https://popkulturist.com/ Independent criticism and reporting on games, screens, machines, pages and the culture around them, by Ben Touati. en Tue, 27 Oct 2026 11:00:00 GMT https://popkulturist.com/screens/walter-koenig-babylon-5-most-reasonable-monster/https://popkulturist.com/screens/walter-koenig-babylon-5-most-reasonable-monster/Tue, 27 Oct 2026 11:00:00 GMTChekov made him famous. Alfred Bester, a Psi Cop who could violate a mind and then explain why you were overreacting, showed what he could really do.https://popkulturist.com/games/bioware-closure-mass-effect-2/https://popkulturist.com/games/bioware-closure-mass-effect-2/Thu, 22 Oct 2026 11:00:00 GMTEA is closing the studio after years of setbacks. Making the Suicide Mission once left its lead cinematic animator feeling like a fraud.https://popkulturist.com/essays/elon-musk-is-a-bastard/https://popkulturist.com/essays/elon-musk-is-a-bastard/Wed, 21 Oct 2026 09:00:00 GMTA gaming scandal, USAID, Ukraine and Vivian Jenna Wilson. The arguments for excusing Elon Musk have run out.https://popkulturist.com/games/publisher-cancels-drunken-goddess-reflux-demo-over-ai-copycat-fears/https://popkulturist.com/games/publisher-cancels-drunken-goddess-reflux-demo-over-ai-copycat-fears/Mon, 19 Oct 2026 09:00:00 GMTAlliance Arts cancelled the public demo over imitation and footage concerns. A closed test runs 23–31 October, with applications closing on 22 October.GamesLedgerhttps://popkulturist.com/games/a-congressman-wants-to-save-nba-2k25-it-already-works-offline/https://popkulturist.com/games/a-congressman-wants-to-save-nba-2k25-it-already-works-offline/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 05:33:00 GMTRitchie Torres wants to protect purchased games from server shutdowns. But the basketball game he cites already works offline, even as its career mode faces extinction.GamesLedgerhttps://popkulturist.com/screens/stockholm-international-film-festival-go-in-blind/https://popkulturist.com/screens/stockholm-international-film-festival-go-in-blind/Wed, 14 Oct 2026 11:30:00 GMTStockholm International Film Festival runs 11–22 November. Programme director Beatrice Karlsson talks John Wilson, Nathan Fielder and the pleasure of going in blind.ScreensFestival Dispatchhttps://popkulturist.com/screens/warner-paramount-made-hollywood-smaller/https://popkulturist.com/screens/warner-paramount-made-hollywood-smaller/Thu, 08 Oct 2026 09:50:00 GMTWith HBO and Paramount under the same owner, Skydance boasts more than 180 television shows in a market that now has one fewer independent company deciding what gets made next.ScreensLedger https://popkulturist.com/games/i-have-more-great-games-than-i-have-life/https://popkulturist.com/games/i-have-more-great-games-than-i-have-life/Wed, 07 Oct 2026 05:50:00 GMTSteam is heading for another record year, October alone is ridiculous, and my library contains enough acclaimed games to survive several minor apocalypses. The problem with gaming in 2026 is no longer finding something worth playing. https://popkulturist.com/games/nba-2k25-sold-a-150-edition-career-mode-dies-after-28-months/https://popkulturist.com/games/nba-2k25-sold-a-150-edition-career-mode-dies-after-28-months/Wed, 07 Oct 2026 07:00:00 +00002K is shutting down NBA 2K25’s servers at the end of December. Plenty of the basketball game will survive. The player you spent two years building will not.GamesLedgerhttps://popkulturist.com/essays/come-look-at-this-magnificent-little-corpse-with-me/https://popkulturist.com/essays/come-look-at-this-magnificent-little-corpse-with-me/Tue, 06 Oct 2026 07:00:00 +0000I spent 52 days building an internet mystery about AI, complete with a countdown, a website and its own mythology. The finale got nine views.EssaysAutopsy Report https://popkulturist.com/games/capcom-rex-ai-re-engine/https://popkulturist.com/games/capcom-rex-ai-re-engine/Mon, 05 Oct 2026 08:00:00 +0000The company behind ‘Resident Evil’ wants an engine that AI can read, test and help program. That is a much more interesting problem than whether Leon’s jacket was generated by a prompt.GamesArgument https://popkulturist.com/essays/clickout-gioconews-casino-links/https://popkulturist.com/essays/clickout-gioconews-casino-links/Thu, 