Latest articles by Harvey Randall
Bethesda union staff to march outside studios over Xbox layoffs: 'The company wants us to accept this as a done deal and quietly disappear'
News "We need to show management right now that we mean business."
Xbox layoffs have likely killed another Perfect Dark reboot from the hollowed-out id Software, as well as a John Wick-style gun fu game
News It's not even clear what kind of games the newly-carved up id Software can make.
WoW's game director thinks its UI overhaul has been 'successful so far,' even if it's 'not perfect'
News "Things will only continue to get better from here."
Arkheron, a competitive PvP action game, will open its closed beta next week—and I'm getting that Battlerite nostalgia just looking at this thing
News Closed beta's coming soon.
Bethesda layoffs include the artist responsible for designing Skyrim's khajiit and argonians, who had been at the company for 27 years
News A staggering loss of institutional talent.
The Blood of Dawnwalker's most interesting mechanic took a bite out of my inner RPG completionist, who would've otherwise played hooky with a witch
DE-QUEST Ignoring a quest becomes a roleplay option when the clock's ticking.
WoW Classic player hits 60 on hardcore self-found with every class, decides that isn't enough, does a naked run for good measure
News "Naked fire mage was a damn cat with 9 lives."
It looks like Blizzard's escaped Xbox's grim reset scythe for now, though there's still time to be caught in the second 1600-strong layoff wave coming 2027
News I'm sure this is great for morale.
25 foolproof ways to get laid off in the videogame industry
Protips Tired of making games? Just use one of these simple tricks!
Elder Scrolls Online developer left reeling by Xbox layoffs—with teams gutted, senior talent gone, and roadmaps 'shifting' as a result
News A grim outcome from Xbox's latest round of reaping.
Xbox's CEO wants its games to cater to 'more than a billion people each day', or 24 times more than the peak population of Steam, which is delusional
News Alternate title: Does Xbox CEO Asha Sharma know what a billion is?
WoW server suffers outbreak after a debuff breaches containment, giving me flashbacks to a 21-year-old incident so large Covid-19 researchers referenced it
News Not quite Corrupted Blood 2.0, but close enough.
This little orb's going to be sitting on my minimap for the rest of WoW's current expansion, and I couldn't tell you why
MARCO FOLIO Omnium Folio, why art thou?
Clair Obscur is flawed on purpose, says director: 'Games that try to be perfect, that try to fix all their flaws—they're usually just really boring'
News "My theory is that it's just like people."
World of Warcraft's on the quality-of-life boost warpath, with fixes including an auto-loot setting that's been mildly inconveniencing alt-lovers for years
News Helm tipped.
WoW's bug-filled April patch was actually from trying to fix too much too fast, says director Ion Hazzikostas—like an elevator from 13 years ago that blew up housing
News "This is going to inspire some spaghetti code memes, but…"
Rockstar UK employees say the GTA 6 developer's still plagued by gender pay gaps, crunch, and vague bonuses which make them 'as pliable as possible to their boss's whims'
News "A fifth of your salary could be withheld without any justification."
The ESA quietly starts walking back baffling statements about private servers being 'illegal', though it's still tutting and wagging its finger
News I get the sense the ESA still doesn't like them, much.
'I cannot do my job when Microsoft refuses to do theirs', say Xbox union workers as destructive reset looms from a company that spent over $80 billion on AI last year
News "Why would a game developer bother to put forward their best work under these conditions?"
I wasn't convinced Cyberpunk: Edgerunners could have a sadder ending until I read its writer's other pitches—and boy did we get off easy
News Counting my cyber-blessings.
Sony games boss says company will bravely keep sending live services over the top, despite cancelling 8 of the 12 ones planned for 2025 and wiping out most of Destiny 2's developers
News "The genre itself is relatively new."
Discussion time: Most big MMOs are seasonal now—do you prefer it that way, or do you loathe the FOMO checklist?
WELL SEASONED 'Tis the season.
Vampire: The Masquerade's D&D crossover is a condescending cave-in to people who are afraid of trying something new
BLOOD DRAINED The d10s can't hurt you, I swear.
