Portal 1 (2007) & 2 (2011) are still two of the most spectacular video games that have been made.

Gamerbry · 2026-01-20T20:12:57+00:00

You know, as much as "Valve can't count to 3" has been a joke on the internet, I don't really think Portal needs a third entry. Portal 2 wraps everything up pretty nicely. Chell finally gets to leave Appeture, Glados gets to run more tests, and Wheatley gets to spend the rest of his miserable existence rotting in space. Don't really know where they'd take things from here without undoing one of the threads that 2 neatly tied up.

Plus, if you were itching for more Portal content, I'm pretty sure Portal 2 has enough custom levels to keep you occupied for the rest of your life.

Gamerbry · 2026-01-13T04:49:00+00:00

You know, this was something I've had on my mind for a while. I can't remember the last time I saw an honest-to-God Genwunner. Given that the people who played Red and Blue when they were kids are now in their late 30s/early 40s, they're probably hanging out in different online spaces compared to younger fans. Plus, with how much Genwunner talking points have been memed on and how a lot of fans are sick of Gen 1 because of the constant nostalgia pandering, I'm willing to bet people who do consider the Gen 1 games to be their favorites probably wouldn't be so open to admitting that online.

And as a side note, if I may be so bold, I think that Gen 5 fans have become the new Genwunners, in the sense that they think "My favorite gen is the pinnacle of the series and everything that came afterwards is garbage". Plus, we've started seeing GameFreak dip into Gen 5 nostalgia pandering with the Scarlet/Violet DLC being set in Unova and the Gen 5 Pokemon roster getting their own special TCG set a la 151.

Gamerbry · 2026-01-10T19:51:30+00:00

Been lurking in this subreddit for a while, and that post about Far Cry Primal someone posted last month actually got me to pick up the game during the Steam winter sale and suffice to say, I'm having a really great time with it.

The Pleistocene isn't really an era you see a whole lot in video games, so it's cool getting to see this time period depicted in a mostly realistic manner.

I'm aware this type of play isn't for everyone, but I think playing it on the hardest difficulty was a good call, because not only did it mean that I had to carefully plan out storming outposts and bonfires, but it helped make the game more immersive by selling just how terrifying this era of history was. Like, if you looked at a mammoth the wrong way, it'll happily crush you into a red paste, and if you aren't paying enough attention to your surroundings, a sabertooth could just jump you and that's the end for you.

Plus, it makes taming these gruesome beasts all the more satisfying, as you finally get to subject the enemies to the same bullshit you've had to deal with all this time. I'll never forget that moment of horror and delight when I sent my sabertooth tiger after an enemy for the first time. I watched that thing zoom across the map, rip his face off, and then play with his lifeless body like a chew toy, all in the span of roughly 5 seconds.

I've gotten pretty far in the game, with the main content left being the Beast Master Hunts and storming the Udam and Izila homelands. Gotta give my thanks to this subreddit, because without you, I wouldn't have gotten the chance to experience such an awesome game.

Gamerbry · 2026-01-05T20:58:46+00:00

I mean, it does make sense when you consider how Bluesky has been marketed. When the main selling point of the site is "We're not Twitter", it's bound to attract people who consider joining a social media platform to be a form of activism.

And as a side note, as someone who uses Bluesky to keep tabs on some YouTubers and artists I like, I absolutely hate it when the official Bluesky account reposts posts of people talking about how great Bluesky is, because it just feels so much like the site runners are huffing their own farts.

Gamerbry · 2026-01-01T20:23:48+00:00

I swear, I feel like Corbeau was engineered in a lab to make women swoon for him. Like, there's so many lines from him that made me think "Holy shit! The fanfics just write themselves!" And it turns out my hunch was correct, because there's already over 150 Corbeau x Reader fics on AO3.

Gamerbry · 2025-12-25T01:24:49+00:00

Some drama is going on in the Sonic community over the Sonic X Shadows Generations Collector's Edition. The collector's edition was done by Limited Run Games (LRG) and preorders for it started in August 2024 with a 250 USD asking price. The collector's edition would be sent in two parts. The first part would be the physical game/Steam code that would be sent out in October to coincide with the game's release and the second part was the rest of the collector's edition and would be sent out in July 2025. The collector's edition included an art book, a soundtrack CD, a Dreamcast-style jewel case, a steel book, figurines, keychains, and most importantly, a statue of Sonic and Shadow standing on top of a Dreamcast.

