Keza MacDonald
@mackeza.bsky.social
Guardian video games editor, exhausted millennial. She/her 🏳️🌈
Pinned
Keza MacDonald
@mackeza.bsky.social
· Sep 3
My book, Super Nintendo: How One Japanese Company Helped the World Have Fun, is out next February! It is a lively cultural history of the world's most beloved video game company, drawing from 20 years' worth of reporting and interviews. Pre-order here: linktr.ee/super_nintendo
The true cost of the trans "conversation", which is and always has been just another name for trans persecution. I hope that all the columnists who are obsessed with dissecting trans people's right to exist and participate in all aspects of life see this and examine the harm they're doing.
For @teenvogue.com I wrote about the death of trans athlete Lia Smith and how trans youth kind themselves with central pillars of their lives being constantly ripped away from them because of politics. www.teenvogue.com/story/politi...
Politicizing Transgender Athletes Is Dangerous. Lia Smith Deserved Better.
"Let her passing be an inflection point for how you think about trans rights and trans people more generally."
www.teenvogue.com
November 9, 2025 at 1:32 PM
The true cost of the trans "conversation", which is and always has been just another name for trans persecution. I hope that all the columnists who are obsessed with dissecting trans people's right to exist and participate in all aspects of life see this and examine the harm they're doing.
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
pre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:55 AM
pre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.
20 years ago today I was trying to find a dodgy little import game shop near Bournemouth with printed-out directions from Google Maps, so I could spend half my meagre pay from my first job on a plastic guitar. Here's Chris Lord on one of the all-time great games:
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
Guitar Hero at 20 – how a plastic axe bridged the gap between rock generations
Guitar Hero’s controllers let anyone become a star in their own living room – and made the bands featured in the game household names again
www.theguardian.com
November 8, 2025 at 12:06 PM
20 years ago today I was trying to find a dodgy little import game shop near Bournemouth with printed-out directions from Google Maps, so I could spend half my meagre pay from my first job on a plastic guitar. Here's Chris Lord on one of the all-time great games:
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
When GTA V came out I did a bunch of radio interviews about it, and the game was mostly approached as a violent, dangerous waste of time. One presenter said "when I talk to people like you, I think, why don't you read a book?" (I told him I have a Masters degree in literature, that shut him up)
November 8, 2025 at 7:59 AM
When GTA V came out I did a bunch of radio interviews about it, and the game was mostly approached as a violent, dangerous waste of time. One presenter said "when I talk to people like you, I think, why don't you read a book?" (I told him I have a Masters degree in literature, that shut him up)
Busted? @sammygecsoyler.bsky.social reports on the week's events at Rockstar Games:
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
UK union accuses GTA maker Rockstar Games of firing employees attempting to organise
According to The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain, the developer fired more than 30 staff last week for being members of a union-affiliated Discord channel
www.theguardian.com
November 7, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Busted? @sammygecsoyler.bsky.social reports on the week's events at Rockstar Games:
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
Just reached the unexpected "organised crime" chapter of Pokémon Legends Z-A - thanks Game Freak for this cherishable opportunity to try and explain loan sharks and compound interest to my small children
November 6, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Just reached the unexpected "organised crime" chapter of Pokémon Legends Z-A - thanks Game Freak for this cherishable opportunity to try and explain loan sharks and compound interest to my small children
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
lol
November 6, 2025 at 4:47 AM
lol
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
The extremely strange afterlife of the Xbox Kinect camera, which came out 15 years ago today: www.theguardian.com/games/2025/m...
Ghost hunting, pornography and interactive art: the weird afterlife of Xbox Kinect
Fifteen years since Microsoft’s motion-sensing gaming camera was released for the Xbox 360, artists, roboticists and more are still finding new ways to use it
www.theguardian.com
November 4, 2025 at 10:43 AM
The extremely strange afterlife of the Xbox Kinect camera, which came out 15 years ago today: www.theguardian.com/games/2025/m...
The extremely strange afterlife of the Xbox Kinect camera, which came out 15 years ago today: www.theguardian.com/games/2025/m...
Ghost hunting, pornography and interactive art: the weird afterlife of Xbox Kinect
Fifteen years since Microsoft’s motion-sensing gaming camera was released for the Xbox 360, artists, roboticists and more are still finding new ways to use it
www.theguardian.com
November 4, 2025 at 10:43 AM
The extremely strange afterlife of the Xbox Kinect camera, which came out 15 years ago today: www.theguardian.com/games/2025/m...
