Rundown (1/19/2025) Why Are Games So Expensive to Make?

This Week’s Topics:

• Rundown Preamble Ramble: Why Are Games So Expensive to Make?
• Nintendo Switch 2 Announced (It’s Been SEVEN YEARS!)
• Video Game Generation Numbers Are Fine, Ya Old Farts (Another Tangent Before Bedtime)
• Nintendo Switch 2 Vs. The PC Handheld Market (Nat-Nat Bullies Silly-Billy PC Fans)
• Natalie Hates Age-Based Timestamps (A Machine Needs to Vent, and So Do I!)
• STOP KILLING GAMES Update! (UK Citizens, Sign This Petition!)
• Sony Cancels Another Two Live Services (This Venture Was a Boneheaded Waste…)
• Bad Person And Writer is a Cool Person and Wackadoo Writer (I Swear These Mini Showcases Won’t Be A Regular Thing)

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Rundown Preamble Ramble:
Why Are Games So Expensive to Make?

The broader games industry is in a shitty place at the moment. An oligopoly of live services are racking in immense amounts of cash, capital, and playtime through malicious practices. Major big budget releases are struggling to make back their budgets or profit. The industry is becoming increasingly defined on games that crack a zeitgeist or don’t. Live service trash is filling up new release windows, even after being proven to be a truly risk-riddled market. And, of course, the games industry is bleeding staff a la carte as managers, owners, and publishers cancel projects because of their failure to read the market. 

There are a lot of things wrong with the gaming industry, but I think one of the biggest factors worth highlighting is the costs of games. Big games nowadays cost years to make, budgets well into nine figures, and development teams easily in the hundreds. I find this to be frustrating as, from my perspective, most AAA games these days are just prettier and larger Xbox 360 games. And the costs of AAA game development back then was… still expensive, but a lot more reasonable. Monetary costs, time costs, and staff size were considerably less than what we are seeing today. $50 million is comparable to $250 million today, dev times of 2/3 years doubled into 4/5 years, and credits have gotten twice as long.

Why is this the case? That’s something I really want to know, as this just doesn’t make sense to me. The most obvious answer is to point and look at the graphics, which are bigger and better, i.e. more complex and harder to read, than ever before. Which is what notorious scum-rag New York Times said a few weeks back. And while that is definitely part of it, I doubt it would be that simple. Tools are getting better and more powerful. Modeling is a helluva lot easier than it was back in 2005. When considering photo scans, motion capture, asset stores, and asset outsourcing, this really does not hold water. Costs should go up, but not this much. 

I have heard the justification that games go through more iterations than before, more scrapping, revising, and playing with variables while the game is in varying states. Which, again, sounds pretty true for me, and both creating the systems for these revisions and going back and forth would take a good amount of time. I can see that adding months to a project’s length, and see it result in better quality, but not to this extent.

I have heard the explanation that games undergo longer pre-production and prototyping periods, which… okay, that definitely sounds true. They want to develop a core gameplay loop with a small core team of 10 to 30 people before showing it to the other 200 members of the dev team. Publishers and funders want a polished vertical slice they can look at before they greenlight full production. And time spent doing this is considered a core part of development, even if most of the developers are working on DLC and shit. However, this pre-production was always part of game development, and needs to be part of game development. I guess more planning is necessary now that dev teams are so big… but that doesn’t answer the core questions. Why have budget, dev time, and dev team size all increased exponentially?

Well, a Jason Schreier Bloomberg article went up this past weekend that presented several other factors that I did not really consider. That a lot of game devs who work on big projects are left with nothing to do for long stretches of time. Tools need to be developed, designs need to be approved, and work needs to be assigned to people before they can actually start work. Meaning a lot of people in these massive dev teams need to sit on their asses while they wait for more things to land on their desk. After which, they presumably work 30 hours in two days, because they could only work 10 hours during the first …Wait, why does that sound like nearly every job I have ever had in my life?

This alone would explain why AAA game development requires so much time and money, as people are being paid to ‘hurry up and wait’, but it does not really address the reason why so much staff is needed. If anything, the fact that there are people spinning their wheels, undergoing hours-long, maybe days-long, stretches of idle time, indicates there is too much staff, and certain duties should be handled by people performing multiple roles. Though, that is hard to balance when one needs specialized work to be performed quickly. Perhaps the answer then is to have an irregular schedule, like working three days for 12 hours a week instead of five days of 8 hours. Except that sucks for most people, especially if they need to do those three days back-to-back. I mean, I’d do it— I did that last week— but facilitating something like this is a managerial nightmare. 

The more people one must manage, the harder a manager’s job is, the worse communication gets, and the less invested people feel in a project, as things become too big to visualize or understand. Personally, I think this results in a vicious cycle where it is harder for people to deliver value to a project, as they cannot humanly understand what is going on. Where their guidance is necessary, and stepping out of their department seems daunting. However, you also need people when you need them, to implement systems, to clarify things, and to understand what is going on when something breaks.

This overabundant approach makes sense for something that is live and ongoing. You need more engineers to fix problems when something is supposed to be up 24/7. But publishers want games to ship as quickly as possible so they can start recouping their investments. Even if it means spending $50 million just to get a game out in fiscal Q3 rather than Q4. Just look at how Microsoft-Activision has been handling the budgets for the Call of Duty games. $700 million for one game is blatantly absurd, even if one includes marketing, but if the release quarter revenue is, say, $1.2 billion… then it’s easy to justify grossly inefficient work practices that add another $60 million to each successive game’s dev cycles.

