Latest articles by Austin Wood
"Of all the problems to have in the world, too many players is one of the best": The 2025 summer MMO migration was huge for WoW players, and for Old School RuneScape devs
News Jagex says it saw a noticeable spike in new OSRS players and learned a lot from WoW streamers
With censorship swirling, devs of polarizing anime RPG Blue Archive say Steam delay "was unrelated to the game's content" and there were "no modifications or censorship of the content specifically for Steam approval"
News Blue Archive made the jump to Steam unscathed
Bizarre Wuchang: Fallen Feathers patch un-murders historical Chinese characters in massive retcon, makes the game way easier, and breaks a whole chapter: "Faint from exhaustion? Are they Pokemon?"
News Many players blame nationalism after update 1.5 dramatically changes Ming Dynasty characters
After promising more re-releases, Bandai Namco seemingly leaks a remaster of one of my all-time favorite JRPGs, which still has some of the best combat in the genre
News Tales of Xillia is still one of my top three Tales games
Dune: Awakening players report disappearing items, devs tell the MMO's community to try standing around for "up to 10 minutes" while they work on an actual fix
News I mean, I guess that works
Original Hytale studio founder "in active discussions with Riot Games about acquiring" the Minecraft-inspired survival game after offering "10x what the true market value is"
News "Thank you for believing in Hytale"
Hideo Kojima excitedly reports another 0.1% growth in Death Stranding 2 players who kept playing after the credits rolled, and I'm really starting to think he just wants y'all to get it to 80%
News "Make the most of the Obon summer holiday and play to your heart’s content"
I've waited literal months for these Monster Hunter Wilds changes, and I don't say this lightly, but I think we might actually be back
News My beloved lance is king of the new balance changes
Helldivers 2 teases Halo 3: ODST crossover as the PlayStation-published hit finally comes to Xbox, studio CEO once again threatens brown trousers: "Please prepare your pants"
News Halo x Helldivers looks like a sure thing
Somehow it took an MMO's entire community more than 2 years to find an impossibly rare, 1 in 500,000 fishing drop – and after all that, it's basically worthless
News Old School RuneScape players have tracked down an extraordinarily rare fishing find
The Black Myth: Wukong vibes are off the charts in the gorgeous and unnerving reveal trailer for this action game from The First Berserker: Khazan's Nexon and the Squid Game composer
News Woochi the Wayfarer is one to watch
Elden Ring does it again: Bandai Namco lights a cigar with digital profits up ¥7 billion partly thanks to 5 million+ Nightreign players, and doubles down on Sony collaboration
News Elden Ring Nightreign has been a boon for Bandai
Finally, The RPG is on Steam – "Minimalistic Skyrim" where you shove bread into open wounds to heal, and the dragon villain "constantly glitches"
News At long last, The RPG is here
Battlefield 6 beta players pray for nerfs as the M87A1 shotgun becomes a sniper rifle, dev says it's already fixed "in a different build"
News The shotgun tearing up the Battlefield 6 beta has already been adjusted, it seems
As the industry waits for GTA 6 to land like a meteor, analyst highlights the widening gap in games: "The winners are winning bigger, and everyone else is scrambling for a smaller piece of the pie"
News "That available pie for those titles and services that aren't the biggest in the market, that pie is shrinking"
An anti-FOMO approach would be unthinkable for most MMOs and live service games, but it's the secret to Old School RuneScape's new peak of 240,000 players: "Everything you earn matters forever"
News 12 years after launch, evergreen MMO Old School RuneScape passes 240,000 concurrent players
The 25 best roguelike games to play right now
Best List Settle down for one more round of the best roguelikes 2025 has to offer
I have a new top anime to watch in 2026 as the adaptation for one of my favorite manga, with one of Shonen Jump's best-ever female leads, already looks incredible and I've only seen 100 seconds
News Akane-banashi is getting an anime, and oh boy, it's good
Action RPG devs at The First Berserker: Khazan studio take on the ultimate final boss, capitalism, striking to protest alleged bonus bias for executives over the people who make the games
News Dungeon Fighter demands spill over
Umamusume players hold a digital funeral for Grass Wonder, the real, 30-year-old racehorse behind one of the game's beloved anime horse girls: "May you eat dandelions in heaven"
News Developer Cygames also "share our condolences"
Square Enix down ¥11 billion in game sales because it can only re-release Kingdom Hearts so often, but says don't worry boss, we've got some great JRPGs in the chamber
News More Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and Octopath Traveler are on the way
A bunch of "nerds" are turning Risk of Rain and Diablo into a roguelike with a secret ingredient I'd never expect, and I can't get it out of my head
Features A small Korean team's Shape of Dreams is shaping up to be a special kind of roguelike
Take-Two boss says good games are the new bad games: "Some of our competitors have realized maybe a little late in the day that consumers are not okay with okay"
News "Good is the new bad, great is the new great"