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
My book, Super Nintendo: How One Japanese Company Helped the World Have Fun, is out next February! It is a lively cultural history of the world's most beloved video game company, drawing from 20 years' worth of reporting and interviews. Pre-order here: linktr.ee/super_nintendo
September 3, 2025 at 1:05 PM
My book, Super Nintendo: How One Japanese Company Helped the World Have Fun, is out next February! It is a lively cultural history of the world's most beloved video game company, drawing from 20 years' worth of reporting and interviews. Pre-order here: linktr.ee/super_nintendo
If you are looking for a spooky diversion today and you're too much of a wuss for actual horror media, Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival has grown into something special
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
I tried out a virtual Halloween festival – and got more than I bargained for
Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival began as a lockdown project and has now become an annual gaming tradition. My children and I paid it a visit
www.theguardian.com
October 31, 2025 at 9:29 AM
If you are looking for a spooky diversion today and you're too much of a wuss for actual horror media, Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival has grown into something special
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
Here's what I learned from spending 8 hours of my weekend playing a game about revolutionary donkeys with a crowd of other people in a theatre
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
No half-assed performance: how playing with a live crowd turns video games into performance art
Spending eight hours in a theatre with 70 people playing through political donkey epic asses.masses was gruelling – and a tribute to gaming’s shared joy
www.theguardian.com
October 29, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Here's what I learned from spending 8 hours of my weekend playing a game about revolutionary donkeys with a crowd of other people in a theatre
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
Great primer here on all the *extremely weird shit* we’ve seen these last couple of days linking Trump, ICE and the Master Chief.
Vital to have people like @alyssamerc.bsky.social on this beat, as miserably bleak as it is.
Vital to have people like @alyssamerc.bsky.social on this beat, as miserably bleak as it is.
This appropriation of gaming imagery and culture to push authoritarianism is, as @alyssamerc.bsky.social points out here, the natural extension of what Gamergate began
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
Why Trump’s White House is using video game memes to recruit for ICE
A recent spate of posts has garnered attention, but Trump and his allies have long been using gaming imagery to mobilise a toxic subculture of ‘rootless white males’
www.theguardian.com
October 29, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Great primer here on all the *extremely weird shit* we’ve seen these last couple of days linking Trump, ICE and the Master Chief.
Vital to have people like @alyssamerc.bsky.social on this beat, as miserably bleak as it is.
Vital to have people like @alyssamerc.bsky.social on this beat, as miserably bleak as it is.
This appropriation of gaming imagery and culture to push authoritarianism is, as @alyssamerc.bsky.social points out here, the natural extension of what Gamergate began
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
Why Trump’s White House is using video game memes to recruit for ICE
A recent spate of posts has garnered attention, but Trump and his allies have long been using gaming imagery to mobilise a toxic subculture of ‘rootless white males’
www.theguardian.com
October 29, 2025 at 11:40 AM
This appropriation of gaming imagery and culture to push authoritarianism is, as @alyssamerc.bsky.social points out here, the natural extension of what Gamergate began
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
I am about to go and do my autumn/winter book shopping. What's the best thing you've read lately? I am a voracious reader of all things except horror/crime fiction
October 28, 2025 at 1:51 PM
I am about to go and do my autumn/winter book shopping. What's the best thing you've read lately? I am a voracious reader of all things except horror/crime fiction
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
astonishing is absolutely the wrong word. it's disgusting, terrible, awful, harrowing that such a vast majority of trans people know how unsafe Britain is. but if you're paying attention it's hardly astonishing.
In @yougov.co.uk polling of the trans community, to the best of our knowledge the first of its kind ever conducted, an astonishing 84% said Britain is “fairly unsafe” or “very unsafe” for trans people.
goodlaw.social/ncfw
goodlaw.social/ncfw
‘Abject terror’: survey shows 84% of trans people feel Britain is unsafe
YouGov poll reveals safety crisis for trans people in the UK
goodlaw.social
October 27, 2025 at 3:50 PM
astonishing is absolutely the wrong word. it's disgusting, terrible, awful, harrowing that such a vast majority of trans people know how unsafe Britain is. but if you're paying attention it's hardly astonishing.
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
Over at The Ringer, I went long on the history of PlayStation online, from SOCOM and Uncharted 2 to its current live-service woes.
Notable hearing Shawn Layden on GaaS: “A live-service game to me isn’t really a game. It’s a repetitive action engagement device.”
www.theringer.com/2025/10/24/v...
Notable hearing Shawn Layden on GaaS: “A live-service game to me isn’t really a game. It’s a repetitive action engagement device.”
www.theringer.com/2025/10/24/v...
Why Can’t Sony Make More Multiplayer Hits?
