Video Games Industry Finance Cheat Sheet: Summer 2026, 13/08/2026
Nintendo does tariff-icly, Xbox flops and Capcom cashes in 💵
This week’s Video Games Industry Memo is sponsored by Fifty
Latest Gaming Articles
Five video game journalists you should be following, 20/08/2026
Reminding you to use your media before you lose it 📰
This week’s Video Games Industry Memo is sponsored by Games In Italy
Week in Gaming - 17th Aug
Personal blog style week in review of my wanderings through gaming media
In “Week in Gaming”, I will be talking about the various snippets of gaming media I have encountered and share any stories or games I have come across in that week. I won’t add everything to keep it a short-ish post, but I will include what I was playing and something that was maybe something bigger in my world.
Caitriana NicNeacail
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17h
Your comment about snails as the new frogs reminded me all in a flash of another invertebrate protagonist - Earthworm Jim, from the Sega Megadrive. I don’t remember ever finishing that game but I remember it being a lot of fun!
Joe | The Saved Game
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9h
Ooh, I've never heard of Kynseed before! That sounds really interesting, and I'll be taking a look at that on the Switch!
Awesome write-up Margot! Thanks for sharing!
Unexpected Musician x Video Games Collaborations
Bladee, Aphex Twin, Burial, DMX, and more
Written by Sik Frydas
Video Games: The tax credits behind the results
We read 79 listed companies against 34 government schemes, and asked what a games credit is worth to the company that draws it.
We looked at 79 listed games companies and 34 government schemes. The boom in games tax credits reads as industry policy, and in the accounts of those companies it is an earnings story, with dependence running from a couple of points of profit at EA to a credit worth more than the whole of Ubisoft’s.
PlayStation reboots its Horizon live-service bet | Netflix shutters two more game studios | Disney plugs a Star Wars theme park ride into Fortnite
Gies W33 | August 21, 2026
PlayStation Reboots ‘Horizon Hunters Gathering’ as Live-Service Strategy Struggles
Video Games And Real Life Are Becoming One
How gaming stopped being an escape from reality and started redesigning.
The following article is part of Dot Dot Dot’s bi-monthly ‘Pulse Check’ series that provides real-time industry analysis by connecting the dots between trends, brands, and wider cultural movements.
Great piece. On the retro tip, I think you'll find that today's most popular games are the oldest games — e.g., GTA V, one of the most-streamed games online, was released 13 years ago, just to take one example.
NEW GAME+: When Video Games Started Influencing Heavy Music
From Halo deathcore and Skyrim black metal to DOOM, Death Stranding and Sonic boss fights - gaming didn’t just introduce us to heavy music. Eventually it started shaping the music itself.
PRESS START: Gaming stopped being the thing beside the stereo
As a huge fan of post-hardcore as a genre, I immediately think of pulses. and their song "KUPO!" for heavy crossovers with gaming specifically. I think The Callous Daoboys are my current favorite band and they do a ton of stuff with electronic elements in their music, but other than stuff like playing Wii Sports music in the middle of some of their sets they haven't done much with gaming at all yet, but I definitely hope they do someday!
Bring me massively with post human had video game influence and lyrical Easter eggs such as "Tasty, Itchy" in dear diary from Resident Evil, and then Parasite Eve being subsequently musically inspired by Mick Gordon's Doom sound track.. and even then the live show visuals for that tour being very PlayStation era as well.
Doom 2016 music was masterful of course, but then we also have such fantastic things as the Final Fantasy orchestral performances at the Albert Hall. As gamers and lovers of music I don't think we've ever had it so good!
The video games most at risk from PlayStation’s physical switch-off
Plus, we speak to Gamescom about next week’s European show
Listen now on Apple, Spotify or YouTube
The physical edition of Black Myth: Wukong came out six months later than the digital release. Every game is different, sure, but I suspect RPGs have not at all «a much smaller audience that choose to buy the boxed version».
UNIDARK Music for Video Games: Dark, Aggressive Sound for Games That Refuse to Play It Safe
Discover extreme metal built for horror, combat, dystopian worlds, trailers and game environments that demand a soundtrack with its own identity.
Video games have become increasingly sophisticated at using music as part of their world-building. A soundtrack can establish the character of a location, transform the emotional weight of combat, intensify a boss encounter or make an otherwise ordinary environment feel dangerous. Music is no longer simply something playing behind the action. In many ga…
Hello. I offer You collaboration. I am an author of dark fantasy game, "Dominion of Darkness", Dark Lord/Lady Simulator. It has achieved some popularity - it is currently the 4th. best rated strategy game on itch.io: https://itch.io/games/top-rated/genre-strategy . I am very active on Youtube, X, Facebook and Reddit. I am also very active on many traditional forums where people could be interested in such "dark" music - gaming forums, TTRPG, horror, fantasy literature, Warhammer, occult ones. I also have group of devoted fans and friends which help me boost reach of my own content and content I am interested in. I could help improve visibility of Your content... and if You do not want to pay, we could do this just as mutual help between creators :) Regards.
