On this week’s episode, Nathan and Gita are joined by Maddy Myers and Zoë Hannah, both formerly of Polygon – you know, before all the bad stuff happened – and now of the newly announced Mothership, a site at the intersection of gender and games. Maddy and Zoë tell us about their plans for the site and what it means to launch a publication like this in an era when feminist media has been gutted, and even venerable institutions like Teen Vogue – a primary inspiration for Mothership – have fallen. Then we talk about how much money $8 is (actually $10, but also possibly $5). We also imagine what might happen if Asmongold, fresh off being retweeted by JD Vance, travels to The White House and gives Donald Trump some kind of plague. Nothing too bad, of course!

Credits

- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Gita Jackson, & special guests Maddy Myers and Zoë Hannah

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

- Subscribe to Aftermath!

About The Show

Aftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On our first episode of 2026, Nathan, Chris, and Riley start the year off with a bang, or at least the next best thing: a discussion about video games. We begin by reflecting on Nathan’s time attending Awesome Games Done Quick, the annual speedrunning marathon that raises money for charity and just generally rules. Gaming communities can be forces for good – at least, when they don’t allow their ranks to be overwhelmed by shitheads. Who knew? Then we move on to less positive happenings: Ubisoft just shut down an entire studio mere weeks after its workers voted to unionize. Suspicious, to say the least. Finally, we close out the show by predicting the year ahead for video games with 100 percent, crystal-clear accuracy.

Credits

- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, and Riley MacLeod

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

- Subscribe to Aftermath!

About The Show

Aftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Riley convene one last time to close out 2025, a notably horrible year for the world but a pretty solid one for Aftermath. We begin by talking about a controversy that was unexpected, to say the least: Larian, riding a wave of goodwill by making perhaps the ultimate example of a big game for people and by people in Baldur’s Gate 3, ran right off the road by openly embracing AI. The studio’s CEO, Swen Vincke, has spent the past several days both digging his heels in and doing damage control, but the furor continues. Will the studio change its ways? Or will those of us opposed to AI have a difficult decision to make when Larian’s next and apparently biggest game, Divinity, comes out in… probably still a lot of years? Then we hand out our first ever Stuff Of The Year awards to the games, trends, events, people, cats, nontroversies, and everything else that defined our 2025. Finally, we come up with a rock-solid concept for Aftermath Muppets.

Credits

- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, and Riley MacLeod

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

- Subscribe to Aftermath!

About The Show

Aftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, Gita, Riley, and Chris talk about many games that came out recently that will never win a Game Award, and what our attitudes about the event are.

First, the enigmatic Ys-alike Angeline Era, a beautiful game with thoughtful design. Second, the toe tapping Rhythm Doctor which feels like it takes cues from Rhythm Tengoku and iNIS games like Ouendan.

Then we discuss Skate Story, Faustian Tony Hawk with an incredible soundtrack that reminds us of Arctic Eggs. We give a shoutout to Demonschool, which has surprisingly good combat. Finally we discuss Shadow Labyrinth, the Dark Pac-Man game (announced at The Game Awards) that came out over the summer and has shockingly deep roots in UGSF lore.

Lastly, we shout out Nightreign as one of our favorite games of the year and talk about its freaky new characters. We also answer your questions about peppermint treats, the NY game dev scene, AI and more!

Credits

- Hosts: Chris Person, Gita Jackson, and Riley MacLeod

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

- Subscribe to Aftermath!

About The Show

Aftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this week’s episode, Nathan, Gita, and Chris are joined by the one and only John “Super Eyepatch Wolf” Walsh, YouTuber extraordinaire and, now, author of The Bizarre World Of Fake Games, a book about exactly what it says it’s about: meticulously crafted settings and rule sets for games that don’t actually exist. Walsh explains his fixation with fake games and how, as he sees it, they broaden the landscape of who can create and imagine games in the first place. He also gives us a history lesson about proto-fake games like the almost unnervingly strange Codex Seraphinianus. Then we discuss more modern, regrettably AI-driven fake game trends like Bird Game 3, which has become a bonafide TikTok sensation. After that, we move on to the week’s biggest video game news: Horses, an otherwise off-the-beaten-path art game from a small indie studio, got banned on Steam for reasons that remain unclear, causing a series of cascading impacts on other stores like Epic and Humble. What does it mean for a single storefront to essentially have sole say over what and what does not constitute acceptable art? And why is everyone losing their minds over a game that, according to Chris, is actually pretty tame? Lastly, we share our wild animal horror stories.

Credits

- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Gita Jackson, Chris Person, & special guest Eyepatch Wolf

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

- Subscribe to Aftermath!

About The Show

Aftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this week’s episode, we’re joined by two of the finest internet culture reporters to ever lace up their boots and wade into the muck, Kat Tenbarge and Steven Asarch, to discuss why MrBeast’s new theme park, Beast Land, is so bad – and why quality was never the point in the first place. Spoiler alert: It’s a giant ad, as many so-called theme parks, activations, and experiences are these days. We live in an era of flimsy disposability where nothing – whether it’s a short-form video or a branded IRL pop up – is built to last.