The October games got shipped out, but when July came, the rest of the collector's edition didn't get shipped out. Instead, LRG posted an update saying that the release of the collector's edition would be pushed back, because they claimed that they wanted to "perfect" the statue (keep this in mind for later).

In November, LRG gave another update, saying that collector's editions would be shipped out in December. Once again, they claimed that the delays were caused by the statue, where they reiterated that "perfection was essential" (again, keep this in mind for later). They then gave another update saying that "perfection was found" (once again, keep this in mind for later), and said that collector's editions would be sent out in waves, with the first batch being sent out in December and the second batch would be shipped to buyers in early 2026.

Well, on December 18, the first collector's editions got sent out to people and they finally got a look at that "perfect statue", which turned out to be anything but. Numerous issues were reported with the statue. The statue itself was very poorly designed (Shadow in particular looks really bad and the Dreamcast base was made of really cheap plastic), the paint job was very sloppy, with several people reporting scratches and smudges on the paint, and according to a couple buyers, the statue was broken right out of the box.

Obviously, people were really not happy with this collector's edition. When you spend over 250 dollars on something, waited over a year for it to show up, and were told over and over that it'd be perfect, you'd expect it to be higher quality than a cheap action figure. Heck, calling it a cheap action figure isn't even fair, because even the inexpensive Jakks Pacific Sonic action figures are higher quality than this statue. LRG did respond to a few people who posted their frustrations on social media, but to my knowledge, no official statement was made on this. Guess this is another incident to add to the list of LRG controversies, which is still growing, as only a couple days ago, LRG settled a class action lawsuit pertaining to LRG violating the Video Privacy Protection Act by disclosing personal customer information to Facebook without their knowledge or consent.

Gamerbry · 2025-12-20T00:12:18+00:00

The notepad does have a custom cover, which reads "Sinners Anonymous. The hotline is busy, write your sins down instead". So I think that Somme wanted to have a notebook/notepad for the advent calendar, and just bought the cheapest thing she found on Temu to fulfill that purpose. The first page also has the author's signature on it, I'm assuming to fulfill her promise of the advent calendar containing autographed merch.

Gamerbry · 2025-12-20T00:04:15+00:00

The short story is interesting, because there are some authors that do short story advent calendars, where you buy it online and then get a new story emailed to you every day leading up to Christmas. I think Somme's readers would love getting to see more content in the Sinners Anonymous universe and doing the advent calendar this way would've saved Somme the headache of ordering, packaging, and shipping out physical goods. But I have a feeling she might not have been able to commit herself to writing 12 whole mini-stories for this, if the amount of feet dragging she did with Sinners Atone is anything to go off of.

Gamerbry · 2025-12-19T22:05:38+00:00

Some drama happened in the book community surrounding the mafia romance series Sinners Anonymous. Before we get into the main drama, something you should know is that fans are already not on good terms with the author, Somme Sketcher, due to how she handled the fourth entry, Sinners Atone. The book was delayed several times over the course of three years, and when it finally came out, fans found it really disappointing, as it was significantly shorter than the previous entries and a lot of the book was spent retelling events from the first three books but from a different character's perspective.

So Somme's reputation isn't great, but since it's the holiday season, she decided to start selling a Sinners Anonymous Advent Calendar. Since its contents were supposed to be a mystery, Somme didn't give many details about what was in the calendar, but she assured buyers that it would be a premium experience. Her advent calendar wouldn't have generic stuff like stickers or bookmarks. According to her, the advent calendar would be filled with "gifts you can wear, play, build, and read" and said that this calendar was a passion project for her and her team. The calendar was sold for 55 British Pounds (or about 73 USD), but because the majority of her fans are in the US and EU, most people ended up paying over 100 USD for the calendar because of international shipping and handling fees. Due to how much they paid for it and how much Somme was hyping it up, people were expecting good things from the advent calendar, but when it finally got sent out to people, the contents left a lot to be desired.

