Nintendo Completes Transformation into Evil Corporation with Bullsh!t Patent
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 09/14/25 at 03:38 PM CT
Oh dear, it seems that the little toy company that saved gaming from itself after the Crash of 1983 has finally come full-circle and completed its transformation into just another Evil Corporate Person out to take advantage of every situation and exploit every legal loophole in order to entrench and enrich itself.
We’ve grown used to the constant noise from Nintendo’s legal team attempting to squash legal emulation and issuing Cease and Desist letters to long-time fans who just want to create Indie homages to the Nintendo games that proved to be such big influences on them, and on gaming as a whole. Nintendo’s transformation into a draconian, totalitarian control freak has been on full display in other ways, as well, with them putting the kibosh on allowing Nintendo console owners to backup their own save and game data locally after modders exploited that capability to run homebrew code on the Wii almost 20 years ago.
Sadly, Nintendo’s efforts to exert control over …
Sony to Bow-Out of Hardware in Favor of Community
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 09/06/25 at 11:48 PM CT
During its Summer financial briefing, Sony’s Senior Vice President announced that the company will be gradually changing the PlayStation division’s entire business model. “We are moving away from a hardware-centric business model more to a platform business that expands the community and increases engagement,” he said.
Based on this statement from one of the top men at Sony Corporate, it seems like PlayStation’s days may be numbered, at least when it comes to being a physical box connected to a TV. Following in Microsoft’s footsteps with the Xbox Division, Sony began to dabble in releasing its (very expensive to make) first-party titles on platforms besides PlayStation consoles in 2021, when it began publishing games on Steam. Now, the one-time Console Warrior even seems interested in pushing its software onto competing consoles, as this Summer it also posted a job listing for a “Multiplatform and Account Management Senior Director,” who would be responsible for …
Review Round-Up: Summer 2025
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/31/25 at 02:23 PM CT
Welcome back to another installment of the MeltedJoystick Review Round-Up. Here’s what our staff has reviewed since last time:
Nelson’s Reviews:
Matt and I decided to dump “Iron Harvest” after the first couple stages in the third campaigns absolutely sucked, so I went ahead and reviewed it so you, dear readers, can learn WHY it sucked. Aside from that, my Summer gaming was actually pretty good, with three other games earning a 4/5 Star rating or higher. Unfortunately, I got wrapped up in house-cleaning and redecorating my office, and kind of dropped-off for the... ENTIRETY of August. Maybe my motivation to start a new game will return in the Fall (or not).
Ghost of Tsushima – 4.5/5
Hatchwell – 4/5
Iron Harvest – 2/5
Pokemon Legends: Arceus – 4/5
Chris’ Review:
Chris finally completed his first Backlog Ablution title... then went ahead and completed the SECOND one as a ‘palate cleanser’ before starting the third one, which is also a gigantic Sandbox …
Backlog: The Embiggening – September, 2025
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/24/25 at 05:49 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future! Fall will be upon us before we know it, and with it will come the Autumnal rush by the Games Industry to push out as much pre-holiday slop as they can in order to flood the market and hope desperately that something in their grapeshot barrage of trash actually connects with the hearts and minds of the Gamer audience. Judging by September’s release slate, the Industry has their cannons fully loaded… let’s see if any of it is worth the powder to blow it up!
After going through ALL the releases and tossing out the plethora of ports that aren’t worth the keystrokes to mention, we’ve STILL got a TON of Shovelware titles coming in September, with every major category represented. In fact, the Shovelware is so prolific, it EQUALS the number of new game releases in the same time span (Just imagine how bad it would be if I didn’t cull out all the gratuitous portage beforehand!).
In the Licensed Swill category, we’ve got an …
Ubisoft is Breaking Up
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/17/25 at 04:46 PM CT
After the last few years of rampant buyouts, mergers, and corporate acquisitions, it seems that Ubisoft – surprisingly – is the one Evil Publisher to buck the trend. The French mega-corporation announced this Summer that they would be splitting into two companies, with the new, currently-unnamed subsidiary – receiving an infusion of cash from none other than Chinese Communist Party Propaganda Arm, Tencent. The new subsidiary will be taking with it the IP ownership rights for some of Ubisoft’s biggest modern franchises: Specifically, ‘Assassin’s Creed,’ ‘Far Cry,’ and ‘Tom Clancy.’
It seems that Ubisoft’s hand may have been forced, after years of failed Live Service flops like “Skull & Bones” and Woke flops like “Assassin’s Creed Shadows,” the French megapublisher was on the brink, and strolling the metaphorical Corporate Red Light District wearing its birthday suit. Unfortunately for them, neither Microsoft’s Xbox Division – that paragon of …
No New Square-Enix Games for THREE YEARS!?
