last year, The Washington Post shuttered its gaming vertical Launcher, where two co-founders of Aftermath worked. (Vice, as well as Aftermath staff's previous site Kotaku, were unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. Launcher, as well as The Washington Post, were unionized under the News Guild.)
"The news of all the layoffs that have been happening in 2023 and already in 2024 have definitely been on the forefront of our minds, especially after we had our own layoffs in 2022," video editor Chelsea Reed Miller told Aftermath. "But we also feel that the best time to form a union is when things are good. We all love our job and we want to make sure the things we love about it stay."
"I'm lucky to have a great manager who had to deal with me completely melting down for like 48 hours after the L.A. Times layoffs," streaming editor Amelia Emberwing told Aftermath. "There are days where it's just impossible to operate while watching your industry crumble around you while the world itself is also a mess. There's just no reprieve from any of it right now." |  | Speedrunning Dog talks to blog
Despite a digital audience of over 70,000 people, Peanut Butter was not nervous. "Arf!" the three-year-old shiba inu replied defiantly when asked by Aftermath if nerves got to him during his Awesome Games Done Quick run of Gyromite, which fell sadly short of a world record. It just wasn't his day, added his owner, and technical troubles didn't help matters. But Peanut Butter has been training for nearly his whole life to become the world's greatest canine speedrunner, and now he's ready for even bigger stages.
Peanut Butter's celebrity turn at the AGDQ charity speedrunning marathon last month was the culmination of years of training, which began with his owner, a speedrunner and electrician who goes by the handle JSR, attempting to speedrun what is now Peanut Butter's game of choice as part of a self-imposed years-long, multi-game challenge. Gyromite released in 1985 as one of just two games to officially utilize Nintendo's experimental Robotic Operating Buddy (ROB) accessory, which makes playing it in this day and age a difficult proposition. So JSR created his own take on ROB's proprietary red-and-blue button interface by "Frankensteining" two NES controllers together with duct tape.
But then JSR, who had adopted Peanut Butter in 2020 while stuck in pandemic lockdown, got to thinking: He was living with this remarkably intelligent dog to whom he'd already taught a bunch of other tricks in a short span. A dog he named Peanut Butter in part because of the initials "PB," which also stand for "personal best," a common speedrunning term. It was destiny. |  |  |  |  | Question of the Week
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth – a game I'm very much looking forward to – is just a few weeks away from release, and Square Enix sure is revving the hype engines. There's been a dedicated State of Play presentation, countless press previews, and one demo now with the promise of another demo later. I'm sure there's more still to come. My plan is to avoid… all of that. I've seen enough! The game looks great. I'm ready to play it. I don't need any more until it's in my hands.
My question: Do you pay attention to these kinds of pre-release barrages, especially when doing so runs the risk of detonating a spoiler landmine or two? I guess I'm just not sure who all of this is for, at this point. Maybe a handful of fence sitters remain, but if we're talking about the sequel to a remake of a generationally beloved video game, I feel like most people know where they stand at this point. But even outside Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's all-consuming gravitational pull, what is the appeal of getting shown large portions of a game in piecemeal snippets mere days or weeks before it's about to come out? Why not just… wait? | We (finally) have a new podcast, Aftermath Hours! It'll sound familiar if you've been joining us on our Twitch channel on Thursdays, but if you'd like to hear Aftermath staff and sometimes guests discuss the week's news, now you can do that wherever you get your podcasts! You can find it alongside our other pod, 52 Pickup, on our podcast page. | Alright, I'm off to go see a rock show for weebs and then go dance to different weeb music after that. Have a good weekend! | | | | |
