Latest articles by Harvey Randall
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.
D&D and Magic owner Hasbro is reportedly trying to get child actors from Peppa Pig to sign away their voices to AI
News This doesn't bode too well for Hasbro's videogames, either.
GTA 6's preorders mark the start of a long wait for it to come to PC, despite the fact we'll likely make up '50% of the sales'
LEFT OUT What are we, chopped liver?
Path of Exile co-creator used to think 'live service was entirely upside, in all cases', but 10 years of experience and games like Baldur's Gate 3 have shown him another way
News "This is a far more nuanced field than I thought it was 10 years ago."
The grim industry summer continues as EA lays off staff ahead of $55 billion sale to Saudi Arabia, likely to soothe the sting of its $20 billion debt
News The layoffs will continue until… well, something improves.
Warframe dev says 'no one is celebrating' Destiny 2 winding down: 'A game is healthy when you have competitors'
News We all lift together.
I had my doubts about Critical Role's new 13-player D&D campaign, but its latest episodes have me fully bought into its grand, ambitious promise
HIGH ROLLERS Three parties, one city, high stakes.
Guild Wars' devs tried to escape the MMO branding in 2005, citing all the things that would become genre staples 20 years later
News If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
WoW's got the right to close private servers—but in this industry layoff hellscape, I also feel like I'm watching the MMO genre's future get snuffed out
NO CHILDREN Private servers are a symptom, not the disease.
WoW's quest to add variable difficulty to just about everything continues in Midnight patch 12.1's Mythic world bosses, though there's a catch
News Straight lair lurkin'.
Slay the Spire 2 patch fixes RNG bug after a fan's '8 hour descent into madness' proves it exists—alongside heaps of other updates and a new Act 3 boss
News "Rest assured that your suffering is now truly random!"
Gabe Newell buys $70.8 million mansion in Florida, and naturally it has a dock for his superyachts and a personal tunnel to the ocean
News How he does like to be beside the seaside.
