I'm not sure where to begin, except to say, with equal parts fury and sadness, that Waypoint is over. The team, myself included, have been terminated by VICE, and our final day running the website, the podcasts, and streams, will come to an end on June 2nd. I have never been more proud to have been associated with a website, or a group of people, than I have since @austin_walker called me up so many years ago, and asked if I'd start this project, what we would eventually call Waypoint, with him. It's my proudest achievement.

Super Mario 3D All-Stars is a frustrating collection of great games. Super Mario All-Stars was a historical document, a tribute to Nintendo’s history and creative achievement in 2D. This, on the other hand, is some games bundled together. vice.com/en_us/article/… Super Mario 64, a towering achievement in game design, shows its age here. It’s no longer fun to watch the camera get stuck because Nintendo is still imaging there are yellow C-buttons. It demands a full update, and that’s not present here. It’s hard to play.

Before I link to my latest story, I want you to tell me what you see in this image. Take a good look. OK, what if I zoom in?

I do not think Epic’s timing on this is accidental. Apple is facing legitimate antitrust scrutiny on the App Store, and tech in general is under threat of regulation from both political parties. vice.com/en_us/article/… Apple has removed Fortnite from the App Store, per reports and verified by my own search. It remains on Google Play. Neither Apple nor Google have yet to comment.

PR calling to talk about a game review after it's published isn't exclusive to The Last of Us 2, but it's definitely unusual and not common. polygon.com/2020/6/30/2130… Back during the 1UP/EGM days, it *was* common for PR to learn about a review score from the print mag, which would later be published on 1UP, ahead of time, and throw a fuss (or threaten to pull ads). I tried to write about a specific instance and my story was killed internally.

I’ve had a lot of media jobs, so my memory is fuzzy on the older salaries, but this is my best guess:

1UP: 45k
MTV: 50k (“Permalancer”)
G4: 55k
EGM: 72k
Giant Bomb: 65k (no raise over 4 years, iirc)
Kotaku: 77k
Waypoint: 90k

Today: $100k, thanks to yearly union pay raises. The secret reason I left so many jobs and why it became a running joke: the only way I could get paid more was to get an offer letter. It wasn’t until I was in a union at Gawker/VICE that I received regular raises.

My wife had started making a list of notable movies she’s mad at me for not having seen before and we are using quarantine and kid leave to start working through them. Tonight...THE TWILIGHT ZONE. (Yes, I’m aware of the movie’s history and fuck John Landis.)

I returned from the mist of parental leave to spoil the heck out of Final Fantasy 7 Remake on Waypoint Radio. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fin… Also, a minor update on that. I’d originally planned to take a month off and then return to work. That would have been today! However…

Tonight’s movie while I stay up to see if the baby needs a late night feeding while momma sleeps: IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS. Tonight’s movie: LEVIATHAN.

what

https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1252416869937459203

The way Nintendo has completely mishandled Mario Maker 2 remains such a profound disappointment.

The coronavirus pandemic has been stressful and scary for a million reasons, but one I haven’t talked about publicly: we were expecting our second child to arrive right as the hospitals in Illinois would be stressed to the brink. It’s made what’s supposed to be a very exciting time into a nightmare. What if my wife needs to go into labor alone? Who do we break quarantine with so someone can watch my first daughter? How do we tell family “I’m sorry, you can’t meet them”? Will I have a job a month from now?

According to a memo I've been briefed on, all NA/European PlayStation employees will continue working from home through at least April 30, due to coronavirus. Workers will continue to be paid, "regardless of ability to perform remote work due to job function or responsibilities." Sony is also issuing a one-time stipend of $1,000 so employees can purchase equipment to enhance their ability to work from home.

GameStop has instructed employees to tell law enforcement trying to shut down their stores that they're "essential retail." They've been handed a flyer they're supposed to give police with a number for GameStop's corporate office. vice.com/en_us/article/…

“On two different conference calls we were told we had to ‘think about the longevity of the business.’” vice.com/en_us/article/… As first reported by @Kotaku, GameStop is in crisis. Employees are being told to buy their own cleaning supplies. After some stores turned off playable stations paid for by game companies, GameStop instructed them to turn them back on—with no supplies to clean them.

Dreams has received a lot of attention over people using it to make impressive recreations of existing games. I wanted to see what was happening beneath the surface, and what I found was beautiful, weird, and stretching our definition of copyright. vice.com/en_us/article/… What follows are some of my favorite things I've found in Dreams, like Mickey Mouse killing Goku:

What I’ve been hearing for the last 48 hours is official: the Game Developers Conference has been cancelled due to coronavirus concerns. vice.com/en_us/article/… It’s unclear if attendees will receive refunds, but if they do, it’s likely to have a material impact on GDC’s bottom line. A source told me revenue from the show’s infamously expensive passes was “significant.”

Kingdom Hearts DLC: actually, this is a movie

also Kingdom Hearts DLC: how do you feel about being thrown a boss fight after a year away from the game and you don’t even remember how to block My daughter is watching me play and just witnessed badass Mickey for the first time and has no idea how to process what’s happening.

I’m halfway through the first episode of The Witcher and have no idea what’s going on. Uh, the season finale of The Mandalorian. 😍😭