A Tough Talk About Big Walk

On this week’s episode, Nathan, Luke, and Riley convene to discuss the (at the time of recording) looming prospect of Jensen Huang’s complete career implosion brought on by—as could happen to any of us—his affair with an alleged Chinese spy. What happens to Nvidia now? And, I suppose more pressingly, what does this mean for the global economy, of which Nvidia props up a significant portion? Also, why do billionaires keep taking such unnecessary midlife crisis risks? Is it because they usually end up getting away with it? (Yeah.) Then we move on to the other major headline of the week: As it turns out, Big Walk, an indie darling whose creators have taken a number of otherwise-progressive stances, was made with a tiny bit of help from generative AI. Why did this feel like such a betrayal to so many, despite AI not generating any in-game assets? And what does this mean for an industry where AI has begun to feel increasingly inescapable? Lastly, we talk about our various near-death experiences (spoiler: we survived them).Credits- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Riley MacLeod and Luke Plunkett- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude- Subscribe to Aftermath!About The ShowAftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Gita discuss the series of stunning midterm wins Democrats picked up across the country, but don’t worry, this is still a podcast about video games and other nerd stuff, so we keep things close to home: Why did the right (or at least, brain-poisoned X users) think memes about Anakin Skywalker and a gender-swapped version of Draco Malfoy would turn the tide in their favor? And what was the end result of right-wing media spending a full election cycle fixating on Hasan Piker, a Twitch streamer, instead of their own candidates? Also, less significant but still funny: How did we end up in a situation where Halo composer turned sexist, homophobic asshole Marty O’Donnell lost an election while former Dragon Ball Z composer Nathan M. Johnson won a separate election? Lastly, Chris extols the virtues of Queen’s Domain, and we talk about our favorite video game secrets.Credits- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Gita Jackson and Chris Person- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude- Subscribe to Aftermath!About The ShowAftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On a very special Inside Baseball Week episode of the show, we’re joined by Max Scoville and Brian Altano—formerly of IGN until recent layoffs forced them to create their own independent network, X Button. It is not an understatement to say that Scoville and Altano knew IGN inside and out; both had been at the site for over a decade. We discuss how a publication that, to many, is synonymous with games journalism grew and adapted as it went from being the biggest fish in a relatively small pond to just another voice on the algorithmically-driven, content-obsessed internet. They also tell us what it was like when people used IGN as a target for their many grievances with games journalism, which was basically every day, for a different reason each time. Now, though, at X Button, they get to start over with a clean slate. A mere two weeks into the venture, they tell us what, ideally, that will look like. Lastly, we discuss a subject much nearer and dearer to our hearts than any of that: chicken nugget dipping sauces.Credits- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Riley MacLeod, and special guests Max Scoville & Brian Altano- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude- Subscribe to Aftermath!About The ShowAftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this week’s episode, Nathan and Riley are joined by Chris Kerr, formerly of Game Developer—the publication, not the concept—who’s now heading up newly launched site Vertical Slice. We discuss why he decided to leave a relatively stable gig of nearly a decade for the choppy waters of independence, as well as the challenges of producing capital-J journalism while wearing a plethora of other hats (definitely not something we can relate to). We also reminisce about how Game Developer, one of the industry’s biggest trade publications, used to be called Gamasutra—a pun based on history’s most famous sex book. Then we discuss a couple pieces of pertinent news: Fortune recently became the latest mainstream publication to print thousands of fawning words about how Asha Sharma is running Xbox, conveniently omitting the “into the ground” part. Why do journalists at places like Fortune, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal keep trying to help Microsoft rehabilitate its image? And who is any of this actually for? Next, we scrutinize the actual news buried in Fortune’s piece: The next Xbox might cost between $1,200 and $1,800. Again, who is any of this for? (Note: The news that EA is closing BioWare dropped literally just as we were wrapping up recording this episode. Otherwise we absolutely would've discussed it. Oh well, next time!)Credits- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Riley MacLeod, and special guest Chris Kerr- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude- Subscribe to Aftermath!About The ShowAftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this week’s very special episode, we come to you live—or at least, in-person—from Town Hall in NYC, alongside two NYC-based gaming luminaries: NYU Game Center director Naomi Clark and Half-Mermaid (Her Story, Immortality) director Sam Barlow. As part of the inaugural New York Games Week, we decided to sit down for a long-form discussion of the grimy and inhospitably expensive but also perfect city where most of us (sorry, Luke) live. