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.
On this week’s episode, Nathan and Gita engage in a savvy act of brand synergy by bringing on extremely vocal AI critic and friend of the show Ed Zitron to celebrate the release of Aftermath’s new “Destroy AI” shirt, which we made in conjunction with Kim Hu, an incredible (human) artist, and are very proud of. We eventually get around to talking about the extra-shimmery AI bubble, but first: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Ed got into it recently, and ⅗ of Aftermath have been obsessed with it for year...
The Aftermath Hours crew mourns the gutting of Polygon and Giant Bomb, discussing the implications for games media and the industry's future. They analyze the business decisions, critique exploitative practices, and highlight the importance of journalism. They then lighten the mood by reviewing the French RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 before diving into an extensive mailbag.
This episode delves into the complexities of the BDS movement, particularly in relation to Microsoft and the gaming industry, exploring the ethical dilemmas faced by gamers and journalists. It covers the Oblivion remaster controversy, indie developers taking a stand, and the role of media in shaping consumer awareness. The hosts also discuss Nintendo Switch pre-orders, freelancing challenges, and answer listener questions, providing a comprehensive look at activism and personal reflection within the gaming sphere.
This week Nathan and Chris are joined by Aftermath’s first-ever regular contributor, Isaiah Colbert, to talk about the latter’s speciality: anime. It does not take long for this to spiral into a fittingly multi-part conversation about JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, but we also manage to at least briefly tackle issues pertaining to labor in the anime and manga industries and fans’ reaction (or lack thereof) to pervasive crunch at major studios. Then we discuss Nathan’s big, months-in-the-making report...
To celebrate the return of Inside Baseball Week – during which we publish a barrage of stories about the lesser-known parts of game dev, the ins and outs of games journalism, and other topics so specific no other website would ever touch them – we put together a roundtable about worker-owned media featuring Aftermath’s Nathan Grayson and Riley MacLeod, Defector’s David Roth, 404 Media’s Emanuel Maiberg, and Hell Gate’s Max Rivlin-Nader. We go deep on all sorts of topics: What was the hardest par...
This week Nathan and Chris are joined by special guest Mike Drucker, comedian and writer on shows like Adam Ruins Everything, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, to talk about his new book, Good Game, No Rematch: A Life Made of Video Games. We discuss how games and people’s relationship to them have changed over the years – and also the time Mike got shot in the dick with a paintball gun while working for Nintendo. Speaking of Nintendo, we then move ...
This week Nathan, Gita, and Riley briefly talk about their true passion, shirts, before elegantly segueing into a conversation about Ubisoft’s extremely eventful week: The embattled publisher announced that it’s spinning off its most successful series, including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six, into a separate subsidiary thanks to a $1.25 billion investment from Chinese conglomerate Tencent. What does this mean for those remaining aboard the Ubisoft mothership? And will this lead to e...
This week Chris is holding down the fort with Luke and is joined by writer Yussef Cole (@youmeyou.bsky.social) who reviewed Assassin’s Creed Shadows for The New York Times. We get into Assassin’s Creed generally and Shadows specifically, what we like and dislike about the game and if it makes good its narrative promise. Is it simply enough for a game to be the ultimate Japan simulator, particularly when it works so well with the series? Credits - Hosts: Chris Person, Luke Plunkett & sp...
This week Nathan and Chris are joined by freelance writer Aidan Moher to discuss his upcoming book about Suikoden I and II, a pair of sneakily influential JRPGs from the PS1 era that, yes, are very much worth writing an entire book about. Then we discuss news from the eye of the pre-GDC storm: Next week thousands of game developers will convene in San Francisco to network and exchange knowledge, but a growing number of non-US-based devs are dropping out due to Trump’s hostile policies and errati...
This week Nathan, Chris, and Riley overcome a slew of technical issues to bring you the latest news about guys who suck. First we discuss two Twitch dramas that broke containment and produced consequences that reverberated into the wider world: Several female streamers, Valkyrae, Cinna, Emiru, and Amouranth, found themselves in severe mortal peril during the same night and Hasan “HasanAbi” Piker was briefly banned for suggesting that if Republican lawmakers really wanted to act on their principl...
