Keith Stuart
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Author of Boy Made of Blocks, Frequency of Us, Love is a Curse. Video games correspondent for The Guardian. I'M NOT HERE ANYMORE - GET ME ON BLUESKY!
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Articles by Keith Stuart
Ready player one? Why the games arcade is having a rebirth
Classic … video game arcades are finding new audiences. Photograph: Andrew Cline/Alamy There’s an important semi-nostalgic movement happening in games, and I’m excited about where it’s heading. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself here.
Ready player one? Why the games arcade is having a rebirth
There’s an important semi-nostalgic movement happening in games, and I’m excited about where it’s heading. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself here. Over the last five years, major publishers, obsessed with the success of “forever games” such as Fortnite, Minecraft and Roblox, have been throwing hundreds of millions of dollars into their own sprawling, endlessly updating, battle-pass-infested mega franchises – each designed to take all our time and money.
Silver Pines review – a stylish, neo-noir detective drama
A game to sit back and wallow in … Silver Pines. Photograph: Wych Elm Games, Team 17 In a weird deserted town miles from anywhere, a troubled detective searches for a missing musician and the girl he may or may not have murdered. It could be a Silent Hill game or a lost David Lynch movie from the 1990s – in fact, it’s neither. And also both. If that whets your appetite, stick around, there’s plenty more to come.
Silver Pines review – a stylish, neo-noir detective drama Original
A game to sit back and wallow in … Silver Pines.Photograph: Wych Elm Games, Team 17 In a weird deserted town miles from anywhere, a troubled detective searches for a missing musician and the girl he may or may not have murdered. It could be a Silent Hill game or a lost David Lynch movie from the 1990s – in fact, it's neither. And also both. If that whets your appetite, stick around, there's plenty more to come.
How Zach Cregger's Resident Evil stands out from all other game adaptations
I've been surprised by the number of Resident Evil fans complaining on social media about Zach Cregger's cinematic adaptation of the survival horror series. “It's not a real Resident Evil movie,” they've claimed. Were we watching the same film? Certainly, it doesn't feature any of the familiar heroes – there's no Leon, no Claire, no Ada Wong – and there's a distinct lack of recognisable antagonists and well-known locations.
Marvel’s Wolverine review – a gloriously conflicted lead is let down by crude, boring battling
It was always going to be difficult to follow Spider-Man. Insomniac’s three games based around the web-slinger are masterpieces of superhero wish fulfilment, allowing you to swoop above a depiction of Manhattan alive with graffiti artists, roving journalists and gun-toting gangsters. If anyone should be up to the task, it’s Wolverine. A beloved Marvel stalwart, his life much darker and bloodier than Peter Parker’s, he seems the ideal protagonist for a moody action adventure.
Grand Theft Auto VI is a phenomenon – but there is much more to the gaming world
Predictably, the Grand Theft Auto VI “extended look” which premiered on Netflix last weekwas a success for all involved. The 30-minute preview scorched to No 1 on the viewing chart and even brought the site down for a few minutes as millions of gamers tried to watch what was, effectively, a very long teaser trailer. According to data collated by Eurogamer, more than 9,000 Twitch streamers covered the show leading to 5,227,798 hours of viewing there alone.
Grand Theft Auto VI is a phenomenon – but there is much more to the gaming world
Predictably, the Grand Theft Auto VI "extended look" which premiered on Netflix last week was a success for all involved. The 30-minute preview scorched to No 1 on the viewing chart and even brought the site down for a few minutes as millions of gamers tried to watch what was, effectively, a very long teaser trailer. According to data collated by Eurogamer, more than 9,000 Twitch streamers covered the show leading to 5,227,798 hours of viewing there alone.
‘I feel like I'm grieving': Staff on the devastating fallout of widespread layoffs at Xbox
On the morning of 6 July, an email went out from Asha Sharma, the chief executive of Xbox, to all of the division's employees around the world. Under the headline “ Resetting Xbox ”, it announced the most significant restructuring in the history of Microsoft's console business: 3,200 staff would be laid off throughout the financial year to 2027, and 1,600 of those roles would be eliminated immediately. An hour later, at studios throughout company, the Teams meeting invites started arriving.
Gems, ghosts and GTA VI: the biggest video games for autumn 2026
Mon, August 31, 2026 at 4:00 AM UTC Work to be done … There Are No Ghosts at the Grand and GTA VI.Composite: Guardian Design/Friday Sundae/Rockstar Games default After 20 years away, Capcom’s hyper kinetic action adventure returns, pitting skilled samurai Miyamoto Musashi against hordes of warriors and demons in Edo-period Kyoto. Master the complex combat then prepare for flashing blades, disembodied limbs and geysers of spraying blood.
