Woke 2: Good, Switch 2: ???
Aftermath Hours
This week Nathan, Chris, and Luke break down Nintendo’s long-awaited reveal of the Switch 2 – although we use the term “reveal” loosely. After months of speculation, we now know… what it will look like. And it looks like a Nintendo Switch! Some people, Chris included, are disappointed by this. Nintendo used to swing for the fences with its hardware ideas, but now it’s navigating a world of its own creation – one filled with Steam Decks and Asus Rog Allies. Can its Apple-like iteration strategy keep it at the head of the handheld pack, or is it already falling behind simply by...
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The Gaming Angle (With Chris Bratt)
Aftermath Hours
This week Nathan and Gita are joined by Chris Bratt of People Make Games – one of the best investigative outlets in all of video games – to discuss his new video about workplace abuse at outsourcing studios in southeast Asia. We try to get to the bottom of why big video game companies turn a blind eye to these sorts of incidents, which in this case include a manager convincing a subordinate to slap herself in the face 100 times as an act of penance. Yeah, it’s bad! Then we talk about how the wildfires currently raging in California – which are displacing video game studios, among...
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Deck The Halls With Balatros Of Holly
Aftermath Hours
This week Nathan, Chris, and Riley convene just before the holidays for the final show of the year. We discuss a little of everything: Our favorite Game Awards reveals (Onimusha, an orb game exemplar, is back, and so is Okami!) as well as some that have us less thrilled (more Neil Druckmann nihilism in Intergalactic: The Heretic, Borderlands 4’s continuation of the series’ quiet identity crisis). Then we talk about SAG-AFTRA voice actors demonstrating outside the show and the potential impacts of a Trump presidency on their future prospects. After that, we briefly touch on cameras in...
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Is Indiana Jones Good Or Not?
Aftermath Hours
This week it’s just Chris and Riley as Nathan has flown off to LA for The Game Awards. We discuss the continued state of the Ziff Davis empire, the United Healthcare shooting suspect's gaming history and what that says about him (mainly nothing) and the mostly positive but sometimes polarizing reaction to Indiana Jones and The Great Circle. We also briefly talk about other news, answer reader questions, and more! Credits - Hosts: Riley MacLeod, Chris Person - Podcast Production & Ads: - Subscribe to ! About The Show Aftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of...
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Video Game History Hour(s) (With Frank Cifaldi)
Aftermath Hours
This week, Nathan, Chris, and Luke are joined by Frank Cifaldi of the Video Game History Foundation, but not until near the end of the episode, because Frank had multiple other podcasts to be on that day (he’s very important). We discuss the unique needs of a video game archive – for example, remote access to games, something the US Copyright Office recently refused to grant after a three-year effort on the part of the Video Game History Foundation and the Software Preservation Network – and what the Foundation has been able to accomplish this year despite a government and industry...
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The Sky Is Bluer On The Other Side (With Ryan Broderick)
Aftermath Hours
This week, Nathan and Gita are joined by Ryan Broderick of the fantastic Garbage Day newsletter to discuss all the latest trends in the world of Online. We begin by talking about Bluesky and the potentially fatal blow Twitter has sustained at its hands. Or, well, more accurately, at Elon Musk’s hands, but Bluesky has far and away been the main beneficiary of Trump’s wannabe baby boy’s bumblings. Can the good times last, though? Or will Bluesky eventually become a massive crock of shit, just like every other social media platform? After that, we dig into the myth of The Liberal Joe...
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One Year Down, One Million More To Go
Aftermath Hours
This week, Nathan, Luke, and Chris are, despite the state of the world, in a celebratory mood, because Aftermath just turned one! When we launched this site a year ago, we had no idea how it’d go – we thought it’d either crash and burn or succeed beyond our wildest dreams, neither of which have happened – but we’re exceedingly pleased with where we’ve ended up. We discuss lessons we’ve learned and our favorite moments from the past year, as well as some news – specifically, our own feature about how freelancers are propping up games journalism (and getting paid dogshit for...
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The Horse Is Back In The Hospital (With Mel Buer)
Aftermath Hours
This week, Nathan and Riley are joined by special guest Mel Buer of The Real News Network, a very good nonprofit newsroom, to discuss what we, as normal people, can do in the wake of Trump’s reelection and the rise of fascism in the United States. The short version? Organize! Not just your workplace, but also your local community. Meet your neighbors. Start a community garden. Put together a game night. The government isn’t going to save us, so we’ve got to. We also touch on the recent New York Times Tech Guild strike and the callous cynicism that led bosses to refuse reasonable...
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More Like Fan-Dumb [Loud Incorrect Buzzer Sound]
Aftermath Hours
This week, Nathan, Luke, and Riley lament the untimely end of Firewalk, the studio that made Concord to Sony’s specifications and then promptly got dumpstered for it. Once again, creatives are suffering for executives’ poor decision making, and everybody’s worse off for it. Will the industry actually learn from this? We can only hope. Then we move on to yet more media layoffs, this time at Fandom, which owns GameSpot, among other sometimes-baffling properties (TV’s Guide’s website? OK, sure, I guess). We then discuss this week’s largely idiotic Dragon Age review conspiracy theory...
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Interview With The (Person Making A) Vampire (Video Game)
Aftermath Hours
This week, Nathan and Gita are joined by special guest LB Hunktears, formerly of Fanbyte and Blaseball fame, who is now working on a reality show queer romance horror comedy game called Fledgling Manor. We discuss the reality TV shows that inspired it, as well as the strange lack of games about reality TV, given just how game-y those shows’ structures tend to be. We also rank every season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, a show that has aged like a fine wine if the bottle contained a tiny man named Joss Whedon who you kept learning new terrible things about, and who you had to nudge aside...
info_outlineThis week, Nathan and Gita are joined by games and culture video essayist Jacob Geller ahead of his 24-hour stream to raise money for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. We discuss video game criticism in the age of drive-by culture wars on social media and conclude that – despite how bleak things might seem – there’s still a hunger for truly substantial, meaningful criticism, one that is not decreasing. We also learn about the ins and outs of creating heady essays on YouTube, specifically: Why do they keep getting longer? How do you write for a specific audience without becoming somebody who pre-reacts to every bad faith YouTube comment? Then we move on to this week’s big news: Ubisoft is delaying the new Assassin’s Creed following weaker-than-expected sales of its Star Wars game. Amid all that, as well as an ongoing campaign against Assassin’s Creed for featuring a Black samurai, Ubisoft also decided to issue a statement about how its goal is “not to push any specific agenda.” Grimacing emoji. Lastly, Christmas comes early for Nathan and Nathan alone, because the mailbag is chock full of questions about Goku and karaoke.
Credits
- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Gita Jackson, and special guest Jacob Geller
- Subscribe to Aftermath!
About The Show
Aftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.