Reporting on the R* firings has meant multiple trips to London, Edinburgh & Glasgow over the last several months in order to be on the ground as the story developed. It's been a different style of video for us, with more frequent updates, rather than one big doc right at the end of the process.

We felt it was important to include Will's story here ahead of the tribunal getting underway in September, as a reminder that even if the union prevails in the British courts, these firings have already forever changed the lives of Rockstar's former employees.

Not only has Will's partner been forced to return to Australia as well, but their two dogs have been left stranded in Edinburgh for several months. Tragically, their older dog's health has since deteriorated. She will no longer be able to make it back to Melbourne to be reunited with her family.

And finally, there was another person we knew we had to include. Will Mesilane is one of the fired R* workers, but unlike the others, he'd moved to to the country from Australia on a work visa. His sudden dismissal set off a domino effect of repercussions that have upended his family's life.

For the first time since I started reporting on this story nine months ago, I've now also interviewed a current employee of Rockstar on camera. Nestor Uriarte is a union rep at R* North and we spoke about how it feels holding that position given what happened to the other union members before him.

To find out why, I met with the IWGB President to ask him how the R* union survived the dismissals and then went on to grow its membership. We also talked through the union's latest request for "voluntary recognition" and what actions they have planned if Rockstar doesn't give it.

I'd encourage you to watch this speech from former employee, Isaac Hudd. Also, given this is yet *another* Edinburgh-based studio at the heart of *another* controversy affecting game workers in the UK, you'll spot some familiar faces from Rockstar who turned up to show their solidarity on the day.

Spring McParlin-Jones, Chair of the IWGB Game Workers Branch, said: “This extravagant playtest event is a waste of money, and a kick in the teeth for the fired workers who are seeing fans brought in to do jobs that would otherwise have been theirs."

Game workers protested outside the Build A Rocket Boy offices on Saturday, as the studio hosted a playtesting event for fans. BARB has laid off 250-300 employees over the last 13 months & has been accused of installing surveillance software on workers' PCs to root out "saboteurs" within the company

However, we loved this idea so much that we've also made a high quality scan of the print available to all patrons, allowing them to download and even print it. We've also set up a new channel on our Discord for folks to share their work. More info here: www.patreon.com/PeopleMakeGa...

Inspired by Jerry's Map, we're going to be sending out a "seed panel" designed by Anni to our art print patrons next month along with a blank panel for them to begin working on themselves (only if they'd like to, obvs). We're not posting these for two more weeks, if you'd like to get involved!

Yessss

I know we point this out every time, but... Here's the expected future Prime Minister of the United Kingdom winning the most important election of his life last night in a major blow to the British far right, flanked by somebody dressed as a fox and perennial novelty candidate, Count Binface.

Love this:

Now Jerry hasn't actually seen his entire world laid out in full in over 14 years, despite working on it almost every single day. Nobody has. Until now. With the help of more than 20 volunteers, over the course of three days, we built his map together in all its glory. And it was SPECTACULAR.

Jerry's map is now made up of more than 4000 bespoke panels, most of which have been reworked over and over again as its creator first added towns, cities, roads, lakes, parks, airports, sports teams and then, in more recent years... The Void.

He's now spent several **decades** following its commands each morning, some of which even dictate parts of his own life outside of the map as well. If you're somebody who cares deeply about game design, you are going to be as obsessed with these magical cards as we were, trust me.

The thing is, it's not really the map that Jerry has designed here. Not quite. Instead, his art has been directed by a magnificent deck of cards of his own creation, filled with different rules that he's constantly tweaking and updating.

Really enjoyed this conversation with Eurogamer's new editor-in-chief, @christapsell.bsky.social on this month's episode of The Games Press. Here he is talking about the lessons learned from being a lifelong Man United fan as he envisions his team's role in the games media going forward.

Smashed it, Keir. Well done lad.

Forgive me if this is a normal thing that you may have seen before, but I just looked out of the window of my plane and saw another plane flying below us?! Just interrupted the guy watching Dark Knight in front of me to share the moment lol.

Look how pleased we were post-chat! You can find the podcast on all of the podcast apps, just search 'The Games Press'.

Last month @mackeza.bsky.social swung through town on her book tour for 'Super Nintendo: How One Japanese Company Helped the World Have Fun' and we had a chat all about it in front of a live audience. If you weren't there, fear not, it was also recorded for this month's episode of The Games Press!

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Extremely pleased to bring The Games Press back today with Mothership's @midimyers.com & @zoehhannah.com! We talk about the current state of feminist writing in the games media, whether "subscription fatigue" is real & how they've processed what happened to them & their former coworkers at Polygon.

Very, very excited for this! If you live near Brighton and would like to come along and hear the two of us get stuck into the weeds on Keza’s latest dive into the history of Nintendo, grab yourself a ticket.

PMG won the Knickerbocker Award for Best Games Journalism last night at the @nyvgcc.bsky.social! It feels like we've come such a long way since we first launched this thing nearly eight years ago, but winning a journalism award at an event in NEW YORK CITY still seems totally mad to me.