On this week’s episode, Nathan and Riley are joined by Chris Kerr, formerly of Game Developer—the publication, not the concept—who’s now heading up newly launched site Vertical Slice. We discuss why he decided to leave a relatively stable gig of nearly a decade for the choppy waters of independence, as well as the challenges of producing capital-J journalism while wearing a plethora of other hats (definitely not something we can relate to). We also reminisce about how Game Developer, one of the industry’s biggest trade publications, used to be called Gamasutra—a pun based on history’s most famous sex book. Then we discuss a couple pieces of pertinent news: Fortune recently became the latest mainstream publication to print thousands of fawning words about how Asha Sharma is running Xbox, conveniently omitting the “into the ground” part. Why do journalists at places like Fortune, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal keep trying to help Microsoft rehabilitate its image? And who is any of this actually for? Next, we scrutinize the actual news buried in Fortune’s piece: The next Xbox might cost between $1,200 and $1,800. Again, who is any of this for? (Note: The news that EA is closing BioWare dropped literally just as we were wrapping up recording this episode. Otherwise we absolutely would've discussed it. Oh well, next time!)
Credits
- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Riley MacLeod, and special guest Chris Kerr
- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude
- Subscribe to Aftermath!
About The Show
Aftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
