EPISODE · Jun 13, 2025 · 1H 42M
Summer Game Mess
from Aftermath Hours
On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Riley reflect on the latest installment of Geoff Keighley’s mid-year video game advertisement carnival, Summer Game Fest. It was a weird one! High-profile announcements were few and far between, leaving relative no-names shaped kinda like the industry’s heaviest hitters to fill in the gaps. But at least Stranger Than Heaven, which is basically noir Yakuza in the 1940s, looks cool. Then Nathan talks about what it was like to actually attend SGF’s in-person Play Days event, which took place roughly a mile from the locus of LA’s anti-ICE protests. Game developers and press struggled with mixed feelings over the unavoidable tension between the perceived frivolity of advertising video games within the event’s walls and the enormity of the protests raging outside. After that, we move on to perhaps the week’s most telling story: what happened to Dragon Age: The Veilguard. A new Bloomberg report details trend-chasing, reactive mismanagement nearly every step of the way. At what point do we determine that these execs are simply not fit to lead? Lastly, we figure out where we fall on the Aftermath community’s incredible Many Emotions Of Geoff Keighley chart.Credits- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, & Riley MacLeod- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude- Subscribe to Aftermath!About The ShowAftermath 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. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
What this episode covers
On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Riley reflect on the latest installment of Geoff Keighley’s mid-year video game advertisement carnival, Summer Game Fest. It was a weird one! High-profile announcements were few and far between, leaving relative no-names shaped kinda like the industry’s heaviest hitters to fill in the gaps. But at least Stranger Than Heaven, which is basically noir Yakuza in the 1940s, looks cool. Then Nathan talks about what it was like to actually attend SGF’s in-person Play Days event, which took place roughly a mile from the locus of LA’s anti-ICE protests. Game developers and press struggled with mixed feelings over the unavoidable tension between the perceived frivolity of advertising video games within the event’s walls and the enormity of the protests raging outside. After that, we move on to perhaps the week’s most telling story: what happened to Dragon Age: The Veilguard. A new Bloomberg report details trend-chasing, reactive mismanagement nearly every step of the way. At what point do we determine that these execs are simply not fit to lead? Lastly, we figure out where we fall on the Aftermath community’s incredible Many Emotions Of Geoff Keighley chart.Credits- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, & Riley MacLeod- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude- Subscribe to Aftermath!About The ShowAftermath 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. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Summer Game Mess
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