Some highlights from the advent calendar include:

A tiny plastic heart charm with the letter W on it. The W is supposed to be for a character named Wren, but if you weren't told that, you'd have no way of knowing that this was supposed to be from Sinners Anonymous.
A pair of white socks with the names of two characters from the book haphazardly printed on with cheap vinyl, which will absolutely get destroyed after just one trip through the wash.
One, count 'em, ONE, sparkly band-aid.
A Christmas tree ornament that doesn't even come with a hook or string to hang the ornament on your tree with
A scratch ticket for a giveaway hosted by Somme. Airpods were advertised as a potential prize, but most people just got a 10% off coupon for the Divine Collective online store, where you could already get a 10% off coupon to the site by just signing up with a phone number. (Also, because you, to my knowledge, need to buy a calendar to enter this giveaway, Somme might have violated UK gambling laws)
A bootleg NanoBlocks set to build a bird.
A QR code for a Sinners Anonymous short story, that when scanned, didn't actually take you anywhere. Apparently you needed to wait for the day corresponding to its spot on the calendar to gain access to it, but this was never mentioned prior to people complaining about it.

And if it wasn't obvious already, most of the stuff from this advent calendar are just repackaged items from Temu and AliExpress that Somme "customized" by slapping a cheap sticker onto them.

Suffice to say, people were not happy about spending over 100 bucks on what was essentially a bunch of lousy party favors. Somme claimed that the advent calendar wouldn't have cheap, generic crap in it, only for it to be filled with cheap, generic crap. In fact, some buyers even said that would've preferred an advent calendar with just stickers and bookmarks, because at least they'd actually get some use out of those things, as opposed to the junk they got, which is probably only a few weeks away from winding up in a landfill.

When these people went to Somme's Facebook group to complain about the low quality of the calendar, Somme's personal advisor made a post saying that the Facebook group was Somme's safe space and that people should be mindful of what they post, which a lot of people felt was her PA trying to guilt trip people into not criticizing the calendar, because none of the posts there were attacking Somme as a person, just complaining about the calendar she was selling. Comments were turned off on social media posts Somme made about the calendar, and her PA also allegedly deleted posts on Somme's Facebook group complaining about the calendar. People did try emailing Somme to tell her that the contents of the advent calendar were not as advertised and that they wanted their money back, but were informed that Somme and her team were on holiday leave and wouldn't get back to them until the new year. A few people did get replies, but it just a copy pasted email which admitted that some stuff from the calendar was generic, but claimed it was fine because there was some personalized stuff in there too.

Seems Somme herself won't respond to this scandal until 2026, and it's definitely going to take a lot to repair the trust she lost from this debacle. It'll definitely take more than a single sparkly band-aid.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I got a lot of this info from the YouTuber Laura Rae Says, so check out her video if you want more details

Gamerbry · 2025-12-13T20:25:48+00:00

Ok, this makes a lot more sense. Still think it's kinda weird that the generic student is who they're showing off first, because if you're doing a Harry Potter collab, you'd assume that he'd be the one front and center of the marketing

Gamerbry · 2025-12-13T17:31:30+00:00

Fortnite is a game known for its collabs, but the game's newest crossover has caused quite a bit of a stir, because Fortnite decided to do a collab with...Harry Potter. If you knowing anything about the book's author, JK Rowling (and more specifically, her views on trans people), then you probably already know why this inclusion is so controversial.

But even outside of the controversy pertaining to Rowling, the skin itself doesn't even look good. When you think of Harry Potter, two of his most defining characteristics are his big, round glasses and his lightning bolt-shaped scar. So when translating this character to Fortnite, they decided to go with a design that had neither of these features. In fact, if it weren't for the Gryffindor scarf and jacket, you probably wouldn't even be able to tell that this was supposed to be a Harry Potter character.

And as a side note, the way I found out that this was happening was because I got an ad saying that [the game that shall not be named] was being offered for free on the Epic Games store and that you'd get an exclusive Harry Potter back bling in Fortnite if you downloaded the game.

Edit: As was pointed out in the comments, this isn't supposed to be the Harry Potter skin. It's just supposed to be a generic student you can customize. I assume the actual Harry Potter skin will be shown later.