Extreme Metal for Video Games: How Brutality, Atmosphere and Rhythm Build Immersive Worlds
Extreme metal can turn combat, horror, dark fantasy and high-pressure gameplay into something physically intense, but the best game soundtracks use heaviness with purpose.
Extreme metal for video games has a particular advantage: it can make gameplay feel physical. The weight of guitars, the attack of drums, the aggression of harsh vocals and the tension created by dark harmonic material can reinforce what the player is doing in a way that softer or more conventional soundtrack approaches cannot always achieve. When the m…
Play Quest: 'Mbombo: Dream Echoes' by Sondi
...on rest mechanics and Black representation in video games.
Parallel to my playing Mbombo: Dream Echoes (2024), I happened to be reading an essay by the art historian T.J. Clark on The Land of Cockaigne (1567) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The painting, measuring a little over thirty inches wide and twenty tall, depicts three slumbering figures arranged around a tree around whose trunk a table has been fashioned,…
Boxville 2 - Physical Video Review - Limited Legacy Games
Only 999 copies produced! Grab it while you can!
Check out our review of the physical copy of Boxville 2 for PlayStation 5. Thanks to Limited Legacy Games for providing a review copy. Only 999 units produced! Remember, Physical is Forever!
How to Make Video Games More Engaging Without Making Them Longer
The attention economy is changing how people play. Cognitive Reward Density may be the new metric for game design.
Picture this. It’s 7:30 PM. You’ve just finished dinner, cleared the dishes, and collapsed onto the sofa. You have maybe two hours before you need to sleep. Your Steam library stares back at you, 200 games, at least half of them unplayed. That critically acclaimed RPG you bought on sale six months ago? Still on the virtual shelf. That indie darling ever…
Game Music Digest | Someone Finally Asked The Weeknd About Video Games
Plus: Addison Rae jumps into Fortnite
MusicEXP is a weekly newsletter exploring the intersection of video games and music, edited by Mat Ombler. Subscribe to receive weekly round-ups of the latest music and gaming stories, and monthly deep dives into trending topics. For more music and gaming news, make sure you listen to the
Men Are Chasing Validation Through Addiction And Vice
OnlyFans, Gambling, Video Games, and Red Pill content replace booze
Men Are Chasing Validation Through Addiction And Vice
I would differentiate between the "incel community" and those just getting slapped with the label. Intellectually lazy women will call a married man with kids "incel" to just dismiss his position. Those guys are complete different from the entitled guys who coined the phrase.
You left out meme stocks which is a ridiculous community hoping for a "MOASS" event that will make them "our new financial overlords" - its the validation you're talking about at great cost. https://youtu.be/5pYeoZaoWrA?is=CuST6gZs31T_3bdd
Is a deep dive into the madness. Its mesmerizing. They REALLY believe buying stock in failing companies is going to make them richer then all of Wall Street. But...How? Watch the video its insane.
Gothic Music for Video Games: How to Create Darkness, Atmosphere and Identity Through Sound
The right gothic soundtrack can make a game feel haunted, beautiful and dangerous at the same time, turning atmosphere into something the player can hear as well as see.
Gothic music has a particular strength in video games because it can create emotional ambiguity. It can sound beautiful without feeling safe, mournful without becoming passive, and dark without relying entirely on aggression. That combination makes gothic music for video games
I’m Getting Older. Why Aren’t Video Game Characters?
Older women play video games, but rarely get to be the protagonist. Why are middle-aged and older female characters still so hard to find?
I’m 42, and I’ve been playing video games for ages. It doesn’t feel particularly weird saying that anymore; I speak to gamers in their 40s all the time, and my subscriber base is testament to the fact that we exist! But the gaming industry doesn’t seem that interested in growing old with me. While I’m getting older, the characters in the games I play se…
I think part of the issue is that gaming in general is concerned with adventure and excitement, and Western culture doesn't see people in their 40s+ doing much of that. We're assumed to be running to soccer practice, paying our bills, and trying to figure out what to cook for dinner. And if we do look for adventure, game companies seem to think, we look back to our 20s when we weren't as tied down. The age-range of game characters really is the assumed golden age of excitement and freedom.