Another factor cited by Schreier is the costs per developer at a game studio, highlighting how expensive it is to make games in major cities, namely Los Angeles. Throwing around estimated costs per employee at $15,000 to $20,000. Now, costs per employee include software costs, subscriptions, equipment/computers, supplies, workplace snacks and drinks, in addition to payroll, but Schreier emphasizes that most of it goes to payroll, which is true. …The part that just confuses me about this is how the hell these numbers make sense. Why is an annual $180,000 to $240,000 average salary considered reasonable for a game dev living in LA? 

Yes, it is a highly technical skill, and tech jobs dramatically rose in salary as time went on and— wait, have software developer jobs just inflated faster than standard inflation? Inflation has almost doubled the costs of things back in 2000, and about 50% compared to 2010. But looking at the first article that showed up, I don’t think that salaries for tech jobs grew dramatically from 2000 to 2019. They beat out inflation, but not by that much. And even then, game dev notoriously pays less than regular tech jobs despite being harder. 

Actually, hold on, where are most of the biggest game developers located? …Mostly southern California? …Yeah, and after the disastrous fires, things are only going to get more expensive.

Garf! I might think that payroll for work should have a very real cap (including for executives), but if a market of people demands that they be paid a certain amount of cash, you pay them. Them’s the breaks.

Okay, okay, so what is the actual source of these three problems? …I think I have a list.

One, publishers want games to be bigger and offer longer experiences. This will naturally require more game to be produced. While this length can be cheaply extended with rampant recycling, it tends to be addressed by making more environments, more story, more meaningful content. It’s how… example… Sucker Punch Productions’ InFamous (2009) went from a 15-30 hour affair to Ghost of Tsushima (2020) being 25 to 60 hours long. Twice as long, and the world was definitely more than two times bigger with more than twice as many assets.

Two, publishers want games to look better. This requires more artists to do art stuff and more engineers to make sophisticated lighting, weather, wind, particles, and other fancy systems. Sure, many of these tools come equipped with Epic-Tencent’s Free-To-Try Unreal Engine 5 Game and 3D Modeling Creation Software Toolkit. But even with good tools, humans still need to make things, correct visual bugs, and iterate on art direction. 

Three, production staff often follow the role of diminishing returns. The bigger a project, the harder it is for any single individual to add significant value, and the more hands something needs to go through. More people need to be trained, brought up to speed, and there is a greater chance of people doing the wrong thing, as it is harder to fully understand the project. This is not unique to game development, this is just… big organizations. Have a good system, have roles with a narrow scope, or things will be done wrongly!

Four, plentiful idle time. The desire to have people available just-in-time to avoid bottlenecks results in a lot of people getting paid $150k a year while having lengthy stretches where they have nothing to do. Or they are told to do busywork that will be thrown away when their real work is ready. This is a common trend in a larger scale labor, and is a far larger problem than in the world of game development. It is a core element of American office culture, where people are just left to lounge when they don’t have anything pressing to do. Otherwise, they are told to spend time doing something that will be scrapped, or to re-review things. It is an enormous waste, but if these people are not on standby, then the project will take longer to be completed.

Five, pre-production is longer, as is finding a core loop and creating a vertical slice for a game. And it is vital that this is gotten right early on, as otherwise, the entire project might be scrapped two or three years down the line. And literally nobody wants that. Publishers get a hefty expense and a loss of cash, workers lose their jobs, and the masses are deprived of a potentially good video game!

Six, everything is getting more expensive, and inflation is decaying the value of currencies around the world. E-Nuff said.

Seven, many prominent western game companies have clustered or been established in expensive cities or their suburbs, where the average salary needs to be higher due to higher costs of living.

There are a lot of other miscellaneous things that add to a larger budget. Developing more options and mechanics takes more time and requires more testing. The more complex a game is, the more expensive it will be. Localization and a synchronized worldwide release in all markets can easily add millions to a budget, especially if one wants the game to be dubbed properly in 8+ languages. Marketing costs are more expensive by virtue of the gaming audience being bigger and more scattered than years ago and, you know, inflation. 

Oh, and going back to the first point, the costs of the DLC and season pass are likely bundled into the costs of the main game. So, if a game has an extra 25% of game added as DLC, then it probably didn’t cost 25% of the base budget to make… but probably at least 15% of the base game budget. 

Okay, okay, but… what is the easiest to change? Uh… start up a game studio in Eucalyptus, Idaho and hire people around the world to work on the game, paying them based on where they live and discriminating against people living in high cost of living areas? If the average annual costs per employee is only $90,000, then you can ship comparable games for half the budget of studios in LA county. 

Akumako: “Fuck that! How are people going to be trained to do things like this remotely? Sure, some people can learn that shit on their own computers, in their own homes, but how are developers going to know and communicate with each other? Would you just set up a private Discord for that stuff and let them fuck around in there, exchanging information virtually, mandating some social time?”

Uh… Maybe? Of course, it would not be for everybody, and there would be certain inefficiencies brought forth by working remotely, and—

Akumako: “Wouldn’t the company then be incentivized to incorporate in the state with the most lenient labor laws and hire Indonesians, Indians, and Pakistanis to do everything for pennies on the dollar?”

