Capturing the zeitgeist and making a splash in online multiplayer is the first tough step for any budding live service game — the next is trying to maintain that audience. Splitgate from 1047 Games took that first step, and while its initial success overwhelmed the studio to a degree, the indie arena shooter earned its big break. A full year later, Splitgate is in the middle of its “Beta Season 2” as it tries to maintain a playerbase.

Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics provided us with about an hour of footage showcasing the first two campaign missions of War for Wakanda. We also had the opportunity to speak to writer Hannah MacLeod and senior designer Scott Walters from Crystal Dynamics to learn more about their process and inspirations.

There’s murder afoot in Tangle Tower, the latest title from SFB Games. The British duo of brothers Tom and Adam Vian were on the PAX East 2020 show floor, demonstrating their murder mystery puzzle game to attendees on Nintendo Switch and iOS. The story has players revisit the eponymous character from an earlier SFB Games title, Detective Grimoire, but Switch owners are probably more familiar with a game that came in between these Grimoire games: Snipperclips.

One of the louder groups amongst the uproar is Fight for the Future, which began the “Gamers for Freedom” movement. Gamers for Freedom was behind the protest during BlizzCon 2019, which featured an attempted apology from Blizzard president J. Allen Brack. Last month, DualShockers spoke to Dayton Young, the product director at Fight for the Future and Lead Campaigner for Gamers for Freedom, about how they approached one of the year’s hottest and most sensitive topics.

While Full Frontal host Samantha Bee was at New York Comic-Con 2019 to promote an app, the press at our interview roundtable couldn't help but ask about something else. It was a bit unexpected to have a political satirist at a comic book fandom convention, but all at the roundtable took advantage of the situation to ask Bee's thoughts on the impeachment inquiry against one President Donald J. Trump.

I wanted to dive into the heart of what made Flame Con a beacon for queer communities in the convention scene. Con organizers GeeksOUT put together an interview for me with Steve Gianaca, the Vice President of GeeksOUT and the Chair of Flame Con for a candid discussion on queer spaces in nerd fandoms.

It may have been easy to overlook the announcement of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga when it was just a press release and a cinematic trailer, but at E3 2019 TT Games earned some buzz with a closed-doors hands-off demo. While the game is still a ways off, it had to be seen to be believed. It was a huge step for the series in terms of gameplay concepts and technology, but in retrospect, this seemed to be the natural evolution and trajectory for the long-running series.

We’ve seen a number of dystopian societies in video games—you didn’t even have to look beyond E3 2019 to get a glimpse of them. Still, something about Watch Dogs: Legion strikes more of a chord than many of the other fantastical games vying for our attention. In a time where political unrest permeates every aspect of our lives, whether we admit it or not, there is something intriguing about the pitch of a game set in a theoretical post-Brexit London.

IndieCade has been a part of E3 for over a decade, and since then has held a number of international events and festivals showcasing the latest and most innovative developments of not just games, but interactive mediums in general. This was the mission that Festival Director Sam Roberts described to me in detail, as I sat down with him on the E3 2019 show floor for an extended conversation.

When Atlus first released Catherine in 2011, the puzzle-platformer became a phenomenon in ways that the developers didn’t anticipate. Not only were the unconventional gameplay mechanics and story praised, but Catherine somehow ended up with a competitive scene. With a re-release through Catherine: Full Body, Atlus has the rare opportunity of a second chance in developing the same game, with experience and feedback in tow.

Every HDTV in our homes will probably have two or three HDMI ports, and with so many devices at our disposal we eventually have to get picky about what uses those. So why devote one of those ports for a throwback retro console? That’s the question I have for all of these mini consoles that were popularized after the Nintendo Entertainment System Classic released in 2016. It was also my top question when I saw the Sega Genesis Mini at E3 2019.

DualShockers spoke with creator Greg Lobanov, with discussions ranging from the creative process of the game’s development to the external fears and anxieties that led to the game’s conception. With Wandersong arriving on the PlayStation 4 and becoming available to another audience, it’s about time for everyone to hear some of the stories behind the game.

Last month, I got to visit the offices of co-developer Red Storm Entertainment, where I played the multiplayer myself and spoke to Terry Spier, the Creative Director at Red Storm. We discussed changes between the first and second games, where the game may head next, and how Tom Clancy’s political intrigue fits into a game that will apparently not make political statements.

While every kid at one point may dream of running away from their parents, 'the idea of running away, in reality, is not a romantic thing at all,' says Marvel Television president and Runaways executive producer Jeph Loeb. At a roundtable interview with the creative players of Marvel's Runaways, the cast members and executive producers described the characters' hardships of growing up in their extraordinary circumstances.

Developer Kitfox Games only just recently launched the Kickstarter campaign for its dungeon crawler/dating simulator hybrid, Boyfriend Dungeon—less than 24 hours later, the game was more than fully funded by backers. Shortly after the campaign’s success, I talked to Tanya X. Short, Director and Designer of Boyfriend Dungeon, and one of the co-editors of the textbook Procedural Generation in Game Design.