The Week in Games
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The past, present and future

The past, present and future

#45: And thank you

December 30, 2022

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas/festive/holiday season!

As it does at this time of year, the industry has gone into hibernation for a couple of weeks. No releases, no real news, and nothing particularly exciting going on. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to provide a bit of a Week in Games retrospective, and to thank you all for your support so far on this little adventure I've been on.

The Past

It's been a good first almost-a-year for the newsletter.

Issue #1 was published on March 4th and sent to just a handful of subscribers. Mostly consisting of family, friends, and a few supportive folk from Twitter. Elden Ring had just released and I wanted to share my thoughts on why I think its developers FromSoftware are so special. I enjoyed writing this one and I think it set the tone for what I wanted the newsletter to be going forward; a nice intro and a round-up of all the week's most interesting gaming goings-on.

I got some nice feedback, a couple of people shared it online, and a few new subscribers joined in the fun. A nice start!

The Soulsborne Identity

To share and celebrate everything good in the world of video games

https://theweekingames.beehiiv.com/p/soulsborne-identity

This would be the way of things for the next few months. I tried to stay consistent, write something interesting every week, and hoped that people would enjoy it enough to share it.

It's been tough, but looking back over the year I'm proud that I've managed to put this thing out every week for 45 weeks in a row, and with some of the articles I've written for them. For more recent subscribers, the most popular articles throughout the year have been Are You Part of the Problem? in which I discussed dodgy remakes and how we just can't stop buying them, Who's Got the Funk? where I fell out of love with gaming for a little bit, Analysis Paralysis which covered how we can sometimes have too much choice, and Unfinished Sympathy, in which I discussed the GTA VI leaks.

I also enjoyed writing the Special Edition issues this year, which included 10 Years of Journey and 10 Years of Fez, as well as the recent Safe in Our World Mental Health Issue. Next year I'd like to do more of these bonus issues as additional content for Premium supporters.

The Present

On October 28th I moved the newsletter from Twitter's Revue platform to beehive. A good move not only because beehive is a far more powerful platform, but because Twitter would later announce that Revue would be shutting down for good. Revue was brilliant for the newsletter early on (and perfect for somebody with no experience of this type of thing), but beehive has allowed me to integrate the Premium Tier upgrade properly and also introduce the new referral system; where I can reward people for sharing the newsletter with others.

It's also allowed me to start the Sunday Supplement, a new bonus issue which starts this Sunday and will be sent exclusively to Premium Subscribers and to those who have referred The Week in Games just once.

My hope is that the shift of platform has resulted in a much more professional and enjoyable read for you, and that it will allow me to make further improvements and additions in the future.

The Future

Which brings us nicely to what's next. In short, I want to keep producing content that you enjoy and try to encourage people to share it with others. The biggest challenge with the newsletter by far has been promoting it and expanding the audience, and trying to get people to support it. My hope with the new Sunday Supplement and the future Special Issues is to nudge a few people who may be on the fence to upgrade to a Premium Membership so that I can expand the output throughout next year and continue to raise the quality (and perhaps stop losing money making it!).

Without the support of readers so far The Week in Games wouldn't still be here, and my huge thanks goes out to those who have sent feedback, shared the newsletter online or simply told a friend about it.

I feel very uncomfortable with self-promotion and I'm still not sure how to strike the right balance, but I can't stress how important it is for the future of the newsletter that people are willing to share it and that subscriber numbers continue to rise. Hopefully the new referral rewards such as the Sunday Supplement and PlayStation and Xbox gift cards are a suitable thank you for helping out (you can find more details and your personal referral link at the bottom of each email, which can be forwarded to a friend or posted anywhere online).

If the newsletter continues to grow my plan is to start partnering with developers and people in and around the industry to discuss their games and products. I'd love to help smaller devs and organisations get the word out about their projects, and to start including opinions and interviews with interesting gamers and industry folk.

I'm excited about the future of The Week in Games and I really hope you are too. Thank you so much for your help so far.

Premium subscribers, I'll see you on Sunday for the very first Week in Games Sunday supplement! If you'd like to join in the fun please hit the upgrade button below, where you can currently save 25% on monthly or yearly subs. Everyone else, I shall see you next Friday!

I hope you enjoy the rest of the newsletter and have a wonderful New Year.

Jeff

December 31st is the final day to save 25% on a monthly or yearly Premium Subscription. Not only will you be supporting what I do, you'll receive the new weekly Sunday Supplement issue, get access to exclusive Special Issues throughout the year, and my eternal gratitude.

THE WEEK IN GAMES

The best news, deals and gaming content of the week!

NEWS

Sony has officially announced the first of January 2023’s PlayStation Plus games.
Eurogamer staff have revealed their, erm, 37 best games of 2022.
Game Informer have opted for a more traditional Top 10.
Details of five unannounced Sonic the Hedgehog Lego sets have popped up online.
Meanwhile, Sonic Team boss Takashi Iizuka says that 2022 was the biggest year in Sonic history for fans.
Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai has said he’s semi-retired in a new interview.
Nintendo has quietly patched a security vulnerability that could give hackers access to compromised Switch, 3DS, and Wii U games.
Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator Yuji Naka and former Square Enix employee Taisuke Sasaki have been formally indicted following their arrest for alleged insider trading offenses.
Microsoft calls FTC unconstitutional in response to the US regulator's suit over Activision Blizzard deal.

DEALS

PlayStation's January Sale rolls on, with up to 75% off a load of games both big, small, old and new.
PlayStation's Deal of the Week sees 30% slashed off both the regular and deluxe editions of Elden Ring, and you can also save 15% or 20% off Modern Warfare II's regular and Vault editions.
Over on Xbox, you can also save on Elden Ring and many others in the Countdown Sale, which offers up to 60% off a huge number of new and old games.
On Nintendo's eShop the New Year Sale has begun, with up to 75% off a huge selection of titles.
Over on the Epic Games Store Dishonored: Definitive Edition and Eximius: Seize the Frontline are both free to download.
Over on Steam, the big Winter Sale is still on, with a wallet-bustingly large selection of games on offer.

MORE!

GameSpot's 'Games That Didn't Make Our Top 10' list

There are countless end-of-year best-of lists doing the rounds at the moment. But this one from GameSpot sees editors putting forward a few games that didn't quite make theirs. It's a nice little list of games that you may have missed or overlooked. You can check it out here.

NEW RELEASES

All the major releases arriving this week and next!

A new Fire Emblem! Out Jan 20th

THIS WEEK:

Nothing :(

NEXT WEEK:

Nothing :(

UPCOMING:

Lone Ruin (Switch, PC) – January 12
Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, PC) – January 12
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S) – January 13 – Read review
One Piece Odyssey (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC) – January 13
A Space for the Unbound (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC) – January 19
Colossal Cave (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PC) – January 19
Persona 4 Golden (Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch) – January 19 – Read review
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable (Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC) – January 19 – Read review
Fire Emblem Engage (Switch) – January 20
Monster Hunter Rise (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One) – January 20 – Read review

SUPPORT US

Support independent games writing!

The Week in Games remains possible thanks to the ongoing support of valued members BitBloggist, johnXprinter, SeánLynch and Px.

If you enjoy it, please consider a Premium Membership! You'll be supporting independent game writing and get access to the weekly Sunday Supplement bonus issue!

…and that’s it for this week!

I hope you enjoyed the issue. If you have any comments, suggestions or enquiries, please reply to this email directly or catch me over on Twitter or Hive!

Thanks again, and see you next week!