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Pedro Pascal teases Reed Richards’ dynamic with Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’
‘Fantastic Four’ star Pedro Pascal is sharing Reed Richards’ perspective on Robert Downey Jr.’s villainous Doctor Doom in ‘Avengers: Doomsday.’
Chris Evans received ‘a dozen’ Captain America pitches before returning for ‘Doomsday’ (exclusive)
Marvel star Chris Evans received ‘at least a dozen pitches’ to return as Captain America before signing on to ‘Avengers: Doomsday.’ Here’s why he finally came back.
Robert Downey Jr. breaks down Doctor Doom’s parallels to Tony Stark in Avengers: Doomsday (exclusive)
‘Avengers: Doomsday’ star Robert Downey Jr. is opening up about the striking parallels between the villainous Doctor Doom and the late hero Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man.
Andy Burnham and the rise of ‘aura farming’ in politics
Is “aura farming” the new political superpower? There are some days in TV news when you find yourself standing in the middle of a farm, surrounded by baby goats, trying to explain internet slang. Subscribe This was one of those days. There I was, in wellies, trying to unpack aura farming - a Gen Z term for carefully cultivating your image online so that you look effortlessly cool, authentic and charismatic. The trick, apparently, is that it can’t look like you’re trying too hard. Which, I’ll admit, felt slightly ironic as we filmed an entire report on a farm purely because the word farming is in the title. ‘Shaped by algorithms’ Whether you like it or not, politics increasingly feels like it’s being shaped by algorithms as much as manifestos. Take Andy Burnham. Since arriving at Number 10, he’s been impossible to miss online. One minute he’s out for a casual jog with Mo Farah. Next he’s announcing policy alongside TikTok high priestess Bus Aunty. His social media paints a very deliberate picture: less polished Westminster operator, more bloke from the North who just happens to be running the country. It’s not accidental. Burnham’s “King of the North”, New Order-loving persona has become part of a carefully constructed political brand. Authenticity is now something politicians work incredibly hard to make look effortless. But Burnham isn’t inventing this playbook. Like so many of us doomscrolling on an evening, he’s been influenced online. The digital strategy of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, pictured above right, has become a case study in viral political communication, and some of the people behind that campaign have recently been advising the Labour Party in Britain. Their message is simple: if you want to reach younger voters, you need to show up where they already spend their time. Embracing content creators And increasingly, that doesn’t mean traditional news interviews (awkward). It means speaking to content creators like Max from The Career Ladder, whose channels reach around 20 million followers worldwide. His interview with Burnham, pictured below, was posted almost immediately after he became Prime Minister. What struck me wasn’t just the audience size, but something Max told me afterwards: many people in the comments said they’d discovered Britain had a new Prime Minister through his interview. Think about that for a moment. Not through rolling news. Not through newspapers. Through a creator they were already following while scrolling. Share That’s a profound shift in how political information reaches people, one that’s been gathering momentum for some time. It also explains why politicians are embracing content creators and spending millions on digital marketing. Of course, this isn’t unique to one party. ‘Personality before policy’ In many ways, the right were quicker off the mark in building their aura online. Donald Trump built much of his political identity on social media. Nigel Farage remains one of Britain’s strongest political performers on TikTok. Politicians across the spectrum now understand that personality often reaches people before policy does. During a six-week UK general election campaign alone, overall digital ad spending routinely tops £11m. Share Channel 4 News Former Number 10 social media adviser Andrew Wong put it well when he told me that “vibes” can help someone get noticed, but they only work if they’re rooted in a genuine personality. Force it, and audiences spot it instantly. The bigger question is whether internet charisma can backfire on you - especially when you’re Prime Minister. Because behind Burnham’s carefully curated videos is a veteran politician with decades of Westminster experience. The spontaneity is produced. While the authenticity may be genuine, it’s managed. That’s not necessarily a criticism. It’s simply the reality of modern political communication. Aura farming alone is not enough to harvest change. But in the age of algorithms, winning attention may be the first battle. Subscribe Share Channel 4 News Leave a comment
Is the Amaury Family, Owners of the Tour de France, Hurting Cycling?
The Amaurys of Paris own the race, but won’t share any of the $170 million in media revenue. Sponsors and riders say their resistance is dooming the sport.
MeBeMe's new ‘interrupter’ app helps you become your best self instead of doomscrolling
MeBeMe delivers small tasks to help users become their best selves instead of endlessly scrolling.
Nvidia CEO to Washington: Don't fall for "science fiction" AI fear
Jensen Huang railed against AI doomerism in an interview with Axios' Mike Allen.
Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom arrives in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ trailer
Robert Downey Jr. is officially revealed in the ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ trailer. The Marvel veteran returns as comic-book villain Doctor Doom after playing Iron Man for a decade.
No, Doom maker id Software hasn't been "nerfed into the ground and gutted" by the Xbox cuts, insists director Hugo Martin
Doom and Quake creator id Software tries to reassure fans it's okay following the devastating recent Xbox cuts.
Doom Director Addresses The State Of id After Xbox Bloodbath
id Software was hit hard in the latest round of Xbox mass layoffs
This Is How Humanity Will End, Scientists Say—And It Isn’t Pretty
Stay calm, doomsday preppers. We (probably) won’t be around to see it.
