Humour me with a little thought experiment. Go ask someone, anyone, to name one love story in film, literature and music. They may stumble on one of the three, but I’d wager they wouldn’t do too badly. Now ask them for a love story in a video game. If they don’t game, I’d reckon they’d… Read more »
To this day, my friends and I still aren’t sure what killed our online Smash Night. We usually play in person, but for one reason or another, we decided to play online. It had worked before, why wouldn’t it work again? We started a lobby, shared the code, and then… it froze on the loading… Read more »
We’re just a few weeks into 2025 and its already shaping up to be significantly more eventful than the past year. We’re set to see a brand new console launch, a major games developer aim to steer itself out of hot water, and a console-maker realise its goal to become hub for cloud gaming. It… Read more »
Thanks for reading Infinite Lives this year. This is my last edition for 2024, I’ll be taking a break — using the time to play my new Steam Deck — and be back in late January, 2025. Catch you in the New Year! Finally, a PlayStation 3D platformer that rivals Mario. I even went as… Read more »
There’s a world in which you could consider 2024 unremarkable for the gaming industry. Like most other years, there were mass redundancies, launch delays and stuff-ups — that’s sadly become the norm. There were also breakout successes and major points of hype too. Each major player had their time in the sun. But coming off… Read more »
It was a policy blitz like no other. No less than 31 separate bills were passed by our government on November 28, clearing the way for a federal election in Australia at some point next year. Among them, a controversial but broadly supported bill to ban those under 16 from accessing social media. It’s generated… Read more »
In late November, Australia’s federal parliament passed landmark legislation banning under-16s from accessing social media. Details remain vague: we don’t have a complete list of which platforms will fall under the legislation, or how the ban will look in practice. However, the government has signalled that trials of age assurance technologies will be central to… Read more »
Nintendo has to be the gaming industry’s most unpredictable company. In 2017, after years of resisting pressure to do so, the gaming giant released a trio of mobile games leveraging its hot intellectual property: Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. All three ticked away with similar business models. You could… Read more »
While we’re starting to turn a corner, research on the impacts of gaming continues to get a bad rap. For every story highlighting the hobby’s benefits, there are two or more stirring up panic about its impact on social development or addictive tendencies. The coverage isn’t exactly representative of what’s actually happening in global academia.… Read more »
It has fewer users than the Epic Games Store but holds the power to make or break both AAA and indie games. In nine months of writing about the games industry — but over two decades of playing them — never have I heard so much about one platform that I knew so little about.… Read more »
My biggest mistake with the PlayStation 4: not buying its Pro model sooner to get more value out of it. My old PS4 was on its last legs; clogged with dust, overheating on newer games with its internal fan sounding like a jet engine. But I held off as long as I could, purchasing the… Read more »
The global video game industry is surprisingly flush with data. There are charts that measure the hype of games on Steam, monthly trackers of most-played games, and financial reports and sales — whenever they leak — from the major gaming companies. It’s not all serious stats either. Last year Larian Studios, the makers of Baldur’s… Read more »
Chris Hansford tempted fate buying a second-hand Steam Deck off Facebook marketplace. He wasn’t scammed, and his model arrived as advertised. It was instead an unfortunate case of terrible timing. Hansford purchased the device a few weeks before the company announced they would start selling the Steam Deck in Australia in late November. Had he known,… Read more »
This weekend I dropped spiky blocks on my mates’ heads, attempted to cherry-pick them off a conveyor belt and ultimately defeated them by stealing their stuff. It was all in the name of a good time, of course. Surely they enjoyed it as much as me? And to be clear, it was done virtually, through… Read more »
Talk about a one-two punch. After years of Australians paying almost $400 above US recommended retail to attain a grey-imported Steam Deck, the company has finally decided to launch its coveted console in this market. This was all done by stealth. With no prior warning — aside from an embargoed press release to some outlets… Read more »
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