Ravi Hiranand
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ravi64.com
Ravi Hiranand
@ravi64.com
Hong Kong born and raised. Spent 20+ years covering tech and games and news for CNN, Rest of World, IGN. Liverpool fan. Addicted to video games. Huge Nintendo 64 nerd. Sign up for my free weekly newsletter: ravi64.com (Avatar by @wrenegade.bsky.social)
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The smartphone killed the Xbox... but maybe not in the way you think. I took a dive into Xbox history to explain why the smartphone removed the Xbox's whole reason to exist. ravi64.com/the-smartpho...
Why the smartphone killed the Xbox
The console wars are over, but another console didn't kill the Xbox.
ravi64.com
Reposted by Ravi Hiranand
The Xbox 360 is 20! Looking back, it's remarkable how it established the blueprint for a modern video game console. Every system today can trace its lineage to the Xbox 360. ravi64.com/xbox-360-fir...
Xbox 360 was the first modern console
Every console today can trace a line back to the Xbox 360.
ravi64.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Reposted by Ravi Hiranand
If you let Europeans take over basketball you're going to get some nutmegs
November 24, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by Ravi Hiranand
January 25, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Hype levels for this were off the charts, and not in the weary/slightly cynical way we're approaching GTA VI; everyone straight up expected this to be the best game ever made.
Think later today I’ll take this guy out for a spin. Pretty sure my original save data is still intact
November 24, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Reposted by Ravi Hiranand
Save data was still intact
November 24, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Reposted by Ravi Hiranand
We are way beyond the point at which everyone should have abandoned Meta's products, but here we are. Literally every day, another ew (yes, ew, not new) fact comes to light.
Instagram’s former head of safety and well-being Vaishnavi Jayakumar testified the company had a “17x” strike policy for accounts that engaged in the trafficking of humans for sex.

“You could incur 16 violations and upon the 17th violation, your account would be suspended"

time.com/7336204/meta...
7 Allegations Against Meta in Newly Unsealed Filings
Court filings allege Meta tolerated sex trafficking, hid harms to teens, and prioritized growth over user safety for years.
time.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:36 AM
The Xbox 360 is 20! Looking back, it's remarkable how it established the blueprint for a modern video game console. Every system today can trace its lineage to the Xbox 360. ravi64.com/xbox-360-fir...
Xbox 360 was the first modern console
Every console today can trace a line back to the Xbox 360.
ravi64.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Reposted by Ravi Hiranand
A person directly familiar with the conversations tells Semafor that Donald Trump has personally pressed Larry Ellison to revive Brett Ratner's "Rush Hour" franchise.
www.semafor.com/article/11/2...
Exclusive: How Trump is trying to remake American culture — starting with his favorite buddy-cop franchise
The president is offering some creative input on potential upcoming projects.
www.semafor.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:13 AM
Reposted by Ravi Hiranand
This is great: ILM visual effects artist Todd Vaziri breaks down some of the “hidden” special effects that he and his team have worked on, incl. for Rogue One, The Force Awakens, and Transformers. “I make the stars in Star Wars.” [kottke.org]
ILM Visual Effects Artist Breaks Down Hidden VFX
If you were one of those people who loved watching DVD extras, you’ll enjoy the hell out of ILM visual effects artist Todd Vaziri breaking down some of the special effects that he and his team have worked on, including
kottke.org
October 10, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Reposted by Ravi Hiranand
this just shows how the Western family unit has completely broken down because in Asia we all have uncles to fulfill this function in our lives
November 23, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Reposted by Ravi Hiranand
VERY. GROUCHY. HERON.
🦉
November 23, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Reposted by Ravi Hiranand
lack of fanfare from MS on this is a little weird to me, nostalgia for the 360 seems like the one feel-good thing they have to fall back on right now. i know they went big on the OG's 20th a few years ago, but still
November 22, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Ravi Hiranand
Man, so many good times. They really nailed it that gen
Xbox 360 is now 20 years old (November 22, 2005)
November 22, 2025 at 6:41 AM
Did something happen to semi-automated offside in the Premier League? Why is it so much slower than the Champions League?
November 22, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Reposted by Ravi Hiranand
Gaming suddenly started flying off in a bunch of different directions in 2004-2006 thanks to the 360, Wii and DS all hitting at roughly the same time, and, yeah, 1UP in particular rose to the challenge of helping folks make sense of what was going on (and why).

Good times.
In my head, this was the coalescing moment of the Ziff/1UP era and kicked off our golden age. The online games, Geometry Wars score wars, Guitar Hero beer nights, 1UP/EGM combo review teams…leading into 1UP Show development and 1UP Yours’ breakthrough “Horse Armor” episode.

Special moment in time.
Xbox 360 is now 20 years old (November 22, 2005)
November 22, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Ravi Hiranand
i would've probably waited another year before adding arne slot to the managers banner
November 22, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Ravi Hiranand
Grace period for winning the league (remember when Liverpool won the league????) getting harder and harder this is a directionless confused sulking bad football team
November 22, 2025 at 4:47 PM
FINALLY Chiesa on for Isak. I don't want to see Isak again this season. Spend a year getting fit or something, I don't care. #lfc
November 22, 2025 at 4:29 PM
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December 24, 2024 at 4:52 PM
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Not tracking runners, shitting out of tackles, just bad team feeling bad about themselves
November 22, 2025 at 4:08 PM
the best thing about Kerkez making those overlapping runs outside Gakpo is that Gakpo is going to ignore him every single time to cut inside #lfc
November 22, 2025 at 4:10 PM
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game design 101
November 21, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Reposted by Ravi Hiranand
My keen knowledge of statistics tells me these feet are merely suffering from survivorship bias.
November 20, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Oh my god this was weirdly a staple of Hong Kong English language TV growing up
Do...do you want to see horny cartoon characters do the Olympics? Too bad that's what @mikedrucker.bsky.social brought us today. It's a Nerding day but, like, a horny one. 1900hotdog.com/2025/11/nerd...
November 20, 2025 at 3:40 PM
telling off Lewis and Charles is already insane, but the Ferrari boss mouthing off to reporters to moan about the drivers mouthing off to reporters sums up the stupidity of the whole thing
November 20, 2025 at 7:37 AM