Nintendo's past outsells its future while EA's cuts draw anger

Game File's Stephen Totilo compares Nintendo's two consoles six quarters in. Switch 2 has sold 26.4 million units against 19.7 million for the original Switch, but its software lags: 73.2 million games against 86.9 million. Nintendo said Switch 2 sales have been slower this year than last, after a price rise in its second year that the Switch 1 never had.

Totilo argues the software gap is hard to read because Switch 2 owners can play Switch 1 games, and Nintendo does not say how many do. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (470,000), Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (360,000) and Animal Crossing: New Horizons (340,000) all sold well in July-September, against 270,000 for Donkey Kong Bananza. He adds that Switch 1's early lineup included an all-time Zelda, Mario and Mario Kart, which Switch 2 does not yet have. Analyst Serkan Toto told him Nintendo is almost a victim of its own success, and that he doubts Switch 2 will match its predecessor's software total.

CounterpointToto himself calls the framing a bit ridiculous, since Switch 2 is selling well despite higher hardware and software prices. Nintendo could also argue that strong Switch 1 sales to new owners keep players in its ecosystem, which is a benefit rather than a problem.

Writing in Unwinnable, Dr. Emily Price asked ten women and genderfluid games reviewers, more than half with a decade or more of experience, how landing review assignments has changed. Several said placement rates have dropped sharply since the mid-2010s, and Meghan Ellis said she has not landed an op-ed pitch in over a year. Respondents said reviews depend on trust between writer and editor, that layoffs wiped out established relationships, and that the remaining editors, who skew white and male, often default to writers they already know. Trans writer Ashley Schofield said she is pigeonholed as a writer on trans topics, and respondents said women are steered toward indie and cozy games.

Price argues that shrinking freelance budgets hit marginalized writers first and that criticism is shallower as a result. GameSpot features editor Jess Cogswell agreed that breaking in as a woman has never been harder.

CounterpointPrice concedes her ten respondents are not a representative sample. Editors who stress reliability and track record would say shrinking budgets, not gender, are driving fewer commissions across all freelancers.

Two weeks after his first post, Warren Spector wrote a longer LinkedIn message answering readers who called the BioWare closure a sound business decision. He said they missed his point, which is that executives who misread the market or over-hire rarely pay any price. He cited EA's 2026 fiscal-year pay: CEO Andrew Wilson $38.65 million, up from $30.5 million, Laura Miele $13.7 million and CFO Stuart Canfield $11.3 million. PC Gamer notes that Wilson's raise was tied partly to the Battlefield 6 launch, which came months after layoffs at the studios that made it, and that shareholder rejections of executive pay are rare.

CounterpointThose who called the closure a sound business decision, and EA's board, would say pay reflects company performance such as the Battlefield 6 launch, and that BioWare's recent output did not justify keeping it open.

Previously: A report said EA closed BioWare to shift resources to a new Star Wars: Battlefront. — Saturday October 31 edition.

Speaking on a Georgia Game Developers Association panel, Ultima creator Richard Garriott said the industry's problems stem from many causes, including people who do not understand games trying to profit from them. He describes a recurring cycle in which each technical leap, such as CD-ROM, 3D or the internet, produces simple showcase games, and he argues that machines are now fast enough that spectacle no longer matters. He says the loss of original IP creators leaves the industry floundering. Garriott also contrasts Origin Systems before its 1992 sale to EA, when it never cancelled a project, with afterward, when EA cancelled more games than it finished, and he says cancelling a game costs a publisher the trust of the team.

CounterpointPublishers who cancel projects would argue that shipping games unlikely to recoup their costs ties up money and staff. Others would say new technology such as AI could still be the next advance that changes demand.

Riley MacLeod, a former Fortnite staffer, writes that the Pirate Token from the Treasure Hunters event, which began November 1, shows what is wrong with the game. The rare chest item gives a team near-unlimited access to the item shop twice, in 2026 and 2027, for 14 days each. Epic has not disclosed the odds. Player counts jumped about 80% on launch day, accounts were listed on eBay for $9,000-$10,000, and fake finder tools and rumors circulated.

MacLeod likes the way players build theories around the token, but says its appeal rests on the same gambling instinct as loot boxes while escaping odds-disclosure rules because it is not technically one. She links it to a wider drift that includes the March V-Bucks price rise, layoffs and cuts to Crew perks, and she says the token feels like a numbers-boosting stunt against GTA VI.

CounterpointEpic says the token works like any other chest, so every player has an equal chance. Players enjoying the hunt, and Epic's defenders, would say that a limited-time event is not a loot box and that scams are the fault of fraudsters.

EFF's Rindala Alajaji reviews California's session, in which the group tracked nearly 100 bills. It counts as wins the signing of SB 947 (limits on automated firing and discipline) and AB 1883 (bans workplace emotion prediction and neural data collection). It also counts SB 747 (damages suits against federal officials who violate the Constitution), shield-law expansions in AB 1854 and AB 1930, and youth digital-literacy bills AB 2071 and AB 2298. EFF says its coalition stopped the extension of the state's age-gating law to browsers by getting the language removed from AB 1856. It still considers the underlying law, AB 1043, unconstitutional, and it says the session also produced alarming developments for privacy.

CounterpointEFF is an advocacy group, and child-safety advocates favor age-assurance requirements such as AB 1043 and would say it understates the harms to minors. Employer groups would argue the workplace automation limits add compliance burdens and constrain management decisions.