Riley MacLeod

NEW: I spoke with current and former EA employees to understand how the latest layoff round played out and the realities of daily life at the U.S. publisher. The short version? EA is controlled by an executive class that "cannot fail, only be failed." Workers, then, will always pay the price.

I went to the opera and it had a live horse but only for a second at the end, which does not feel like a very cost-effective use of a horse?

my first feature for inside baseball week 2026 is live and it couldn't be much more inside baseball than writing about games media. thanks so much to everyone for taking part, this was not a fun thing to talk about

NEW: Skydance Corp, the new owner of Warner Bros Games., has today informed staff that they will be required to work in-office five days a week. In the email announcing the policy, the company also rolled out a 'Voluntary Buyout Program' to let employees "move on in a way that works for them."

Help us reach our goal either because you want a zine, or because you want to torture me by forcing us to make a zine, as I am a man who still carries the trauma of nights surrounded by envelopes

CNBC: Microsoft offers voluntary buyouts to 60,000 employees www.cnbc.com/2026/10/26/m...

sad news to start the week: layoffs have hit sucker punch

Our first Inside Baseball Week story is here, this roller coaster ride by @lucasderuyter.northsky.social about the darker side of selling Pokemon cards

Our theme week is back! Get ready for some absurdly specific blogs! We've got a lot of stuff I'm very excited about!

So as I headed to Ingram for the first time in March, I wanted to know who the local faces of the national immigration crackdown were. Who was driving the black Dodge Charger? www.propublica.org/article/depo...

Oh. www.ign.com/articles/xbo...

I joined the @aftermath.site crew this week to chat through my pivot to independence with @verticalslice.news and other video game GUBBINS. Here's my partial take on the Asha Sharma marketing tour:

I request way too many books from the library and then never get the chance to read them all, but it's fun when the library says I have a hold ready and I'm like "who requested this book, this doesn't sound like me"

The mouse in my house vanished into the bathroom, so I shoved a bunch of mousetraps in there and taped the bottom of the door closed, and while there is literally no way this is going to successfully trap it, it does also mean I've locked myself out of my own bathroom I guess forever now

Christianity Today’s new editor in chief on why they pulled, and then re-published, this article. Apparently CT is adding a corrections policy where they can unpublish something and edit it if the editor gets cold feet? Never heard of anything like this. www.christianitytoday.com/2026/10/a-no...

I googled something to try to figure out what it was a reference to and the Google AI is mentioning... other, unrelated things I've searched?? Is this a thing now???

I have been meaning to write about this for a month or so now but it breaks my heart. AI has infected every hobby. Everything is noise. It's hurting existing communities and trudging through the slop is exhausting.

"As one CBS local staffer told me, 'People need to be able to trust the polling and results we’re reporting are real numbers and not betting odds.'"

what exactly DOES happen to materials from a major studio that’s closed? where do physical hard drives, documents, etc go? who maintains all this pointless secrecy? if you know or have stories, get in touch: nathan@aftermath.site, nathangrayson.666 (signal), aftermathdotsite@proton.me (proton mail)

with sloppy (but convincing enough) AI vibeclones on the rise, developers now face a future in which a steady stream of pre-release videos, demos, and playtests—the only reliable way to promote and build community—could be their game’s undoing

Tried to keep mostly calm here. BioWare management shouldn't be let off the hook for its own part in the troubles of the past decade, but every story we hear about how EA mismanaged the studio is a reminder that this was entirely avoidable.

LinkedIn posts are starting to confirm the breath of today's layoffs at EA. Senior talent across multiple studios have been impacted, including a senior creative director at Maxis and veteran designers at Full Circle.

Games, movies, literature, comics, music. Late stage capitalism not only wants to work you to the bone for pennies but will actively deprive you of the few things that bring joy to the sparing time that remains/

from an FAQ EA published about the saudi deal last year aftermath.site/ea-saudi-ara...

Video games has decided to discontinue its once leading product, the video game

Electronic Arts closing BioWare, laying off hundreds: aftermath.site/electronic-art...

I've spent the last few weeks attempting to figure out what the hell is going on in WV, where a tiny grove of American chestnut trees is facing off against an AI data center. it's a complex and fascinating situation: www.404media.co/west-virgini...

In which I compare Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's new A24 film, You Can See Everything, to kayfabe in professional wrestling and to Death Note, and argue why it should win best picture.

Oh, well fortune.com/2026/10/20/t...

Made an appearance on @ryanbeckwith.bsky.social’s wonderful Your First Byline newsletter, said a little bit about how I started and what I think people getting started should keep in mind today yourfirstbyline.substack.com/p/my-first-b...

so stoked for @serrels.bsky.social and @jacksonwryan.com, who thought australia needed a new games mag and just went out and made one. incredible stuff.

While the timeline around GTA VI and The Game Awards definitely raised my eyebrows, this is just how the Awards work--though, maybe more tellingly, it's also the most I feel like I've heard people (myself included!) discuss the "awards" part of the Awards in ages

TGA question for folks who've nominated: Sniffing around past data, it seems like the nominees have frequently been announced *before* the eligibility cutoff date? How does that work/am I misunderstanding? Do you have to get your nominations in before all the eligible games are out?