…Yeah, pretty much.

Akumako: “That would not solve anything. That would just encourage the overworked tech gig economy that has been hurting studios in Southeast Asia for a decade now!”

Akumako, Love, I know this. I was about to say this is a really bad idea before you butted in. 

Akumako: “Okay, and? What point were you revving up toward?”

Well, much of this problem is stemming from a cost of living issue that is necessitating higher salaries. It would be better to establish a studio in like… Normal, Illinois rather than Chicago, as you wouldn’t need to pay Chicago salaries. But that is looking at the issue like an ant, rather than a giant, and the real problem here is that the cost of living is too damn high in certain places. 

Akumako: “Wait, so budgets are out of control because of capitalism making it harder to live?”

Yeah, pretty much.

Akumako: “Doesn’t that mean capitalism is causing a problem that is making it harder for companies to make money?”

Yep! Thaaaaat’s capitalism for ya! They raise expenses in lock-step with revenues, and make things bigger because nobody adjusts financials for inflation. (Except for you, loser!) All the while, more money flows to the top, until there is only a small cluster of kings. All according to keikaku.

Akumako: “So, to solve game budgets from being so high—”

Lady, we ain’t talking about games no more, we’re talking about everything! If you wanna save money, destroy capitalism!

Akumako: “How?”

Capitalists are responsible for capitalism. Get rid of ’em, and you’re 80% of the way there!

Akumako: “I think we can call this bread tube brain rot at this point.”

I agree!

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Nintendo Switch 2 Announced
(It’s Been SEVEN YEARS!)

I hate the fact that Nintendorks have been trying to hype an ‘upgraded Switch’ into existence ever since 2018. First the Switch Pro, which was a persistent rumor until 2021, when Nintendo announced the Nintendo Switch – OLED Model Video Game Entertainment System. Then, almost immediately, they switched over to speculate over the Switch 2. Hoping, again and again, that it would come out SOON™. They hoped it would be a holiday 2022 product, launching in tandem with Tears of the Kingdom. Then TotK got delayed, so they pushed it to launch in early 2023. That did not happen. Same with a holiday 2023 release, as contrary to rumors, the Switch still had plenty of life left in it. 

Still, 2024 was pretty light starting out, so they figured it had to be released before the end of the year. With the leading belief being a summer announcement followed by a holiday launch. …Then an October announcement, followed by a Q1 launch. …Then as 2025 was beginning, people were just desperate for Mother’s sweet milk. 

This milklust was heightened as leaks for the system began hitting these Nintendorks right in their newsfeeds, and by the time things got to CES 2025… it was just absurd. People were literally walking around with these things on the Vegas show floor. So please, blessed Milksome queen. Blessed All-Mother of Gamindustri, Nina Tendo, matriarch of the values of yore, grant upon us wretched cretins a sweet release by unveiling the Switch 2!

…That’s it?

YEP! After the original Switch reveal trailer went viral and got memed on for months, Nintendo unveiled the Switch 2 in a way that is very effortful… but also rather mundane. A trailer that sees the original Switch model transform into a Switch 2. It shows off the new design of the system and very little else, with zero narration or broader explanation of what it does beyond the name, Nintendo Switch 2, followed by claims that it plays Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 games. 

I mean… sure, customers around the world generally understand that a game system with a two after its name can play things the original couldn’t— thanks Sony— but is this really the best way to advertise the thing? Having the old system transform into a brand new one, without narration to clarify what someone is seeing? Like… 80% of the trailer could be the same if this was for a Nintendo Switch Pro or Nintendo Switch XL design. 

The biggest departure in terms of design is twofold. One, it appears that the IR camera used in Switch 1 is no more— which could be a problem with certain games that incorporated pointer controls. Maybe there’s hardware in there to emulate it. We don’t know yet. But we do have a visual confirmation that the Switch 2 Joy-Cons will be able to function similarly to computer mice. An odd Nintendo-esque idea that could be seen as an alternative to pointer controls, and help facilitate more games to use the ‘mouse and controller’ control option. Allowing users to use an analog stick for movement and a mouse for aiming.

This would be a great alternative control option, especially for shooters. I know freaks have been saying that a hybrid mouse and controller option is more ideal than mouse and keyboard for a lot of games. …And I agree. It just feels jank holding a controller in just one hand, but if one is using a six button mouse in one hand and half a controller in the other… that could work. Hell, Nintendo could be cooking up some wackadoo dual mouse control games. I don’t want that, as I do not want games to make use of new input methods, as I don’t think the world has an appetite for a new permanent device form factor. And I don’t want Nintendo to pull another DS, Wii, or Wii U and condemn their games to some jank-ass-hell emulation.

Also, the trailer revealed what looks to be a new Mario Kart game. However, as one of the 80 million Switch owners who doesn’t own Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (2017), I really could not immediately tell if it was a new game at first. Because what differentiates Mario Kart games is their graphical fidelity, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe still looks good enough to be a modern kart racer. 

Of course, those who make their living via Content Creation™ were able to strong-arm some analysis. Concluding, somehow, that the game will have 15 or 24 different racers, which sounds like hell. That various characters, particularly Donkey Kong, have undergone slight squishy redesigns as an aesthetic mutation. There seems to be a new item of some sort. But all of this is presented so quickly, with so little fanfare, that I could easily see someone mistaking this for Mario Kart 8. Just like how New Super Mario Bros. Mii in the Wii U reveal trailer looked almost identical to Super Mario Bros. Wii (2009). Especially if they are just checking out this trailer on their phones while on their way to work.

