The Fridge

The Arcade Floor Was Always a Social Machine

The Lucky Crush editorial team has spent time watching how digital platforms try to recreate something the classic video arcade did without thinking about it: put strangers in the same physical space, give them a shared frame of reference, and let connection happen on its own. What the arcade produced wasn’t a side effect of…

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Palworld publishing chief worries early access has ‘lost its meaning’ as the rise of ‘hyper-casual’ gaming culture means people often don’t understand what they’re getting into

Early access on Steam is a simple concept. You buy a game before it’s finished, provide bug reports and feedback to developers, and help shape a project’s direction and ambitions. Everybody wins: You get to play the game early, and developers earn money that helps them continue and finish their work. It’s been a boon…

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Thief designer thinks the graphics arms race should have ended with 2010’s Alan Wake: ‘The fidelity curve has become outrageous’

Thief designer Randy Smith Evergreen, whose credits also include System Shock 2 and Dark Messiah: Might and Magic, thinks we need to chill out a bit when it comes to the graphics arms race. Specifically, he reckons the race should have stopped 16 years ago with Remedy’s original Alan Wake, which was quite a looker…

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‘The modern workplace runs on fear … today we are fighting fear’: Fired Grand Theft Auto 6 dev calls out Rockstar in impassioned pre-trial speech

The Independent Workers of Great Britain union held a rally today in Glasgow, Scotland to mark the beginning of the final workplace tribunal hearing that will resolve the case of 31 former Rockstar employees who were fired by the company in October 2025. The dispute turns on the cause of the terminations, or lack thereof:…

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