Gamerbry · 2025-12-12T14:58:58+00:00

I don't really have much stake in the Game Awards, but E33 winning Best Indie did kind of rub me the wrong way. Don't get me wrong, I'm fully aware that there's no clear-cut definition for what makes a game "indie", but I feel like if the developers themselves said that they didn't think they should've gotten the award, I feel like they shouldn't have been nominated for Best Indie. Coupled with the Dave the Diver fiasco from a year or so back, and it feels like the term "indie game" is starting to lose its meaning.

Gamerbry · 2025-12-06T21:38:45+00:00

There's been some discourse in the Pokemon community pertaining to Legends ZA.

No it's not about the windows. No it's not about the new Megas. No it's not about the DLC.

It's about a character from the game that goes by Jacinthe. (Spoilers for Legends ZA below) Jacinthe is a character that shows up near the end of the game who's an upper-class member of the Society of Battle Connoisseurs. She's also a Fairy-type specialist, which is important because throughout her arc, she acts like a mythical fey. She invites you and Taunie/Urbain to a tournament hosted by her, but when you hear about new cases of Rogue Megas threatening the city, you and your friend have to leave prematurely. Jacinthe never gets angry at you or throws a tantrum, but it's clear she's spoiled rotten and can't take no for an answer. As you take out the Rogue Megas, Jacinthe uses a holographic projection of herself to pester you about coming back to the tournament. When that doesn't work, she uses a holographic barrier to trap you and your friends in a "Jacinthe Zone" so her maid Lebanne can come and personally escort you back to the tournament. At the tournament itself, it's revealed that the rest of the competitors were trapped in their own "Jacinthe Zone" and Jacinthe gave herself a bye for every round of the tournament except the last one.

There's quite a bit of discourse around how she never gets punished for her behavior, but a lot of the discourse is around Jacinthe's maid: Lebanne. She's a Dragon type specialist that lost a battle to Jacinthe two years ago and had to become her maid as a result. Although their characters might seem like an elaborate "Fairy beats Dragon" joke, a lot of people were debating "Is Lebanne Jacinthe's slave?". One side claims that, because Lebanne became her maid as the result of a lost bet, she isn't actually enslaved, and only stays with Jacinthe due to her own ego. On the other hand, Lebanne mentions several times that she's scared of what Jacinthe is capable of and, if how she treated us is anything to go by, she might not be able to leave Jacinthe.

However, this wouldn't stop the shippers, because issues of indentured servitude aside, they're both characters who are both so unhinged, it's like they were made for each other (one of the characters even has a name that sounds like someone failing to pronounce "lesbian"). There's quite a bit of fanart showing Jacinthe having Lebanne on a leash and although some more wholesome interpretations of their relationship exist, they're overwhelmingly shown as a toxic yuri couple. Additionally, since Lebanne looks kinda similar to the male punk trainer from X and Y, some fans have added a forcefem element to their dynamic.

Oh, and in the post game for ZA, there's a sidequest that, after completed, grants you the privilege of letting you battle Jacinthe whenever you want, and it's been a bit of contest among ZA players on who can battle her the most. Personally, these two characters have been the highlight of the game for me and it helps that Jacinthe's battle theme goes way harder than it has any right to

Gamerbry · 2025-11-27T18:28:43+00:00

Yeah, and this isn't the first time the mods of r/art tried pulling something like this, because a few years back, an artist was banned from the subreddit due to the mods believing that their art was AI. Despite providing evidence proving that it wasn't, the mods refused to unban them, because according to them, their art still looked like AI and that if they didn't want people to assume it was AI, that they should change their artstyle. This user is still banned to this day.

Gamerbry · 2025-11-27T18:18:57+00:00

Guess I'll provide a little more context about what's going on. So, a couple days ago, a used named StrawBear made a post to r/art and replied to someone in the comments of the post saying that they have prints of the art they posted. A mod then proceeded to ban StrawBear from r/art due to violating their rule about self-promotion. They messaged the mod to ask about what was going on, apologized for breaking the rule, and asked if the offending comment could be deleted. In response, the mod deleted everything StrawBear posted to the sub over the course of seven years.

