Christopher Bratt's Online Newsletter: It's been too quiet!

Hello everyone!

I've been feeling pretty weird about not being online enough recently. When you have a job like this one, it can feel like the ultimate crime, honestly.

Now this tends to happen whenever we're deep into reporting a big, complicated story. There's a sort of single-minded focus that's required in these moments and it makes the idea of stopping to do anything else quite painful. That's definitely part of what's been happening here. We're close to publishing a documentary that has consumed 100% of my work brain in recent months and for really good reasons.

However, that's obviously not the only factor. Becoming parents has also been a gigantic shift for Anni and me. Dylan is doing great, by the way! He's just turned nine months old, has learned to pull himself up and climb things (terrifying), and is just the best little guy in the world. He's also required both of his parents to scale back the amount of work they can realistically manage as they take turns to look after him while the other one gets a day in the office.

This has undeniably had an impact on the output of PMG this year and is probably where a lot of my anxiety is coming from. Helpfully, we've just hit an important milestone today, as little Dyl is about to have his first day in nursery, which will then allow Anni and me to get back to a more typical routine going forwards. There's a lot of different emotions sloshing around my brain as I think about somebody who isn't us looking after him during the work week, but one of them is definitely relief. We've been spinning a lot of different plates all at once and we're ready for some help.

Also, as you may have already seen, Quinns broke his leg last month. So yeah, it's been a challenging time over at PMG headquarters.

In the past, Twitter has really helped me to maintain that connection with the day-to-day happenings of the games industry, even when a story has become so all-consuming. It's been somewhere to talk about the work more generally, or whatever big news has just broken, but like many people this year, I've felt less and less inclined to contribute to a platform that's been so effectively weaponized in the service of spreading misinformation and ultimately, electing Donald J. Trump back into office.

I didn't even make a joke about brat(t) summer this year. That's how bad it's gotten. Imagine having this surname in this moment and not doing anything with it. Unbelievable.

My account is still active over there and I'll still use it for some work-related things, but my relationship with the "global town square" has been forever changed by its new owner and the disgusting influence he's been able to wield. May a rogue robotaxi put us all out of our misery some time soon.

On that note, if you're using Bluesky, you can now find me over there instead. Will it be a long-term replacement for Twitter? I've absolutely no idea. But the vibes seem a lot, lot better.

Anyway, I'm sorry if it's all seemed a little quiet around here lately! You'll be able to see what we've been working on later this month and I think it's some of our most vital reporting to date. Thanks so much for bearing with us.