Even then… people can already play a very good Mario Kart, so what makes this new one worth upgrading to a new device? Especially when MK8D has 48 characters and 96 courses. Sure, new courses and new characters have an appeal, but nowadays I think people are more reluctant toward a new thing with less content and worse features. Bad app redesigns, enshittified game sequels, and OS upgrades have tainted the idea that new means better.

However, the point of this trailer was not really to sell people on the Switch 2 or Mario Kart 9. It was just to get the device out there to drum up hype from the masses who don’t follow gaming news sites, allow third parties to announce games for it, and appease investors. The actual full reveal of the system is slated for a Nintendo Direct on April 2, 2025. After which, the Switch 2 will be playable across various cities around the world via hands-on events from April 4th to June. Similar to what Nintendo did with the Switch in 2017. It’s a way to drum up further hype, leading up to the system’s full release. Which is slated to be… sometime in 2025. The general belief seems to be sometime in June, which sounds about right. That way, they can build up stock for the holiday season, get out a few big games, and not have parents compete with adult video game players.

Beyond this, nothing else was announced, so the Nintendorks will still be fidgeting in their seats like a bunch of improperly stimulated autistic children, but… let’s be honest, that’s their default state of being. (It’s cool, I can say things like that.) I’m really not too fond of announcements like this, as they offer so little bread to chew on compared to a more regimented deep dive. But I guess approaches like this spur more fluffy doomed-to-be-irrelevant discourse, which keeps names trending and relevant in this era of engagement.

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Video Game Generation Numbers Are Fine, Ya Old Farts
(Another Tangent Before Bedtime)

Akumako: “And thus, all players in the ninth generation have arrived!”

…Oh, are you trying to transition into some bothersome tweets I saw about people complaining about people bringing up gaming generation numbers?

Akumako: “Yep! Glad you’re being honest about this.”

I’ve spent too much of my life lying to myself to not be honest now. So, the topic:

There is a slight cultural divide over how to refer to the generations of gaming consoles, and with it gaming as a whole. The way it was commonly referred to early on was through informal names, mostly based on what the dominant console of that generation was, or what particular console the speaker wanted to reference. However, some Wikipedia editors tasked with chronicling this history for the digital age thought it was stupid to lay out generations like this. Because there’s the Pong generation, Atari generation, NES generation, Super Nintendo generation, PS1 generation, PS2 generation, PS3 generation, PS4 generation, and PS5 generation. 

If you want your medium to be taken seriously, you don’t use naming schemes like this, because it looks like a damn list of products. So some schmucks decided to give each of these systems a numerical name. Because numbers are easy and easy to say. Ultimately, it was merely introducing another synonym for an existing concept. People in 2003 just called the fifth generation the PS1 generation, and the sixth generation the PS2 generation. Because they mean the same damn thing. Getting pissy about this is like getting pissy about people calling it gender bender and not TSF. 

Anybody who is complaining about this is complaining about people using the ‘wrong’ word for something that just refers to a stretch of time. Even though it is the term used by the most accessible source for video game history. 

Personally, I have been trying to get away from the numbered term for a very simple reason. Not everybody knows what these numbers refer to. Meanwhile, people should know roughly when the PlayStations came out. Actually, I quickly checked, and the last time I used this nomenclature was in April 2024. Before that, January 2023. Huh. Guess I’m going to get horsefucked in Hell for my transgressions. I’m sure Jeremiah Pepperoni will love that.

Akumako: “So, you don’t really care about the whole ‘what generation is this’ discourse?”

I do care, because I care about the way things I care about are systematically approached and analyzed— I’m a fookin’ Aspie, aight? And I definitely did some ninth generation discourse when the Switch came out— and I consider it more aligned with the PS5 than the PS4 now than ever. But this is like arguing whether a new beetle should be a new species or a subspecies. Yeah, it matters a lot to some dorks, but does it really matter? No!

Akumako: “…Zoomies began in 1993 and you’re not a Millennial anymore.”

Oh, you bothersome bitch! I did not know what generation I was in until January 2015, when some dude at Macy’s called me a Millennial for wanting a firm mattress. Human generations at a load of old buck, and meant as a tool to derisively repackage ‘the youth is bad and different’ fearmongering from supple-hided pseudo-journalists. And Boomer is just a synonym for old person. 

Anyway, the demon is pulling me in wild directions, so let’s just get on with the other news. 

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Nintendo Switch 2 Vs. The PC Handheld Market
(Nat-Nat Bullies Silly-Billy PC Fans)

…Actually, NOPE! Still walking about Switch 2!

When the Switch came out in 2017, handheld gaming was getting by on the backs of Vita loving diehards and Nintendo 3DS enthusiasts. It was still going strong, but a far cry from the heights of, like, 2008/2009, when people were bringing their DS and PSP everywhere. And when the Switch came out, it basically killed dedicated handheld gaming by introducing a dockable tablet ‘hybrid handheld and console game system’. Merging two strata of the console games industry together, and proving to be immensely successful because for that. It was a portable game system that could be played as a home console and could achieve home console quality graphics. Whatever that means!

