Save State by Vertical Slice Games
Save State is the weekly podcast from Vertical Slice Games — sharp takes on the biggest stories in gaming, a look at what’s coming, and the weird stuff you didn’t know you needed to hear about. Hosted by Josh, new every Monday.
Save State EP 08 - Nintendo Reminds Us Why We Love Games
Epic Games wants to change the rules around AI training, and Tim Sweeney has found himself in another argument over who gets to control creative work. The company plans to loosen restrictions on using content created with Unreal Engine and MetaHuman to train artificial intelligence, while maintaining protections for individual developers. But how much control will developers actually have?
This week on Save State, Josh digs into Epic's proposed licensing changes, the potential benefits of AI in game development, and the questions surrounding ownership and permission. There's also a look back at Unity's disastrous runtime fee controversy...
Save State EP 07 - BioWare Deserved Better
BioWare is gone. After more than 30 years, Electronic Arts has closed the studio behind Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Jade Empire, and some of the most influential RPGs ever made. And just one day later, a leaked trailer for the canceled Mass Effect: Universe offered a painful glimpse of what might have been.
This week on Save State, Josh Lurie looks back at BioWare's extraordinary history, from three medical students working out of a basement to the games that changed how we think about storytelling and player choice. But this isn't just a farewell. EA's new ownership, its $55...
Save State EP 06 - Too Big For Rockstar
Rockstar's original plans for Grand Theft Auto VI were so ambitious that even Rockstar had to scale them back. Bloomberg's new reporting reveals just how enormous Project Americas was supposed to be, how much the company has grown, and what it took to turn that vision into the game we're finally getting in November.
This week on Save State, Josh Lurie gets into Rockstar's abandoned ambitions, Activision's claim that Call of Duty doesn't get enough credit for its success, and Ubisoft's decision to cut jobs at the studio behind the successful Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced.
<...Save State EP 05 - AI Game Overload
Episode 5 of Save State. This week: Google and Unity want to make game development accessible to almost anyone through AI. That's exciting, but making a playable game and making a good game are two very different things. Josh talks about his own experience with AI, what these tools can actually accomplish, and why Steam's discovery problem could get much worse.
Then we look at Xbox's new XP division, Hollywood's growing interest in gaming, and whether turning games into entertainment franchises could eventually hurt the games themselves. Plus, newly surfaced Perfect Dark footage raises some uncomfortable questions about...
Save State EP 04 - Games Cost Too Much
Episode 4 of Save State. This week: Gears of War: E-Day is nearly here, The Coalition appears to have delivered, and we look at why successful game development can still leave teams worried about what comes after launch.
Then we dig into the live-service obsession that reshaped Sony, why ARC Raiders proves that success can create as many problems as failure, and what the shift from physical games to digital licenses really means for players and publishers.
We also ask whether video games are becoming too expensive to make and too expensive to buy at the...
Save State EP 03 - Maybe Halo Needed This
Episode 3 of Save State. This week: Bungie admits Marathon hasn’t found the audience it hoped for and puts Destiny back at the center of its future, Microsoft pushes deeper into its Xbox reset as Activision takes responsibility for Halo, and Silent Hill somehow completes one of gaming’s strangest franchise comebacks.
Plus: Control Resonant’s verdict is in, Well Dweller is quietly putting up huge review numbers, Garfield is apparently fine, and Gears of War: E-Day enters Early Access this week.
New episodes every Monday.
Don’t forget to check out VSG at verti...
Save State EP 02 - 78 Is Average
Episode 2 of Save State. This week: a review-score deep dive on why Wolverine's 78 average is basically an insult, Blizzard's enormous bet on 2029 and 2030, a hard look at whether Bungie's Marathon can survive long enough to matter, and a story I didn't expect to be covering — what's actually happening at IGN.
New episodes every Monday.
Don't forget to check out VSG at verticalslicegames.com for video game reviews, news, and much more. Thank you for your support!
Save State EP 01 - Emergency Patch Energy
Episode 1 of Save State. This week: a horror game ships something that should never have made it past QA, Sony has a genuinely strange week losing its biggest auteur bet to Xbox, and I put the law degree to use on Nintendo's tariff-refund "sale." Plus verdicts, what's coming up, and the week's quick hits.
New episodes every Monday.
Don't forget to check out VSG at verticalslicegames.com for video game reviews, news, and much more. Thank you for your support!
Introducing Save State - A New Weekly Gaming Podcast from VSG
Welcome to the trailer episode of Save State, a new weekly podcast from Vertical Slice Games (VSG). I'm Josh, and I've spent almost a decade building VSG into an independent, no-nonsense game review aggregator and news outlet. This is the same thing, in your ears: no filler, no padding, just what's worth your time.
New episodes every Monday.
Don't forget to check out VSG at verticalslicegames.com for video game reviews, news, and much more. Thank you for your support!
