Evening Reading - May 2, 2025 (Support independent games media)

Hello, Shacknews. It's been a week filled with ups and a lot of downs. Let's close this week out with another round of news, memes, and entertainment. This is the Friday edition of Evening Reading.

Around the Gaming Horn

Here's some rapid-fire news to wrap up your week.

"I am summoning you" Join us Tuesday, May 6 at 9 AM PT as we reveal The Edge of Fate and the upcoming year of Destiny 2. 💜 twitch.tv/bungie ❤️ youtube.com/@destinythegame/streams 🖤 tiktok.com/@Destinythegame

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— Destiny 2 (@destinythegame.bungie.net) May 2, 2025 at 6:00 AM

A reminder that a first look at Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate is coming next week.

Here's a 10-minute primer to get you ready for Elden Ring Nightreign.

The Star Wars festivities go beyond the core Fortnite game. Check out what you can see in LEGO Fortnite.

Here's another quickie lore drop for the upcoming Tron: Catalyst.

And here's a look at what to look for in the Stellaris 4.0 update.

And now... Other Stuff From The Internet!!!

Today in Bubbletron

Be sure to play Bubbletron today!

Support independent media

I can't really add anything more to what's already been said better and more eloquently by my peers in the media space. I won't mince words. This has been a dire week for the voices in our industry and for the people who love video games and share that love through what they do. Whether you followed the features and investigative work of Polygon or the fun and unique personality-driven presentation of Giant Bomb, this is a week for mourning, because wealthy ownership set forth to snuff out these voices. They did so out of ignorance of what they had at best and a more malicious targeted directive at worst. This beautiful industry that allows us to talk about video games and share our love for them is in a worse state this week because of these actions.

There's a very small silver lining and that's that those of us who remain are using whatever reach and influence we have to prop up those independent voices in gaming media that remain. You might see our faces or you might not ever see our faces, because we might just be content to express ourselves through the written word. Still, we are all independent outlets. We are the ones who are not corporately owned. We aren't backed by big money. We're living in an environment where we take less to share what we love with you, the reader, the viewer, the whatever-you-may be.

So with all that said, these are a few posts highlighting the independent gaming outlets that are out there. Because they don't have that big money machine backing them, they need your support. We all provide different perspectives. We're not all the same. You're going to see varying perspectives across sites like Aftermath, RPG Site, But Why Tho, Gematsu, and many others. Take a look at this BlueSky starter pack and at the big list compiled by Six One Indie. Don't do it because the new voices you follow may necessarily become the next titans of the industry, but do it because they're just like you. They're somebody who loves video games and they make sacrifices (yes, it's true, none of us here are making six-figure CEO money) to share that love with you.

In response to the Polygon and Giant Bomb news, I created an indie and worker-owned games media starter pack. I’ll keep adding to it, so suggestions and recommendations are greatly appreciated. Please share!

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— Aidan Moher (@aidanis.fun) May 1, 2025 at 4:29 PM

Support independent games media. This page will be regularly updated, so please let us know if we're missing anyone. 🔗 www.sixoneindie.com/indie-games-...

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— Six One Indie (@sixoneindie.com) May 1, 2025 at 10:52 AM

oh god yeah, we're trying to do something different publish what we want, when we want, and offer professional editing and feedback for anyone who wants to do the same

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— Lucas White (@hokutolucas.bsky.social) May 1, 2025 at 2:49 PM

In that spirit, we'd also like to formally applaud and root on our friends at Skybox. Lucas, Will, and Brian have been big supporters and contributors for us here at Shacknews. You've more than likely read their work here. They're wonderful, hard-working people with unique voices and perspectives. We wish them the absolute best in this endeavor, and we look forward to what they've got coming down the road.

And as long as we're recognizing Shacknews contributors, I would be remiss not to mention Timo Reinecke among them. Timo is retiring from the business to pursue new endeavors. I won't embed his post since he's planning to nuke his whole account sky high soon and it won't be available. But Timo, thank you for everything you have done here and we wish you the best of luck doing whatever you do next.

And, finally, welcome to all of our new followers on BlueSky. We promise we won't let you down.

Nothing but the Hotfix

We've got Bungie on the brain, so here are some runs for Marathon and Destiny 2.

GDQ's Hotfix shows air every week and you can catch them all at the Games Done Quick Twitch account.

This week in Shaqnews (and Chucknews)

The Lakers have Gone Fishing and you knew the Inside the NBA crew was going to be all over that.

IT'S STILL REAL TO ME, DAMMIT!

This was not a very happy birthday for Joe Hendry.

Tonight in video game music

Jonny Atma's back with another medley, his second one for the Game Boy Advance.

That's it for the first Friday Evening Reading for May! Be sure to keep the spirit of the classic Evening Reading alive by jumping into the comments about whatever you see here or whatever randomness you'd like to discuss. Join the conversation and dive into the Shacknews Chatty comment thread below. If you want to go new school and find different ways to leave your feedback or talk about whatever, join us in the Official Shacknews Community Discord. I'll see you all next week!

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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