The gaming industry has always had to navigate through the confines of its own precarious existence, but despite the sheer financial generosity that is thrown its way each and every year, mixups do happen - mostly at the detriment to the consumer. Some are damaging, but others are just plain embarrassing - case in point; Sony's recent misguided attempt to trademark the phrase 'Let's Play'. This application was only recently denied, but it's only the latest in a long line of them that not only have Sony been party to, but the entire industry as well. Everything from failed press conferences to woeful opening launches have reminded gamers of just how weirdly experimental and disastrous the industry can be, and as it attempts to find more creative ways to get people to cough up their cash, skepticism and ridicule are really the only reactions it can provoke - especially when botched releases and excessive DLC ends up becoming the market's norm. These instances of oddball industry strategies have only gotten more frequent in recent years, as the onus is on developers, publishers and companies to make further advancements with both their hardware and software in an ever-expanding market. Bigger risks are being taken, but whether or not they're beneficial for the industry to learn and thrive is an entirely different matter altogether.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
