Edge August 2021

Remember 2011? Not a bad 12 months for games, that. Big hitters such as Skyrim, Portal 2 and Dark Souls. Indie delights including Bastion and Frozen Synapse, plus Limbo’s arrival on PC/PS3. And not forgetting one of the year’s most singular treats, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, a pixel-art fusion of music and interactivity that felt like the arrival of an important new talent on the game-making stage. It took nine long years to find out what Superbrothers would deliver next, when Jett: The Far Shore broke cover as part of Sony’s E3 2020 showcase. And now, a year on, we’re playing the game for the first time, and talking to its developers about navigating “unexplored genre space” during the creation process. As Steven Poole notes elsewhere this issue, humankind…

Remember 2011? Not a bad 12 months for games, that. Big hitters such as Skyrim, Portal 2 and Dark Souls. Indie delights including Bastion and Frozen Synapse, plus Limbo’s arrival on PC/PS3. And not forgetting one of the year’s most singular treats, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, a pixel-art fusion of music and interactivity that felt like the arrival of an important new talent on the game-making stage. It took nine long years to find out what Superbrothers would deliver next, when Jett: The Far Shore broke cover as part of Sony’s E3 2020 showcase. And now, a year on, we’re playing the game for the first time, and talking to its developers about navigating “unexplored genre space” during the creation process. As Steven Poole notes elsewhere this issue, humankind has…

Seeing gaming concepts defined shakily in a court of law has, broadly, been a source of comedy during Apple and Epic’s trial. But the mischaracterisation of Itch.io has made for difficult listening. The indie storefront was welcomed into the Epic Store as an app earlier this year, a fact Apple has sought to weaponise, suggesting that the presence of alternative app stores on iOS would open the door to depravity. The “so-called adult games” on Itch.io are, Apple claimed, “so offensive we cannot speak about them here.” It’s true that Itch.io has different moderation standards to both the App Store and Epic Store - but that’s precisely the quality that makes it a haven for marginalised developers. Apple’s own squeamishness about creative expression is one solid argument against its stranglehold…

According to Steve Jobs’ authorised biography – the same adapted for the screen by Aaron Sorkin – the co-founder of Apple came up with the company’s name on the way home from an orchard, a pilgrimage during “one of [his] fruitarian diets”. But in 2021, it’s hard not to think of a more Biblical connection, involving the fruit of a certain walled garden. After all, the tech giant has for decades presided over a closed ecosystem that it controls completely. Now that garden is under siege, attacked by powerful companies tired of paying Apple for the privilege of selling their products on iOS devices. We’d call it a tithe, were it not for the fact that a tithe is a ten per cent tax – Apple famously asks for 30…

According to Steve Jobs’ authorised biography – the same adapted for the screen by Aaron Sorkin – the co-founder of Apple came up with the company’s name on the way home from an orchard, a pilgrimage during “one of [his] fruitarian diets”. But in 2021, it’s hard not to think of a more Biblical connection, involving the fruit of a certain walled garden. After all, the tech giant has for decades presided over a closed ecosystem that it controls completely. Now that garden is under siege, attacked by powerful companies tired of paying Apple for the privilege of selling their products on iOS devices. We’d call it a tithe, were it not for the fact that a tithe is a ten per cent tax – Apple famously asks for 30…

Longo leaving his role as Halo Infinite’s creative director grabbed headlines in 2019. So how does it feel to watch the game’s gradual unveiling from the outside? “It’s a bummer to not be a part of it, but I’m excited for them.” He says he can see “a lot of the glimmers of hope I always had about that project” in the footage that’s been released since his departure. “They have a lot of challenges, and it’s been a rough road - and I was there for a lot of that - but it’s a good team, and I still believe in the vision.”…