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Austin are generally considered to be the country’s video game capitals, but NYC—the main character of Earth—doesn’t loom quite so large. Why is that, especially as a thriving NYC indie scene pumps out more and more GOTY contenders? Further, what keeps triple-A studios from establishing a foothold in the city that gave us Broadway, a place where other art and entertainment mediums thrive? In lieu of that, what kinds of freaks and weirdos (complimentary) do make and play games in New York? And is NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani one of them? We answer all those questions and more while still finding time to digress wildly onto topics like rival black mold subreddits and the video game of everyone’s dreams, as generated by Unity AI: Space Corridor.Credits- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Gita Jackson, Chris Person, and special guests Sam Barlow & Naomi Clark- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude- Subscribe to Aftermath!About The ShowAftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Chris, Luke and Gita sit down to talk about Control Resonant, a game they're all thoroughly enjoying (with reservations). Come for the thoughtful discussion of why Remedy games just hit different, stay for Luke’s monologue about the power of architecture.Credits- Hosts: Chris Person, Luke Plunkett and Gita Jackson- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude- Subscribe to Aftermath!About The ShowAftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this week’s episode, Nathan and Chris are joined by Nathan’s former Washington Post colleague, Mikhail Klimentov, to discuss the latter’s years-in-the-making report on former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick’s pattern of legal threats against publications who’ve reported on him in ways that he perceives to be inaccurate. We dig into why the story took so long to find a home, what Kotick—no longer running Activision and obviously quite wealthy—stands to gain from this, and how the knowledge that such a thing could happen shapes reporting coming out of sites without the time or resources to combat a defamation suit. Then we move on to this week’s big headline: more layoffs at Microsoft, this time reducing Halo Studios to a shell of its former self and putting Activision in charge of a series synonymous with Xbox going forward. We come to the conclusion that Microsoft has no overriding, long-term plan at this point; its decision making—like that of many other C-suites in the video game space—is largely reactive, and the end result is chaos. Finally, we talk about something everybody should try at least once: playing Half-Life Alyx in VR at Gita’s birthday party.Watch the report here: https://youtu.be/kKwpp-Bn8jI?si=lfEF7aoa_HOa6t6KCredits- Hosts: Chris Person, Luke Plunkett and special guest Mikhail Klimentov- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude- Subscribe to Aftermath!About The ShowAftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, Chris and Luke talk to The Verge’s Sean Hollister about the Steam Frame, Valve’s latest foray into the VR space. Both Chris and Sean reviewed it, and we get into the current state of VR, if it can be salvaged, the Beta test nature of reviewing Valve’s hardware and more. We also talk about FEX (the emulator that lets the Frame play full PC games) and the Big Picture consequences that this device might have on smaller, cheaper handhelds. Credits- Hosts: Chris Person, Luke Plunkett and special guest Sean Hollister- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude- Subscribe to Aftermath!About The ShowAftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this week’s episode, Chris and Luke are joined by Stephen Totilo, formerly everybody’s boss at Kotaku and currently breaking stories at GameFile. The latest scoop is about Bit Reactor, developers of the latest inheritor of the “XCOM-like” crown, Star Wars Zero Company – and how most of the people who worked on it have been left in employment limbo, despite releasing the game to stellar reviews. But covering all of that left Stephen with little time to review the actual game, so it’s up to noted tactics-heads Chris & Luke to tell us how the game actually stacks up. And then while Stephen hops off to put his kids to bed, Chris and Luke will stick around for some Mailbag questions about what media they might enjoy better if they weren’t quite so media-pilled.Credits- Hosts: Chris Person, Luke Plunkett and special guest Stephen Totilo- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude- Subscribe to Aftermath!About The ShowAftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Riley recap the highs (read: mids) and lows of Geoff Keighley’s least consequential annual advertisement fest, Gamescom Opening Night Live. The new expansion for Witcher 3—yes, the one that originally came out in 2015—looks cool, as does an arguably even longer-awaited continuation of a beloved series: Pony Island 2. But otherwise, it was hard not to let our eyes glaze over as Geoff and co ladled out a slurry of same-y looking games that embraced AI, shamelessly cribbed notes from other series, or both (see: Hoyoverse, Krafton). Then, a whole day later—which will pass to you like seconds thanks to editing magic—Kotaku’s resident GTA beat reporter Zack Zwiezen joins us to talk about the latest developments in GTA VI’s lengthy leak saga and, of course, the weird Netflix extended preview that Rockstar inconsiderately chose to air on Thursday, 24 hours after we typically record.Credits- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod and special guest Zack Zwiezen- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude- Subscribe to Aftermath!About The ShowAftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.