Graham Smith
@grahamsmith.bsky.social
2.4K followers 240 following 96 posts
Previously: RPS, PC Gamer, Eurogamer, Dicebreaker.
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Reposted by Graham Smith
nickharkaway.com
So Starmer is backing ID cards - which I do not like - in order to facilitate this government’s ugly immigration policies - which I also do not like - and in doing so is apparently spiralling down the electoral drain and throwing votes to Farage - whom I do not like?

Fan-fucking-tastic.
grahamsmith.bsky.social
If anyone is considering purchasing part of a property via a shared ownership scheme, I strongly suggest you: don't. It's pitched as "affordable" housing but then they will quadruple your service charge and make it so no mortgage lender will touch it, stopping you from selling or staircasing.
grahamsmith.bsky.social
These are some of my favourite games and @pentadact.com is one of my favourite people so this is really just a huge opportunity to ruin a lot of things I love
grahamsmith.bsky.social
I started my new job last month: I'm now studio manager/producer at Suspicious Developments, the team responsible for Tactical Breach Wizards, Heat Signature and Gunpoint!
Reposted by Graham Smith
jamesandstuff.bsky.social
We're shortstaffed on RPS and need some rad PC-minded freelancers for urgent review work. Specifically:
- Borderlands 4 (yes I know it's out already)
- Dying Light: The Beast
- Silent Hill f

Standard rate is £200 GBP per review, make yourselves known at [email protected]
grahamsmith.bsky.social
Then Aaron Sorkin revives Studio 60 just to write another episode about it.
grahamsmith.bsky.social
There's a later slide that's like, "some players are willing to spend $10,000/month!", the argument being, "so you should try to take that".
grahamsmith.bsky.social
In fairness, that's effectively what this particular talk was arguing. 'Mobile games are making more money via F2P, microtransactions, etc. and now console devs are beginning to do it, too.' It's the dawn of the live service game. I think it's also the dawn of a more extractive way of selling games.
grahamsmith.bsky.social
The "supply" here is: a person has bought your game, they'd be willing to spend more, but you're not offering them ways of doing so. So you increase "supply" to meet "demand" by offering DLC and microtransaction hats and so on.

It's not incorrect. It's just... exhausting.
grahamsmith.bsky.social
These arguments always seemed to contain a moral component, as if you owe it to the work or its creators to wring the money sponge as tightly as possible. If your fans had money to spend on going to PAX, then by rights they should be giving that money to you and only you, as "owner" of the fandom.
grahamsmith.bsky.social
Every video game industry presentation I saw circa 2009-2016 looked like this. "Consumers who were willing to spend more on games weren't able to". Oh no!!!!!
A slide from a GDC 2011 presentation explaining that traditional models of selling games "represented lost economic value".
grahamsmith.bsky.social
Would people be willing to pay more for Silksong? Sure. Is it worth more? No idea. Is it nice to have an interaction with capitalism that isn't designed by a team of data analysts to take you for the absolute maximum possible? Yeah.
grahamsmith.bsky.social
Ah, this was Tony. I was trying to bluff my way to the PC Gamer word count with a lot of words I didn't need and he righteously sliced me to pieces.
grahamsmith.bsky.social
I've still got a printout of a bit of feedback you gave me 16 years ago. A breakdown of sentences I had written in a preview of a Men Of War game, so surgically precise it was worth carrying into everything I wrote afterwards.
grahamsmith.bsky.social
We had similar experiences with maybe three different people. Sorry you and the fam are going through, Pat.
Reposted by Graham Smith
gailrenard.bsky.social
The BBC is about to shut its Written Archives to the public. Writers and researchers rely on these archives. They belong to the licence payers. Please sign and share this open letter.
grahamsmith.bsky.social
I don't know what this is but it's the apex of technology
A photo of the box for the Casio Loopy, an old video games console. Most of the text is in Japanese except for "My Seal Computer". It has pictures of colourful games and lots of pink hearts. A photo of the box for the Casio Loopy, an old video games console. It has Japanese writing, "My Seal Computer" in the corner, and lots of coloured hearts along the bottom.
Reposted by Graham Smith
digitalfoundry.bsky.social
We're excited and proud to announce that Digital Foundry is now fully independent, having parted ways amicably with IGN. In this DF Direct Special, we share our thoughts and aspirations for the future of the channel: youtu.be/tl7bIJ2yu4I
grahamsmith.bsky.social
when the reality is more like
Mr. Burns, glowing green, bringing people love in a drug-induced haze as Smithers reaches to stop him.
grahamsmith.bsky.social
Hot damn, what a nice thing to say! Thanks Katharine. Hopefully we get to work together again some day. Say hi to Scotland for me.
grahamsmith.bsky.social
Thanks Evan. Hope everything is well with all of you at PC Gamer.