Trying to Save the World in “Fortnite?” Trick Out Your Arsenal with These Weapons.
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/02/26 at 05:08 PM CT
Well, something happened that I never expected: Epic Games, in the face of waning “Fortnite: Battle Royale” player engagement, went ahead and pulled the game’s original, intended form, “Fortnite: Save the World” out of the digital trash bin behind the studio and finally released it to the public. The MJ Crew was really looking forward to this game... a DECADE AGO, when early access testing and development really began in earnest. Unfortunately for us, when Epic introduced the PvP mode as a way to raise money for the PvE mode, it turned the game into a self-perpetuating meme and it was eventually announced that the original concept was being scrapped.
Fortunately, Epic forgot to click “empty recycle bin,” and were able to release the “finished” “Save the World” game in June of 2026. The MJ Crew has been playing it since the very day it went fully F2P (or at least trying to play it, when not dealing with summer vacations and other interruptions to our weekly …
Backlog: The Embiggening –August, 2026
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/26/26 at 03:57 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future! Happy Birthday to me... again. As I spend my special day boiling in mid-western humidity, are there any new games coming out that I can gift myself and have an excuse to stay inside in the A/C? Probably not, but we’d better take a look anyway...
Ugh. For the second month in a row, Shovel-ready slop is HALF the release schedule. In Licensed Swill, Disney is well represented with both a new ‘Star Wars’ Strategy thing and a new ‘Marvel’ Fighting thing. The ‘Captain Tsubasa’ Soccer anime is also getting a... nother game, while the cult-favorite ‘Scott Pilgrim’ is getting another game too. In Annualized Swill, there’s the predictable release of a new ‘Madden Football.’ Lastly, in Noteworthy Ports, there’s a second volume of the ‘Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection’ (though I’m of the opinion that, if your ‘Master Collection’ has multiple volumes, it wasn’t particularly masterful in the first …
Rumor: Xbox to Introduce Disc-to-Digital Feature with Transferable Licenses
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/18/26 at 03:08 PM CT
Back when the Xbox One – or XBONE as everyone called it, because it was “boned” from day one – originally revealed Microsoft’s plans to tie physical games to users’ Xbox Live accounts (and to require frequent online DRM checks to keep those licenses working), gamers revolted, and Sony even made a snarky little video about how easy it was to share physical games on the PS4 compared to the nightmare Xbox was building. Well, now the Worm has Turned, and it’s Sony planning to take away gamers’ ability to either share games or buy and sell them on the second-hand market.
In response to Sony making the first (disastrous) move this time, Xbox has been leaking rumors that, not only will the Xbox Helix include an optical disc drive, it will also include a revamped – and allegedly incredibly user-friendly – version of the XBONE disc licensing scheme. According to the rumors, people who insert a physical XBONE or Xbox SeX disc into the Helix will have that disc …
Xbox’s ONLY Profitable Products are “Minecraft” and “Candy Crush.”
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/12/26 at 03:07 PM CT
The new head of Microsoft’s Xbox Division, Asha Sharma, has been taking the scythe to the division and its studios lately, cutting down to the veritable bone in a (vain) attempt to reset Xbox into profitability – an impossible task considering it has NEVER been profitable. We’ve gotten news about some of the smaller Indie studios Xbox gobbled up being given their freedom again, as well as other studios – even big ones that we might expect to be immune – having their staff drastically cut and their projects canceled.
None of that should be surprising, after all. This IS Xbox we’re talking about.
However, a little tidbit of news managed to slip past my filter and made an impression by just how ludicrous it is. According to Sharma herself, the only profitable products in the Xbox portfolio are “Minecraft,” which Xbox acquired in 2014 when they bought out the Sweden-based Indie developer behind it, Mojang, as well as “Candy Crush,” which was, seemingly, an …
Sony = Finished
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/05/26 at 02:30 PM CT
Just a few weeks ago, we learned that – against all better judgment – we are, indeed, set to be subjected to another Generation of Console Wars. However, it seems that Sony is trying to sabotage its 10th Gen efforts before they can even get off the ground.
As if the PlayStation company delving into the evils of Dynamic Pricing wasn’t bad enough, they’ve recently announced that, starting in 2028, there will be NO MORE PHYSICAL PLAYSTATION GAME DISCS... EVER! 2028 seems to be a reasonably-distant point in time to consider the release of the unfortunately-planned PlayStation 6, so this announcement is an obvious declaration that the PS6 will not have a disc drive, and that any cross-gen games released after the launch window of Sony’s 10th Gen console will only be available as digital downloads, even if you own a PS5 with a disc drive or a PS5 Pro with an external disc drive.