Grand Theft Auto VI's long-overdue gameplay reveal – as it happened
LIVE – Updated at 21:01 Under some strange circumstances, Rockstar broadcast the first (official) gameplay footage of Grand Theft Auto VI, the most-anticipated game of the year. Here's everything you need to know. As a Miami Vice fan of olde, all I really want to do in this game is drive a black Ferrari Daytona Spyder along an endless highway while In the Air Tonight plays on the car radio. If it can deliver that, it might have to be instant five stars.
Trainwatch – alone with your thoughts on a railway line to nowhere
Lonely jobs have provided excellent material for independent video games over the years. From Papers, Please to Firewatch to The Stanley Parable, players have been happy to spend hours dwelling in depressing cubicles or rural hideaways, usually because there is an intriguingly hidden point to it all. In Trainwatch, a character named Troy has taken a seemingly godforsaken job as a railway worker in an unnamed desolate backwater.
With the end of physical media in sight, gamers have had enough
Gamers want ownership and that might mean going old school.Photograph: Sabrina Bracher/Getty Images At the time of press, there is a well-publicised protest taking place in the video games community. PlayStation 5 owners are being encouraged to log off from their consoles between 23 and 30 August – no playing games, no downloading new titles. The motivating factor is Sony's decision to cease physical game disc production from January 2028.
With the end of physical media in sight, gamers have had enough
At the time of press, there is a well-publicised protest taking place in the video games community. PlayStation 5 owners are being encouraged to log off from their consoles between 23 and 30 August – no playing games, no downloading new titles. The motivating factor is Sony’s decision to cease physical game disc production from January 2028. After that, games will only be released as digital products.
With the end of physical media in sight, gamers have had enough
Gamers want ownership and that might mean going old school.Photograph: Sabrina Bracher/Getty Images At the time of press, there is a well-publicised protest taking place in the video games community. PlayStation 5 owners are being encouraged to log off from their consoles between 23 and 30 August – no playing games, no downloading new titles. The motivating factor is Sony's decision to cease physical game disc production from January 2028.
‘A cognitive cacophony’: hands-on with the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 beta test
There’s a lot riding on this year’s Call of Duty, the inescapable first-person shootfest that’s been lobbing a grenade into the autumn release schedule since 2003. Previous instalment, Black Ops 7, performed poorly compared to previous titles, forcing Activision to post a semi-apology to fans. And that’s not the only challenge Modern Warfare 4 is facing: there’s a new indie shooter, Wardogs, promising a feel somewhere between classic CoD and Classic Battlefield.
Will the future of gaming be powered by upstart indie developers?
During the 1990s, a new strata of independent film studios and distributors revitalised the Hollywood movie machine. The likes of Miramax, New Line Cinema and October Films challenged the ageing behemoths of the industry and pushed forward offbeat directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Darren Aronofsky and Jane Campion. The decade is widely considered an artistic high point for western cinema after the bloated mainstream excesses of the 1980s. Could something similar now be happening in games?
‘The ultimate gamers’ mascot’: Sonic the Hedgehog at 35 – from 2D to 3D to a billion-dollar film franchise
One day in the early 1990s, I came home from university for the weekend and discovered that my dad had bought himself a Sega Mega Drive, bundled with a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. I knew about Sega’s mascot of course. The launch of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game in 1991 was a landmark moment for the company, massively boosting the sales of its 16bit console in the west, ripping market share from the dominant Super Nintendo.
The games industry’s obsession with visual fidelity is costing them money and talent
Last week, Asha Sharma, the new head of Xbox, laid out her vision for the future of the console and interestingly, the two titles she picked out as potential areas of growth were Minecraft and Candy Crush Saga – games that don't exactly scream next-generation entertainment. Neither relies on hyper-realistic visuals, which is the north star that games consoles and gaming PCs have been aiming at for the past 40 years.
The games industry’s obsession with visual fidelity is costing them money and talent
Last week, Asha Sharma, the new head of Xbox, laid out her vision for the future of the console and interestingly, the two titles she picked out as potential areas of growth were Minecraft and Candy Crush Saga – games that don’t exactly scream next-generation entertainment. Neither relies on hyper-realistic visuals, which is the north star that games consoles and gaming PCs have been aiming at for the past 40 years.
‘A universal human story’: Clean Start’s thought-provoking tidying sim tells immigrant’s tale
The cosy house-sorting sim has become a much-loved staple of the PC indie scene. Titles such as Unpacking, A Little to the Left and Momento charm players with their detailed interiors and quiet narratives of lives lived and shared within the same four walls.
