Two of the biggest digital games stores have stopped selling thousands of titles following pressure from a coalition of anti-porn advocates and the world’s biggest payment processing companies. It’s happened before, will likely happen again, and is suppressing art, free expression, and marginalized creators. Last week, the indie gaming storefront itch.io sent out a sudden…
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 79, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, RIP your free time, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I’ve been reading about dire wolves and Neuralink and the history of the…
Kevin Bates managed to quit his day job and move to China after his game-playing business card, the Arduboy, went viral in 2014. But a decade later, Trump’s staggering and inexplicable new US tariffs are driving him out of business. Just as he was about to turn a profit for the first time, just before…
If Lockheed Martin made a Game Boy, would you buy one? In the 1990s, I was among the kids who thought military aircraft were devastatingly cool. By then, Tom Cruise and Top Gun had long established the F-14 Tomcat and a pair of aviator shades as a fantasy for young men; I personally preferred the…
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 64, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, get ready for some weird documentaries, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I’ve been reading about raw milk and $HAWK and WhatsApp, watching…
OpenAI has never revealed exactly which data it used to train Sora, its video-generating AI. But from the looks of it, at least some of the data might’ve come from Twitch streams and walkthroughs of games. Sora launched on Monday, and I’ve been playing around with it for a bit (to the extent the capacity…
The Case of the Golden Idol was a rewarding series of point-and-click murder mysteries that became one of my favorite games of 2022. And while I felt there was more story to explore about the titular golden idol, I wasn’t sure if a potential sequel could live up to its clever puzzles and fascinating, slowly…
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 58, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, Batman forever, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I’ve been reading about Simone Giertz and billionaire assistants and Checo Pérez and Call Her…
I no longer expect video games that tackle the subjects of racism and discrimination through fantasy — as Metaphor: ReFantazio does — to surprise me. Those stories never go beyond well-trodden depictions of “racism is bad,” and I tune them out like so much white noise. But Metaphor: ReFantazio has done the work, and its…
Can you feel it? There’s a slight chill in the air, the Sun is retiring earlier, and the leaves are beginning to change (at least in my Midwestern city). We’re wading right into the time of year when everyone starts posting the vampire Kermit the Frog meme to show how ready they are for Halloween….