Year in Review: 2023
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 12/29/23 at 04:45 PM CT
We’ve completed another circuit around the Sun, and survived to tell the tale. 2023 was a real shit-show when it comes to world events, cultural milestones, and even something as trivial and silly as videogames. Here’s a rundown of MeltedJoystick’s favorite flops and unexpected successes from the year World War III started.
Top 5 Fails
5. Epic Games is Hemorrhaging Money
Would-be Steam competitor, Epic Games, is doing so great they had to cut 16% of their workforce to stay in the Black for the end of 2023. Between their frivolous spending on timed exclusivity deals, their frivolous spending on lawsuits around monetization and walled-garden app ecosystems, and their continuous giveaways of… really BAD games in an attempt to lure in a larger customer base, it’s shocking – yes SHOCKING – that the company isn’t doing better. I mean, where is all that “Fortnite” and Unreal Engine money going?
4. Cooperative Campaigns Sacrificed on the Altar of PvP
In …
MeltedJoystick Games of the Year 2023
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 12/24/23 at 02:26 PM CT
2023 was yet another dismal year, adding its own turd-pearl to the string that began in 2020. We’ve seen global instability become even more unstable, while closer to home in the media, we witnessed the fall of Games Journalism and numerous legacy media platforms and IP sacrificed in the culture wars.
Honestly, we’re lucky that ANY good games managed to come out of the current Games Industry in 2023, but we were ultimately saved from despair by the long-time-coming release of the Chosen One, who was destined to take the top slot from the moment Larian announced they were working on it. Filling out the rest of the list, though, was a significant challenge, with many high-profile releases falling flat, failing to deliver on promises, or just not having enough *oomph* behind them to make lightning strike twice.
Without further ado, MeltedJoystick proudly presents our selection of the 5 most Jimmy-Rustling releases of 2023:
1. Baldur’s Gate 3 (PC)
Yeah, we knew this one …
Hasbro, the Parent Company of Wizards of the Coast, Is Woke, Broke, and Gutting the Games Division
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 12/17/23 at 02:38 PM CT
2023 has been quite possibly the worst year for Wizards of the Coast since the company’s founding in 1990. While Wizards began life as an independent tabletop games publisher whose new-fangled concept of Collectible Card Games ate TSR’s lunch and hastened the latter company’s downfall (and eventual acquisition), everything changed when Wizards lost its independence and was purchased by toy-and-game giant, Hasbro, in 1999. While the influx of massive corporate revenue streams and marketing apparati allowed Wizards to flourish initially, things haven’t been so rosy since the Grate Awokening.
It’s actually somewhat astounding how good a run Wizards of the Coast had under the Hasbro banner, between 1999 and 2019. Yes, there were missteps along the way, but none so disastrous as the 2023 debacle that was set in motion by diversity pledges made in the fateful Plague Year of 2020.
We’ve seen a year-long death spiral from Wizards of the Coast, first with their attempted …
Bungie (and ‘Destiny’) are in Deep Doo-Doo
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 12/10/23 at 02:17 PM CT
It’s always kind of bittersweet to see something we once loved start turning into doo-doo. As a former Squaresoft fan, I know the feeling well. But more recent generations of Gamers are getting to experience some of that despair with the ongoing downfall of former-Microsoft-studio-turned-third-party-turned-Sony-studio, Bungie.
We will probably never know the full story of why Microsoft allowed the former ‘Halo’ studio to buy its independence after 7 years of servitude in 2007. However, we did get to witness Activision-Blizzard (now officially part of Microsoft) take the blame for ‘ruining’ Bungie and saddling their shiny new ‘Destiny’ IP with a variety of unsavory monetization features.
We also witnessed Bungie fans singing the praises of the studio gaining full independence from the Corporate Games Industry to become a small-time Indie studio, since surely that would remedy all of the ills plaguing their game(s). Right? Wrong! And don’t call me …
Review Round-Up: Fall 2023
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 12/02/23 at 01:40 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:
Fall was not a particularly exciting quarter for me. I got into a rut of playing through a bunch of short, unspectacular Indie games that mostly just made me want to play more “Warframe” instead (as if I need to play more “Warframe”). At least “Turnip Boy” surprised me with how fun, funny, and generally well-made it is for what is essentially a joke game.
“Greak: Memories of Azure” – 3.5/5
“Aeon of Sands: The Trail” – 2.5/5
“Streets of Kamurocho” – 2.5/5
“MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries” – 4/5
“World to the West” – 4/5
“Rayon Riddles: Rise of the Goblin King” – 0.5/5
“Seasons After Fall” – 3/5
“Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion” – 4.5/5
Chris’ Reviews:
Oh, that Christopher! He’s still been playing way too many games at the same time and then forgetting to review …
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