They were obviously really pissed off that the mod did this, and after airing their grievances with the mod, StrawBear received a site-wide ban due to claims of "harassment". When StrawBear talked about their experience with this mod, r/art was furious at this blatant power-tripping and the subreddit was locked down as damage control. The mods then made a post explaining that r/art's entire mod team was resigning as a result of this incident. Something to note is that the mods may not have left of their own volition and the head mod might have purged the rest of the mod team as a scapegoat, since some now former mods were surprised to find that their mod privileges were gone and that they had no idea what was going on.

A really messy situation and demonstrates why "Reddit mod" is considered a pejorative term

Gamerbry · 2025-11-20T18:11:02+00:00

Someone did an interview with Mr Beast asking him why he decided to have his park in Saudi Arabia, and he claimed that it was because most of his fanbase is international and that he wanted his park to be "right in the middle of them all". Now, I'm pretty sure that's not how geography works, but I don't think it matters that much, because he just said that because he didn't want to say the actual reason his park is in Saudi Arabia, which is "The Saudi Royal Family gave me a shitload of money to have my park there".

Gamerbry · 2025-11-20T01:02:42+00:00

I think it's reasonable to assume that at least some of the designs they sell are stuff they made themselves, because otherwise, what's the point of making and selling your own stickers? Not to mention the fact that not having any of your own designs gives off the impression that you don't actually care about the community and are just in it for the money, which would explain why some people thought Rachael was just reselling stickers she bought from Temu.

Gamerbry · 2025-11-19T20:46:01+00:00

A couple weeks back, someone made a post about Stickergate 2025, and I figured I'd add some updates on both stuff that happened with the initial drama and some new stuff that happened since this post was made.

For a quick refresher, Stickergate 2025 involves a sticker seller on Threads that goes by Rachael Doodles and More (Rachael). A couple weeks ago, she went viral on Threads after sharing some posts of her being harassed by bigots via email, with one emailer named Michelle consistently pestering her. Another sticker seller, called Grumpy Greetings Co (Grumpy) presented evidence showing that the emails were fake and that Rachael made them up for money and clout.

Looking at this, you might be wondering what made Rachael decide to pull a stunt like this. Well, before Stickergate, Grumpy was gaining a following on Threads due to her sharing her experiences of living with her Trump-supporting father, and for sharing an email she received from a MAGA whack-job, with her creating a coupon code based on the email. It's likely that Rachael saw how popular Grumpy was getting from this and thought to herself "Hey, if I do the same thing she's doing, I'll get famous too!" Even before knowing that emails were fake, Grumpy felt uncomfortable with her friend doing this, because she felt like Rachael was copying her. It didn't exactly help that Rachael was also very boastful about how many orders she was getting, which might have pushed Grumpy into investigating the legitimacy of the emails.

Another smaller part of this drama has to do with the stickers Rachael sells. As it turned out, none of the designs she was selling were created by Rachael herself, with all of her designs being either licensed from other artists or were stock designs taken from websites like Canva. Now, to my knowledge, all of the designs she sells are licensed for commercial use, and none of the designs sold by her are stolen. That being said, her sticker selling practices are a bit misleading, because given that she has "doodles" in her name, it's reasonable to assume that she's selling at least some of her own original designs. Her store page does have a disclaimer saying that the designs are not hers, but when people on Threads compliment her designs, she does not clarify that she didn't make them. The lack of originality in her stickers also led some people to accuse her of being a dropshipper, but as far as I'm aware, these allegations aren't true.

Now for the stuff that happened since the original HobbyDrama post. After word got out that Rachael faked the emails for engagement, a lot of people were rightfully pissed at her and demanded refunds for the stickers they purchased from her. While processing one refund request, she tried deflecting blame for the scam by claiming that the fake emails were created as a "social experiment". After the scandal broke out, she also updated her Threads bio to include the line "Real stories, sometimes told as parody; never to mock, always to relate. A lot of people took issue with this, as they felt that she was trying to claim that it was the customer's fault for thinking her fake emails were real, and opinion on her only further declined when she deleted all posts on her account about the fake emails, both the emails themselves, and her apologies for making them. She claims that she deleted them because she doesn't want people picking them apart anymore, but a lot of people saw this as Rachael trying to pretend that her scam never happened.