DOOM Has Been Recognised As One Of "The Most Influential Works" Of American Culture
Alongside 'The Star-Spangled Banner', 'Moby Dick', and 'Levi's Jeans'
ZeniMax Online Studios leadership to exit as part of Xbox cuts
There are major changes happening atop Maryland-based ZeniMax Online Studios, developer of the Elder Scrolls Online, Game File has learned. Joe Burba, a 14-year veteran of the studio who was appointed to run it last July, is departing, along with ESO executive producer Susan Kath, studio game director Rich Lambert and production director Ala Diaz. Their roles were listed among hundreds of others cut last week from the Maryland offices of ZeniMax, in a WARN letter sent to the state by ZeniMax and obtained today by Game File. Tonight, BUrbam Kath, Lambert and Diaz notified Zenimax Online Studios workers of plans to “transition” to a new leadership team consisting of promoted ZOS veterans. That transition will occur “over the next few months,” they told workers, according to a copy of the notice reviewed by Game File. “We will remain in place during the transition period to help ensure a smooth handoff.” Last week, Microsoft laid off of 1,600 workers across its vast gaming teams in locations around the U.S. and abroad. Just who has been impacted and how hard various studios have been hit has been emerging day by day. Game File reported last week that Microsoft/ZeniMax notified officials in Maryland that 379 gaming jobs were being cut across the state. They tallied cuts in two locations: one for ZeniMax Media Inc. (covering Elder Scrolls/Starfield/Fallout-maker Bethesda Game Studios and central Bethesda game publishing) and one for ZeniMax Online Studios (Elder Scrolls Online). More than 200 jobs were cut at the latter. Last week’s totals did not reveal job titles, nor did Microsoft announce any leadership changes in the ZeniMax group. That has now happened. Earlier today, Game File obtained from Maryland officials a breakdown of the 379 impacted roles, which, extraordinarily, included “studio head.” Microsoft later confirmed to Game File which studio head that referred to: ZeniMax Online Studios’. Microsoft has since has notified studio employees and internally announced new leadership. ZOS will now be run by Josh Henderson, previously head of business operations at the studio, and Nick Giacomini, who was promoted to game director for ESO last August. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Last week’s news of 200+ cuts at ZeniMax Online Studios generated public sympathy for those workers and questions about the long-term viability of the Elder Scrolls Online. ESO is a massively multiplayer online game that inherently persists on the strength of new content being developed for it. Earlier today, fans and workers in Maryland protested the cuts at the ZeniMax teams in a rally organized by the Communication Workers of America, the union that represents many of the impacted employees. Regarding concerns around the game, a community manager stated on Saturday: “The plan is still to deliver great content, and we will hopefully have an update soon.” In their note to the studio today, the outgoing leaders of ZeniMax Online Studios predicted “growth” for the game: We have tremendous confidence in Josh and Nick, the future of this studio, and the continued growth of ESO. With exciting experiences still ahead for our players as we wrap up work for Update 51 and beyond, we believe that your passion, creativity, and commitment to each other and the community will continue serving as the heartbeat of ESO. The list of jobs cut in the ZeniMax WARN notice in Maryland includes several very senior roles, including: Studio Head Studio Operations Director Studio Game Director Studio Audio Director Studio Art Manager Vice President and Controller VP, Global Sales & Business Development While some of those job descriptions match the exiting ZOS leadership team, Game File couldn’t verify if all were from that studio. The full list of cut roles shared by Maryland officials also covers workers at Bethesda Game Studios and its central publishing office. The following is an excerpt: The list of 379 eliminated ZeniMax jobs in Maryland also includes: four animators three bilingual CS (community service) leads for Chinese, Italian, and Japanese a creative director for the Elder Scrolls Online Player Life Cycle two food service workers seven producers more than 60 senior QA testers. and many others The WARN notice states that almost all of the 379 workers were notified of their layoff on July 6. In fine print, it states: “Approximately 9 employees were notified of the elimination of their position prior to July 6, 2026.” A 2021 mega-merger scaled back Microsoft announced in 2020 that it intended to buy ZeniMax and its network of game studios in 2020, and closed the $7.5 billion deal in March 2021. The purchase, which preceded Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, added several award-winning studios to Microsoft’s portfolio, including Bethesda (Elder Scrolls, Fallout), Arkane (Dishonored), and id Software (Doom). The studios’ output since then included a 2024 Game of the Year contented from MachineGames in the form of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle along with Starfield from Bethesda and the poorly-received Redfall from Arkane Austin. In recent years, a Microsoft repeatedly in cutback mode closed ZeniMax’s Tango Gameworks (which was reconstituted by Krafton) and closed Arkane Austin. The Xbox cuts last week have hit the ZeniMax group hard, with 158 jobs eliminated in Texas, many of them at id, and 379 from the ZeniMax teams in Maryland. Xbox also said last week that it would be entering a consultation process around Arkane Lyon, a process expected to end in a sale, shutdown or other form of divestment. The Lyon team has been working on a game tied to Marvel’s Blade vampire-hunting super-hero.
Hackers quickly prove that Neo Geo Doom ports are not "impossible"
Clever coding and graphical compromises get a classic game on more classic hardware.
Porting DOOM To The Casio Loopy
Targeted towards refined female gamers unlike the savagery of the mainstream game consoles of the era, 1995’s Casio Loopy was a bit of an oddity of a game console. Despite being standard enou…
'Mirror life' technology worries Doomsday Clock scientists. This is why
This year, scientists included a new potential threat in their decision to move the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight. So what is 'mirror life' and why are they concerned?
id Software insists in new statement that it still has "the crew we need to build the games and tech we're known for"
id Software has posted a brief statement on social media, insisting, "We still have the crew we need to build the games."
John Carmack responds to Microsoft laying off id Software staff, and his comments hit hard for fans who watched him help build DOOM from the ground up
Carmack speaks out after Microsoft cuts jobs at id Software, raising questions about the studio’s future under Xbox.
CoreWeave Stock Sank 11% After Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Unveiled a Cloud Business Plan
Meta's announcement doesn't spell doom for the neocloud market.
id Software Issues Statement Following Xbox Layoffs, Says It's Back to the Size It Was When It Made 2016's Doom
id Software has issued a statement following layoffs at Xbox that saw roughly half the staff at the legendary first-person shooter studio lose their jobs.
Replacing Senate Candidates Is a Risky Business
There have been more losses than wins for substitute U.S. Senate candidates. But Graham Platner’s replacement in Maine isn’t necessarily doomed.
John Carmack responds to Id Software layoffs, admits Microsoft stewardship claim aging badly
The Doom and Quake programmer is saddened by this week’s news of layoffs…
Mitch Keller's short start and a late grand slam doom the Pirates against the Braves
Mitch Keller’s woes continued Thursday. The Pirates’ offense and bullpen nearly let him get away with it — until a blast too far in the...
DOOM's Developer id Software Has Supposedly Lost Around 50% Of Its Team
The Xbox layoffs have been absolute hell
Doom: The Dark Ages Revelations DLC gets collectible-less Xbox achievement list
It’s time to rip and tear your way through Doom: The Dark Ages’ Revelations DLC, and if you’re jumping in, take a look at its Xbox achievements.
Doom developer id reportedly cut in half as part of Xbox layoffs
A legendary studio is losing a lot of staff.
How is id Software supposed to keep making DOOM after Xbox reportedly laid off half the studio?
Xbox's reported layoffs have reportedly cut around half of id Software, raising serious questions about the future of DOOM and id Tech.
Doom co-creator John Romero weighs in on Xbox's cuts to id Software, underlines the importance of digital preservation and the studio's history
One of the minds behind the original Doom games and id Software has commented on the layoffs executed by Xbox and the importance of the studio's history.
DOOM: The Dark Ages | Revelations Update 4 Release Notes
The latest update includes a campaign expansion DLC, Ripatorium 3.0, quality of life changes and bug fixes.
Suicide Squad development felt ‘like I wasn’t making games anymore,’ says director
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League director Axel Rydby shares his experience of working on the doomed live-service.
Taiwan Tests Doomsday Invasion Scenario as China Pressure Intensifies
The drills represent a shift from Taiwan's previous emergency exercises, which had often been criticized as overly scripted and symbolic.
