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Like the headline says, Happy International Women’s Day, everyone! It’s been a bit of a day and a bit of a week. We lost Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball and a hugely influential figure in media. Rooster Teeth is shutting down. Warner Bros. is doubling down on live service for reasons that escape me. But it’s Friday and I find I don’t really want to focus on any of that — except to say Rest in Peace Toriyama. Instead, I want to be more positive, focus on the holiday and talk about all the women in the games industry who’ve elevated the medium and community with their work.
I’ve had the honor of leading the Women in Gaming breakfast panels at several of GamesBeat’s events, where I’ve met some of my favorite people in the industry. Seriously, the women who’ve attended GamesBeat’s events have all been exceptional people, all of whom came to GamesBeat with open minds and ideas about gaming’s future. This includes (but by no means is limited to) women like Jen O’Neal, Catharina Mallet, Monika Madrid, Perrin Kaplan, Erica Larson, Michelle Torrey, Sarah Anderson, Shail Mehta, Namrata Gandhi, Kamini Tiwari, Jane Hoffacker and Andrea Rene. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention the awesome women I work with at VentureBeat, such as Gina Joseph, Sharon Goldman and especially my GamesBeat colleague Jordan Fragen.
And more broadly, I want to shout out the women I’ve known who changed gaming as an industry and continue to do so. Roberta Williams, Bonnie Ross, Brenda Romero, Kim Swift, Amy Hennig, Ikumi Nakamura … those are just the women I could think of off the top of my head, and there are thousands and thousands more. I also want to call out women I admire in games media, including Rebekah Valentine, Carli Velocci, Alyssa Mercante, Gita Jackson, Janet Garcia, Lucy James, Bailey Meyers and many others I don’t have enough space on GamesBeat to name.
In personal news, we’re starting to reach a point of saturation in the year when I have more games to play than I have hours available on the weekend. Is this a Balatro weekend, a Final Fantasy weekend, or a Helldivers 2 weekend? Or perhaps “an undisclosed game I must review” weekend? Either way, I feel duty-bound to check out the Princess Peach: Showtime demo, because that game is my dark hours pick for March.
What to play this week
What’s new:
- The Thaumaturge
- Unicorn Overlord
- WWE 2K24
- The Outlast Trials
- Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley
- Berserk Boy
- Expeditions: A MudRunner Game
- Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator
- Zoria: Age of Shattering
New on subscription services:
- Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun (Xbox Game Pass)
- PAW Patrol World (Xbox Game Pass)
- EA Sports F1 23 (PlayStation Plus Essential)
- Sifu (PlayStation Plus Essential)
- Hello Neighbor 2 (PlayStation Plus Essential)
- Destiny 2: Witch (PlayStation Plus Essential)
- Classified: France ‘44 (GeForce Now)
- Winter Survival (GeForce Now)
- Granblue Fantasy: Relink (GeForce Now)
- Undisputed (GeForce Now)
- Scarf (Prime Gaming)
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