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/10/25 at 04:40 PM CT
Square-Enix, the company that single-handedly boosted both the SNES and Original PlayStation to the heights of gaming godhood, has been in dire straits lately. It seems like all I ever get to write about regarding my two one-time favorite developer/publishers involves them doing something incredibly stupid or half-assed.
Unfortunately, this long-term pursuit of half-assedness has caught up with the former RPG powerhouse, to the point where the company has decided to pivot from a focus on ‘quantity to quality.’ That’s a hoary old chestnut in and of itself, but within the very same business presentation, made earlier this year, the company laid it out in black and white that they will be focused solely on re-releasing and re-making old games until after the third quarter of 2028.
So, if you ever thought what you needed in your life as an RPG fan is a chance to re-purchase slightly-prettied-up versions of games you probably already own on multiple vintage consoles (or …
Backlog: The Embiggening – August, 2025
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/31/25 at 02:16 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future! It’s Bakc 2 Skwell time again for all the little illiterate TikTokers. As usual, just when their target audience no longer has as much free time to swallow Tide Pods, eat cups of raw cinnamon, or kick down random doors, the Games Industry suddenly drops a whole bunch of releases, ending the doldrums of the Summer Games Drought. But, as usual, those of us with taste and acumen are left with the task of determining whether the Drought is actually over, or if those droplets falling from the Heavens aren’t actually rain.
We’ve got lots of Shovel-Ready trash coming in August, with Licensed Swill including games based on the ‘90s-era ‘Goosebumps’ children’s horror novels, the ‘80s-era ‘Space Adventure Cobra’ anime (which is on RetroCrush ALL the time, and it too cringey to watch), the relatively recent anime ‘Demon Slayer,’ and the ‘80s-era ‘RoboCop’ movie (with the new ‘RoboCop’ game being a sequel to …
Microsoft Terminates Key XBONE Feature
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/27/25 at 06:11 PM CT
Remember the disastrous Xbox One (a.k.a., XBONE) reveal, where Microsoft’s representatives spent all of their time talking about how you could have all of your non-gaming content (a.k.a., ‘it’) in one place, with little concern for showing actual exclusive games one might wish to play on the ostensible game console that was the XBONE? That feature came to be known as Microsoft Movies and TV… and they’re officially shutting ‘it’ down.
This reminds me uncomfortably of Microsoft’s decision to kill-off Windows Media Center and the dedicated versions of their flagship OS that came with it. The MJ Crew was SERIOUSLY invested in the success of Windows Media Center, with both Nick and I going whole-hog into cord-cutting (though, being rural, I never had a cord to begin with) and placing Windows Media Center-powered Home Theater PCs at the beating heart of our media consumption experience. The key difference, of course, is the fact that Windows Media Center was really, …
Steam Forced into Inconsistent Adult Content Ban by Purse-String Holders
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/20/25 at 05:02 PM CT
The world seems to have an Adult Content problem – Primarily that 70% of adults want it, while the other 30% are prudish scolds who want it banned. And, unfortunately, thanks to the Horseshoe Theory of politics, there’s enough power behind the desire for bans that they tend to be enforced.
A few years ago, Valve made waves in the face of Sony Bowdlerizing and censoring fairly benign and inconsequential content in Japanese games by announcing that any and all uncensored content would be welcome on Steam… then almost immediately regretted that decision. After a couple rounds of back-and-forth, though, Steam ultimately ended up as a glorious Laissez-Faire marketplace where people who were open to Adult Content in their games could opt-in to see such things, and those who didn’t want to see such content – or who weren’t officially old enough to see it – could ignore it. And that seemed to be the perfect balance between insane levels of porn everywhere (like unfiltered …
“Stop Killing Games” Movement Shows Europe Still Ahead of U.S. in Consumer Rights
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/13/25 at 03:12 PM CT
Rights abuses by IP and copyright holders have been a recurring subject on this blog, largely because they are so flagrant and egregious in contemporary Industrial Gaming, and neither the Democrats nor Republicans that control the United States government and write all of the laws seem to want to do anything about it. Considering the last major piece of legislation Americans got was the horrendous Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was copied largely intact across foreign governments ranging from the U.K. to Japan, it felt like we as consumers were at the mercy of Corporate Persons who seemed determined to NEVER let us enjoy Intellectual Property on our own terms.
Since the formation of the European Union, however, the European Commission has been on the bleeding edge of pushing for individual rights. Sometimes these pushes veer into nonsensical and Woke directions, but most of the time, European regulations force multi-national corporations to stop doing objectively …
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