Giants Finally End Skid with 6-4 Triumph
TL;DR: A punchless offensive attack and another poor pitching performance from Zac Gallen doomed the sweep attempt.
DOOM: The Dark Ages Goes Supersonic With New DLC Chain Spear
DOOM: The Dark Ages | Revelations is its first major DLC, showcasing a versatile new Chain Spear. Read more inside to learn about the deep movement tech it adds to the game:
DOOM: The Dark Ages - Revelations Is Putting an Endgame in Your Fave PS5 Shooter
Stand and fight again and again
AI could unleash ‘single greatest productivity revolution’ if Washington avoids overreach: report
The Unleash Prosperity report, titled "Boomsday Not Doomsday," argues AI could help ease housing costs, boost productivity and move workers into higher-value roles.
Quantic Dream Developers Strike to Save Star Wars Eclipse, Warning that 115 Layoffs Would Doom the Unfinished Game
Quantic Dream developers are striking to save Star Wars Eclipse, warning that 115 layoffs would leave the unfinished game without a future.
Scientists just found the hidden 'lid' keeping Yellowstone's supervolcano from erupting - Futura-Sciences
Few places fuel doomsday headlines like Yellowstone. America’s most famous national park sits atop a supervolcano, and the question of when it might blow has haunted the public for decades. So when scientists finally got a clear look at the top of its magma system in 2025, the discovery was...
Starmer’s turn at the Podium of Doom sees him depart with good(ish) grace
The PM is another butterfly broken on the wheel of the public gaze, not quite ready to accept his own limitations
Doom soundtrack composer Bobby Prince dies aged 81
Robert Prince III – best known as Bobby Prince, the man behind the iconic score of the original Doom game – has died aged 81.
McIlroy seven back but likes his chances at US Open
Three bogeys in a row and a double bogey on the back nine doomed Rory McIlroy's hopes of pushing the leaders Friday at the US Open, but he fancies his chances just the same.He followed with a 43-foot birdie putt at 14 but went over the 15th green and then into a bunker on the way to a double bogey.
Doom Composer Bobby Prince Dies at 81
Robert Caskin 'Bobby' Prince III, the composer behind classic '90s games like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D, has died at 81.
Doom Composer Bobby Prince Has Died
Bobby Prince, composer for Doom and other classic shooters, has died.
Bobby Prince, the composer of Doom’s iconic soundtrack, has died at 81
Prince’s Doom soundtrack was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress this year…
A 2025 study of over 600 people found a correlation between leaning on AI tools and weaker critical thinking, sharpest among the young
A study I read recently has stuck with me. It found that the people who lean hardest on AI tools tend to score lowest on critical thinking, with the steepest gap among the young. I use AI tools every day for parts of my own writing work, so this is not a doom blog about […]
Kill Your Doomerism with Citizen Science
As public institutions are gutted and ecological crises mount, volunteer scientists are creating a model of collective action worth believing in.
Constant digital input can lead to real brain rot
Doomscrolling can change your brain for the worse, says an addiction counselor at Sanford Health. Learn how to reverse or prevent the damage.
Coral reefs are not doomed – but policy must catch up with the science
A new study shows some reefs still have a meaningful chance to survive and recover from climate impacts – provided they are protected
In Retrospect: Poland, Russia, Europe
In April I spent a few days with Zryw, a Polish non-profit organization that recruits young people to enter politics and public life. Their aim is to build a new generation of civic leaders in Poland. I’ve followed their evolution from the beginning; my son is one of the founders. (“Zryw” means “impulse” or “burst of speed” in Polish). Julie Chmielewska, one of Zryw’s leaders, interviewed me at the event. Here is the conversation, lightly edited for grammar and context: Julia Chmielewska: Assuming that culture shapes institutions, could we conclude that some cultures are more prone to authoritarianism? Anne Applebaum: I don’t think so. Every culture, every nation, and every country has the potential for change. When we look at history, we can see that nations do change. Poland has changed, for example, from the 1980s to today. There’s a completely different mentality here than the one I encountered when I first visited, in 1988. The current generation sees the world through a different frame. So no, I don’t believe that certain nations are doomed to authoritarianism, or to anything. Of course, there are political and cultural traditions, but they can always be challenged. JC: So do you think there’s something intrinsic in human nature that pushes people to democracy, freedom? AA: I think there is something in human nature, a deep instinct, that pushes people towards freedom, yes. People who live in authoritarian countries – and I’ve heard this from them over and over again – sooner or later find themselves angered by a feeling of helplessness. They can see the unfairness of crooked courts, irrational political decisions. They naturally dislike the fact that somebody has all the power while they have none. In those circumstances, people who have no political background at all sometimes are politicized just by that frustration. I’m thinking of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, for example, who was a Belarusian housewife, until the circumstances of her husband’s arrest forced her to become a politician. I met a woman who is a Uyghur from China, and who had come to live in Turkey. After several of her family members were arrested, she too was propelled into a political role. These kinds of experiences make people interested in democracy or political reform, even if they thought they didn’t care. I also think that the opposite is true: some people instinctively prefer homogeneity, order, hierarchy. They don’t like the confrontation of opinions or the noise of debate, and they lean towards a single leader or a unified regime. I think that most of modern history is shaped by the clash between those two different sides of human nature. JC: Which force do you find more powerful today? AA: I think they both have a lot of power and there’s no way of predicting who wins. Even in countries that seem very shut off or stuck in an authoritarian system can change. We’ve seen that happen. And vice versa, I think democracies can also begin to fail and slide into authoritarianism. So it’s very important not to be complacent in either direction. JC: I want to go into your history and your experiences. You’ve lived in Russia during a time of incredible change in the late 80s, and then you came back to do research in post-Soviet Russia. AA: I was a student in Russia just before the collapse of the Soviet Union. I then traveled and worked there extensively in the 1990s, and I met people who really were full of hope. They hoped that Russia could become a democracy, or at least a place that guaranteed freedom of speech, freedom of the press. These weren’t ideas that came from Washington. Although now the narrative in the Kremlin is different, I met many people who were working towards exactly that kind of transformation. A friend of mine ran a series of seminars – once a year, and then later several times a year, in cities all over Russia – designed to get people to discuss politics in new ways. She invited young politicians and journalists, as well as foreigners. I went to many of them, in Moscow as well as Volgograd and Novosibirsk. Over two decades, hundreds of people came to these seminars, and all of them wanted Russia to be different. I remain convinced that many Russians still want Russia to be different. It’s just that the old system, in the form of Putin, a representative of that system, returned. The KGB reimposed their power. And this wasn’t because of something to do with culture, this was to do with money and politics, and who was in charge. JC: You’ve partially answered my question... I wanted to ask whether that excitement of the 1990s was an exception from the Russian historical norm which has been rather authoritarian? AA: Of course, if you look at the history of Russia since the 18th century, there have always been liberal groups, reformers and revolutionaries. There were the Decembrists, in the early 19th century, and the rural populists later on, who tried to organize the peasantry. A significant group of liberal Russians appeared at the turn of the 20th century, people like the father of the writer Vladimir Nabokov, who was a Russian politician before the revolution. These groups were small in number, but sometimes had a broader significance. The Russian dissident movement in the 1950s and 1960s actually invented the modern human rights movement. It was their idea to hold the leaders of the Soviet Union accountable for the language they used, to remind them of the treaties they had signed and the promised they had made. They created the Helsinki group, for example, that held Soviet leadership to the language of the Helsinki Treaty, which formally ended the Second World War and which contained guarantees of