🍪 Nostalgia and the Industry’s Ongoing Identity Crisis

Hello there industry watchers, data skeptics, and players who’ve learned to read charts with one eyebrow permanently raised.

Today’s headlines point in different directions, but they’re all orbiting the same tension. Fun versus metrics. Art versus automation. Growth versus stagnation. Old worlds pulling players back while new games fight for oxygen.

This is one of those days where the industry looks busy on the surface, but conflicted underneath.

Splitgate Arena Reloaded Pushes Back on Player Count Narratives

1047 Games, the studio behind Splitgate Arena Reloaded recently addressed its low player numbers on Steam, arguing that charts don’t measure fun. It’s a familiar defense, especially for multiplayer games that thrive in smaller, dedicated communities rather than mass audiences.

Steam charts are public, immediate, and unforgiving. They reward spikes and punish slow burns. What they don’t show is session quality, retention inside private groups, or whether a game delivers what its remaining players actually want.

Still, multiplayer games live and die on population density. Matchmaking, content cadence, and community health all depend on scale, not just enjoyment.

🦊 Kiki: I’ve had some of my best multiplayer memories in games everyone else had already written off. Tight communities can be magic. But I’ve also watched games slowly suffocate because they couldn’t reach critical mass. Fun keeps people playing, but visibility keeps the lights on. Studios end up stuck defending joy while knowing the math is still staring them down, and that’s a rough place to be.

🍪 Chip flips a chart sideways and pretends it looks better.

Troy Baker, AI, and the Shifting Line Between Tool and Author

Actor Troy Baker recently commented on generative AI, saying it can create content, but not art. His position echoes a growing sentiment among performers, writers, and designers who see AI tools expanding rapidly while creative ownership becomes more fragile.

The industry has largely framed AI as a productivity win. Faster iteration, cheaper assets, scalable output. What gets discussed less is authorship. Who is responsible for meaning. Who owns intention. And where human contribution stops being visible.

🦊 Kiki: When people like Troy talk about AI, I listen, because they’re usually the first to feel the impact. Right now, you can still feel the gaps. Flat delivery, hollow intent, things that don’t quite land. But I don’t buy the idea that this line stays permanent. Every time we say “AI can’t do that,” it closes that distance faster than expected. The real work now is adaptation. Learning how to use these tools without letting them erase craft. Eventually, hiding behind “AI feels soulless” won’t work anymore. The soul part is going to be on us.

🍪 Chip labels one folder “tools” and another “choices,” then hesitates.

UK Video Game Revenue Grows, but the Shape of Growth Matters

New data shows the UK video games market grew 7.4 percent in 2025, reaching £5.4 billion in revenue. On the surface, this signals resilience and continued demand, especially in a global market still adjusting to post-pandemic behavior and rising development costs.

But revenue growth doesn’t automatically translate into a healthier ecosystem. Much of this increase is concentrated in established franchises, live services, and large publishers with distribution power. Smaller studios often feel growth indirectly, if at all.

🦊 Kiki: Numbers like this always look comforting until you ask where the money actually lands. Growth doesn’t mean stability for everyone. It often means the same few winners got bigger while everyone else fought for scraps. The industry loves charts because they simplify the story, but they rarely show who’s burning out or quietly shutting down behind the scenes.

🍪 Chip stacks coins neatly, then notices the pile isn’t evenly distributed.

The Most Played Games Barely Changed Year Over Year

Lists of the most played games on PlayStation and Xbox in 2025 look almost identical to 2024, reinforcing how entrenched player habits have become across console ecosystems.

Across both platforms, the usual suspects dominate the top slots:

Call of Duty
Fortnite
Grand Theft Auto V
EA Sports FC
Minecraft
Roblox
Apex Legends

New releases may spike briefly, but the long-term rankings remain anchored by the same live-service ecosystems and social hubs players have already invested years into.

This kind of consistency shows that discovery isn’t just a marketing problem. It’s structural. Players aren’t only choosing games. They’re choosing routines, friend groups, progression histories, and digital spaces that feel familiar and safe.

🦊 Kiki: Once a game becomes someone’s default hangout, it’s incredibly hard to replace. These lists don’t reflect excitement or curiosity. They reflect comfort. You’ve already got friends there, progress there, memories there. Walking away from that feels like starting over socially, not just mechanically. That’s why breaking into these charts feels impossible for new games, even when they’re good.

🍪 Chip opens a game library, scrolls once, and immediately clicks the same icon again.

Fallout’s Second Life and the Power of Cross-Media Worlds

Player numbers for Fallout 4 and Fallout New Vegas have surged again following the release of Fallout Season 2. It’s the clearest recent example of how television adaptations can reactivate dormant audiences when the underlying games still hold up.

This kind of revival isn’t automatic. It works because Fallout’s worlds, systems, and storytelling remain compelling years later.

🦊 Kiki: Fallout coming back like this doesn’t feel forced. The show reminded people why they cared in the first place. Nostalgia helps, but it only works when the games still stand on their own. You can’t manufacture that kind of rebound. Strong worlds age better than marketing cycles ever will.

🍪 Chip dusts off an old Pip-Boy and smiles.