Over the past few years, there have been various other portable handheld gaming systems that have been following in the Switch’s footsteps. The Steam Deck, ROG Ally, Legion Go, and whatever else. This means the handheld gaming landscape is different from what it was in 2017. It has more competition, and there is an argument that the Switch 2 will be facing an uphill battle against these pre-established PC handhelds. To which I say… nah.

Let’s do a simple numbers test. The Nintendo Switch has sold over 146 million units, maybe even 150 million units after the holiday season. Each of those users has invested in the Switch ecosystem, and has a potential interest in going forward into the next era of Nintendo. They want the next Real Mario, Real Zelda, Regular Animal Crossing, Real Mario Kart, and so forth. So hearing about a better Switch that lets them play new Nintendo games for the next 5+ years would sound pretty appealing to them. Sure, there would likely be a drop off, particularly of casual users, but that does not mean they would flock over to PC handhelds.

Next point! How many units did these PC handhelds sell? Well, that information is far harder to come by, but it is important to recognize that these are enthusiast devices, and the numbers we do have are rather tiny. The Steam Deck launched in February 2022, and Valve has not announced units sold since a three million figure back in 2023. However, I think it is safe to say more than 5 million and less than 10 million units. That is definitely not bad, but I have not heard of any of these Steam Deck-likes breaking a million, when I would think that to be an announcement worthy event for their manufacturers.

With this in mind, I would estimate that the Nintendo Switch’s install base probably exceeds that of this new wave of new PC handhelds by a factor of ten to one. And I also do not see this changing dramatically with the Switch 2.

While SteamOS makes installing and playing PC games as frictionless as it could be, PC gaming has a built-in level of finickiness that will never appeal to a large subset of people. The same applies to any gaming handheld running on Windows. These systems are generally supplemental peripherals to people already invested or interested in PC gaming, and will always lack the child-tier usability of a Nintendo Switch.

You just turn it on, make an account, pop in the game card Mother bought you for your 9th birthday, and play it. You can play it alone, play it with friends by detaching the controllers, or play it on the big TV, which some people really like to do. Take their entertainment with them on a transportation device, in their bed, or on the big TV in the living room. Sure, you can do that via a Steam Deck and a USB-C dock… but you need to buy that separately, hook up another game controller, and possibly deal with troubleshooting issues that vary from game to game. Sometimes it just works, other times, you gotta do some fiddling.

The Switch just works. For the Steam Deck or its contemporaries, you need to do some work for it. It’s the same conclusion that always comes up in the console vs. PC debate, and the only difference is the fact the device is handheld instead of box-shaped. …Also, anybody having this conversation who already has both a Switch and a Steam Deck is just going to wind up getting both. 

Oh, but what’s that? The market is going to be different as both Sony and Microsoft are planning on making dedicated PlayStation and Xbox handhelds? Well, that does complicate things, but I’d imagine that these won’t be handhelds as they were in the 2000s/2010s. Both of these will likely just be portable versions of the PS4 Pro (or PS5) and Xbox Series X, allowing existing users to access their digital games library portably. 

People who prefer portables and don’t own the consoles could use them as fully functional devices. Yet the primary demographic would be established PlayStation and Xbox enthusiasts, as they would just be portable versions of an existing piece of hardware. I can see them selling 10 million and 5 million respectively, which would be über sexy, but would that even compare to the Switch? Hell no!

The Switch is not just a portable version of something you can already get. It is its own ecosystem, its own platform, and has access to… just too many games, because Nintendo does not police their online store, like, at all. And Nintendo is committed to making it the ONLY place you can get their games. People do not get a Switch because they want portable gaming. People do not get it because it is at a fairly affordable price. They get it for the games that are on Switch. 

People buy a Nintendo for the Nintendo!

The portability, form factor, build quality, price, and so forth are all perks. But no significant number of people just got a Switch so they could play Doom (2016) and Skyrim (2011) and other games they already own for their PlayStation. Look at the best selling games for the system, and imagine how many people bought it just for that game and maybe three others.

I could go on and on, highlighting how Nintendo has endeared themselves to parents buying game consoles for children, how Switches are heavily promoted at retailers and not in the PC section. How Nintendo currently occupies half of all dedicated game stores, if not more. How casual folks might only vaguely know what a Steam Deck is, and would have no idea what an ROG Ally X (pronounced as Rahg Allie) is supposed to be. But Switch? That’s just mainstream.

The way I view it, a Wii U level disaster is impossible for the Switch 2, as Nintendo is just too strong and too prominent in the eyes of gaming enthusiasts. However, Switch 2 will almost certainly do worse compared to the Switch, as it will lack the new device novelty and the COVID gaming boost. It might do 3DS or PSP numbers, but I’d guess PS1 or Wii numbers. While the Steam Deck would take at least three generations to surpass GameCube numbers.

Am I crazy? Maybe! Debate me in the comments below if you disagree.

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Natalie Hates Age-Based Timestamps
(A Machine Needs to Vent, and So Do I!)

Something that brings me a routine frustration is when data is presented in a bad or unhelpful way. I do not like it when online services, financial statements, or the ilk abridge numbers for the sake of ‘readability,’ when I NEED the precise figures. I do not like it when information is only stored in a link, rather than the GUI of the page I am looking at. But the one thing I loathe more than any other is when the date something was released, published, or pushed is denominated in age, rather than a date. 