human rights, at least on paper. That idea spread to Eastern Europe, and similar tactics were used here in Poland. (Benjamin Nathans recently wrote a great book about the Soviet dissidents, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause) JC: But seemingly, even if they do ever get power, they could never hold on to it. AA: We don’t know, because they have never really had power. But in any case, we also don’t know what will happen in the future. There is no reason to assume that Russia will forever be condemned to totalitarianism. Even during the first fifteen years of Putin’s regime there was some form of democratic politics. Only when the full-scale war began did he bring everything to an end: he shut down all remaining independent organizations and killed his most important opponent, Alexi Navalny. But does that mean he is popular, that he enjoys legitimacy? Even now, we don’t really know what Russians think about him, or about the war. There is no way of doing real polling in Russia because nobody will answer an independent pollster over the phone. JC: Do you think that the flock of young people, especially young men, who fled Russia after the start of the war represent a continuation of liberal movements that refuse to partake in the authoritarian state, or do you think they are moving for the sake of self-preservation – “I don’t want to go to the army, so I leave”? AA: I’m sure it’s both. I actually know many people who left Russia for political reasons either in the very last years before the war, or else just after the war began. JC: And do you see a change in the young generation versus the old one that have fled? AA: It’s hard for me to say because the people who I know were mostly already politicized. I do know some younger people who left, but most of them were already either active in the opposition, or working as journalists. Many of them very self-consciously think of themselves as maintaining Russian culture abroad, just as in the 20th century the Soviet dissidents or the anti-communist White Russians once thought of themselves as people who maintained the true Russian culture, outside of Bolshevik Russia. JC: Let’s move on to Poland. One of your first experiences with Poland was reporting on Margaret Thatcher’s first state visit, in the autumn of 1988. You followed her around the farmers’ market. AA: She was making a symbolic gesture. She wanted to welcome free markets, but the only one she could really visit was the farmers’ market at Hala Mirowska. JC: And I want to talk about this area because today you can look out of any window in that district, Mirów, and see rows and rows of skyscrapers. How does it feel to see a country built from the ground in such a short time, both politically and economically? AA: You know, when you’re living in a period of dramatic change, it’s always hard to know whether the change is positive or negative. The transformation in Poland created winners and losers, as well as new classes of people, new political movements of different kinds. At the time, it sometimes just felt like turbulence. Now, we can look back at the 1990s and early 2000s in Poland and see in retrospect that the country was headed in towards prosperity and European integration. In around 2009 or 2010, I remember speaking to a woman who worked cleaning government offices, and who asked me if her daughter should study in Amsterdam or in London. This seemed to me to be a real transformation, and it happened very fast: within a few years, Poles stopped feeling like second-class Europeans, and a generation of younger Poles appeared who had no qualms about crossing borders. JC: We again live in turbulent times. Do you think we’re heading towards positive outcomes? AA: I can’t make predictions, because everything that happens tomorrow depends on what people do today. Also, history doesn’t have a trajectory. It doesn’t move in a particular direction. You only think it does afterwards. As I said, you can look afterwards at Poland in the 1990s and you could say this was a period of great progress. But not everybody at the time saw that. Sometimes people are very wrong about a given country’s trajectory. I remember people writing about Ukraine in the 1990s, about how dangerous it was that Ukraine was independent, that this was going to be an anti-semitic state, that Ukrainian nationalism was going to come back... and although you can say many bad things about Ukraine, the country made many bad choices, actually it became a pretty tolerant state which now has a Jewish president and until recently a Muslim defense minister. JC: In the 1990s Poland’s and Ukraine’s GDP were roughly similar. Ukraine was even a bit richer. So the starting point was similar for both of these countries, but they’ve turned out very, very differently. Even if we stop in 2014. Why do you think Ukraine “chose East”? Was it external influence? AA: No, I think Ukraine was in a different position. First of all, central and eastern Ukraine had been part of the Soviet Union since the 1920s, and had therefore experienced a longer period of occupation, repression, Sovietization and even Russification. Ukraine did not have, as Poland did, an alternative elite: a large cadre of economists and politicians, who already had some experience in opposition politics and in independent thinking. In Poland, the transformative finance minister, Leszek Balcerowicz, had already thought about how an economy might be decentralized before he took office. We can argue about how successful he was, but at least he was prepared to try something new. In Ukraine, people weren’t prepared. For one, there hadn’t been much space even for an illegal opposition in the previous couple of decades. Ukraine was also in many ways still emerging from colonial occupation. For the previous couple of centuries, many of the most capable Ukrainians had moved to Russia, and the first generation of leaders in independent Ukraine tended to be former Soviet apparatchiks. They didn’t immediately seek to become closer to western Europe. Instead, they looked for some kind of economic and political “third way” and an accomodation with Russia. Ukraine became stuck in this position, half-in, half-out and became pretty profoundly corrupt. JC: The Polish alternative elite had a vision of where they wanted the country to go. I think the general perception now is that this vision ends with the next election, right? Is this a natural process of gaining power? AA: Their vision, and it was shared by the time by politicians who now call themselves both left and right, was that Poland should join the EU and NATO, as fast as possible. My husband (Radek Sikorski) was in the very first government that said it wanted to join NATO. At the time this was taken very badly in Washington: the demand for NATO membership absolutely came from Poland, not from the US. But even then, in the early 1990s, many Poles already understood that the Russian sphere of influence would grow once again, that it was important to become part of the transatlantic alliance and an integrated Europe as fast as possible: NATO, the EU, the Council of Europe, all of the trading and security alliances. That consensus lasted through several different governments and over many years, even governments containing former communists. For twenty years, right, left and center disagreed about many things, but they all agreed on the direction that the country should go. In retrospect, that consensus created the basis for prosperity in Poland. JC: And regarding the Polish-Ukrainian relations. We know that antagonisms, e.g. the myth of Wołyń [a massacre of Poles that took place in what is now Western Ukraine, in 1943] are increasingly used in Polish political discourse today. In Ukraine, nationalist historians make heroes out of UPA, the Ukrainian revolutionary army, which is held responsible for this tragedy. Where do you see a start for burying the hatchet? Is the reconciliation of our nations possible? AA: So here’s a strange thing: For more than a decade after they both gained independence, Poland and Ukraine participated in a number of projects that were designed to solve exactly these kinds of Polish-Ukrainian differences. Books were published that were jointly written by Polish and Ukrainian historians, monuments were built. These projects were successful: If you’d asked me this question in 2010, I would have said that there are no real historical issues between Poland and Ukraine, that the two countries had mostly reconciled. For a number of reasons, this began to shift. In Poland, children and grandchildren of victims of the Wołyń massacre felt their tragedy hadn’t been fully recognized. In Ukraine, nationalist groups wanted the UPA partisans who had fought against the Soviet Union recognized for their heroism, despite the fact that some in this broad and not well-defined group were also linked to Wołyń. In both eastern Poland and western Ukraine, the memory of the ethnic cleansing that took place there in the late 1940s - Poles were moved West, Ukrainians East - to accomodate new borders has left feelings of displacement and bitterness. The wave of Ukrainian immigration, which started before the war, may have provoked some of this. But don’t underestimate the role played by Russia, which has always