Aftermath Hours

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.

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Episodes

BAH-lah-troh

On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Riley discuss the auspicious occasion of three different game development studios – Gearbox, Saber, and Toys For Bob – all escaping from beneath the thumbs of layoff-prone owners in one day. Then we soberly reflect on mass layoffs at both Sony and EA – the other side of the coin in a week that seemed determined to sum up exactly where the video game industry is at right now. After that we move on to our impressions of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which is...

Mar 01, 2024•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 7

Journalism Is Dead, Long Live Journalism (With Lin Codega)

On this week’s episode, Nathan, Gita, and Luke are joined by Lin Codega of the brand new independent, worker-owned tabletop roleplaying outlet Rascal to discuss the grim state of journalism – Vice announced that it plans to shut down its website and lay off hundreds of people seconds before recording began – and the potential of publications like 404, Defector, Rascal, and Aftermath to build some kind of sustainable future. Then we move on to a truly illuminating discussion of the tabletop rolep...

Feb 23, 2024•2 hr 1 min•Ep. 6

Xbox’s Excess Of Excuses About Exclusives (With Ash Parrish)

On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Luke are joined by The Verge’s Ash Parrish to discuss Microsoft’s weird podcast about its plans for a non-exclusive but still mostly exclusive future, which will involve dedicated hardware but will also circumvent the need for it? Look, it’s more weird decision-making from a company that seems to have a blurry notion of the point B it wants to arrive at but no idea how to get there. Elsewhere in the episode, we talk about Helldivers 2 – it’s rules, man,...

Feb 16, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 5

Disney And Fortnite Sitting In A Tree, S-Y-N-E-R-G-I-Z-I-N-G

On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, Luke, and Riley discuss Disney’s $1.5 billion investment into Epic Games for an even bigger slice of the Fortnite pie, as well as all the ways Disney has stumbled into gaming success (and failure) in the past. This gives way to a conversation about the sanitized Disney of the modern day and where, with corporations feeding them slop, kids now go for their necessary doses of weird. Then we talk about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Microsoft’s seeming shift away ...

Feb 09, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 4

Death Discoursing And Suicide Squawking

On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Riley share their thoughts on the new and characteristically over the top Death Stranding 2 trailer, which gets everybody talking about the industry’s favorite auteur: Ken Levine. OK, first they discuss Hideo Kojima and his place in video games as one of the only people who gets to do His Whole Thing at such a massive scale, but then they get to Levine, who also just debuted a trailer for his new game and serves as an example of how maintaining a Kojima...

Feb 02, 2024•1 hr 54 min•Ep. 3

An (Activision) Blizzard Of Bad News

On this week’s episode, Nathan, Gita, Chris, and Luke were planning to talk mostly about Palworld, the new Pokemon-with-guns sensation that’s sweeping several nations, but then gut-wrenchingly massive layoffs happened across Microsoft and the gaming giant it recently acquired, Activision Blizzard. We discussed which parts of the company are most impacted and what it means for the video game industry’s future. Then we talked about our own experiences in a layoff prone-industry (journalism) and so...

Jan 26, 2024•1 hr 50 min•Ep. 2

Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doomscrolling

On the first-ever episode of Aftermath Hours, Aftermath's flagship weekly podcast, Chris, Nathan, Luke, and Riley discuss the recently unveiled Indiana Jones game, Ubisoft's vision of a subscription-based future and whether or not we truly own our video games (hint: we don't), and -- relatedly -- the death of series like Rock Band, which necessitates long-term, third-party game preservation efforts on the part of players whether companies like it or not. Then we move on to lighter topics like......

Jan 24, 2024•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 1

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