This week Nathan and Gita accidentally burst the dam on another wellspring of Riley Lore – perhaps the wildest yet – before we all move on to a discussion of more sobering matters: WB recently closed three video game studios, including Monolith, the makers of quietly revolutionary games like No One Lives Forever, F.E.A.R., and Shadow of Mordor, as well as the upcoming (now-canceled) Wonder Woman game. WB, of course, has proven especially eager to dumpster promising projects beyond the world of g...
This week Nathan, Chris, and Luke find themselves champing at the bit to talk about Avowed, which they can’t stop playing, but first, The News: NetEase shocked the game-playing public by laying off members of the team behind Marvel Rivals, the biggest breakout success story to come out of the live service sector in years. What happened? Well, decaying relations between the United States and China, for one, but also a seismic shift in how Chinese companies are developing games. Then we discuss Mi...
This week Nathan, Chris, and Luke find themselves champing at the bit to talk about Avowed, which they can’t stop playing, but first, The News: NetEase shocked the game-playing public by laying off members of the team behind Marvel Rivals, the biggest breakout success story to come out of the live service sector in years. What happened? Well, decaying relations between the United States and China, for one, but also a seismic shift in how Chinese companies are developing games. Then we discuss Mi...
This week Nathan, Chris, and Luke convene on the eve – if we’re measuring in podcast time – of Nathan’s book release (Stream Big, available wherever books are sold) to talk mostly about other stuff. First up, Activision and former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick both got into dustups with CWA, the union that represents over 1,000 workers across Microsoft and Activision, with Kotick claiming that harassment suits against Activision Blizzard were “fake,” engineered to juice CWA membership, while – ove...
This week Nathan and Riley are joined by special guest Rowan Zeoli of Rascal, an independent, reader-supported, worker-owned outlet for journalism about tabletop roleplaying games not unlike Aftermath. The site is celebrating one year of life on the increasingly tumultuous planet Earth with a subscription drive, so we ask Rowan how things are going (pretty well!) and then dig into a harrowingly powerful piece she recently wrote about roleplaying the January 6 insurrection in a Brooklyn warehouse...
This week Nathan and Riley are joined by special guest Kat Bailey, former news director at IGN and current host of the Axe of the Blood God podcast, to discuss a news week that’s certainly been… interesting. First we talk about the entire staff of long-running video game site God Is A Geek quitting after its now-ex-priest owner threw up a Nazi salute at a pro-life conference. Guess you can only get away with that shit if you’re a billionaire. Then we dig into BioWare’s recent post-Dragon Age woe...
This week Gita and Chris talk about the most exciting entertainment news of the day: the announcement of a new Ninja Gaiden game! Oh yeah, and the Oscars. For some reason, Emilia Perez has been nominated for a ton of awards and Chris and Gita fear that this dogshit movie may indeed sweep the Academy Awards. As they go through the nominations, they discuss the issues with the Oscars in general, how depressing Hollywood is, and why it’s better to just watch the On Cinema At The Cinema Oscar Specia...
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 k...
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 wil...
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 o...
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: Multit...
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 wha...
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...
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...
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 ...
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 g...
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 ...
This week, Nathan and Riley are joined by a very special guest, the Aftermath Discord’s own head moderator Nico “Apple Cider” Deyo (who is also a longtime freelance games journalist), to discuss the trials and tribulations of Asmongold, a Twitch star who found himself in hot water this week when years of escalating reactionary rhetoric culminated in an ill-advised racist rant about Palestinians. This got him suspended from Twitch. Unlike many others who’ve found themselves in similar situations,...
This week, Nathan, Chris, and Riley convene to increase their social links by discussing the latest basically-Persona game, Metaphor: Refantazio, which is – at least, so far – Metaphor Re(ally)fantastic. It’s Persona in a Shakespearean fantasy setting with a lot of irritating friction removed. Then we talk about an issue near and dear to Riley’s heart: Netflix canceling shows after a single season and basically foisting responsibility for their success or failure onto viewers like you. After tha...
This week, Nathan, Luke, and Riley do their best impression of that one meme where Jonathan Frakes asks you things: What’s going on with Starfield’s new, poorly-received DLC? Why is Star Citizen – a crowdfunded testament to one man’s hubris that’s been in development for more than a decade – forcing developers to crunch in the year 2024? In light of the upcoming TV show and yet another spinoff game, is the Yakuza series spreading itself too thin? And when is an early access game done, really? Th...
