Stardew Valley Gets What it Deserves!

This week on Video Game Tango, we make a compliment sandwich!

We started this episode determined to avoid the usual doom and gloom of gaming news - no more weekly updates about layoffs, studio closures, and rising costs. If people want that depressing stuff, they can find it anywhere. Instead, we focused on some actual good news for once.

First, we celebrated Stardew Valley officially becoming the highest rated game on Steam, finally beating Portal 2's 14-year streak. I talked about my personal addiction to the game - how I've put over a thousand hours into it, keep discovering new things even now, and how it's become my go-to example of a perfect passion project. ConcernedApe just keeps giving us free updates for a game that's nearly a decade old.

Then we had to address Ubisoft's latest round of layoffs, because it's getting ridiculous. They just got a $1.25 billion cash infusion from Tencent, but are still cutting 40 jobs? From teams working on Tom Clancy games no less? It's corporate greed at its most transparent, especially when you see them pumping out safe, uninspired games like Star Wars Outlaws.

Finally, we ended on some genuinely good news - SAG-AFTRA finally secured a great deal for game voice actors after nearly a year of striking. Real protections against AI, better pay, and control over their digital likenesses. In an industry that seems determined to replace humans with algorithms, it's refreshing to see workers actually win one for a change.