Articles by Rob Fahey - Page 2
Rob Fahey, Contributing Editor
Rob Fahey is a former editor of GamesIndustry.biz who spent several years living in Japan and probably still has a mint condition Dreamcast Samba de Amigo set.
Recent articles by Rob Fahey
"Accessibility" and "difficulty" aren't the same thing | Opinion
The debate about Sekiro rapidly descended into straw-man bashing over "easy modes" -- differently abled gamers' needs are being lost in this mess
Pre-order refunds could force publishers to shift priorities | Opinion
If a bad or unfinished product isn't cushioned by revenues from pre-orders, it changes the arithmetic of launching games -- for the better
Apple's Arcade can succeed - if it aims at families | Opinion
New service can avoid joining a decade of “noble failures” trying to create alternatives to F2P by focusing on children and parents
Google Stadia can succeed if it follows Fortnite's footsteps | Opinion
Pitching the new streaming service as a competitor to PlayStation is bound to failure, but there is a market that Google could cultivate and own
Kicking off the streaming wars | Opinion
GDC 2019: Industry giants have decided that the medium's future lies in streaming - but success is far from assured even for enormous players like Google and Amazon
Anthem's launch and the power of the sunk-cost fallacy | Opinion
Bioware's latest is one of the most egregiously unfinished and broken launches in many years, but these games often get free pass - for now
Is Red Dead Redemption Online tanking Take-Two's share price? | Opinion
Despite fantastic sales, Take-Two can't catch a break - perhaps because investors expected RDR2 to be something it simply isn't
Crackdown 3 shows a vision of the future | Opinion
The new Xbox title points toward the radical changes that Game Pass will bring to the industry's commercial and cultural landscape
Stubbornness over cross-play reminds us of bad old Sony | Opinion
After opening up cross-play for major titles, Sony is now dragging its feet -- putting smaller developers at a disadvantage and confusing its consumers
Fortnite alone can't explain tumbling game stocks
The industry's biggest firms have lost around 13% of their value in the past week, and many are down a third in recent months
Epic vs Steam: Exclusives raise the stakes | Opinion
Epic is Steam's first real competitor in years - with console-war style exclusive tactics being a controversial, but fair, escalation of the struggle
Talking up the positives about gaming | Opinion
Hbomberguy's wonderful charity Twitch marathon has made headlines -- let's boost these stories, instead of letting trolls and misanthropes define our medium
Changing industry economics let Bungie forge a new destiny | Opinion
The idea of a developer operating an expensive online game would once have seemed ludicrous -- Bungie's new independence shows how much has changed
Free-to-play shutdowns risk a consumer backlash in 2019 | Opinion
Aggressive closures of underperforming free-to-play games has resulted in more virtual “property” being destroyed -- a backlash is looming
The UK industry stares down a Brexit disaster
2018 in Review: There are no silver linings to Brexit for the UK industry, as uncertainty and the threat of No Deal create a difficult business climate
Epic has actually listened to developers
An attractive revenue share isn't Epic's biggest promise for its new digital store; for many creators, a platform free of Steam's often-abused community features is essential
Nintendo bets heavily on the holidays
While Sony and Microsoft have spread sales over the year, Nintendo is laser-focused on the holiday season - and this year it needs every Switch sale it can get
When does an homage become a rip-off?
Legal or not, Epic Games' uncompensated copying of other creators' dances in Fortnite has called the company's morality into question
Pokémon's strategy is cross-generational
By balancing nostalgia for parents with appeal to children, Nintendo hopes to create gaming's first cross-generational franchise
Blizzard acknowledges the mobile reality
Diablo Immortal didn't go down well at Blizzcon, but Blizzard's Asian following makes a high-profile mobile strategy a necessity, not an option
Has the VR boom hit a wall?
Enormous progress has been made in headset design and software development for VR - but without a major technological leap forward, current devices won't reach the mass market
100-hour weeks mean bad management, not passion
Rockstar may not be the hell it's been portrayed as - but we need to stop lionising long overtime and start seeing it as a shameful sign of failure
The Xbox Tanker is turning
It takes years for a console platform to win back hearts and minds, but Xbox is finally getting there; now it needs to find and promote its unique difference
Dragalia Lost is a turning point for Nintendo
After focusing on mobile games based on established IPs, Nintendo's launch of an original IP unashamedly focused on the Japanese market is a major departure
Telltale Games and the lure of the cliff edge
Disastrous studio collapses are a fixture of the industry - and that won't change until we stop celebrating the brinksmanship of executives