iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 2m

I don't remember that specifically, but they definitely had very little to show for the >2 years they were around, other than the seeds of what would become Showtime's Halo series, I guess.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 56m

Wonder if this will fare any better than the last time they tried this. Transmedia divisions in games don't have a very good track record, generally speaking. www.gamesindustry.biz/tellem-and-l...

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 13h

New EA patent has some unusual ideas about game dev roles.

Chart with y-axis showing "skill level" from novice to expert, graphing a line of "level of creative participation" with increasingly higher skill levels.
Novice = Player
Beginner = Level Designer
Intermediate = Game Designer
Advanced = Technical Game Designer
Expert = Game Programmer / Artist

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 18h

The Atari turnaround story might be the most shocking thing in games since I started following the industry. Never saw it coming.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I bought a Polymega for that reason and it's great at what it does. But it took so long to arrive that I gave up and endured the hassles and hurdles of dumping and emulating stuff in other ways. Still like the Polymega, but I do most of my retro play on a G Cloud Android handheld now.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Have you seen Secret Service of the Imperial Court? Same director, you might enjoy his whole thing.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Much as I appreciate them trying something besides "a black box," the PS5 is really not an attractive system.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I've noticed this Xbox One appearing in a bunch of Sony patents lately. The console wars just ain't what they used to be. (And that's probably for the best.)

Patent arts of a home entertainment stand with a console in it. The console is clearly Microsoft's Xbox One. The patent was filed by Sony.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Spending on video games in the US was also on track to be the highest ever this year, last I checked.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Bowie woulda warned them about Waingro.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Ancient proverb/curse: May you live in "Coyote time."

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I'll take any excuse to link this. It's been a dozen years somehow, so people may have forgotten arguably the most embarrassing video game tie-in song ever. www.youtube.com/watch?v=163_...

youtube.com

Paul McCartney - Hope For The Future

YouTube video by PaulMcCartneyVEVO

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I'm really going to miss the era of dozens of tiny companies putting out niche gaming hardware at semi-reasonable prices. Polymega was already charging a significant premium so maybe its customer base isn't super sensitive to this, but still. There are limits, you would think.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I opened my physical copy of Culdcept Begins and saw it had an actual instruction book and my heart jumped in a way that isn't reasonable. Darn you, modern game industry, for making this minimal gesture to players feel extravagant and luxurious.

Picture of Culdcept Begins Switch 2 copy with the case open and the instruction book open to the page detailing the characters Tarhunt and Guntz.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Twisted Metal, Syphon Filter, Uncharted, The Last of Us, Jak and Daxter, Road Rash, Eternal Champions, Donkey Kong Country, Pit Fighter, and Earthworm Jim.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I think most of us had noticed this at some point.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I've heard of muscle cars, but this is ridiculous.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Ah, yeah, % of forms returned. Yup, silly question. Thanks.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Maybe a silly question, but how do we know what 100% would be?

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

At the time, I was pretty stoked about it because I knew that was the difference between North America getting a release of the game or not. Walmart buyers would take Mobile Light Force as a discount release. They weren't going to stock Gunbird at any price.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

There's a kung fu trope of sorts where a secret master basically puppeteers a non-fighter to make them look like an expert, but can't blow their cover in the process. The Shaw Brothers classic Dirty Ho has a particularly impressive one of those scenes.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I finally started a Letterboxd account, but fair warning it's mostly to help me keep track of all my favourite old kung fu movies. Speaking of, here's an in-progress list. letterboxd.com/lowenbrow/li...

letterboxd.com

Fave kung fu films

As I revisit the classics I watched decades ago, I figured it would be fun to keep a rough (and meaningless) ranking of them. Also because lists like this have helped me find films I had never heard o...

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Nice to know the old stuff can still be helpful to people!

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Seeing the deeply unsavory businesses line quoted and linked in a CBC article got a big ol' chuckle out of me, thank you kindly.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Microsoft adopting the AOL business model for Game Pass. It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for them.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

If we're talking about it from a business pov, I would say January of 2022. Sony buying Bungie was the last gasp of the pandemic gaming boom, I think, a little surprising even at the time that they still felt that could be a good purchase.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Sorry to see you go Chris, but happy to hear you plan on sticking in journalism. You've been on my shortlist of the best journalists covering games for a while now.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

That's a good lead story right there.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Tapelenders in the Dobie Mall in Austin, TX was my introduction to the world of movies beyond what I could find in a suburban Blockbuster. The staff had lots of one-line reviews taped to their favorite films; I rented Master of the Flying Guillotine on their recommendation. So good.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Shaw Brothers put a bunch of their movies up on YouTube for free. Watched Chor Yuen's The Killer today. Solid action melodrama made delightful by a frankly distracting number of defenestrations. If you see a window, chances are good someone's going through it. m.youtube.com/watch?si=K6S...

m.youtube.com

ENG SUB! | The Killer (1971) | 大殺手 | Full Movie | Shaw Brothers Cinema

YouTube video by Shaw Brothers Cinema

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Toronto's luxury spa game is unrivaled.

Dilapidated store front covered in plywood and grafitti. Some of the graffiti has "Spa" in red spray paint and an arrow pointing to the door, which has "Kawaii Spa" and a phone number spray painted on it.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Wow. Current-gen consoles didn't just hit the $1,000 mark (CAD), they blew right past it.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

You seen that Umberto Eco quote about books as medicine? Haven't checked to ensure it's legit, but the idea clicks regardless and makes me less bothered by whatever media backlogs I have.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Blaze is UK based, right? Not sure if Canadian stock depends on anything in the US. All I can offer is a big shrug/it depends on a lot of this stuff.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

It's all under the same item code for tariffs though, which also includes pinball, arcade, and casino games, which do still have significant US manufacturing (relatively speaking), so maybe that was the real business the government was targeting.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I think most smartphones and consoles could have their supply chains adjusted to avoid these tariffs, if they even apply in the first place. It's harder for boutique stuff like Polymega, where the hardware is made overseas but they update OS or the like in the US before sending out to Canada.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Canada’s retaliatory U.S. tariffs include a 50% hike on game consoles, but I imagine supply chains could be changed to limit the impact. But it also covers pinball machines, which AFAIK are almost exclusively manufactured in the U.S. (and are already very expensive). www.canada.ca/en/departmen...

canada.ca

List of products from the United States subject to counter-tariffs effective September 8, 2026 - Canada.ca

Effective September 8, 2026, Canada will impose 15, 25, and 50 per cent tariffs on products drawn from those targeted by U.S. Section 338 and Section 232 tariffs, with individual product rates based ...

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Can't help but imagine editorial deliberations on that list, and one weirdo having a 12 Angry Men moment passionately advocating to keep Drunken Master off while including American Ninja, winning over the other editors one by one.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Add Drunken Master on there as a 101st title. Kind of wild how many times it gets referenced on a list that doesn't actually include it!

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Perhaps most tellingly, the game I remember enjoying most was Maniac Mansion 2: Day of the Tentacle, which I got by driving with my brother to the local mall that summer and buying with no hassles or hold-ups whatsoever.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I think I can trace most of my FOMO to a single 1993 weekend of driving around the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex with my older brother looking for a copy of FIFA International Soccer on Sega Genesis. And a few months earlier driving around for a copy of Madden '94.

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Brendan Sinclair @brendansinclair.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

If it makes you feel better, I never went despite a dozen years at GI.biz.

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