wanted to create discord between Poland and Ukraine, and pumps out propaganda to that effect in both countries. Vandalism on both sides of the border, damage done to cemeteries and monuments, is sometimes carried out by provacateurs working for Russia, just to create bad feelings. The Polish-Ukrainian conflict also hides a different reality: although there are real grievances and bad memories, the truth is that the biggest tragedies both nations experienced in the twentieth century were inflicted by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. That should unite these two countries, not divide them. JC: This week (19.04.2026 – Ed.) in Hungary we saw that using historical narratives to create grievance has no longer worked. Are you optimistic about the direction after Orban’s loss? AA: The Hungarian election was really important because it shows that people can actually resist powerful, dominant propaganda. The ruling party Fidesz controlled all of the TV, 90% of the newspapers, the constitutional court, the bureaucracy... and yet people had the nerve to vote against it and resist it. It’s also an important election because Hungary created a huge network of well-funded think tanks and foundations that were funding other far right groups and projects. So that loss is going to have a knock-on effect in other places too, maybe even in Poland. JC: What you’ve said about resisting propaganda reminds me of one of the interviews you did about talking to Russians in the post-Soviet era who claimed that people knew that the system was lying. Why do people choose to believe in these regimes anyway? AA: Because it’s useful. Stephen Kotkin, an American historian, once described how people would learn how to “speak Bolshevik”: It was just a language that you needed to use in order to get by in society. If you didn’t talk the way the regime wanted you to talk, then you might have problems, or lose your job, or your kids would not get into university. It was a way of getting along. Communist Poland was similar, at least in the early years. When I was writing a book about the Sovietization of Eastern Europe after World War II, I met a lot of people who wanted to talk a lot about the war, when many of them had done really heroic things. But almost nobody wanted to talk about the decade afterwards, between 1945 and 1956. This was when you had the short period of terror, violence and Polish Stalinism. To stay safe, people felt the need to just go along with what others were saying, or stay out of politics, or use communist jargon without necessarily believing it. I don’t judge them for it, and I wouldn’t describe all of those people as collaborators. It’s easy to feel moral certainty in retrospect, because we know that communism ended. But if you were living in 1949, it might not have been clear to you that communism was going to end. In very repressive societies, maybe about 10% of people who are really evil – collaborators, torturers. Maybe 10% of people are really brave and who find ways to resist. And then around 80% of people have kids, they have parents, they have to have jobs and they’ve had to get through it somehow. Strange though it may sound, I’ve found that the work I did on that book is now very useful in explaining some of what’s going on in the United States today. There are plenty of members of the Republican Party in Congress who know perfectly well that Donald Trump says many things that aren’t true. But they avoid criticizing him because it’s inconvenient, because they would get in trouble, because someone would attack them on the internet. So actually you don’t even need mass terror to get people to conform. JC: Is Gen Z reinventing agency? AA: We’ll see. In any generation you can find groups of people who want agency. If you live in a society that’s unfair, for example where a tiny number of people have captured most of the wealth, then at a certain point people rebel. This is always easier for younger people, who have you have less to lose. The question now is how the internet will affect the relationships between citizens and the state, and how it will change organizations. The “Twitter revolutions” people spoke about as early as 2008-9, mass protests organized online, have often proved to be very superficial. Although you can easily join something just by clicking, the work of creating a real movement requires physical participation. Successful mass movements of the past, for example the Civil Rights movement in the United States, were built by people who had spent many years together. They had participated in non-violent workshops together. They practiced and prepared. Just using the you can get everybody to show up at a certain moment, but then when the protest is broken up, nothing happens. It’s also true that the repressive regimes have more recently learned how to use the internet to undermine leaders and movements. Most of all, they now understand how to make people cynical. The form of propaganda that most modern authoritarians use - and I think the Russians really pioneered this - deploys sneering cynicism. Instead of praising the rulers, the regime propagandists mock the opposition movement leadership for being supposedly corrupt or sexually degenerate, with the goal of undermining any kind of idealism. JC: MAGA grew on the internet? AA: MAGA is a real grassroots movement. They had symbols, red hats, they showed up at rallies. But you’re right that the cynicism, the sarcasm and the distrust that the movement embodies came originally from the internet, and this is different. Fifty years ago, most European political parties had a social base in real organizations, in trade unions for Social Democrats, in church groups for Christian Democrats. As people stopped going to church and as the trade unions became smaller, the social base of these parties disappeared. Now people who wouldn’t have known one another in the past meet on the internet and create new movements, many of which don’t last. JC: Is history ending? Going in stale circles? AA: History never ends. In truth, human beings want contradictory things at the same time: order and freedom, stability and change. These things are never resolved, and when a society swings too far in one direction, people always push it the other way. But each time that happens, the result is different. Certainly it is true that we are now in a period when old philosophers and ideas from the 1930s are undergoing a revival. Carl Schmitt, who was a philosopher who was very influential on the Nazis, is back as an influence on both the far left and the far right, once again inspiring people to think that all politics has to be existential, that all politics is about defining and defeating enemies. In the US, some are also bringing back dominionism, the idea that we need a Christian and not a secular state. It’s also true that we are living through a more fundamental shift. The old left-right divide, which was mostly about the size of the state, is much less important now. Instead, we are arguing about more fundamental things: what are our rights, what protects our freedom. Or how much power do we want to give small elites, versus how much power to give ordinary people. In America a small group of very wealthy people now control information, because they control the social media platforms and AI, which means they determine what people will read and learn. Finding a way to preserve preserve zones of autonomy and independent thinking, this is going to be the main task for the next generation. JC: What is the one book that a person interested in Central Europe should read? AA: You could read my book “Iron Curtain: the Crushing of Eastern Europe” which tells the story of how the Soviet Union imposed its culture on the region. Or read Tim Snyder’s history of the region, “The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus 1569-1999.” And everyone should read “The Captive Mind” by Czesław Miłosz, which describes exactly the phenomenon we were talking about: why do people collaborate? I joined Scott Galloway and the brilliant Fiona Hill in a discussion about the wars in Ukraine and Iran, the future of global power, and what these conflicts reveal about America's role in the world. Scott told us that this was the 400th edition of his podcast, which is quite a number: My friend Francesco Chiamulera runs a brilliant series of literary events, Una Colline di Libri, A Hill of Books, in the Prosecco Hills, a region of vineyards and elegant hill towns in the Veneto, north of Venice. We did an event in Vittorio Veneto and also drove and biked around the countryside. Buy Autocracy Inc Buy Iron Curtain Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe
House to take up last-minute extension of key FISA spy power, but uproar over Bill Pulte could doom vote
Jeffrey Lewis and Herbert Lin join the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board
The Bulletin is honored to welcome nuclear proliferation and arms control expert Jeffrey Lewis and nuclear risk and disruptive technologies expert Herbert Lin to its Science and Security Board (SASB). As SASB members, they will provide their perspective on nuclear issues and technological threats, represent the nonprofit at public events, and participate in setting the time on the Doomsday Clock.