Now, there are certain instances where I think this is useful. Namely, for things that happened within the past week. But after that threshold, then it just becomes annoying, because in order to answer the question of ‘when was this published/posted/said/dated’ you need to do some math. But not precise math. You need to do math with rough and vague numbers that are not particularly useful. 

For example, if on January 15, 2025, you encountered something that was stated to be 3 years old, when would that thing have originated? Well, anywhere from January 16, 2021 to January 15, 2022. That is not helpful. It is too vague, refers to too large of a span of time, and it would be far more beneficial to just be given the timestamp and see that this thing is from June 16, 2021.

Now, imagine that you are trying to perform historical analysis, reconstruct financial data, and wherever you go, things are denominated in age rather than date as a rule. Can you imagine any instance where that would help someone more than just being given the time and date information? Because I sure as hell can’t!

However, beyond my day job, it also really irks me when I see this pop up when watching literally anything on YouTube. The site really does not want you to know when something was released at a glance, and even when watching a video, you cannot just see the publication date in a corner. Oh no. With a browser on a 1080p monitor, you cannot see the publication age without scrolling down, where you are given an approximated view count along with an age. You need to click on the field to view the exact view numbers, the publication date, and the description information. Which… I am a literal decade late to this party, but I bloody HATE how YouTube does not show the description by default. It provides vital context for certain videos and creators use it as a means of informing viewers on many, many things related to the video. Yet the site is designed so that most viewers are encouraged to ignore it.

Literally who is this helping, how is this helping them, and what is the point of doing all this? Was this one of those cryptic focus test things, or from the same bout of divine wisdom that inspired YouTube to change the play bar from a static red to a red that fades into a pink? 

Now, the subject of dates and date formatting is also a massive bugbear for me, something that has been billowing in the background ever since I started this site. The ideal way to write a date is YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm. No slashes, because they cannot be used in Windows file names. First year, then month, then date. So any sorting algorithm would sort them in date order. It is simple, clean, and forces you to read the information in a linear order.

Akumako: “What about DD-MM-YYYY format?”

Akumako, my Sweetums, kindly fuck off with that! This is a digital world and digital sorting is a necessity! 

Akumako: “You use the American system, don’t you? That shitty MM/DD/YYYY format. It’s what’s used for Rundown names and it’s how every date is written here.”

Because Americans don’t understand any other system. And most of my audience is Americans.

Akumako: “Don’t you use Celsius and the metric system in your novels?”

Yeah, because they make sense! But I reference length, weight, and temperature way less than I reference dates.

Akumako: “Uh… okay. Hold on, I think I figured out why that might be the case. Because no matter what time zone you’re in, the age of something remains the same, while date and time are always affected by time zones.”

…That actually makes sense, but when does it ‘make sense’ to say that something came out 1 year ago. Like, geeze, can you be more specific?!

Akumako: “Most people do not fuss around with spreadsheets for fun, you know. They are not drawn by numbers and like the idea of things being vague.”

Is that what scientific research says or marketing research says?

Akumako: “That don’t matter. It’s what these yuckos believe.”

Eyup! It’s a trend amongst tech fucks who think that they know how things work, while also making things harder for themselves and—

Akumako: “They just write scripts to get the info they need, no need for a GUI—”

That’s dumb! I get that I should have learned programming and how to write scripts, but I should not need to do that just to understand financial data. Just to be a basic-ass user. I am doing financial and recreation work, and I should be catered to by these stupid services developed by box-headed people. Just make information easily available at a glance, don’t lock it behind programming, because that is just inconvenient guff that would only benefit people with programming knowledge. And despite being something seen as important, programming is not part of a basic education anywhere in the world.

Akumako: “Are you going to make a joke about how the E in STEM stands for English again?”

I mean, it should, because only a small percentage of the workforce are engineers, and I don’t even know what an engineer actually does beyond make stuff work. I never had to learn no stinkin’ engineering. Meanwhile, everybody uses math, everybody needs to know basic science, everybody needs to know how to use tech, and everybody needs to speak English. 

Akumako: “No, they really don’t need to know English, Natalie.”

English is the de facto international language. It’s not a great language— whatever that means— and people have tried to make better languages, but English is the biggest one, and the most common second language in the world. …Also, it sounds nicer than Chinese. Sorry, Chinese readers, but comparing your language to Korean and Japanese, yours doesn’t sound as pleasant. 

Akumako: “English doesn’t sound great in a lot of instances.”

Does that change my point? Nooooo~!

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STOP KILLING GAMES Update!
(UK Citizens, Sign This Petition!)

Once again, it is time for me to bang my drum and promote Stop Killing Games. They are pretty much the best endeavor pursued by anyone to get the governments of the world to prevent companies from killing games. Here meaning shutting down MMOs, live services, and all manner of online-only games, rendering them unplayable. While some titles are propped up by private services, offline versions, and the like, there is no standard for this, and there is little beyond bad goodwill to prevent companies from killing games. Their goal is to get governments to at least consider this often ignored issue, and they have been running a series of petitions. Namely the European Union petition launched last summer— which really needs more attention. 

However, this past week, they launched a UK petition. If this gets 10,000 votes, then the government will offer a response. If it gets 100,000 responses, it’s going to parliament.

I personally have doubts that the UK government gives a shit about its people, let alone the preservation of artwork, but if you’re a UK citizen, and care about games, please sign this petition. The goals are modest enough and the British gaming audience is wide enough that this should be feasible, but that’s no excuse to not sign the damn petition and do your part to try to save gaming!