01 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000GiocoNews had spent years reporting on Italy’s gambling industry. After its sale, the print magazine disappeared, the newsroom shrank and the regulator said the site was directing readers towards operators without Italian licences.EssaysLedger https://popkulturist.com/games/gamescom-2026-one-month-later-wishlists-vs-pink-slips/ https://popkulturist.com/games/gamescom-2026-one-month-later-wishlists-vs-pink-slips/ Tue, 29 Sep 2026 07:00:00 GMT A month after Cologne, one indie has doubled its wishlists, contacts made on the show floor are still alive and the games industry is still laying people off. So what did Gamescom 2026 actually change? Games Gamescom 2026 https://popkulturist.com/screens/children-of-men-casting-lucinda-syson/ https://popkulturist.com/screens/children-of-men-casting-lucinda-syson/ Wed, 23 Sep 2026 06:00:00 GMT Lucinda Syson, who cast Alfonso Cuarón’s film, was in Stockholm last week. Twenty years later, the cast still shows how much of a movie gets written before anyone says ‘action’. Screens Argument https://popkulturist.com/screens/transformers-movie-optimus-prime-apology/ https://popkulturist.com/screens/transformers-movie-optimus-prime-apology/ Tue, 22 Sep 2026 06:00:00 GMT ‘The Transformers: The Movie’ was supposed to clear space for the next toy line. Children, inconveniently, had become attached to the inventory. Screens Revival https://popkulturist.com/screens/whisper-of-the-heart-yoshifumi-kondo/ https://popkulturist.com/screens/whisper-of-the-heart-yoshifumi-kondo/ Fri, 18 Sep 2026 06:00:00 GMT Studio Ghibli has restored one of its loveliest films. It is also the only feature its director ever got to make. Screens Revival https://popkulturist.com/screens/wildwood-stop-motion-laika/ https://popkulturist.com/screens/wildwood-stop-motion-laika/ Thu, 17 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Laika’s puppets now move so beautifully that the handwork can disappear inside the image. Good thing the studio keeps showing us the tiny lungs. Screens Argument https://popkulturist.com/games/grandma88-makes-you-decide-when-to-call-grandma-a-liar/ https://popkulturist.com/games/grandma88-makes-you-decide-when-to-call-grandma-a-liar/ ROTxBLAU brought its strange family thriller to Gamescom with a playable build, a dying grandmother who controls the story and more than €10,000 riding on people noticing. Wed, 16 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000 Games Gamescom 2026 https://popkulturist.com/games/dick-stanley-wants-your-game-job-to-survive-the-game/ https://popkulturist.com/games/dick-stanley-wants-your-game-job-to-survive-the-game/ Tue, 15 Sep 2026 12:18:00 +0000 At Gamescom, Evoc8 studio head Dick Stanley gave me a one-word reason for building a co-development company: joblessness. He wants finishing a project to stop meaning starting another job hunt. Games Gamescom 2026 https://popkulturist.com/games/tommy-thompson-has-a-problem-with-your-ai-productivity-number/ https://popkulturist.com/games/tommy-thompson-has-a-problem-with-your-ai-productivity-number/ Thu, 10 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 At Gamescom, the AI and Games founder showed why a process can run 25 per cent faster and still leave the people doing it with a worse job. Games Gamescom 2026 https://popkulturist.com/games/hank-howie-started-in-games-in-1989-now-the-competition-is-tiktok/ https://popkulturist.com/games/hank-howie-started-in-games-in-1989-now-the-competition-is-tiktok/ Mon, 07 Sep 2026 02:30:00 +0000 At Gamescom, the ‘Zoo Tycoon’ veteran kept coming back to the same problem: everybody wants the player’s time now. Games Gamescom 2026 https://popkulturist.com/games/alex-jordan-ai-is-taking-the-jobs-voice-actors-build-careers-on/ https://popkulturist.com/games/alex-jordan-ai-is-taking-the-jobs-voice-actors-build-careers-on/ Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 At Gamescom, ‘The Alters’ actor Alex Jordan explained how one word can separate two versions of the same man — and why the voice jobs disappearing to AI matter far beyond adverts and TV announcements. Games Gamescom 2026 https://popkulturist.com/games/you-cant-have-hans-zimmer-for-50/ https://popkulturist.com/games/you-cant-have-hans-zimmer-for-50/ Thu, 03 Sep 2026 12:35:00 +0000 At Gamescom, VP Production co-founder Ruslana Kruchek explained what happens when indie studios remember audio after the budget is already gone. Audio branding paid for her ticket to tell me about it. Gamescom 2026 https://popkulturist.com/games/fortune-fragments-makes-you-earn-the-dialogue-choice/ https://popkulturist.com/games/fortune-fragments-makes-you-earn-the-dialogue-choice/ Thu, 03 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 At Gamescom, Runoi Games founder Jussi Meriläinen showed me a visual novel where character trouble reaches the hex grid. Unfortunately, Gamescom is also where a game like that gets about ten seconds before somebody has to be in Hall 7. Games Festival Dispatch Gamescom 2026 https://popkulturist.com/games/gamescom-sold-out-layoffs/ https://popkulturist.com/games/gamescom-sold-out-layoffs/ Tue, 04 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Before Gamescom 2026 opened, its sold-out halls were already carrying an industry that had spent the summer laying off thousands. A pre-show essay on the reset behind the spectacle. Games https://popkulturist.com/games/nintendo-put-its-lost-virtual-boy-games-back-behind-a-virtual-boy/ https://popkulturist.com/games/nintendo-put-its-lost-virtual-boy-games-back-behind-a-virtual-boy/ Fri, 31 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Europe never received Nintendo’s red 3D machine. Thirty years later, its lost games arrive with a subscription and some assembly required. Games Revival https://popkulturist.com/screens/spaceballs-found-the-money/ https://popkulturist.com/screens/spaceballs-found-the-money/ Mon, 27 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Rick Moranis came back, Mel Brooks found the money, and 'Spaceballs' arrived at Comic-Con with an eleven-phase cinematic universe. The flamethrower now looks restrained. Screens Revival https://popkulturist.com/screens/big-bang-theory-dressed-as-you/ https://popkulturist.com/screens/big-bang-theory-dressed-as-you/ Fri, 24 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 The Stuart spinoff premiered at San Diego Comic-Con in July with the laughter gone at last. The return gets a fair hearing here. The old show has run out of appeals. Screens Argument https://popkulturist.com/essays/a-machine-took-my-job-so-i-audited-realitys-books/ https://popkulturist.com/essays/a-machine-took-my-job-so-i-audited-realitys-books/ Tue, 21 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 A true story about the moonwalk, Tom Bombadil, the layoff at the end of the universe, and why you're on the clock right now. Essays Argument https://popkulturist.com/games/nobody-wanted-the-train-that-does-kickflips/ https://popkulturist.com/games/nobody-wanted-the-train-that-does-kickflips/ Fri, 17 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 'Denshattack!' launched to some of the best reviews of 2026 after every publisher who saw it spent a year saying no. On the industry's most reliable instinct: rejecting the only ideas anyone remembers. Games Argument https://popkulturist.com/games/the-only-thing-xbox-ships-on-time/ https://popkulturist.com/games/the-only-thing-xbox-ships-on-time/ Thu, 16 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Developers marched at six Xbox studios at once against the one Microsoft product that never slips its date. On the layoff as an annual release, the accounting that files hits as losses, and the $190 billion going to AI instead. Games Ledger https://popkulturist.com/games/pokemon-with-lawyers/ https://popkulturist.com/games/pokemon-with-lawyers/ Wed, 15 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Twenty-two months into Nintendo's lawsuit, 'Palworld' put the same game into Steam's all-time top 15 for the second time. One analyst puts the realistic remaining payout at about $30,000. Games Ledger https://popkulturist.com/screens/moana-again-already/ https://popkulturist.com/screens/moana-again-already/ Fri, 10 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Disney's live-action 'Moana' opened in July 2026 to a mid-thirties Rotten Tomatoes score. Seen from a