Sven Schmalfuß

@vedeksve

A mind forever voyaging. Academic roadkill. A fool for lesser things. Communication is the problem to the answer. Former games studies and gender studies scholar. Loves collecting physical games for all systems. Has a passion for the histories of gaming.

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Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Jul 9

#savephysicalgames @playstation.com, look, this is what "For the Players" means. Thanks to @strictlylimited.bsky.social and @redartgames.bsky.social for these exquisite bundles of love!

A photography of the PlayStation 4 games "The Journey Down Trilogy" and "Rainbow Cotton" on disc by @strictlylimited.bsky.social. Together with extra goodies like postcards, a bottle opener, stickers, a pin, and posters for other games like "Aero, Complete Edition", "Fox and Forest", "7th Sector", "Epics of Hammerfall" and "Wonderboy Collection".

A photography of 3 physical video games by @redartgames.bsky.social:
"They Always Run" for PlayStation 4, "Love Choice" for PlayStation 5 and "Legend of the Skyfish" for Nintendo Switch.
Accompanied by Stickers for "Ufouria 2" and "Calico".

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Jul 2

@superraregames.bsky.social over on the other plattform

A note by Super Rare Games:
Physical games have always been at the heart of what we do.

For years, we've been committed to giving incredible games something real that exists beyond the screen.

The recent PlayStation news doesn't change that.

We'll continue working with our partners to bring PS5 physical releases for as long as we're able, because we believe games deserve more than just a download.

#DiscsNotCodes

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Jul 1

So the PS3 and Vita online stores will close for good in 2027. I should get to work on my old back log lists. From blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/a...

Screenshot from the official PlayStation blog with the closure dates for the PS3 and PlayStation Vita online stores:

"Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua – PlayStation Store on PS3 will close starting August 2026.

Additional Latin American and Middle Eastern countries – PlayStation Store on PS3 will close starting late 2026.

In all other countries, PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita will close in July 2027."

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Apr 30

This is even true for well known and important games like That Dragon, Cancer. See the search results below. Unfortunately I haven't seen more in depth coverage of this in publications like @gamestar.bsky.social or @pcgamesde.bsky.social.

Search results for "that dragon cancer" on steam through a German account, which do not include the game "That Dragon, Cancer".

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Apr 30

I guess it might work, but unfortunately this would be a violation of their terms of service. Quite a huge part of my wish list look like below. So you have to dog through the net, to see if key sellers like @humblebundle.com or @fanatical.com have it. If the game's not on @gog.com or @itch.io.

Screenshot of a Steam Wishlist with different games marked as being not available in the user's region (i.e. Germany).

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Apr 1

Wenigstens ist Eidos von der sexualisierten Darstellung abgerückt. *hust*

Picture of the XBox 360-version of Tomb Raider Underworld. Depicting Lars Croft in a short top and hot pants. The main focus is on her torso with her face only half in the picture.

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Apr 1

@tapirfortuna.bsky.social mit Bitte um Weitergabe an die M! Redaktion und Autor*in (ki). BREAKING NEWS: Heute wird wohl eine PR-Konferenz sein: - NVIDIA kauft Entwickler für 11,3 Mill. $ - neuer Chef Al E. Glaght - Betriebsystem: G1adOS - proprietäre Grafikengine: SHoDAn

Auszug aus der M! Games 04/26 mit Bericht zur KI-Konsole DreamGen.

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Jan 18

Hi, @laurakbuzz.bsky.social, I now own a copy of @cowcatgames.com's Brok Exclusive Edition. So I can solve, what we've been wondering: The Braille is actually raised on the outer box. Kudos to @redartgames.bsky.social to do this. #accessability

Close-up of the outer box of the PS4-version of the Exclusive Edition of Brok: The InvestiGator, highlighting the use of raised Braille.

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Dec 10

Short PSA for all fellow PS4 collectors, as there's next to no info: The Japanese physical release of Obduction by @cyanworlds.bsky.social and Sunsoft comes with multi-lingual menus, English voice-over and at least English subtitles. Update for VR needed.

A Japanese physical release of Obduction by Cyan Worlds and Sunsoft for the Playstation 4.

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Dec 10

Wow, I just realised, that @redartgames.bsky.social included the Title of the game in Braille on the outer box of the PlayStation versions of their Exclusive Edition of Brok: The InvestiGator by @cowcatgames.com. A perfect addition, for a game already championing #accessability in games. 💪

Close-up of the packaging for the PS4-version of the Exclusive Edition by Red Art Games of Brok: The InvestiGator. Showing the title in Braille on the outer cardboard box.

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Sep 13

So thank to Virtual Boy Works by @jparish.bsky.social, I saw that the remaining 8 games, which have been published for the Virtual Boy but are not in the teaser picture, are manly the ones to be expected for licensing issues (SD Gundam: Dimension War; Waterworld; Virtual League Baseball). 1/2

The cover of the book Virtual Boy Works by Jeremy Parish.

