The reek - the stench - of dreaded continuity can be whiffed from nearly a mile away, like a distended whale carcass reaching critical mass. It took more than twenty years, but finally conditions in the retail space aligned with an ancient character's… well, let's not say predilections, They are now more in line with his lived experience.

I found the "This is an Xbox" campaign really spooky as someone who might have considered themselves an Xbox stalwart, potentially even a combatant for a time in the Console Wars. But if they had saved this campaign and its intention for their handheld collabs - the Xbox Ally X stuff they're doing with Asus, which will obviously be expanded - it would have made perfect sense. They push Xbox Anywhere a lot, and while it worked way better than I expected it to, that's just not who I am. I still use a keyboard and mouse that plugs into the computer - this is how superstitious I am, a wizened PC gamer entering his twilight years.

As a portable machine that does all your Steam shit, your Epic Game Store shit (I still have Witchfire on there from Early Access), and your Game Pass shit without having to resort to any sorcerous crap. Obviously, I can do it - but does Gabe want to fuck with that? No. I think there are a lot more Gabes than there are Tychos on that front.

Microsoft can drop their own hardware whenever they want - the mental model is probably something like Google's Pixel - but this is like the first time I saw the SDF-1 transform. Don't like the idea of eighty dollar games? Well, Microsoft has a crazy offer for you. I cancelled my Game Pass sub after the Tango Gameworks/Hi-Fi Rush thing, and I was delighted that they had a softer landing than expected at Krafton, but it still stung. The main gun is active now, though. The throaty hum you hear is the generators spooling to full.

(CW)TB out.