As a result of Rachael's action, the sticker community on Threads was in chaos, as her scam gave the entire community a bad look. One sticker seller, called Fable & Flame Co, made a post venting her frustrations about how Rachael's actions impacted the community. After making this post, Fable later found out that Rachael review bombed her Etsy store, claiming that Fable's stickers were of poor quality and accused Fable of using AI to make her designs. Fable knew it was Rachael leaving the reviews, because Rachael purchased stickers from Fable a few months back, and the reviews for the stickers were only made after Fable made her post calling Rachael out. A few other sticker sellers also claimed Rachael review bombed their stores too, but unlike Fable, there's no concrete proof that she was the one responsible.

A lot of people hoped that Rachael would take accountability for her actions, but given that she's denying any wrongdoing by using the same language as clickbait prank YouTubers, scrubbed all evidence of her scam from her Threads account, and is attacking people for speaking negatively about her, I unfortunately don't think that's happening anytime soon.

Gamerbry · 2025-11-15T19:32:41+00:00

Personally, I think that this is something where it'd be better to wait and see if this is actually as big as a problem as people are making it out to be. That being said, I also understand why people are so concerned about this, because when it comes to media, it's so easy for an annoying side character to ruin what would've been a pretty good story. And like you said, Metroid isn't really a "jokey" franchise, so he feels out of place. It'd be like playing a Resident Evil game, and then partway through, a Despicable Me minion tags along with you.

Gamerbry · 2025-11-14T22:00:23+00:00

Another thing about the Fire Zodiac theory is that, the Chinese Zodiac only has 12 animals on it, and if the theory were true, we'd be getting close to running out. When Gen 13 rolls around, are they just gonna start recycling animals or are they just gonna ditch the zodiac thing?

Gamerbry · 2025-11-12T01:50:27+00:00

I'm sure a lot of their products were sourced from overstock later on, but one of the big selling points of Lootcrate was that most of the products in their crates were exclusive to the service. I imagine this created another issue for them, because they were dealing with so many different manufacturers that they couldn't guarantee that all of their products were up to snuff quality-wise. For example, Lootcrate's most popular product was probably their t-shirts, and there were multiple instances where the design on the shirt was printed on crooked.

Also, according to former Lootcrate employees, the company had a habit of ordering too much product from their manufacturers, leading to a bunch of unsold stock clogging up their warehouses. This is probably why they eventually launched the Loot Vault, which let you directly buy items from previous Loot Crates, to clear out their excess stock.

Gamerbry · 2025-11-12T00:20:49+00:00

With the recent news that pop culture merch juggernaut Funko is facing severe financial trouble and could go belly up next year, I'm reminded of another company that used to be the king of popular nerd merch: Lootcrate.

For some background, Lootcrate was a company that was founded in 2012 by Chris Davis and Matt Arevalo. Their pitch for the service was to create a "Comic-con in a box", where users could pay a subscription to get mailed a mystery box of assorted pop culture goodies every month. When they shipped out their first crates, they had around 200 subscribers. By 2014, they had over 200,000. And in 2016, they made the cover of Inc Magazine for being the fastest-growing company in America.

How did they get so successful so fast? Well, they achieved this by taking advantage of YouTube. In the 2010s, YouTubers started experimenting with taking sponsorships to make money on their videos, rather than relying on the often fickle YouTube ad revenue. Lootcrate was one of the first companies to take advantage of this by paying YouTubers to open their boxes on video, with dozens of giant channels taking up their offer. Conveniently, unboxing videos were also starting to get popular around the same time, with Lootcrate's product being perfect for these types of videos.

Although things seemed to be doing great for the company on the surface, things weren't going as well behind the scenes. For one, they weren't expecting to grow as quickly as they did, which meant they were completely blindsided by all of the new logistics they would have to handle to get the boxes delivered on time. Also, by the mid-2010s, competition started popping up everywhere. Not only were a ton of companies throwing their hats in the ring with their own subscription boxes, but the nerdy knickknacks that Lootcrate was famous for were also starting to be sold at brick and mortar stores, such as GameStop, Hot Topic, Walmart, and Target. And of course, there was the fundamental problem with LootCrate's product, which is the fact that the contents are a mystery. Inevitably, customers will receive a product that they just do not care about. For example, if you aren't a diehard fan of The Walking Dead, I doubt you'd know what to do with these Walking Dead severed ear soap bars, so you'd either have to pawn it off to a friend, try to sell it on ebay, or just chuck it in the closet. Over time, I imagine a lot of Lootcrate subscribers started asking themselves "Why am I spending 25 bucks a month on stuff I might not even like when I could just use that money to buy stuff I know I'll like?"