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Aug 24

insertmoin.de/making-a-top... Tolle sommerliche Folge von @avavii.bsky.social und Micha Cherdchupan zu Wasser-Spielen. Aber in meiner GameBoy-Spielebox musste ein Spiel ganz arg weinen, weil es mal wieder noch nicht mal erwähnt wurde. Und es war doch zu erst da:

Foto einer durchsichtigen GameBoy-Box in der sich verschiedene Spiele befinden.
Auf der Box liegt das Modul des GameBoy-Spiels „Wave Race“.

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Jun 24

No, I guess not. And that's just one random page.

Note book with huge list of games in very small handwriting.

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Jun 15

An amateur game scholar's loot from a trip to Dresden and Chemnitz. With special thanks to the #deutscheSpielemuseum. www.deutsches-spielemuseum.de Even bought some interesting reprints of old GDR board games there.

Picture of 3 books in German:
"Zahl, Farbe, Trumpf, Die Geschichte der Spielkarten" (a history of playing cards); "Der Schlüssel zum Leben, 500 Jahre mechanische Figurenautomaten" (a history of automatons) and Rudolf Rühle: "Lexikon: Die deutsche Spieleproduktion in der SBZ und der DDR, 'mit der Wende, kam das Ende" (an encyclopedia of the production and distribution of board games and playing cards in the GDR).

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Jun 4

Thanks to all the lovely people from @chludens.bsky.social for inviting me to to their workshop in the games lab at the University of Bern. Learning about the special problems swga.ch is facing and especially all the great chats about gaming magazines and games in general were great. Thanks a lot.

Picture of the Marktgasse in Bern, Switzerland. At the end the Zytglogge tower can be seen. The buildings left and right are flying Swiss national and Bern city flags.

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· May 22

Whenever I see this statue of Ludwig I of Bavaria in the Walhalla, it always reminds me of someone...

Statue of Ludwig I of Bavaria at the Walhalla in Donaustauf, Germany in the background.
In the foreground the display of a mobile phone is partly visible, showing a photo of the actor Franz Xaver Kroetz.

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· May 14

I forgot, I wanted to include the packaging from @iam8bit.com's release of #Gorogoa: The backside of the case features a translucent window, which lines up with the manual's outer artwork. I know it's not Japanese, but it's quite cool.

Physical release of the game Gorogoa for Switch.
The picture shows the case with a grape wine like artwork and the game's manual with a surrealist black and white illustration and text in an illegible fantasy script.

The manual for Gorogoa. The front and back cover are visible. The front cover on the right shows some pseudo-Celtic line art. The back cover on the left has a drawing of a wandering figure with a form of halo, walking on top of two pillars.

The artwork on the back of the packaging of Gorogoa lines up with the line drawings on the front page of the manual, which can be seen through a translucent window.

If the manual is inserted into case, with the back facing the window the wanderer can seen.

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Apr 18

Hier ein beliebiger Auszug aus meiner Wishlist. Trifft natürlich vor allem ältere und Nischen-Titel.

Ausschnitt Steam-Wishlist mit in Deutschland nicht verfügbaren Spielen.

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Mar 20

Arno, ich les gerade das hier. Frage mich, was dies über mich aussagt?

Bild einer Ausgabe von Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here und des Sammelbands Das Jahrhundert der Bilder Band I, herausgegeben von Gerhard Paul.

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Feb 18

Dear all, to keep my sanity, I need to do some news detox and might be off for a few days. But I want to leave you with a preview, that led me to one of my favorite games: WayForward's remake of A Boy and His Blob. A crucial aspect for my love (apart from the adorable art) is the hug button. 1/2

Page from The Official Nintendo Magazine (UK), with a preview of A Boy and His Blob for Wii. The Headline reads:
A Boy and His Blob, The Only Platformer Cute Enough to Have a 'Hug' Button.

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Feb 2

Danke #Regensburg: Wenn von 150.000 Einwohner gut 20.000 zur Demo #GemeinsamGegenRechts kommen, dann heißt nie wieder wirklich jetzt.

Bild von der Demonstration "Gemeinsam gegen Rechts" am 2.2.25 auf dem Domplatz in Regensburg.

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Nov 22

Ich empfand schon in der Korrespondenz von Navid Kermani und Natan Sznaider sehr berührend, als sich die beiden (wie ja auch in der Einleitung dargelegt) im Moment des größten inhaltlichen Dissens freundschaftlich näher kamen.

Foto des Buches Israel, eine Korrespondenz von Navid Kermani und Natan Sznaider.

Sven Schmalfuß@vedeksve· Nov 16

Here is the disc. Most of the games could either be found on Werbespiel Archiv or on kultboy (www.kultboy.com/index.php?si...) A list of tge games follows in the next post. It includes quite a few interesting ones by #factor5 or #egosoft.