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#32: Moving forward, looking back
To Los Angeles, sort of, and EA Play 2021, the latest instalment in what I suppose was technically the original not-E3.
Nathan Brown
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#31: There to be broken
Hello! It feels like a lifetime since the last Hit Points, probably because I’ve been through the mill a bit, which I hope goes some way to explaining the lack of an edition on Monday. Turns out that when a stomach bug meets a heatwave, bad things happen. After
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#30: Deck building
The danger with writing about the daily(-ish) machinations of the game industry is that you risk being, well, a bit of a downer. Over the past couple of weeks Hit Points has discussed the downside of subscription services, bemoaned Stadia’s messy change of direction and Sony’s dismal
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29: Turbulence
Google’s endeavours to establish itself in the game industry remind me of my attempts to learn Japanese over the years. On paper, it really ought to work: I excelled at modern languages in my youth, am a reasonably quick study, and have plenty of motivation to learn. I love
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#28: See those mountains in the distance?
We're deleting them.
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#27: Disaster report
So, it is finally here, sort of but not really: the Nintendo Switch (OLED Model). Catchy! I’m sitting down to write this the morning after the unveiling of what, in the spirit of not-E3, must henceforth be known as the Switch not-Pro, and I am still quite cross with
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#26: Talk to me, you'll understand
I’ve learned far more about games by talking to the people that make them than I ever have sat at home with a controller in my hands.
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#25: Denial of service
It seems faintly ludicrous that the runaway market leader should be this inhospitable to so many developers.
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#24: Consolidation prizes
Big company gets bigger and is worth more money, and the already rich grow somehow richer still.
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#23: Chloe battles the robot dinosaurs
When you hear a familiar voice in a game, it jars you — particularly when it’s one you associate with a disco-dancing unicorn.
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#22: The final lap of the race to zero
“I’ll wait for a sale” was a common refrain throughout the 2010s. Now we're going a step further: “I’ll wait til it’s free.”
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#21: The new normal
One of the few advantages of not-E3 is that this year I am not sat here the week after the show, back at my desk and miserable, willing the jetlag away and, in particular, struggling through the traditional post-show headcold. Lockdowns have changed the way we think about big crowds,