NYC ignores science to wreck precious parks in the name of climate doom
Even the UN now admits its extreme climate scenarios are wrong — but that won't stop the scandalous destruction of Manhattan's precious waterfront parks.
Q&A: When is screen time healthy and when is it not?
Screen time is blamed for a lot of unhealthy outcomes, especially among children, but screen time can be used for a variety of things, from doom scrolling to learning and more. In this Q&A, Penn State researchers explain how people can consider what constitutes healthy or unhealthy screen use.
Coaches, ADs 'disgusted,' 'stunned' with Brendan Sorsby ruling
A judge's decision to rule Texas Tech's Brendan Sorsby eligible Monday drew the ire of college coaches and athletic directors, with reactions ranging from doomsday predictions to informal talk about Big 12 schools attempting to not play the Red Raiders.
DOOM: The Dark Ages DLC ‘Revelations’ announced
Publisher Bethesda Softworks and developer id Software have announced DOOM: The Dark Ages paid downloadable content “Revelations” and the free “Ripatorium 3.0” update. Both …
Why a Neo Geo port of Doom is functionally impossible
Sprite-based graphics architecture makes first-person 3D a challenge.
New book offers tips to translate climate science into political gains
At a time when climate politics in the United States and globally remain deeply polarized, Will Hackman, a climate advocate and political operative, argues that the climate movement needs a new language — one rooted less in doom, guilt and abstract planetary crisis, and more in people’s everyday lives, health, safety, costs and communities. In […]
New book offers tips to translate climate science into political gains
At a time when climate politics in the United States and globally remain deeply polarized, Will Hackman, a climate advocate and political operative, argues that the climate movement needs a new language — one rooted less in doom, guilt and abstract planetary crisis, and more in people’s everyday lives, health, safety, costs and communities. In […]
UIndy School of Psychology Faculty, Alumni, and Students Collaborate to Study Emotional Health and TikTok
As the United States continues to face a growing youth mental health crisis, social media use has become a central part of the conversation. From endless doomscrolling to the emotional effects of online content, nearly every aspect of social media is being examined as mental health professionals work to better understand its impact and develop
Review: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth: Switch 2 Performance Boosted Over Demo, But Xbox 60fps Mode Still Disappoints
Oh I guess I will pay / for these new games 'til doomsday.
666 bus to Hel back in business, as firm resurrects doomed Polish tourist route
News that the 666 to Hel was back has spread quickly across Polish social media accounts, and beyond.
Science news this week: Exploding rocket overshadows NASA's next steps to the moon, 'Doomsday Glacier' faces big loss, quantum computer AI hybrid shows impressive results, and war deepens Iran's water crisis
May 30, 2026: Our weekly roundup of the latest science in the news, as well as a few fascinating articles to keep you entertained over the weekend
The 'Doomsday Glacier' is poised to lose its ice shelf this year. An Antarctic researcher explains what that means for global sea levels
Researchers have warned that the Thwaites Glacier, one of the largest glaciers in the world, is about to lose its eastern ice shelf. We spoke to marine geophysicist Robert Larter about what this means for the "Doomsday Glacier."
Teens need to press pause on late-night doomscrolling
Late-night doomscrolling is keeping teens up and it’s affecting their wellbeing. Experts say to put the phones down.
Friday the 13th's Game May Be Gone, But Jason Voorhees Is Back in Dead by Daylight
You're all doomed
There’s Never Been a Better Time to Study Computer Science
Even as AI progresses, coders aren’t doomed.
AI won't crush the labor market, JPMorgan exec says
AI doomers say the tech could crush the job market, but a growing chorus of market pros says that it'll reshuffle, not shrink, employment.
If Majoring In Computer Science Is Doomed Due To AI, The Latest Claim Is That Majoring In Philosophy Is The Next Best Choice
Some say computer science as a major in college is doomed due to AI. The claim is that majoring in philosophy is better. I tackle this. An AI Insider analysis and scoop.
Overwatch Lead Is Glad People Were Mad They Killed Off Doomfist
Doomfist was ‘defeated’ at the beginning of the year
What Your Brain Is Actually Doing While You Doomscroll, According to Science
If you find yourself endlessly scrolling as you maneuver through the various landmines intent on detonating your attention span, it could mean that you have some kind of digital addiction problem. But it could also mean your mental focus is so strong that you’ve quietly figured out how to treat social media like an external […]
A Legendary Avengers: Doomsday Star Once Called Movies The Worst Form Of Entertainment
Legendary Avengers: Doomsday star Ian McKellen once held a not-so-high opinion of movies and cinematic entertainment in general.
One Year Later, DOOM: The Dark Ages DLC Is Nowhere to Be Seen
But it is meant to be substantial, says dev
Rocky Inning Dooms Keller, Pirates vs. Colorado
PITTSBURGH — Mitch Keller could not have gotten off to a better start, but the right-hander was hit hard in […] The post Rocky Inning Dooms Keller, Pirates vs. Colorado appeared first on Pittsburgh Baseball Now.
Can Conan O'Brien Single-Handedly Keep The Oscars Watchable?
Between late-night talk shows and entertainment awards ceremonies, Conan O'Brien is the master of all comedy formats doomed to be absorbed and destroyed by YouTube.PlayThis week, Disney and the Academ...
Android adds a feature to stop you from doomscrolling
Google’s new Android feature, Pause Point, forces you to wait before opening distracting apps in an effort to curb addictive scrolling habits.
