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Keza MacDonald

@mackeza.bsky.social

9.9K followers 170 following 490 posts

Guardian video games editor, exhausted millennial. She/her 🏳️‍🌈

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Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · Sep 3

My book, Super Nintendo: How One Japanese Company Helped the World Have Fun, is out next February! It is a lively cultural history of the world's most beloved video game company, drawing from 20 years' worth of reporting and interviews. Pre-order here: linktr.ee/super_nintendo

The UK cover of Keza's forthcoming book, Super Nintendo, out 12 February 2026

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Reposted by Keza MacDonald

George E. Osborn @georgeosborn.bsky.social · 3h

How are video games being used as a frontier for information war? What are democracies doing to respond to the challenge? And how are organisations like NATO grappling with the problems?

Find out in this week's @vgim.bsky.social - videogamesindustrymemo.substack.com/p/natos-vide...

NATO’s video game frontline, 09/10/2025

It’s all gone a bit John le Carré 🕵️

videogamesindustrymemo.substack.com

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Reposted by Keza MacDonald

Mike Bithell @mikebithell.bsky.social · 13h

I am fascinated by how ubi has welded the aesthetics of politics in its games and marketing for decades, but always been profoundly cowardly about engaging with them. Political aspartame.

Stephen Totilo @stephentotilo.bsky.social · 16h

SCOOP: Last year, Ubisoft cancelled an Assassin's Creed game set during Reconstruction. Was to feature a Black Assassin who, among other things, fought the rise of the Klan

Sources: Leadership nixed it over concerns re: U.S. political climate, backlash to Yasuke

www.gamefile.news/p/scoop-ubis...

Scoop: Ubisoft cancelled a post-Civil War Assassin’s Creed last year

Company leadership deemed the project too controversial for the moment, sources tell Game File

www.gamefile.news

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Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 13h

Soon as I read this headline I thought, I bet I know which sicko wrote this @papapishu.bsky.social

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Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 2d

Serrels your sons appear to have multiplied

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Reposted by Keza MacDonald

Chris Schilling @schillingc.bsky.social · 2d

Played Consume Me. Loved Consume Me. www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...

Consume Me review - anything but empty calories

A teenage slice-of-life tale, an energy-management challenge and a satire of diet culture – this indie award-winner is a flavoursome treat

www.theguardian.com

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Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 3d

I also did exactly this 🤣

Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 3d

I felt like I'd been demoted from CEO of my own brain to a hapless regional manager. But I did recover the capacity for high level thought! It will be okay! (The second time around was harder BUT that was my pandemic baby sooo... lots going on there)

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Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 3d

You will get your brain back eventually 🙏

Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 4d

Electrotransvestism!

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Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 4d

There is indeed

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Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 4d

Those are already in the wild! Would you like one?

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Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 4d

Proof copies of the US edition of my book just arrived! The note from my editor has made me emotional

linktr.ee/super_nintendo

Keza holds a copy of her forthcoming book, Super Nintendo

The editor's note at the front of the book

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Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 5d

As a video games journalist I am very used to men emailing me to tell me things I already know, but a fun new subgenre of this is men emailing me *ChatGPT summaries of things I already know*

Strong contender for most annoying use of AI (it's a crowded field)

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Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 5d

Have you encountered the travesty/boob joke vehicle that was P2 magazine? I briefly worked at the same publisher and the editor was possibly the most vile man I have ever met. For weeks he subsisted entirely on free microwave burgers that he blagged for the magazine as a competition prize

Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 5d

I think I remember buying this issue and feeling powerfully embarrassed at the newsagents... Or possibly it was Edge's DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball edition

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Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 5d

I couldn't quite put my finger on why I liked Atsu so much in the context of Yotei's environment, but you've nailed it

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Reposted by Keza MacDonald

alyssa mercante @alyssamerc.bsky.social · 5d

I had to write more about Ghost of Yotei because I couldn't stop thinking about ecofeminism, women as a deadly force of nature, and Atsu's love for animals.
www.gamespot.com/articles/gho...

Ghost Of Yotei's Star Is A Deadly Force Of Feminine Nature

Sucker Punch's sequel is all about Atsu, a woman who can summon wolves and spear enemies with ease

www.gamespot.com

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Reposted by Keza MacDonald

Andy Kelly @ultrabrilliant.xyz · 6d

The Japanese Mario 64 official strategy guide is an incredible thing. "Can we make little hand-made dioramas of all the levels?" "Sure, why the hell not."

A model of the first level from Mario 64.

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Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 5d

Yeah actually, there was one section that really felt overlong - I happened to choose the most complicated assassination plotline first - but you get to choose the order you do things, which helps

Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 5d

I am similarly over open-world games and like this much more than anything else I've played in years. I think it's because the combat is particularly good and feels dangerous, you can never get *too* powerful

Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 5d

Ghost of Yotei tip: go climb the mountain. In the early hours I was wavering on how much I liked this game, and climbing the mountain was a turning point

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Reposted by Keza MacDonald

Mike Drucker @mikedrucker.bsky.social · 5d

Just got an early copy of @mackeza.bsky.social’s new book about Nintendo and this is exactly what I need right now.

Cover the book Super Nintendo by Keza Macdonald with the subtitle “The Game-Changing Company That Unlocked the Power of Play”

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Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 6d

I truly never felt that open world fatigue feeling

Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 6d

Much less of all that!

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Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 6d

As someone who was left a little cold by Ghost of Tsushima, I liked Ghost of Yotei SO MUCH better. Verges on a 5* game for me www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...

Ghost of Yōtei review – a brutal and stunningly beautiful samurai revenge quest

The follow-up to Ghost of Tsushima leans into its young protagonist’s thirst for bloody vengeance

www.theguardian.com

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