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"Are video games okay?" - Gaming's First Annual Physical (Xalavier Nelson Jr.) (Patreon)

Published:
2025-07-04 16:12:38
Edited:
2025-10-10 05:43:18
Imported:
2026-06

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Content

Welcome to Post Game’s first annual physical, in which a special guest joins me to assess the health and stability of gaming, from the creators to the players, the industry to the culture. I’ve invited one of the smartest, analytical, and forward-thinking minds in video – writer, developer, publisher, critic, analyst, and occasional voice actor Xalavier Nelson Jr. – to give video games a thorough workup

Bonus Patreon Prologue: The state of games 10, 20, and 30 years ago

Act 1: The best of times - Why 2025 could be the golden age of video games

Act 2: The worst of times - Why video games feel doomed

Bonus Patreon interview segment: Xalavier on gaming’s past, present, and future

Act 3: The news of the week, including the ghoulish mass layoffs at Xbox

Today's episode's act-interstitials feature music from the games of Strange Scaffold!

Bonus: The state of video games 10, 20, and 30 years ago 

30 Years Ago: The Games of 1995 - How Many Did You Play? (Gary)

The Sony PlayStation in 1995 (Classic Gaming Quarterly)

GameSpot's Best and Worst of 2005 awards kick off (GameSpot)

A fun Reddit thread on gaming in 2005 (Reddit)

2015’s Games of the Year (Polygon)

A huge forum post on gaming in 2015 (Resetera)

Act 1: The golden era of gaming

Strange Scaffold games

I Am Your Beast

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown

Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3

Clickolding

El Paso, Elsewhere

GDC Vault (Game Developers Conference)

‘Skibidi Toilet’ Film and TV Franchise in the Works From Michael Bay, Adam Goodman — Listen to the Exclusive Interview (Variety)

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Is an Astounding, and Sometimes Frustrating, Masterpiece (Inverse)

Act 2: Video games are doomed

Paradox Interactive's leaders think you deserve an explanation (Game File)

If You Don’t Count Everyone Else, All Devs Are Solo Devs (VGbees)

No, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 wasn't "made" by 30 people (RPS)

Inside the Dragon Age debacle (Bloomberg)

Glen Powell’s face (Glen Powell’s parents)

Fortnite’s Darth Vader Is A.I.-Powered. Voice Actors Are Rebelling. (NYTimes)

Bonus: The past, present, and future of games

The word of the moment (Merriam-Webster)

Xalavier Neslon Jr. (TikTok)

Act 3: The News of the Week

Xbox has mass layoffs, cancels games, and closes the studio making Perfect Dark reboot (Eurogamer)

Fears for 100 jobs at Galway-based Romero Games (RTE)

I’m Getting Real Tired Of Not Being Able To Trust That A Video Game Doesn’t Have AI Crap In It (Aftermath)

Death Stranding 2's most important reference isn't a movie, it's a really depressing novel

Extinction entity. (Eurogamer)

Red Dead Online gets a big update… after being presumed dead (YouTube)

The launch of Endless Mode (Endless Mode)

G/O Media sells Kotaku to Gizmodo owner Keleops (Axios)

This week in video game links

Weird little places in Mario Kart World (AnyAustin)

The Freelance Camaraderie of Death Stranding (Endless Mode)

Chris Plante (Me!) On Life After Polygon (MinnMax)

Solid Gear Metal (Videogamedunkey)

Ahead of next week’s Atari episode: the history of Berzerk (PatmanQC)

Enter Elektro (Fudgebudger)

Free game of the week: Autopeli

This split-screen retro-style racing game runs on Windows and Mac. Meaning you should download it onto your laptop so you always have some local multiplayer ready to play with friends, co-workers, or classmates! (Itch.io)

What else I’m enjoying

Pete Docter and the Inside Out of Pixar’s Process (Mike Birbiglia)

Japanese Urban Legend Films (Accented Cinema)

Waterworld’s Trimaran: The Greatest Movie Boat Ever (The Atoll)

How Knockoff Jerseys Became Better Than Real Ones (Joon Lee)

Inside NPR's Tiny Desk Concert Set (Architectural Digest)

Comments

ran

Commenting because of Fortnite Darth Vader discussion, its something I have a lot of thoughts about. One, because I work in games, but also two, because the idea of using AI as like these... IDK digital mausoleums? Where we continue to generate the voice and likeness of the deceased has been a big fear of mine and its something that I haven't seen as much discussion on as other concerns with AI. Jones died less than a year ago and his voice has already been used as a commercial product.

Shareef

Phenomenal listen. Makes me actually interested in trying Fortnite

Goositrous

I really like the “best of times, worst of times” headline, because that’s exactly how I feel when I ask myself how games are doing. On the one hand, I’m becoming increasingly disinterested in the real high budget mainstream. I don’t even play multiplayer games for the most part, and a lot of the really big high touch releases haven’t been super interesting to me. Whenever I actually zoom in and see whats happening to studios it seems dire, and there have been a few really big highly anticipated releases that fell flat (civ 7, starfield, to name a couple). But. On the other hand. I am constantly excited about games now, more than I have ever been. It feels like every few weeks there’s something amazing and new, or at least competently made and interesting, not to mention something small and weird but specifically catered to my exact brand of sicko (it’s a train sim but for people who don’t actually care about specific train facts but rather only about the physical tactile feel of driving trains and it’s called Derail Valley and you should all play it). I’ve been playing games since the Christmas when the N64 released and I have never felt as spoiled for good, compelling choices as I feel today. I have a growing backlog of games I’m not playing even though I know I’ll like them, because I’m busy playing games I LOVE. It’s hard to be anything but optimistic, even though the world is obviously on fire. It seems like somehow things are still very cool.

icecold

Really hitting your stride with these last few episodes, and really enjoyed hearing the AI takes from Xalavier. A few ideas that I really resonated with that I think are relevant right across creative industries, not just games

Joe Moore

Xalavier was a great guest with a lot of keen insights in game development. This Microsoft news is such a bummer. Im close to cancelling game pass because it feels so unsustainable and we get these amazing showcases from them every SGF, but who knows if any of those games will actually release. Im downloading the alters right now on game pass but keep thinking I'd rather just give these devs the 35 bucks they're asking for their game

Bruce

Xalavier was by far your best guest yet, what a tremendous interview.

geopet

Loved this episode, Chris! One thing I would have liked to have received was some sort of opportunity for action during the Worst of Times section. I totally agree that the (I think well intentioned) approach of the less polished games mantra is not realistic or actually wanted. But what do players and industry people do then to support a positive future of gaming? Also, as a person affected in the 9000+ msft layoff, and I worked no where near gaming, I sincerely appreciated your take on it all. Thanks for saying anything at all about it.

S'Morgan

What an insightful person in the industry. Perfectly summarized the eventual result of AI.