MeltedJoystick.com Gaming Blog

Woke Corporatism: Activision Introduces “Diversity Space Tool” Ahead of Microsoft Acquisition

Sun, 15 May 2022 17:27:19 -0500

Remember when we could all hate on corporate Big Business for being greedy, unethical, and in-bed with the Far Right conservatives of the Republican Party – who, naturally, offered the corporations fat tax breaks through the magic of Trickle-Down Reaganomics? Well, ever sin...

Square-Enix Dumps Its Half-Dead Western Division

Sun, 08 May 2022 15:30:27 -0500

We at MeltedJoystick have never truly understood what Square-Enix was thinking back in 2009 when it bought the dying carcasses of Eidos and Crystal Dynamics – the Interplay-era Western developers responsible for Leaden Age PC games the likes of ‘Tomb Raider,’ ‘Deus Ex,’ and ‘Thief’ – and grafted those studios and d...

Backlog: The Embiggening – May, 2022

Sun, 01 May 2022 15:49:17 -0500

April showers are supposed to bring May flowers, but with the drought affecting so much of the U.S., that’s kind of tough. Actually, as May rolls in, it’s finally starting to feel like it was supposed to in April, leading me to believe that, with climate change, we’re seeing the seasons shifting away from what’s traditionally been expected… Just like the Games Industry, which, th...

Paradox Interactive Models Positive Behavior Regarding Fangames

Sun, 24 Apr 2022 17:43:44 -0500

Fangames have been around since the adolescence of the Internet, circulating within the same gaming communities that tended to pass-around ROM-hacks that spice-up (or ruin) old favorites and Fanslations of unlocalized gems (or Last week I raked Nintendo (and to a lesser extent Sony) over the coals with the help of a YouTuber. But we never really got to the root of “why” corporations like Nintendo and Sony – who have been so foundational to the history of videogaming on the whole – refuse to engage with Games Preservation, backward compati...

Nintendo Proves that Official Emulation Just Can’t (Won’t) Compete

Sun, 10 Apr 2022 16:31:47 -0500

Last year, at about this time, the big gaming bugaboo was the fact that Sony was planning to shut-down access to their digital PlayStation Store for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and PlayStation Portable. This news, combined with the fact that an known bug in Sony’s firmware could invalidated digital purchases unti...

E3 Cancelled Again, 2023 to Feature “Revitalized” Show

Sun, 03 Apr 2022 14:43:27 -0500

Due to the lingering effects of the still-ongoing (thanks, anti-vax retards) COVID-19 pandemic, E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, which has long been the Entertainment Software Association’s biggest and most publicly-visible trade show, has been cancelled again in 2022. Back in early 2020, when the outbreak was just getting started and nobody knew how COVID was spread, let alone had access...

Backlog: The Embiggening – April, 2022

Sun, 27 Mar 2022 15:51:52 -0500

The most Foolish month of the year will soon be upon us, once again. Let’s see what the fools within the Corporate Games Industry want the fools they call consumers to buy now! We’ve got shovel-ready trash, once again, coming in April, and from some unexpected corners. In the Licensed Swill category, there’s a HUGE, all-encompassing ‘corporate sense of the word) are still pouty about being mocked for their miserable E3 presentations of years pas...

He’s Everywhere VI!: Dungeons & Dragons Edition

Sat, 12 Mar 2022 18:53:16 -0500

Every March, our beloved Community Manager, drain clogger, stale potato chip disposal, and disappearer of money, Chris, gets a year older and a year more idiosyncratic. Last year, I threw Chris a bone and poked fun at myself for being such an antisocial mi...