Immortal snail meme turned into desktop game where you only get one life
Don’t Touch The Snail, developed by PlasticBagHandMan drops a snail onto your desktop as it slithers closer to your cursor with impending doom.
‘The odds are not in our favour’: who sets the Doomsday Clock – and what can they tell us about the future of humanity?
With the war on Iran, Ukraine, AI and climate breakdown increasing the likelihood of a nuclear war, the clock stands closer to midnight than ever before. So who decides how many seconds we have left – and can we buy ourselves more time?
Boox’s new page-turning e-reader remote is a tiny two-button keyboard
The Tappy can be used to flip pages, skip tracks, or doomscroll without having to touch your device.
NBA playoff winners and losers: Knicks overwhelm 76ers in crunch time, Spurs bounce back emphatically
The 76ers were doomed by a cold fourth quarter, while the Spurs responded to their Game 1 loss in blowout fashion
This tiny, magnetic e-reader could stop you from doomscrolling
The Xteink X3 is a delightfully tiny, MagSafe-compatible e-ink reader that attaches to the back of your phone like a Pop Socket.
Protecting the Health of Black Children
Failure to understand the history of vaccine-preventable diseases risks dooming US children to again suffer needlessly from preventable infections
The Founders built safeguards. Our politics have rendered them useless
None of this means the republic is doomed. But we must be honest about the distance between the Founders’ safeguards and today’s political culture.
Meet Noscroll, an AI bot that does your doomscrolling for you
Noscroll wants to cure doomscrolling with an AI bot that reads the internet for you.
X-Men's 'Avengers: Doomsday' return is 'opportunity to pit multiple universes against each other' (exclusive)
The X-Men in 'Avengers: Doomsday' became 'an amazing opportunity to pit multiple universes against each other,' Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige tells EW at CinemaCon. 'I think people know that the story of Doomsday is inspired by a very famous comic run in which universes are colliding.'
'Avengers: Doomsday' footage, 'Mandalorian' opening unveiled at CinemaCon
The Walt Disney Co. has staged a major presentation at CinemaCon, showcasing new footage from upcoming films. They revealed the opening of the new Star Wars movie and scenes from “Avengers:...
\'Avengers: Doomsday\' footage, \'Mandalorian\' opening unveiled at CinemaCon
The Walt Disney Co. has staged a major presentation at CinemaCon, showcasing new footage from upcoming films. They revealed the opening of the new Star Wars movie and scenes from
Zay Flowers says inconsistency doomed Ravens in 2025 season
Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers says 'inconsistency' due to injuries and uneven play led to the team's 2025 disappointment.
From Jurassic Park to dreams of AI doom, pop culture shapes science more than we like to admit
The relationship between science and pop culture often looks like a one-way street: scientific discoveries inspire films, television and novels, particularly in science fiction. But the relationship really ...
16th-century silver coin discovered near Strait of Magellan marks the spot of a doomed Spanish colony
The newfound coin dates to the 1584 founding of a doomed Spanish settlement in southern Chile.
From Jurassic Park to dreams of AI doom, pop culture shapes science more than we like to admit
We all know science influences books, movies and TV – but the influence goes both ways.
Mickey, mouse offense: Rockies 4, Phillies 1
Mickey Moniak and a quiet offense doom the Phillies on Sunday
Is the Championship heading for financial 'catastrophe'?
BBC Sport takes a look at if the second tier could be facing a "doomsday scenario" as club accounts reveal the significant scale of their losses.
I saved a doomed Windows laptop by embracing Linux
This machine kills forced obsolescence.
Joel Embiid reveals what doomed 76ers vs. Heat
Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid struggled with his efficiency in their loss to the Miami Heat on Monday.
Why a startup is teaching human brain cells to play “Doom”
Cortical Labs uses human brain cells attached to silicon chips to create biological computers that could offer energy efficiency and processing advantages over traditional electronics.
Who’s ‘Safer’ or ‘Riskier’? Maine Democrats Clash Over How to Beat Collins.
Gov. Janet Mills argues that her rival for Senate, Graham Platner, could be doomed by his history of offensive online remarks. But at a time of anti-establishment anger, Mr. Platner says he is the safer choice.
DHS shutdown drags on after House passes 'dead on arrival' bill
The House-passed bill is doomed in the Senate, which is on a scheduled recess.
Meet Ran II: After Losing A Sub Under The “Doomsday Glacier,” Scientists Have A Smarter Successor
Ran is dead, long live Ran II.
Marathon has sold 1.2M copies across Steam, PS5, and Xbox
Alinea Analytics estimates show that Marathon has generated gross revenues of $55M via 1.2M copies sold on Steam, PS5, and Xbox: Looking at the split between Steam, PS5, and Xbox, Steam is clearly the main platform for Marathon, accounting for a little under 70% of the audience (800K copies sold). Meanwhile, PS5 takes about 19% (217K) and Xbox (including console, PC, and cloud) accounts for a bit over 11% or 133K. Marathon is technically a first-party Sony title, so seeing the home console struggle to break 20% of the volume is a notable data point for the ongoing platform-agnostic debate. PlayStation Studios online games will almost certainly continue being multiplatform (despite Sony reportedly pulling back on PC releases). Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe As for Marathon, the consensus among hardcore players who pushed through the awkward onboarding phase – myself included – is that it’s fantastic. The gunplay, aesthetic, and presentation are among the best in the shooter genre. A great game doesn’t always equal an immediate hit, though, as shown by our estimates. Things are looking lukewarm right now. But this might be one of those marathon-not-a-sprint situations. Had to, didn’t I? Why wasn’t Marathon a hit on the same level as Arc Raiders? One topic that came up in a lot of conversations at GDC this year was why Marathon hasn’t hit the same stratosphere as Arc Raiders. On paper, they’re both extraction shooters, and Marathon has the Bungie pedigree – the house that built the gold standard for gunplay in Halo and Destiny. Marathon’s neon-futuristic aesthetic also distinguishes itself from the gritty realism of Tarkov or the post-apocalyptic hope of ARC Raiders. But vibes can only get you so far for first impressions if the onboarding feels like a brick wall. Marathon is a sweaty PvP-focused experience with a first-time user experience and UI that I can only describe as dreadful. Players are dropped into a complex ecosystem where the UI, though visually striking, is functionally uninformative, forcing users to manually hover over nondescript, identical icons just to identify basic gear or weapon mods. This lack of clarity is compounded by punishing mechanics like a severe heat gauge for movement and a scarcity of vital resources, all without a clear tutorial or a low-stakes mode to learn the ropes. Most people – even top streamers and veteran shooter players – have no idea what’s going on in Marathon at first. Arc is on the complete other end of the spectrum. As we covered here and here, Arc Raiders offers a more collaborative, approachable loop where players often work together toward shared goals. And the objectives are instantly clear. To many players, this contrast only emphasised Marathon’s issues, especially during the testing period. Players understand the Arc Raiders loop within 30 minutes, while Marathon acts as a massive filter, chewing up newcomers and spitting