Then we discuss the latest platform to go all in on invasive age verification tech: Roblox, which will require use of a facial age estimation system and ID checks to access chat. On one hand, Roblox has had more than its fair share of child predation scandals at this point, so it has every incentive to at least perform comprehensiveness here. On the other, Roblox’s real problems run much deeper, and a suite of data-hungry surveillance tools won’t solve them.

Finally, Kat shares a wild story about the time someone commissioned her, then an ASMRtist, to make a video in which she turned them into a puppet.

Credits

- Hosts: Chris Person, Gita Jackson, and Riley MacLeod

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

- Subscribe to Aftermath!

About The Show

Aftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, Chris, Riley, and Gita raise our heads above the water of Aftermath’s relaunched website to talk, excitingly, about things that aren’t relaunching a website. To start, Chris and Gita talk about the movie Bugonia, a remake of 2003’s Save the Green Planet. We talk about how it’s different from the original, for better and worse, and what it says about class, society, and whether or not humanity is a failed experiment.

Then we talk about Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan’s new Apple TV show Pluribus. We’re a bit divided on it, with some of us liking the tough exterior of its main character and others not quite sold yet. We discuss where we hope the show goes–no “Carol learns to love,” please!--and, if the point of art is to communicate with others, whether or not art can exist in the show’s world.

Last, Chris pitches us all on how great Lumines Arise is before we move on to the mailbag, where we appreciate the newly-announced Steam Machine, discuss what games it should launch with, and talk about where we find a respite from staring at the news all day. 

Credits

- Hosts: Chris Person, Gita Jackson, and Riley MacLeod

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

- Subscribe to Aftermath!

About The Show

Aftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this week’s episode, the WHOLE gang – Nathan, Gita, Chris, Riley, Luke, Isaiah, and Nicole – gather to celebrate Aftermath’s two-year anniversary. We begin by announcing that we’re relaunching the site next week, but not with all the bullshit bells and whistles you’d typically expect from this sort of thing. Instead, it’ll still be the simple, streamlined Aftermath you’ve come to know and love, but sleeker, more professional, and easier to use. We’re very excited for you all to try it out! We then move on to a discussion of how far the site and the underlying business have come, as well as our proudest accomplishments and our hopes and dreams for the future. We want to hire more people and make space for fresh voices, and while that was a pipe dream when we first launched, we’re now tantalizingly on the cusp. Year three, ideally, is when it all happens. Thanks for sticking with us. We wouldn’t – and literally couldn’t – be here without you.

Credits

- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Gita Jackson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, & Luke Plunkett, with Isaiah Colbert & Nicole Carpenter

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

- Subscribe to Aftermath!

About The Show

Aftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this week’s episode, Nathan, Gita, and Chris bathe in the afterglow of Aftermath’s first-ever in-person party before hinting at big changes to come (the good kind) as a result of the site’s upcoming second anniversary. Then we discuss the United States government’s sudden gaming fixation, following a week of Halo memes from White House and Department Of Homeland Security accounts, as well as JD Vance’s embarrassing reveal that he not only stays abreast of Twitch drama but is fluent in CollarGate, a widespread nontroversy about Hasan Piker turning out to be a secret dog torturer. After that, we move on to Amazon’s devastating layoff of 14,000 people, including many of those working on New World, a once-popular MMO that’s now being wound down. As it turns out, like many others, Amazon tried to take on Steam, and also like many others, it failed miserably. Finally, in honor of the surprise 3.0 update, we share our Animal Crossing: New Horizon opinions (Nintendo was too inspired by cozy games, a genre it basically invented with… Animal Crossing.)

Credits

- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Gita Jackson, & Chris Person

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

- Subscribe to Aftermath!

About The Show

Aftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Riley discuss the recent revelation (via Bloomberg) that Microsoft has been seeking a 30 percent profit margin from its gaming division since 2023. This borders on ludicrous compared to what the rest of the industry typically achieves and fully clears that bar in the case of Xbox, which managed a 12 percent profit margin in 2022. Now here we are in 2025, following multiple rounds of mass layoffs and project cancellations, because while Xbox was profitable, it wasn’t profitable enough. We once again repeat what has become a common refrain: What is Microsoft thinking, especially as both the industry and the global economy enter increasingly uncertain times? And if it continues to pump out pricey hardware while laying off developers and shutting down studios, where will the money come from? Then we talk about TwitchCon, which Nathan attended, and the security woes that became the story of this year’s event. While the claim that TwitchCon had no security is definitively untrue, misogyny and sociopathic clip farming intrinsic to the modern platform ecosystem still managed to spill over into real life. How does Twitch handle that? At what point does TwitchCon become so much of a reputational risk that Twitch would be better off pulling the plug? Finally, we talk about both Mario (the video game character) and Luigi (Mangione).

Credits

- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, & Riley MacLeod

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

- Subscribe to Aftermath!

About The Show

Aftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.