How the PlayStation maker lost—but still survived—gaming’s live-service struggle
www.theringer.com
October 27, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Over at The Ringer, I went long on the history of PlayStation online, from SOCOM and Uncharted 2 to its current live-service woes.
Notable hearing Shawn Layden on GaaS: “A live-service game to me isn’t really a game. It’s a repetitive action engagement device.”
www.theringer.com/2025/10/24/v...
Notable hearing Shawn Layden on GaaS: “A live-service game to me isn’t really a game. It’s a repetitive action engagement device.”
www.theringer.com/2025/10/24/v...
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
I reviewed The Seance of Blake Manor by @spookydoorway.bsky.social and absolutely adored it. Interesting procedural detective work, folk horror, Irish mythology, colonial subtexts and jump scares!! 👻
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
The Séance of Blake Manor review – gripping gothic detective game steeped in mystery and menace
An atmospheric folk-horror adventure combines colonial guilt, spiritualism and supernatural chills in a tale of secrets and seances on Ireland’s haunted west coast
www.theguardian.com
October 27, 2025 at 2:26 PM
I reviewed The Seance of Blake Manor by @spookydoorway.bsky.social and absolutely adored it. Interesting procedural detective work, folk horror, Irish mythology, colonial subtexts and jump scares!! 👻
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
I got to write this nice piece for @theguardian.com about the birthday of the Nintendo Entertainment System. Something that at least isn't full sorrow and horror, you know.
Happy birthday to the NES, companion to millions of Nintendo childhoods
Forty years ago today, the Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the US – and a generation of kids were sucked into video games for life
www.theguardian.com
October 26, 2025 at 9:12 PM
I got to write this nice piece for @theguardian.com about the birthday of the Nintendo Entertainment System. Something that at least isn't full sorrow and horror, you know.
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
I love game reviews written in the style of "I fucking hate this game, 10/10 I'll never play it again but it was really good"
Please, please validate all the time I have spent playing/thinking about Baby Steps by reading this article? Please??
"Instead of doing anything normal with my life for the past week, I have been on a horrible hiking holiday with the worst man in the world."
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
"Instead of doing anything normal with my life for the past week, I have been on a horrible hiking holiday with the worst man in the world."
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
I cannot stop playing this preposterous game about falling down a mountain
A week with Baby Steps has made me feel like I’m losing my grip. It this game stupid, or am I the stupid one for playing it?
www.theguardian.com
October 23, 2025 at 10:55 AM
I love game reviews written in the style of "I fucking hate this game, 10/10 I'll never play it again but it was really good"
Well that explains a lot
SCOOP: For the last two years, Microsoft has pushed Xbox to hit profit margins of 30%, an ambitious target that's far higher than the industry average.
This chase for profit has led Xbox to raise prices, cut thousands of jobs, and rethink everything.
Story: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
This chase for profit has led Xbox to raise prices, cut thousands of jobs, and rethink everything.
Story: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Microsoft Pushes Xbox Division to Hit Higher Profit Margins
Management’s goal of 30% profit margins for gaming has led to job losses, canceled projects
www.bloomberg.com
October 23, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Well that explains a lot
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
I watched a clip of someone playing this and they do so well to get up a mountain and then they put one foot wrong (literally) and the character fell and slid for what seemed like 100 years. Watching the colour and life drain from the player's face was a sight to behold.
Please, please validate all the time I have spent playing/thinking about Baby Steps by reading this article? Please??
"Instead of doing anything normal with my life for the past week, I have been on a horrible hiking holiday with the worst man in the world."
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
"Instead of doing anything normal with my life for the past week, I have been on a horrible hiking holiday with the worst man in the world."
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...
I cannot stop playing this preposterous game about falling down a mountain
A week with Baby Steps has made me feel like I’m losing my grip. It this game stupid, or am I the stupid one for playing it?
www.theguardian.com
October 23, 2025 at 9:24 AM
I watched a clip of someone playing this and they do so well to get up a mountain and then they put one foot wrong (literally) and the character fell and slid for what seemed like 100 years. Watching the colour and life drain from the player's face was a sight to behold.
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
More than 1,200 video game journalists have left major publications in the past two years, and not returned to the media, according to data supplied to VGC.
www.videogameschronicle.com/news/more-th...
www.videogameschronicle.com/news/more-th...
More than 1,200 games journalists have left the media in the last two years | VGC
According to Press Engine data, the global pool of games journalists has shrunk by 25%
www.videogameschronicle.com
October 22, 2025 at 8:09 PM
More than 1,200 video game journalists have left major publications in the past two years, and not returned to the media, according to data supplied to VGC.
www.videogameschronicle.com/news/more-th...
www.videogameschronicle.com/news/more-th...