them out before they can experience the depth of Bungie’s signature gunplay. What I’m getting at here is that the poor first-time user experience of Marathon’s Server Slam likely stifled launch sales, while the opposite was true for Arc. Let’s look at the pre-launch copies sold for each game during their respective Server Slams (launch-aligned) : Looking at the trajectory: Arc Raiders saw a massive 80% jump in copies sold during its three-day Server Slam (day -13 to -11). Players jumped in, realised the water was fine, and immediately opened their wallets. Marathon, meanwhile, saw a 49% increase in the four days following its Slam (Day -7 to -3). At the time of each game’s respective launch, Arc Raiders had nearly double the Steam footprint of Marathon – and word of mouth only continued to grow. Bungie could have had more time to fix the onboarding process had the beta happened earlier. But Marathon launched three days after the beta finished. These factors limited the launch sales quite a bit, I reckon. Marathon has found a niche audience, though Despite the friction-heavy start, the data suggests that those who survived Marathon’s onboarding are loving life. We’ve been tracking cross-platform DAUs, and while there’s the expected post-launch leakage, many players are sticking with it. After peaking at 478K total DAUs on its first Saturday, Marathon has settled into a respectable rhythm, holding 345K DAUs as of yesterday and averaging 380K DAUs across the weekend. Steam continues to do the heavy lifting here, consistently accounting for the lion’s share of the daily players. Players have been putting in the hours, too: On Steam, Marathon’s average playtime has climbed to 27.8 hours, significantly outpacing the console averages on PS5 (16.5h) and Xbox (17.3h). Even more telling than the averages: 22% of the Steam audience has surged past the 50-hour mark, and nearly 7% have already logged over 100 hours. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe This data suggests that once the Bungie magic clicks, it hooks players deeper than the average extraction shooter. There’s also started to be a shift in the game’s discourse. Marathon launched as one of those games that’s cool to hate. But as Marathon’s 100-hour club grows, we’re seeing conversations around its mechanical merit outweigh the negativity. Several high-profile creators, who were initially vocal critics, have spent the last week coming around on the mechanical depth of the endgame. It’s a subtle but positive signal; the hate train is losing steam, and a new narrative about the game is emerging. Bungie faithfuls unite Another interesting metric in Marathon’s first few weeks is who, exactly, is playing. Bungie leans heavily on its prestige as the “makers of Halo and Destiny,” in its marketing, and that message has clearly hit the mark. On Steam, the gravity (hammer) of Bungie’s previous work is unavoidable. A staggering 78.2% of Marathon players also played Destiny 2. The trend carries across other platforms, with 74.2% of PS5 players and 82.7% of Xbox players also having played Destiny 2. The Halo legacy lives on, it seems. More on that in a bit. While Destiny 2 went free to play, these numbers still represent a high-intent migration of a fanbase that trusts Bungie’s specific brand of kinetic gunplay and cryptic world-building. The Xbox data adds another layer of legacy. About 85.7% of Marathon players on Xbox have played Halo Infinite, while over half of the Steam audience has spent time in Halo Infinite and 36.1% in the Master Chief Collection (a paid collection of the old Bungie-made legacy games). Interestingly, we see a 55.9% overlap with ARC Raiders on Steam. Overlap is even higher there on PlayStation (60.5%) and Xbox (66.5%). And there’s also significant crossover with Helldivers 2 on all platforms, too. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe Bungie has found some of its fans with Marathon, and the challenge now is keeping this engaged in a high-stakes PvP environment when they’ve spent the last decade primarily enjoying the power fantasies of PvE. On that note… Go the full 26 miles? Or cut and run? Time for some could’ve, should’ve, would’ve. These things would have improved Marathon’s performance at launch: A more robust onboarding process, perhaps in the form of a short single-player/PvE campaign. We know Bungie fans love this stuff. A traditional arena-based mode akin to Destiny’s Crucible could have been a bridge for the cautious players who’d have been otherwise deterred by the Server Slam. It’s also a great palate cleanser after getting merked. Introducing a dedicated PvE environment would have similarly diversified the conversation and lowered the barrier for the Bungie faithful who found the pure PvP extraction loop too abrasive. PvE is safer than PvP these days. There’s an argument that a thin PvE mode would have just felt like a budget Destiny, potentially hurting the brand more. But given how dire the FTUE is, I think it would have been a net positive. Any kind of tutorialised loop that demystifies the stakes, really. While there is merit in a studio sticking firmly to a singular creative vision, and going all in on the hardcore extraction loop. Less forgiving is the technical reality is that the user interface and first-time user experience (FTUE) were not at a commercial standard for launch. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe In a landscape where player time is oversaturated and the most contested currency, a flawed FTUE is a critical failure point. But it’s not all doom and gloom, as Marathon has an incredible, unique gameplay loop, suggesting that financial success is still attainable if Bungie can pivot effectively. Bungie and PlayStation now face a difficult strategic crossroads, though – one within a challenging games market. They could: Double down on Marathon with a long-term Rainbow Six Siege- or No Man’s Sky-style recovery plan, which is something I heard Last Stand Media’s Chris Maldonado mention last week. While this could be a sunk-cost fallacy in action, it could eventually yield the audience the game’s mechanical depth deserves. Shift focus toward the inevitable Destiny 3 or another project, mitigating the escalating opportunity cost and cutting their losses, so to speak. Doing both is an expensive proposition, given the high overhead and burn rate of operating out of Bellevue, Washington. With Sony recently demonstrating a lower threshold for underperforming studios and projects, the margin for error has vanished. Whatever happens, the next six months will determine whether Marathon becomes a cornerstone of Sony’s live-service portfolio or a cautionary tale of vision exceeding accessibility. I’m hoping it’s the former, because Marathon rocks. As always, hit subscribe to get updates on Marathon and other relevant games. Subscribe Want to get your hands on our data for yourself – for free? We’re offering a free trial of our platform for games companies. Send us a message here, or reply to this email, and we’ll set you up. The last word Reply to this email – or reach out here – if you have any feedback for the newsletter – or want to request a game for us to cover. [Alinea Analytics boasts the most accurate PC and console estimates in the business. Game makers use our platform to understand their audience, keep an eye on the competition, monitor sales trends, and spot new opportunities. We equip game studios and financial institutions with accurate data and the confidence to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Want to talk about all things games market data? We’d love to chat!]
Chicago's teetering debt is stark warning left-wing mayor is fueling 'pay later' doom cycle: expert
Expert Austin Berg warns Chicago's "pay later" debt culture under Mayor Brandon Johnson is alarming markets with a $1 billion budget gap and risky bond deals.