SingStar Take That anyone? The strange joy of charity shop video games
As an eternally optimistic charity shop fan, I hold on to the fantasy that one day I’ll walk into my local Oxfam and find a pristine copy of the Sega Saturn shooter Burning Rangers for £1.50. Or perhaps a box full of old Neo Geo carts for a quid each. Sadly, this is now unlikely. Charity shops have caught on to the fact that old video games – like old vinyl albums – are highly collectible, and so they’re putting the good stuff on eBay.
A Line Held Tight – miners, mechs and mismanagement on a distant planet
It is rare for video games to feature industrial action as a key theme, but it does happen. There’s the shady Dockworker’s Union in Disco Elysium and the Orbital Workers Union in space adventure Tacoma; then there is Lynx, the evil union-bashing corp in Hardspace: Shipbreaker. Soon we can add A Line Held Tight, a visual novel that puts workers’ rights – and workers’ lives – at the very centre of the narrative.
Silent Hill Townfall: the series is coming to Scotland, but what fresh horrors will it bring?
Foggy notions … Silent Hill: Townfall Photograph: Konami, Annapurna Interactive, Screen Burn/PR A man washes up at the harbour of a small coastal village, his memories vague, an eerie sea fog rolling in all around him. As beginnings go, this couldn’t be more Silent Hill – an amnesiac loner drawn to a remote town for who knows what reason. But this time, we’re not in the Pacific Northwest of the original games or the Japan of last year’s excellent Silent Hill f.
After 40 years, Aliens is still shaping the way video games are made
It is difficult to believe that James Cameron’s Aliens was released into cinemas 40 years ago. The seminal space shooter took the original Alien – a tense slasher film with a tiny cast and one monster – and transformed it into an intergalactic war movie crammed with wry one-liners, massive guns and an actual boss battle finale.
How Pokémon Go encouraged me to find wonder in the world
Surely we've caught them all? … Pokémon Go celebrates its tenth birthday.Photograph: Eduardo Muñoz/Reuters Believe it or not, Pokémon Go is 10 years old this month. The wildly successful smartphone game, which allows you to track down lovable creatures in the real world using GPS and augmented-reality technologies, has reportedly been downloaded 800m times across 150 countries and regions.
How Pokémon Go encouraged me to find wonder in the world
Surely we’ve caught them all? … Pokémon Go celebrates its tenth birthday.Photograph: Eduardo Muñoz/Reuters Believe it or not, Pokémon Go is 10 years old this month. The wildly successful smartphone game, which allows you to track down lovable creatures in the real world using GPS and augmented-reality technologies, has reportedly been downloaded 800m times across 150 countries and regions.
Zombies, gore and creepy kids – why we can’t stop playing horror games
Horror is so hot right now. There’s Obsession, Evil Dead Burn and Hokum in the cinema, Widow’s Bay, From and Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen on TV, and, of course, a rotting smorgasbord of horror games including Resident Evil Requiem (pictured top) and Reanimal, soon to be joined by Silent Hill: Townfall, Silver Pines and Dreadmoor.
PlayStation says it will stop making physical games – and that should worry us all
Sony's decision last week to quietly announce the end of physical games production for the PlayStation in 2028 is one of the most perfect PR disasters in recent gaming history – and considering what has been happening with Xbox , that's saying something. First, there was the timing.
No console-flation: how the thirst for AI chips is sending games console prices soaring
Unpopular … people protest the opening of AI data centres in Vancouver, Canada.Photograph: Canadian Press/Shutterstock It was once a truth universally acknowledged that an ageing console in possession of good revenue must be in line for a price reduction. Those days may be over. In March, Sony announced a price increase of £90 for the PS5, while last month Microsoft informed gamers that it would be charging at least £75 more for the Xbox Series S and X consoles from August.
No console-flation: how the thirst for AI chips is sending games console prices soaring
Unpopular … people protest the opening of AI data centres in Vancouver, Canada.Photograph: Canadian Press/Shutterstock It was once a truth universally acknowledged that an ageing console in possession of good revenue must be in line for a price reduction. Those days may be over. In March, Sony announced a price increase of £90 for the PS5, while last month Microsoft informed gamers that it would be charging at least £75 more for the Xbox Series S and X consoles from August.