country where no film called 'Moana' has ever existed, the ten-year turnaround looks stranger still. Screens Revival https://popkulturist.com/essays/your-duolingo-streak-outlived-the-people-who-made-it/ https://popkulturist.com/essays/your-duolingo-streak-outlived-the-people-who-made-it/ Wed, 08 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Duolingo staged a funeral for its owl and an offboarding for its translators. Only one got a resurrection. The streak explains why nobody left. Essays Argument https://popkulturist.com/games/played-sitting-down/ https://popkulturist.com/games/played-sitting-down/ Mon, 06 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Summer Games Done Quick 2026 ran for a week of round-the-clock speedrunning for Doctors Without Borders. From Stockholm, the best seats were the ones an ocean away. Games Love Letter https://popkulturist.com/essays/you-realize-youre-confessing-right-now/ https://popkulturist.com/essays/you-realize-youre-confessing-right-now/ Wed, 01 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 I ordered sleep gummies that were legal in the Netherlands when I bought them, and earned my first criminal record at forty-eight. On Sweden's drug-policy problem, and the cocaine its lawmakers can't keep out of their own parliament. Essays Drugs, Frankly https://popkulturist.com/essays/the-hero-turtles/ https://popkulturist.com/essays/the-hero-turtles/ Mon, 29 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 In Germany they were the Hero Turtles, the censored cut with the nunchaku edited out. A love letter to the Turtles and the 1990 film, and a wary eye on the 2028 reboot. Essays Love Letter https://popkulturist.com/machines/a-datacenter-outbid-you/ https://popkulturist.com/machines/a-datacenter-outbid-you/ Thu, 25 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 I bought both Steam Decks on day one, so the misgiving comes from inside the cult. The Steam Machine's price is not about games. It is about who is bidding against you for memory. Machines Ledger https://popkulturist.com/screens/the-amazing-digital-circus-beat-hollywood/ https://popkulturist.com/screens/the-amazing-digital-circus-beat-hollywood/ Mon, 22 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 A free YouTube cartoon topped cinema charts across Europe, then posted its finale online for nothing. How The Amazing Digital Circus beat the studios at their own game. Screens Ledger https://popkulturist.com/games/the-most-successful-game-nobody-has-played/ https://popkulturist.com/games/the-most-successful-game-nobody-has-played/ Mon, 22 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Grand Theft Auto VI is the most valuable entertainment product of the decade, and it does not exist yet. How anticipation became an asset class you can bet on. Games Futures https://popkulturist.com/screens/pixar-built-the-screen/ https://popkulturist.com/screens/pixar-built-the-screen/ Wed, 17 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 The villain of 'Toy Story 5' is a tablet. The studio warning your kids about screens is the one that taught a generation to sit still and watch. Screens Handover https://popkulturist.com/games/ten-years-of-other-peoples-monsters/ https://popkulturist.com/games/ten-years-of-other-peoples-monsters/ Mon, 15 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Dead by Daylight turned ten and is bigger than ever, the live-service game that lived while the blockbusters died. On how a cheap horror game outlasted Bungie and Concord by renting everyone else's monsters. Games Anniversary https://popkulturist.com/screens/what-scorseses-name-is-for/ https://popkulturist.com/screens/what-scorseses-name-is-for/ Fri, 12 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Martin Scorsese has become an adviser to the German AI firm Black Forest Labs, and the film unions are furious. A note on what a famous name actually buys. Screens Handover https://popkulturist.com/games/you-cannot-remake-the-greatest-game/ https://popkulturist.com/games/you-cannot-remake-the-greatest-game/ Wed, 10 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Nintendo announced an 'Ocarina of Time' remake for Switch 2. A note on why remaking the