I’ve been playing around with this newsletter for a while, trying to nail down exactly what I want to do with it. I’ve written a couple of essays, flagged a few things I’ve found interesting and tried (and quickly fell away from) writing a weekly recap of my work.
It’s time to hit the reset button. Pastimes will focus on video games, and the ecosystem that has sprung up around it: streaming, esports and so on.
My plan is to make this a weekly-ish newsletter. I’ll open with a short piece about something going on in the world of gaming, then recap the week in video game news along with some analysis (and possibly jokes?). Expect trailers, recommended reads and all of the good stuff.
If you want to keep up with everything that’s happening in the world of games and gaming culture without having to read IGN or Polygon or Kotaku all day, every day, I’ll do my best to keep you in the loop. Definitely read Engadget and my Forbes blog though!
I’m picking a heck of a time to do this with E3 and Summer Game Fest on the immediate horizon. I am forever a glutton for punishment.
If you’d like to clamber on board for the ride and subscribe, that’s great! If not, that’s cool too. Thanks for giving me a shot either way. I appreciate you.
Without further ado, let’s get cracking with Pastimes v2.0…
Before we get to what happened over the past week(ish), let’s take a look at what’s ahead. The next 10 days or so is shaping up to be the biggest time in gaming news in forever, with Summer Game Fest starting up, E3 getting underway and some other events on the docket. Let’s run through the schedule.
We’re actually already up and running, after a five-hour Indie Live Expo that started at 5AM ET Saturday morning and supposedly featured more than 350 games. I scheduled this newsletter on Friday, so I hope a lot of cool games were shown! A Guerilla Collective event is also happening today.
Tuesday will bring news about that awesome-looking Playdate console and after some leaks, EA will officially reveal the next Battlefield game on June 9.
Things will really, uh, kick off on Thursday with the Summer Game Fest kick-off event. Friday brings a gaming-related showcase from Netflix with details on series including The Witcher and The Cuphead Show. Koch Media will also have an event on that day.
It’s only on Saturday that E3 officially starts. Ubisoft, Gearbox and Devolver Digital are up on that day, along with Wholesome Direct (which will be full of wholesome games!) and more Guerilla Collective.
Expect Xbox/Bethesda, Square Enix, the PC Gaming Show, Future Games Show* and a Back 4 Blood deep dive on Sunday. Next Monday, there will be events from Capcom, Take-Two Interactive, Mythical Games, Freedom Games and Razer.
The next day brings a games-focused Nintendo Direct, Nintendo Treehouse Live, Bandai Namco and the E3 awards. And there could be more events to come!
Phew.
Even before all of that, there’s another big event that’s pertinent to games: Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference. Mobile is a growing sector for games, particularly as more people play AAA titles through the cloud on the likes of Stadia or Xbox Game Pass.
Apple’s long had an uneasy relationship with games, despite the massive success of them on iPhone and the advent of Apple Arcade. But it has made some concessions, such as allowing PlayStation and Xbox controllers to connect to iPhone and iPad. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see some gaming news coming out of WWDC as well.
On top of all that, there’s the small, tiny matter of the next-gen Switch that Nintendo is expected to announce imminently. Reports indicate Nintendo will announce it before E3 so publishers can show off games running on the hardware. Clock’s ticking, Nintendo.
It’s going to be a long week, and a likely exhausting one. But isn’t it exciting to know we have so much news about video games on the immediate horizon after the year we’ve just all had? It’s a modicum of normality, and I’m embracing it.
I’ll be helping the Engadget team cover all of the big news from WWDC, E3 and Summer Game Fest. I’m not sure what my publishing plans will be for Pastimes over the next week and some, but I’ll round up the big stuff at the very least.
*Disclaimer: I recently starting writing for Tom’s Guide, a Future publication. I’m not involved with Future Games Show in any way.
Reset (aka what you might have missed)
A bunch of new graphics cards you probably won’t be able to buy are here/on the way. According to my colleague Devindra Hardawar, the Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti is noisy but powerful and great at ray-tracing.
Far Cry 6, a game about guerrillas trying to overthrow the leader of a fictional version of Cuba, wasn’t political but then it was.
Extensive accessibility options definitely aren’t political, and all big games should have them.
The Cyberpunk 2077 debacle is still haunting CD Projekt.
Crysis 2 and 3 are getting remasters. I’m still astonished Crysis Remastered runs on Switch.
Tell Me Why, a game with a trans character in a lead role, is free on Xbox and Steam for Pride Month. (Happy Pride!) Claim it and it’s yours forever.
EA yanked five Need for Speed games from sale. The multiplayer servers will shut down by the end of August. So, go play those if you have them and feel the need… You know the rest.
Valorant going mobile.
No Man’s Sky gets prettier.
Horizon Forbidden West could be delayed beyond this year. The God of War sequel has been pushed back to 2022, but it will land on PS4 in addition to PS5.
Spare a thought for all those OG PS4s whose owners will try to run Gran Turismo 7 on them, since it’s coming to that console as well as PS5. Rooting for you, old PS4s.
Bend Studio is working on an entirely new game, following reports that a Days Gone sequel isn’t in development.
Dark Horse Comics is doing games now. Holding out hope for a Hellboy RPG.
If you’re anything like me, these clips of Viewfinder will break your brain.
Side quests (aka recommended reads)
Learn about an empire built on the foundation of PUBG Mobile cheats.
Polygon’s series on The Masterpieces of Streaming is really good. Definitely check out the lists of great streaming movies and dumb internet videos.
Endgame (aka everything else)
I finished Outriders (which is… fine) and the Control DLC (which is rad!). More on those soon, possibly!
Now that meatspace is opening back up and I have received my first dose of nanobots, I visited my happy place for the first time in 16 months and saw A Quiet Place Part II. It’s a real good, worthy follow up to a modern popcorn horror tentpole. Although it could have used a bit more of the brilliant Emily Blunt, it’s Millicent Simmonds’ movie, and she’s tremendous.
That’s all from me this time around. I hope you enjoyed this or at least learned something. If you did and you’d like to do me a solid, share it with a friend! Subscribe if you haven’t!
I had fun putting this revamped newsletter together. Let’s do it all over again soon.
It’s almost E3 time! Things are going to get wild.
If you have tips, feedback or ideas, smash the reply button, send them to kris@krisholt.net or shoot me a tweet or DM me @krisholt.
PS. Props if you understood the headline/subject reference without googling it. You’ve come to the right place.