This turned out to be a much more emotionally taxing week than I was expecting, not to mention another busy one. For starters, we’ve had yet another round of layoffs from a major gaming company — Bungie, in this case. The company laid off 220 people after CEO Pete Parsons admitted that the people running the company were “overly ambitious” and stretched themselves too thin. Reportedly, they also promised things to Sony they weren’t able to deliver, according to anonymous sources speaking with Game File.
The next blow this week came as GameStop shuttered legendary gaming news publication Game Informer without any warning, laying off its entire staff as well. Game Informer is literally the same age as I am and I’ve been reading it for as long as I’ve been interested in video games — so to see its light snuffed so abruptly is an emotional wallop. Even today, I looked at the site at least once a week: Its orderly game release calendar for the year was always helpful in keeping track for this very column. It’s currently unavailable to access as the whole site has been replaced with a farewell landing page.
Also, while this is not necessarily emotional, this is also another week where we look over earnings reports from major companies. Putting a visual and numbers to each company’s fortunes can be a bit daunting — Nintendo’s report, for example, shows that the Nintendo Switch is well and truly reaching the end of its twilight years, as sales are dwindling. Also, from Microsoft’s quarterly report, while Xbox content and services revenue (a.k.a. Game Pass) is up, Xbox hardware revenue is plummeting and has been since last quarter.
In personal news, I’m continuing my refresher playthrough of Dragon Age: Inquisition — I realized only after the last Kaser Focus was published that I never explicitly said that’s what I was doing to prepare for The Veilguard. I’m also taking this week, which has a relatively lean release calendar, to start playing some games I’ve overlooked up to now, including games like Turnip Boy Robs a Bank and Vampire Therapist. Variety is the spice of life.
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What to play this week
What’s new:
- Thank Goodness You’re Here!
- Star Wars: Bounty Hunter
- Sword of Convallaria
- The Garden Path
- Minds Beneath Us
- Kitsune Tails
- Space for Sale
New on subscription services:
- SteamWorld Heist (Prime Gaming)
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (Prime Gaming)
- Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (Prime Gaming)
- Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation + Chronicles (Prime Gaming)
- XDefiant (Amazon Luna)
- Batman Arkham Knight (Amazon Luna)
- LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Amazon Luna)
- Wobbledogs (Amazon Luna)
- Horizon Chase Turbo (Amazon Luna)
- Ultrakill (Amazon Luna)
- Monster Truck Championship (Amazon Luna)
- Kunai (Amazon Luna)
- Young Souls (Amazon Luna)
- Wonder Boy (Amazon Luna)
- Cyber Knights: Flashpoint (GeForce Now)
- Dark and Darker (GeForce Now)
- Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (GeForce Now)
- Stormgate Early Access (GeForce Now)
- Vampire Survivors+ (Apple Arcade)
- Temple Run: Legends (Apple Arcade)
- Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team (Nintendo Switch Online)
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