game with a Metacritic 99 is a different kind of risk entirely. Games Revival https://popkulturist.com/pages/lost-tolkien-homework/ https://popkulturist.com/pages/lost-tolkien-homework/ Mon, 08 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 A lost Tolkien work has surfaced in the Bodleian: an unpaid translation of an 800-year-old sermon, done for no one, and worth more than another saleable myth. Pages Argument https://popkulturist.com/essays/the-machine-cant-make-your-game/ https://popkulturist.com/essays/the-machine-cant-make-your-game/ Fri, 05 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 EA cut staff at DICE in Stockholm months after 'Battlefield 6' topped US sales. How the games industry turned the promise of AI into an alibi for layoffs. Essays Argument https://popkulturist.com/games/eighteen-e3s/ https://popkulturist.com/games/eighteen-e3s/ Thu, 04 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 The games industry replaced E3 with eighteen showcases in eight days, clustered around Los Angeles hours. What Summer Game Fest fixed, and the one thing it quietly broke. Games Festival Dispatch https://popkulturist.com/games/the-house-always-owns/ https://popkulturist.com/games/the-house-always-owns/ Wed, 03 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 'Balatro's publisher has been sold to the private-equity group that also owns Metacritic. What happens when the people who keep the score start owning the games. Games Ledger https://popkulturist.com/games/ea-sports-fc-new-landlords/ https://popkulturist.com/games/ea-sports-fc-new-landlords/ Thu, 28 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Electronic Arts is now owned by a consortium led by the Saudi Public Investment Fund. What the $55 billion takeover means for 'EA Sports FC', the most-played football game on earth. Games Ledger https://popkulturist.com/screens/fjord-sitting/ https://popkulturist.com/screens/fjord-sitting/ Tue, 26 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Sebastian Stan refused to laugh at a Trump question on Tuesday. Four days later, his director Cristian Mungiu won the Palme d’Or for “left-wing fundamentalism.” On what Cannes chose to crown. Screens Argument https://popkulturist.com/essays/the-boys-who-cried-woke/ https://popkulturist.com/essays/the-boys-who-cried-woke/ Mon, 25 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Elon Musk called the finale of 'The Boys' "pathetic." He didn't notice it was about him. On a century-old Black American word the anti-woke crowd wears as a costume. Essays Argument https://popkulturist.com/pages/tolkien-slowly-on-purpose/ https://popkulturist.com/pages/tolkien-slowly-on-purpose/ Fri, 22 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 On reading 'The Lord of the Rings' the way the slow-reading communities now read it, and what the book does that adaptations cannot. Pages Essay https://popkulturist.com/screens/send-help-review/ https://popkulturist.com/screens/send-help-review/ Wed, 20 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 A review of Sam Raimi’s 'Send Help': the first one in twenty years where his actual signatures are back. Screens Review https://popkulturist.com/essays/franchises-were-always-going-to-get-ai-first/ https://popkulturist.com/essays/franchises-were-always-going-to-get-ai-first/ Mon, 18 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 How franchises spent twenty years building the exact pipeline generative AI now walks straight into. An essay on why nostalgia was always the first test case. Essays Argument https://popkulturist.com/games/lgf-2026-new-game-plus-indies/ https://popkulturist.com/games/lgf-2026-new-game-plus-indies/ Wed, 13 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Festival dispatch from London Games Festival 2026: five indie games from New Game Plus that stuck three weeks later. Games Festival Dispatch https://popkulturist.com/essays/i-still-love-pop-culture/ https://popkulturist.com/essays/i-still-love-pop-culture/ Tue, 12 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 The Popkulturist manifesto: why pop culture criticism needs less hype and more honesty, from a European critic who still loves the stuff. Essays Manifesto