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Sony Cancels Another Two Live Services
(This Venture Was a Boneheaded Waste…)

On that note, right as I was getting this post ret-2-go, Jason Schrier struck yet again, dropping the straight dope on how Sony canceled two live services in development at internal studios. One of which was Bend Studio of Syphon Filter fame, who was working on an unspecified project, but it could be anything. The other one was Bluepoint, a remaking powerhouse, who was working on a God of War live service. …What?

Okay, so… I think the logic here is that Bluepoint was working on God of War: Ragnarok (2022) as a support studio after they finished up Demon’s Souls Remake (2020). This meant they were familiar with the IP, so Sony I guess decided that they had the capacity to make a God of War multiplayer game. Which is just such a bad idea. 

Firstly, God of War tried multiplayer before, in God of War Ascension (2013), and it was alright, but nothing to really keep many people coming back. Why would you try it now, when it is five times more expensive, and right after reestablishing the series as a story-driven action adventure game? Who would want to play a God of War multiplayer game where you do not play as Kratos the Ashy or The Boy?

Secondly, Bluepoint would in no way be equipped for this. They, as a studio, are only equipped to do four things. Remake games. Offer support to existing studios. Make their own IP. Revive a classic IP Sony abandoned over the years with new entries. Yet Sony decided to have them WASTE two years on a project that they ultimately canceled. When they could have just… not greenlit it, because this was never not a bad idea. 

Because of utterly boneheaded moves like this, SIE’s leadership during this time will have to go down in company history as the most short-sighted batch of dullards to ever steer this ship. Yes, even worse than the blind confidence that led Sony to develop the PS3 under unfamiliar eldritch architecture, launch it with a blasé first year lineup, and price it at $599. …Which is $939.75 in today’s money! (Actually, I take that back, Ridge Racer 7 was good, same with Motorstorm (2006).)

Now, you might think I’m just being reactionary, but hear me out. The PS3 made a comeback, and while studios struggled to get games to run on it, it still had a bangin’ first-party lineup. Meanwhile… Sony has likely spent billions on their live service initiatives, and has only two successes to show for it. Helldivers II (2024) and Destiny 2 (2017).  

Akumako: “Aren’t you being a little harsh?”

…No? They have two smaller scale studios who could have done anything. They should have analyzed the market, realized that the market would become too saturated— which I definitely knew would be the case in 2022— and at least put them to work on a game that would be shipped. A game that people could list on their resume and that humans outside the studio could play. But no. They just wasted years of time and oodles of dollars!

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Bad Person And Writer is a Cool Person and Wackadoo Writer
(I Swear These Mini Showcases Won’t Be A Regular Thing)

To end things out on a quick little note, a commenter directed me to a TG caption writer for a shout-out and… yeah, I think it’s warranted. Bad Person And Writer started out as one of the 732 competent yet unremarkable TG caption writers on DeviantArt when she hit the scene in 2021. Mostly writing anime character TG captions that ran the gamut of familiar tropes. Protagonists getting sucked into games, finding magical clothing, artefacts, and winding up as a busty babe of some manner. She even did a Pyra TGTF, and I have a soft spot for those. (I have way too many things to do to write TSF Series #001-2: I Am Isadore…)

She continued this as a side hobby for about three years, producing some odd TF captions, and just a plain old erotic caption. But when she returned in the summer of 2024, her work became… bizarre. Something deconstructive, honest, personal, and also a shitpost at the same time. 

Such as a Coffin of Andy and Leyley caption that’s transparently a fictionalized version of the writer venting about their transition, strained relationship with her parents, and life woes. …Along with some Class of ’09 references, because people admire Nicole’s honesty and hyperbole. And I get it. I too wish Nicole was real, but she’d already be dead by now.

This was followed by another TG caption about a male porn star being poofed into a hot anime girl before getting fucked by Ronald Reagan. A straight up shitpost littered with meme characters and also a bully with the ability to turn the protagonist into a Genshin girl through his sheer alpha male dominance. An overtly political piece about a pro-life liberal eating crayons as a low-calorie snack and being transformed into Edelgard from Fire Emblem Three Houses. …And then getting isekai’d to an alternate future where Clinton won the 2016 election. 

But their pièce de résistance came in August 2024, shortly after Biden dropped out of the presidential race. A TG caption where Trump turns Biden into the bastard cop lady with a fat ass from Zenless Zone Zero and fucks them. Which is followed by an epilogue that… you can read for yourself. Nay, should read for yourself. Because it just gets weirder.

Then they did a mafia caption about a deadbeat becoming a rat thot. A Thanksgiving Christmas TG caption that… is objectively not a TG caption, and is just a shitpost about some conservative burgeoning trans girl meeting a succubus. And a Needy Streamer Overdose caption where the protagonist’s words just decay into goop after they take some estrogen.

It’s all such a weird implementation of the medium of TG captions, and something that I just find deeply captivating in how unusual it is. I can see this creator has some intense emotions that they need to get out in some way. But the choice of medium, the way that they are weaved into these pointed yet deliberately unserious stories, and the unhinged rants in their afterwords, is what makes them remarkable.

It’s all so unlike what I am used to from TG captions (wank material), but I enjoy seeing people take their raw emotions and channel it into something, and I simply had a lot of fun reading these. They’re funny, messy, hyper-political in a way I find cute, and by being so personal, I find it easier to enjoy them. So… yeah. Bad Person And Writer is a cool person and cool writer. Wish she wrote more though.

