iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Unreasonably annoyed that 007 First Light gets wrong which direction north is during the level set in the V&A.

Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Christopher Nolan's too busy on another creative plane to use email or a smartphone... but I'm certain he is delighted to see Universal Studios launch a Discord Quest - "Journey with Telemachus to earn 700 Discord Orbs!" - and will be online playing with the rest of us proles.

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

OH GOD IT'S HIDEOUS *immediately preorders*

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Aged a million years and expired when my son decided to show me - *ME* someone with an import copy of Guitar Hero PS2 (2005) and the full Rock Band instrument set in the loft - the Fortnite Festival game mode as if I’d ever seen this type of game before.

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

The games industry naming literally anything - books, podcasts, talent programmes - these last few years

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

25+ years ago Electronic Arts was rich enough to pay Norman Foster's agency to design its Euro HQ building in UK countryside. It was shaped like an 'E'! Today, it's taking on $20bn in debt in a sale to private equity. Back then, EA was in the game. Now, EA is in the small print.

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Hope the clothing sizes are, er, Western-friendly. 😶 I bought a lovely XL Zelda button-down shirt in Tokyo, but caused a diplomatic incident when I returned it after realising the cm measurement. I don't think anyone had the gall to ask Nintendo Store for a refund until then...

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

I often think this company will take any position contrary to reason - 'let's sue our fans', 'no we are a toy company', 'games aren't art!' - on the path to profit.

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

Forcing myself through the embarrassing fantasy dross that Strange New Worlds' finale has become, only to be deeply, deeply amused by the implication that this IKEA kids play kitchen will still be in production in 230 years time.

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the Nintendo Museum when visiting Japan in July - and today's addition of an 'art gallery' reminds me what a peculiar place it was. I am still unsure if I adored or despised the place.

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

GDC is on mission to maintain relevance amongst an audience who - according to its State of Industry survey - shows some antipathy to genAI. But it is posting tweets... written by AI. (If the em dash wasn't a big enough clue then 'Elysia' is a bit of a giveaway!)

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

Horrendous, but the rumour is it opens up and has a fun thing inside. But it better not have that Genesis logo on the non-US box! (The one on the controller is an optional sticker) 🤮

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

I can shrug off New Star Trek's obnoxious obsession with show lore but I will never forgive this recent scene where Young Scotty orders two pints of Guinness, gets served THIS flat-headed hate crime, and then Capt Pike hires the bartender to work full time on the Enterprise?!

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Imagine having enough money to sponsor *most* games events… and then rocking up with this genAI junk image as your asset to show a crowd of developers.

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

First time in Japan next week. Heading to Tokyo and then BitSummit in Kyoto. Even had the business card + logo localised.

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

An important point not celebrated enough in this Salt Path controversy is the masterpiece of passive aggressive revenge wrought by the victim's daughter.

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

‪Best game on it so far is ‘Can I get this massive Argos customer collection sticker off it without leaving any residue?’ ‬

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Whoops. The bot that floods my local Facebook Marketplace listings with dodgy PS5s has messed up the prices.

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Didn’t preorder a Switch 2 but I did order Flip 7.

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Ketchup vs Mustard. Love these Splatoon theme weekends

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Might make this my Zoom/Teams background

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

What’s the most bizarrely capitalist thing in your kitchen cupboard? I’ll go first

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Bought myself some ‘video game preservation’ as a pay day treat

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Haven't looked past this official post to know what others think. But my immediate thought is that this offhand mention of classic games & preservation is just culture washing, misleadingly claiming a benefit around an increasingly-tense and nuanced issue news.xbox.com/en-us/2025/0...

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

More worried about the Switch 2 patent model's nails than the mouse. Go see a doctor!

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Back to work using strictly just one arm (after an operation) – I fear my discovery of how good voice to text is on my computer is going to make me very insufferable to my team.

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

See, building projections are seen as pretty cheap, low-brow marketing these days. In the UK, government has even said ‘Big Ben is not a billboard’ and that landmarks must be enjoyed uninterrupted. But I think this - from Germany! - is effective and valuable and enjoyable.

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Also, er, has modern Star Trek not developed a problematic trope of creating strong non-white lead female characters who question authority for plot purpose - and then the franchise betrays them by saying actually what they really wanted all along is a life taking orders from Starfleet...?

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

And yet not the worst film I've seen in the last 24 hours - I watched this yesterday which to all intents and purposes seems very similar and somehow a few degrees worse.

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Shame there is no button for ‘abysmal’

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Am especially excited to be welcoming the Bitsummit Roadshow to our New Game Plus event. (It'd be rude not to return the favour and not visit them with a delegation of our own in July, right?)

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

As a fan in his '40s, I loved this call back about the jackets, obv. And then this weird bug when Indy's character model wrist broke after I punched a fascist - it just had to flap about in front of the camera for a whole sequence.

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

Finally got a frame for this, 22 years after having it shipped from Australia. It’s a meter high!!

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

Me trying to decipher a late Friday night announcement of a government funding allocation for the next FY

Alan Partridge saying 'give me another series, you sh*t'

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

I only remembered it really because of the deep deep shame from this incident.

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Have had to visit folks in Clacton (don’t get me started…) and there’s one here! *to the tune of Monorail* APU: 🎶 “I hear there’s one near Nigel Farage?” 🎶 LYLE LANLEY: 🎶 “There’s also one in Steven-age!” 🎶

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

I am convinced there is some Monorail Guy/travelling salesman type who is going town to town in Europe convincing them to install Ferris wheels

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

These tech event keynotes are getting out of control

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Packed 60 games studios and 60 investors into a room for just over 60 minutes at Slush… and everyone survived. In fact, they had a good time, I think.

Busy conference room of delegates standing and networking.

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Michael French @michaelfrench.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

An illuminating into to Slush from the president of Finland - and I don’t mean the lasers - where he asked the audience ‘is your technology inciting hate, or hope?’ and called for global rules on how AI is governed.

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