Personally, I'm pretty happy being in my 40s. I feel like I'm less of an idiot who took way too many chances. I'm also not ready to "pass the torch" to my kids. I'd like to adventure WITH my children, personally, or find some other ways to explore mystery in my life. But, again, that's not how our culture (or, well, at least my culture. I'm from the US) thinks of people in their mid-age.
Damn…and here I was all ready to swoop in with a “but there’s always Mass Effect and Fallout. You can slap on grey and platinum color tones for the hair, and voilá! Representation! We did it guys. High-fives all around!”
But then I got to the part where you accounted for character creation templates and yeah…they don’t really bridge that representation gap. To be honest, I’m not sure I ever considered this topic at all.
However, I’d love to see better representation of middle aged women as protagonists in games. I guess Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn technically counts. But only technically.
Why should us dudes get the monopoly on sad dad adventures?
Your Guide to August’s Family Friendly Video Games
A calm before the fall storm, as children head back to school. And once again, Apple Arcade has a great lineup.
A summer of pools, pools, and more pools is headed towards the end. I know that “summer” is often categorized as June, July, and August, but as my kids have gotten older, it becomes clearer and clearer that summer is really just “July." You spend June waiting for the weather to warm up, July doing as much as you can, and August begins the anxious walk t…
How to start marketing in video games—it isn’t one-size-fits-all
EA, Discord and Xbox have rolled out three very different gaming ad formats, and treating them interchangeably is the fastest way to waste a budget
Howdy 🤠 It’s Parker from Ad Age! As a gamer myself, it’s been fascinating to watch advertisers struggle to find the right way into the growing and potentially lucrative channel. But video game companies aren’t waiting around anymore. My colleague Brandon Doerrer recently dug into the ad offerings companies such as EA, Xbox and Discord have…
Upcoming 2026 and 2027 video games I’m excited about
Fable, Dawnwalker, The Witcher 3’s Songs of the Past, Exodus and more
From time to time I like to research upcoming games to see what catches my eye, and which titles I should devote my time to, and get excited about. With this list, however, I may have overdone it. And yet maybe that’s just because there’s quite a lot coming down the pipeline, particularly for next year.
Hello! I invite You to take a look at my free game. "Dominion of Darkness” is a RPG/strategy narrative focused game in which the player takes on the role of a Sauron-style Lord of Darkness with the goal of conquering the world. He will carry out his plans by making various decisions. He will build his army and send it into battles, weave intrigues and deceptions, create secret spy networks and sectarian cults, recruit agents and commanders, corrupt representatives of Free Peoples and sow discord among them, collect magical artifacts and perform sinister plots. It has achieved 4th place on the top rated strategy games list on itch.io: itch.io/games/top-rated/genre-strategy You can play it here: adeptus7.itch.io/dominion
Great piece
I reckon The Blood of Dawnwalker is gonna be awesome
Extreme Metal for Video Games: How Heavy Music Can Transform Game Atmosphere, Combat and Identity
Extreme metal can give a video game genuine weight, tension and personality when the music is chosen for the world, gameplay and emotional experience rather than added as background noise.
Extreme metal has an unusual relationship with interactive media because it can operate at several emotional levels at once. It can create atmosphere during exploration, physical intensity during combat, tension during a difficult encounter and a distinctive identity that stays with the player long after a session ends. For developers working on horror,…
My Top 100 Video Games (20-11)
An exhaustive (exhausting?) list, part नौ
Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8.
My Days Doing Box Art for Video Games
Should box art develop the fantasy? At what point does "truth in advertising" matter?
When I was starting out as a freelance illustrator, I did a few cover designs for Activision and Atari.
James Gurney's Games Journey
For items like food products, I feel truth in advertising is an absolute must. However, for things like video games (especially the earlier ones), I feel that fantasy illustrations like yours help players to better imagine their electronic opponents.
She Told Men to Quit Video Games. One Replied: "I Did. Now I Do Nothing"
A ten-word post about gaming became a three-million-view gender war. Buried in the replies was a harder story about male loneliness and what happens when the screen goes dark.
Week of August 10, 2026 | Edition 69
"xoeeie’s quote-tweet exposes the vanity operating on the other side. When men complain about being overlooked, they often demand that women ignore physical attraction, even while those same men evaluate women almost entirely on youth and beauty."
No, men aren't demanding anything of women. Men are not demanding that women ignore physical attraction.
Men are asking that women be honest about it. Men are asking that women not lie about it.
I'm actually one of the very few men who doesn't use porn. It's not for feminist reasons though (I didn't want to be dependent for sexual release on an outside source and wrote my own smut). I admit this is extremely rare and a man who says he doesn't use porn is statistically likely to be lying.
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