This week, Nathan, Luke, and Riley reconvene after a holiday weekend to discuss everybody’s favorite, inescapably pervasive topic: enshittification, defined by writer Cory Doctorow as the process by which "the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit.” This week alone, it happened to both Xbox’s Game Pass service and Apex Legends’ battle pass, all in service of making numbers go up on a balance sheet somewhere. Then we talk about the sudden death of Kotaku AU, a site which – contrary to popular belief – Luke does not and never has worked for. After that, we discuss some TV shows, one of which, The Boys, has really fallen off, and the other of which, The Acolyte, never really got going to begin with. Lastly: Cubes.

Credits

- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Luke Plunkett, and Riley MacLeod

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

- 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.

This week, everybody’s on break because of the Fourth of July, but we don’t intend on leaving you high and dry. A couple months ago, we hosted our first live event at Wonderville in Brooklyn alongside Merritt K, author of “LAN Party: Inside the Multiplayer Revolution.” We spent our time on stage discussing the golden age of LAN parties and why they (sadly) went away. Also Bawls soda, because you can’t have a discussion of LAN parties and the early 2000s without Bawls. Here is the never-before-released recording of… all of that.

Credits

- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Gita Jackson, Chris Person, & special guest Merritt K

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

- 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.

On this week’s episode, Nathan and Riley are joined by Ash Parrish of The Verge to discuss the reason behind Dr Disrespect’s Twitch ban and how it finally came to light after all these years. We answer one of the major questions the recent torrent of information has produced: Why did it take journalists – some of whom had known the reason for years beforehand – so long to finally make it public? Why now? We also talk about the process of reporting out sensitive stories involving victims and what we think will happen next. Afterward, we move on to a discussion of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, an expansion so divisive that it summons Chris Person from The Land of Shadow to share his misgivings. Lastly, we come up with a killer game idea based on the TV show Severance (call us, Apple).

Credits

- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Riley MacLeod, & special guest Ash Parrish

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

- 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.

On this week’s episode, Nathan and Riley are joined by John Warren, formerly of Fanbyte and now of the just-launched VGBees. First we discuss John’s new reader and listener-supported website, which aims to provide a home to good writing about video games. The more the merrier, we say. Then we hop on the endless merry-go-round that is the question of what a game review should be, as inspired by discourse around Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. If said discourse makes you want to tear your hair out, don’t worry: You’re not alone! After that we talk about this week’s Nintendo Direct, in which the company clearly did not get the memo that the Switch is supposed to be crawling across the finish line right now; instead it announced another year of heavy hitters like Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Metroid Prime 4. Finally, we move on to Paradox’s baffling decision making around its supposed Sims killer, the now-canceled Life By You. Then we wrap things up by talking about what it’d be like to party with the loathsome Dung Eater from Elden Ring. I, for one, think it’d be a great time.

Credits

- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Riley MacLeod, & special guest John Warren

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

- 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.

On this week’s episode, Nathan and Luke are joined by some guy they know named Ethan Gach to discuss the aftermath (lol) of Summer Game Fest. Ethan was on the ground at the show in LA, so he fields questions about the Geoff Keighley-powered husk that E3 left behind. We ultimately arrive at the same question people do after every single one of these things: Is an event like Summer Game Fest needed in a digital age where video game companies can spin up showcases whenever they want? Then we move on to our favorite games of the show, which consist of Killer Bean, Doom, and probably even a third thing. We also discuss a general feeling of malaise that hung over this year’s show. On one hand, Geoff and associated companies debuted some cool games, but it all felt so… expected. Where once the original Fable pioneered wild new ideas about what a game could be, the trailer for the latest installment in the now long-running series is just a bunch of callbacks. In pursuit of surefire profit, are triple-A games stuck in a rut? Finally, we end on a conversation about sending cats back in time, so you’ll definitely want to stick around for that.

Credits

- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Luke Plunkett, & special guest Ethan Gach

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

- 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.

On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Riley gather on the eve of Summer Game Fest – aka Keigh-3 – to discuss pre-show announcements and an investigation into the show itself. Turns out, it costs $250,000 to buy one minute of trailer time during Geoff Keighley’s summer advertisement extravaganza. And that’s just the beginning, with pricing tiers that go all the way up to $550,000 for 2.5 minutes. Is it worth it? Especially when SGF has historically underdelivered compared to E3’s attention-grabbing golden age? Then we talk about SGF-adjacent announcements like Dragon Age’s puzzling name change and Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’s long-awaited gameplay reveal. After that, we move on to a discussion of Bloomberg’s report on Suicide Squad’s fraught development, which culminates in the birth of a new segment: These Guys Should Not Be In Charge. Speaking of, we then segue elegantly into a conversation about Variety’s pivot (back) into games coverage, which mirrors Rolling Stone’s recent games renaissance – albeit with less Saudi money involved. Finally, we talk about Valve’s continued mishandling of Team Fortress 2’s bot crisis, a story that resurfaces about once per year because, well, Valve still hasn’t solved the problem! And if that’s not enough for you, we close out by getting mad about trains.

Credits

- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, & Riley MacLeod

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

- 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.

On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Riley huddle together after another week surviving the slow-mo media apocalypse, this time with (even) more AI. First we discuss Vox Media and The Atlantic’s mystifying decisions to feed their journalists’ work into OpenAI’s woodchipper, shredding years of credibility and goodwill in exchange for a quick buck. Then we talk about Sony’s Neil Druckmann interview, which the company ended up pulling after the Last of Us maestro revealed that he was egregiously misquoted. Maybe having people who are not journalists try to do journalism-coded content is… bad? After that, we make our predictions for this year’s Summer Game Fest, aka Keigh-3. Is Call of Duty gonna do 9/11? Absolutely. Is Geoff Keighly gonna mention games industry layoffs during his splishy-splashy hype fest? That is… less certain. Finally, we finish out by trying to decide who we’d replace Geoff with if we could pick somebody else to host every consequential video game event under the sun. Our picks may shock you (but they probably won’t).

Credits

- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, & Riley MacLeod

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

- 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.

On this week’s episode, Nathan and Gita are joined by Janus Rose, author of Aftermath’s first-ever freelance piece (made possible by subscribers like you!). She tells us about what inspired her to write her piece, which focuses on parallels between Final Fantasy VII and real-world resistance movements in the face of imperialism. Then we discuss IGN’s purchase of The Gamer Network – which includes sites like Eurogamer, Rock Paper Shotgun, GamesIndustry.biz, and VG247 – and ensuing layoffs, which feeds into a conversation about media consolidation in general. Somehow, we also find time to talk about Scott Pilgrim and share some recipes we like.

Credits

- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Gita Jackson, & special guest Janus Rose

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

- 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.