🟪 #107: Microsoft has dismantled Xbox

A dark week for Xbox, a teased remake, a new handheld, and more in this week's overkill digest newsletter.

Good morning, good day, hello, hi.

I am Kevin, and you are reading overkill digest, a weekly newsletter all about gaming, tech, and some other stuff.

I started playing Death Stranding 2 this week and in typical Kojima fashion, I have no clue what's going on. I'm only earlyish in the game, but my general reaction is mostly "what?!". I've been enjoying the game so far, though. It's basically more of Death Stranding but prettier, and at least for now, more accessible.

I probably have another 40 hours of cut-scenes to watch, so let's get to this week's newsletter!

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🚀 Big Moves

Microsoft laid off 9,000 employees, cancelling games and shuttering a studio. Xbox studios were hit hard: A Perfect Dark reboot was killed and its development studio closed, Rare's Everwild was also canceled, and Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 Studios lost half of its employees. Romero Games is also closing (yes, that Romero), the president of ZeniMax Online Studios is leaving after 18 years. And no, Phil Spencer doesn't plan to leave anytime soon. To quote Christopher Dring: "The Xbox project has failed."
The MSI Claw A8 is launching this month. It looks like the device is launching first in China for a price of approximately 970 USD (VAT included). This will net you a Z2 Extreme, up to 24 GB of memory, an 8" 1920x1200 screen with VRR and a 120hz refresh rate. It's a bit ugly, though.

🎮 Platform Updates

Nexus Mods will add age-verification for adult mods in the UK and EU. It is not clear yet what this age-verification looks like, only that it's coming. Since it's required by law, there is not much Nexus Mods could do here, but it remains to be seen how annoying/intrusive all of this will be.
ProtonPlus makes managing Proton versions easy. Great find by Liam. I installed SteamOS on my ROG Ally this week, and installed this instead of ProtonUp-Qt. Good app!

💻 Hardware & Software

The first 1TB microSD Express cards are coming. The Switch 2 exclusively uses this new type of microSD cards, and seems to be the only company to do so right now. This means these things are expensive and not available in higher capacities just yet, but it looks like companies are working hard on solving this.
Apple want to release a cheaper MacBook. This device is rumored to use the A18 Pro chip, one usually used in iPhones (unlike the M-series used in other Macs and iPads).

🎲 Playthings

Rematch is a good fit on Steam Deck. Everybody is talking about this game right now.
Assassin's Creed Black Flag Remake kinda confirmed by the voice actor. Kenway voice actor Matt Ryan couldn't make it more obvious, but it looks like the AC Black Flag (definitely one of the best Assassin's Creed games) is definitely coming.

📌 Quick Hits

GamingOnLinux launched 16 years ago. Happy Birthday!
Video games are a waste of time. "The older I get, the more I respect my time, especially when it comes to playing games. I now shy away from the 100-hour+ games that I used to enjoy. While I know I’m getting bang for my buck with those, I also know they’re going to take me literally months to complete; months I could spend playing a large number of games rather than just one. I’m now a big champion of shorter games." Great commentary by Kieran.
Lorde's new CD is too transparent for stereos. Oops!
The whole first Pokémon movie is on YouTube. Limited time only, and the movie will be followed by Pokémon 2000 and Pokémon 3: The Movie. No promo cards for watching this time though.
Neil Druckmann is stepping away from the The Last of Us TV show. He will instead focus on Naughty Dog's next project Intergalatic: The Heretic Prophet (here's the trailer if you don't remember what this is all about.)