Keza MacDonald is the video games editor for The Guardian and most recently, she's also the author of 'Super Nintendo: How One Japanese Company Helped the World Have Fun', a deep dive into the rich, creative history of one of gaming's most important companies.

We recorded today's episode in front of a live audience as part of Keza's book tour which happened to swing through Brighton last month and if you can forgive some dodgy audio, I think there's a lot to get out of this conversation as we examine Nintendo and why it's lasted the test of time in this particular moment, as much of the Western games industry is on its knees.

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Maddy Myers & Zoë Hannah just launched Mothership, a brand new site all about games, gender and identity. Their initial pitch promises a different kind of gaming publication "for her, them, and yes, him too", which feels surprisingly radical given the state of games coverage and, erm, the world, in 2026.

In today's episode we discuss the retreat of feminist writing across the mainstream games media, whether "subscription fatigue" is a real concern for this new wave of independent outlets and how the pair feel about what happened to them at Polygon, a site they both quit following the mass layoffs that hit its editorial team after it was acquired by Valnet.

Chris/Keza Interview in Brighton: https://luma.com/mkp59tca

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Wesley Yin-Poole is in charge of the news desk over at IGN and has been reporting on the games industry for almost two decades at this point.

He's also been a mentor of mine ever since our days working together at Eurogamer where he helped shape some of my very first stories, while he himself published some incredible work on the rise and fall of Lionhead Studios and its notorious co-founder, Peter Molyneux.

Wes is one of the best games reporters in the business and I'm so happy to finally have him on the show.

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