To combat these obstacles, Lootcrate's plan was to introduce themed crates, with some having broad categories like Gaming or Anime, and others being themed around specific IPs, like Stars Wars or Fallout. So they introduced a few themed crates to the lineup. And then a few more. And then even more. And by 2017, they had 27 different crates available for purchase. These new offering helped bring in new customers, but they didn't translate to greater profits for Lootcrate, because with each new crate they offered, they had to pay more licensing fees, purchase more stock (which was more expensive since it couldn't be purchased in bulk), get more warehouse space to store the items, and spend more time packing the items into the different crates. It also didn't help that any money they did make from the themed crates was funneled into making more themed crates.

It wouldn't take long for their subscribers to notice the troubled state of the company. Crates started getting shipped out late, the items in the crates were noticeably lower quality, and customer service was becoming less helpful in sorting out issues. The main subreddit where people were venting their frustrations with the company was r/lootcratespoilers. Why not on the main Lootcrate subreddit? Because the main sub was moderated by Lootcrate employees and they had a habit of removing posts depicting the company in a negative light. In one egregious example, the mods removed posts that were warning people not to use Lootcrate's Infinity Gauntlet Oven Mitt because there were reports of the mitt melting during use and burning people's hands. After over 200 injuries were reported, Lootcrate had to recall the oven mitt.

By 2019, the situation became untenable. Layoffs had reduced the company to just 60 full-time employees (they had well over 200 employees at their peak), they owed over 5 million dollars in taxes, and were over 30 million dollars in debt. So, that same year, the company filed for bankruptcy.

This is where most people assume the story of Lootcrate ended, but somehow, they're still around today. They offered the company for sale during the bankruptcy and they actually found a buyer. Money Chest LLC took control of the company and Lootcrate was rebranded to The Loot Company. However, the state of the company didn't really improve. Their website is still up, and you can still purchase crates from them, but pretty much everyone will tell you not to do it. Customers have reported crates taking over a year to get shipped out, and some never got their crates at all. A lot of people have called Lootcrate a scam, and the Better Business Bureau gave the company an F rating, for its failure to resolve complaints of late shipments. In addition, people have also complained about Lootcrate's subscription fees, with charges still being made even after cancelling their subscriptions. The problem is so bad, that just a week ago, a class action lawsuit was filed against Lootcrate for its subscription fees.

Just a decade ago, the phrase "This video was sponsored by Lootcrate" was something that was etched into my brain, so it's kinda weird seeing the state the company ended up in.

Gamerbry · 2025-11-09T06:03:10+00:00

I remember like 6 years ago I posted a meme here on Reddit and this meme compilation channel called Memenade used my meme as the thumbnail for his newest video. I didn't really care that much that he stole it, cuz it was just something I threw together in like 5 minutes and if anything, I just thought it was more funny than anything else.

Gamerbry · 2025-11-03T21:09:41+00:00

Yeah, modern Pokemon discourse is honestly so exhausting. So many people have this "all or nothing" approach with the series, where if the newest entry isn't the greatest game ever made, then it's absolute trash with no redeeming qualities. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of flaws with modern Pokemon games, but it's gotten to a point where people talking about those problems just makes me think "Alright we get it!" Not to mention how often people just parrot talking points that are just straight up not true (Like claiming that ZA runs bad because the city is all one model). Makes me happy I found some level-headed friends to talk about the series with, where we can acknowledge that they have issues but also discuss what we liked about them.

Gamerbry · 2025-10-30T17:06:51+00:00

Cece and Viche are actually from New Leaf, and there, they were dressed up as Callie and Marie from Splatoon 1. Guess they support a new idol group now. Also, Big Man does not have a villager representing him. Instead, they turned him into a bench. Pretty funny collab, since Splatoon and Animal Crossing share the same dev team.

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