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Progress Report 2025-01-19

God damn it, I would frame this in my room if I didn’t need to explain the context to my mother. Because this is just hilarious to me. But it is also so complicated and hard to explain. First, this is a redraw of a meme of a dad using his laptop on the couch while his dog acts as a mouse pad. Second, these characters are representations of people from the Press-Switch Discord. A Discord that I keep pins on, because the traffic is just manageable enough, and I do not trust Trigger with… well, a lot of things to be honest. (If you know, you know. If you don’t figure it out. If you can’t, fuhgeddaboudit, ya pooch.)

The person on the laptop is meant to be Trigger, the creator of Press-Switch, but he is in the body of a character who is not from Press-Switch. No, he is not in Abby Luten from Student Transfer, nor is he in Tamahara Youko from Kamidere (2012). Instead, he is in the body of Celeste from Darknost’s upcoming Eman Looc’s Possession Scroll reboot.

While the dog girl is the third biggest member of the Press-Switch Discord, Skillet Caso, who has positioned herself as the assistant, proofreader, and… adoptive daughter of the project. With developer Trigger being the dad and programming maid and community manager Mariana being the mother.

Why is Skillet a dog girl? Well, Skillet has been presenting herself as Vanessa from Press-Switch for much of the past few months. With Vanessa being a typical Bishop hottie, but Trigger decided to give her some variety of mental disability. At least based on the v0.4 canon. However, Trigger got bored of this and TF’d Skillet’s profile pic into being a dog girl and changed her name to “puppy caso.” Because Skillet has been posting a bunch of stuff about puppygirls, using a puppy emote, and… it’s appropriate, okay? Skillet is a puppy sometimes.

Just… why am I compelled to learn and understand all this? I don’t feel bad about sharing this. The Press-Switch Discord is a public place. But… segment over, okay? SEGMENT OVER!

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2025-01-12: Wrote 2,300 word game budget segment. (Welcome back friend, we are SO BACK.) But then I had to work on some more work. I worked over 50 hours this past week, when I rarely ever work a full 40, mostly because one client has fashioned together a FINE MESS! Then I checked out the showcased writer at the ending bit. By the time I was done, it was already 1 AM and… man, screw starting anything at 1 AM. Still wrote 800 words for the age rant thingie. 

2025-01-13: Read through TSF Showcase 2025-01 comic. Wrote 1,200 words of stuff for the Rundown. Wrote like 1,500 words for TSF Showcase 2025-01.  

2025-01-14: MOTHERFUCKER! Here I thought I was going to have a nice day off, but then Cassie and Shiba roped me into an anime and movie night and… while I love those two, the time I spend with them is time that I would otherwise spend writing. It just is. And when I was done with that, I was slapped in the face with more work that kept me busy from 19:00 to 22:30. GREAT! …Wait, how TF did I still get 3k words for Showcase 2025-01? Dunno! Also, stupid Walgreens LIED when they said they would give me a YEAR of estradiol. They only had enough to fill up a month’s worth, and now my copay is 50% more expensive. Somebody get Mario on the line! He needs to fulfill his brother’s legacy! Also, Waluigi too! That dude’s got terrorist written all over his perky little ass! Wrote 1,500 words for something coming next month, because the inspiration struck me.

2025-01-15: Busy with a full day of work, and some light night work to boot, but I managed to get 3,800 words in, getting to the halfway point of Showcase 2025-01. Added the 500 word thingy about generations, ‘cos some tweets made me angy!

2025-01-16: Wrote 2,000 words for Switch 2 stuff. Wrote the 400 word PlayStation bit. Edited this 8,000 word thing. Wrote 600 words for TSF Showcase 2025-01. Made the header image, and… yeah, I think that’s it. Would have done more, but at 00:30, I was just tired and spent.

2025-01-17: Wrote 3,300 words for TSF Showcase 2025-01 by writing in the morning. Then I was busy working in the evening from 13:30 until like 2:00, taking about two hours to do stuff like dishes, exercise, showing, cleaning the shower, etc. Damn you crypto bros!

2025-01-18: Hey! It’s the weekend! Meaning I was able to hunker down and do some writing— nah, I had to work basically all day and didn’t get to write a lick. On one hand, it is good that my firm is getting more historic crypto clients, as my boss loves racking up debt, like a fucking idiot, and $15,000 retainers are good for keeping up the cash flow. But fuck me has this one 60k transaction client been the biggest pain in my ass. He’s not a bad guy, he just did the most complex wackadoo shit I’ve ever done seen! I’ve already racked up $18,000 in billable hours from this, and I’ve managed to work 105 hours in 17 days. When I’m supposed to work only 100 hours a month on average. What the fuck? This isn’t even busy season! But I HAVE to do this, because I’ve spoiled my boss to the point where he has not touched a crypto platform as a user in a good two years, probably three. And I have to do this now, because if I don’t, then we’re going to be in BIG TROUBLE when we need to get out 150+ returns by October 15th. I seriously cannot WAIT until my boss sells this firm. And not just for the money. That shit would just go to the mortgage anyway… Just 19 more years…

Akumako: “…The fuck? Didn’t you get a usual 30 year mortgage back in October 2023?”

Girl, some things are confidential. Even to me!

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