Why would Sony make such a horrible decision? After all, the awful experience of the PlayStation …
Backlog: The Embiggening – July, 2026
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/28/26 at 03:50 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future! This July, the U.S.A. will turn 250 years old! That’s quite the accomplishment! But based on how the Games Industry is doing, it might not have very many more birthdays ahead of it before it crashes and burns again. It has been over 40 years since the last crash. That’s nothing to sneeze at, and it did give us a lot of timeless classics that we can enjoy forever... so long as we’re willing to ignore copyright laws. Let’s see if there’s anything coming in the middle of the Summer Games Drought that’s worthy of fireworks!
Ugh... there’s more shovelware than anything else coming in July. And it’s in EVERY category. In the Licensed Swill category, we’ve got “Nickelodeon Extreme Tennis: Next!” “Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War!” (What’s with the exclamation marks on the titles? Do publishers think that will make the shovelware less crappy?) “PAW Patrol: Dino World” (combining the two things little …
Competition and Collusion
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/21/26 at 02:58 PM CT
Lately, all of the rumors and speculation about the impending demise of Xbox has lead to an uptick in so-called “concern trolling,” wherein Gamers ruminate over the impact on Gaming by the exit of one of the three console gaming platform holders. Commonly, this concern trolling is couched in the tenants of Free Market Capitalism, with worries that fewer competitors in the Gaming space will allow the remaining competitors to engage in anti-competitive practices.
To this particular flavor of concern trolling – especially when it involves the Microsoft Games division now officially known as XBOX (in all caps) – I have nothing but scoffs and disdain to offer. Do we really think that Xbox is good for the Free Market of Gaming? Is the notoriously monopolistic and anti-competitive Microsoft contributing positively to Industrial Gaming? Do we really think that Sony, without it’s alleged “greatest competitor,” will suddenly begin a descent into anti-customer practices? Well, …
Gaming for Geezers? Average Age of Gamers Keeps Rising
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/14/26 at 02:52 PM CT
The ESA, an incredibly trustworthy organization with the best interests of Entertainment Software at heart, performs annual studies about all things gaming-related. One of their major ones is a demographic breakdown of people who play games, and for the last several years, the average age of Gamers has kept creeping up. In 2025, it was 35 years, while in the brand new 2026 release of the study, it has gone up to 37. That’s just shy of a Mid-Life Crisis!
But is this data what it appears to be on its surface, or is this, as Mark Twain famously said, “Lies, damned lies, and statistics”?
Some media outlets are trying to spin the results of this study to say that young people don’t play games, but instead are happily engaged in their brain-rot meme culture – and if they DO play games, it’s only one of the handful of Super Games that have captured their attention since they were toddlers. Other outlets are trying to spin the data to “prove” that tons of females are …
What’s a “Super Game”?
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/07/26 at 02:32 PM CT
Earlier this week, news broke about what Sega has been up to for the past few years of... nothing. It seems that the one-time second-place platform-holder has been working on a concept for a so-called “Super Game” for the last several years, to the neglect of literally everything else in their portfolio. It also seems that, during that time, Sega has fallen out of love with the concept entirely.
So, what exactly is a “Super Game”? Well, that’s a little hard to nail down. Five years ago, when nobody was paying attention, apparently, Sega decided to start development on a new Games as a Service (i.e., Live Service) project that they dubbed a “Super Game.” There does not seem to be a codified definition anywhere to be found for “Super Game.” Sega’s Shuji Utsumi defines a “Super Game” as a “game that stands head-and-shoulders above normal games,” making it sound more like the kind of “AAAA” idiocy Ubisoft tried to pull-off in 2024. However, based on …
Review Round-Up: Spring 2026
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/31/26 at 03:25 PM CT
Welcome back to another installment of the MeltedJoystick Review Round-Up. Here’s what our staff has reviewed since last time:
Nelson’s Reviews:
I finished my second and third Backlog Ablution obligations... and didn’t really play anything else. I’ve still been enjoying “Warframe,” and I’ve attempted to enjoy a new-old Turn-Based RPG in “Lost Odyssey,” but it has been a bit of a slog – made worse by my self-inflicted insistence on playing it in the Xenia Edge emulator on CachyOS Linux.
Mario vs. Donkey Kong (Remake) – 3.5/5
Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition – 4/5
Chris’ Review:
Chris completed the first of his Backlog Ablutions – and the longest one – but much to my chagrin, he didn’t like it as much as I did. He’d better hurry up and finish his other two Ablution titles before “Grand Theft Auto 6” comes out and keeps him occupied for the rest of the year.
Pampas & Selene: The Maze of Demons – 4/5
Greedfall – 3.5/5
Nick’s …
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