Grand Theft Auto VI pre-orders open, but don’t expect a physical copy
It is, quite simply, the most anticipated piece of entertainment since the Star Wars prequels and now, at last, you can reserve a copy. At midnight last night, Rockstar opened preorders on Grand Theft Auto VI, the latest title in the epic open-world gangster adventure series, five months before its 19 November release date on PS5 and Xbox Series S/X. Prices have also been confirmed, with the standard edition costing $80 in the US, £70 in the UK, and €80 in Europe.
The history of brilliantly terrible World Cup video games
I come with a warning to all football fans: if you've been enjoying the World Cup enough to think, “I'd like to re-enact this on a football video game”, do not go to Netflix and play Fifa World Cup: Launch Edition, the officially licensed game of the tournament, which streams via your smart TV or computer.
Fears for Xbox as it puts its developers on the chopping block once again
Wed, 17 June 2026 at 2:00 pm UTC Xbox.Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Shutterstock In March 2000, Bill Gates stood onstage at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and, to a packed crowd, officially announced the company's long-anticipated video game console.
Fears for Xbox as it puts its developers on the chopping block once again
In March 2000, Bill Gates stood onstage at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and, to a packed crowd, officially announced the company’s long-anticipated video game console. “We want Xbox to be the platform of choice for the best and most creative game developers in the world,” he told attenders – and that was indeed the intention of the small, dedicated team who put together the blueprints of that first machine. The Xbox landscape seems very different 25 years later.
‘Streaming gave me a space to be myself’: Twitch creators on what it’s like to grow up on the platform
Visitors attend TwitchCon in Rotterdam. Photograph: Lina Selg/AFP/Getty Images Aimee Davies, better known as Aimsey to their fans, is 24 but looks much younger. Sitting in a bland meeting room above the annual TwitchCon event in Rotterdam, they’re a barely contained whirl of energy in a beanie hat and T-shirt, all smiles and lightning-fast chatter. Aimsey (who uses they/them pronouns) is also a Twitch veteran, having started streaming eight years ago at the tender age of 16.
‘Streaming gave me a space to be myself’: Twitch creators on what it’s like to grow up on the platform
Aimee Davies, better known as Aimsey to their fans, is 24 but looks much younger. Sitting in a bland meeting room above the annual TwitchCon event in Rotterdam, they're a barely contained whirl of energy in a beanie hat and T-shirt, all smiles and lightning-fast chatter. Aimsey (who uses they/them pronouns) is also a Twitch veteran, having started streaming eight years ago at the tender age of 16.
‘Streaming gave me a space to be myself’: Twitch creators on what it’s like to grow up on the platform
Visitors attend TwitchCon in Rotterdam.Photograph: Lina Selg/AFP/Getty Images · Photograph: Lina Selg/AFP/Getty Images Aimee Davies, better known as Aimsey to their fans, is 24 but looks much younger. Sitting in a bland meeting room above the annual TwitchCon event in Rotterdam, they’re a barely contained whirl of energy in a beanie hat and T-shirt, all smiles and lightning-fast chatter.
The best games of 2026 so far
Thu, 11 June 2026 at 9:00 am UTC Engrossing ... Resident Evil: Requiem and Pragmata. Composite: Guardian Design/Capcom default Bond sets out to earn his licence to kill in IO Interactive's hugely enjoyable retelling of the agent's early years. Mixing the stealth and open environments of Hitman with the narrative drive of the Uncharted games, there are fistfights, cool cars and hi-tech gadgets aplenty. Read the full review.
Forza Horizon 6 review – classic open world racing sim roars beautifully into Japan
Peak experience … Forza Horizon 6. Photograph: Microsoft The Forza Horizon games have always been about drama. Not just the tension and excitement of racing, but also the sensory impact of the natural environment – the sun rising over a dense city, rain clouds hovering above a valley floor.
Driving sims were once all the rage - will Forza Horizon 6 get them back on track?
I have spent the last week careening around Japan in a Porsche 911, seeing the sights, racing other cars and occasionally veering off the road to plummet through an ancient bamboo forest. You all know what’s coming next … this wasn’t in real life, folks – it was in Forza Horizon 6, the latest instalment in Microsoft’s series of open world driving games set in authentic-looking, real-world locations.
Driving sims were once all the rage – will Forza Horizon 6 get them back on track?
Wed, 20 May 2026 at 2:00 pm UTC All revved up … Forza Horizon 6.Illustration: Playground Games I have spent the last week careening around Japan in a Porsche 911, seeing the sights, racing other cars and occasionally veering off the road to plummet through an ancient bamboo forest. You all know what’s coming next … this wasn’t in real life, folks – it was in Forza Horizon 6, the latest instalment in Microsoft’s series of open world driving games set in authentic-looking, real-world locations.
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