A little under the weather the last couple of days but still managed to find quite a few interesting stories. This’ll double as Monday and Tuesday briefing, so make sure to check out all of the interesting topics!
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Matt Walsh Rips His Own Outlet Over Daily Wire Piece Claiming “Aslan Isn’t Jesus”
Matt Walsh is publicly breaking with his own employer over a Daily Wire piece that argues C.S. Lewis’s Aslan should not be read as a Christ figure.
Xbox Cuts 268 More Jobs As Activision Takes Over Development Of The Next Mainline Halo Game
Xbox eliminated 268 roles across Halo Studios, other first-party studios, and the Xbox Game Studios management layer this week, and handed development of the next mainline Halo title to a newly formed team inside Activision.
China Miéville Says “Speculative Fiction” Was the Label for People Embarrassed to Read Science Fiction
China Miéville, the British author of Perdido Street Station and The City & the City, took a swipe at one of publishing’s favorite euphemisms in a new interview. Asked what to call the kind of books he writes, Miéville said he has always identified as a science fiction writer. He had little patience for the more respectable-sounding alternative.
James Gunn Defends Killing Off Hal Jordan In Lanterns, Tells Fans “Sorry If You Don’t Like It”
James Gunn is standing behind the decision to kill off Hal Jordan early in DC Studios’ “Lanterns” series, pushing back directly at fans who say the show has mistreated one of DC’s most iconic characters.
Former Xbox Studio Double Fine in a Kickstarter Fight Over Ghost of Yōtei Voice Actress
Double Fine is the San Francisco studio behind Psychonauts and Brütal Legend. Microsoft owned the company for years. Then, in 2026, the Xbox marriage ended. After the staff got cut, Tim Schafer’s team went independent again and they brought back Amnesia
A Post-Apocalyptic Full AI Film Does Nearly Half A Million Views On YouTube
AI movies keep getting better, as we’ve noted with fans producing interesting work in both the Star Trek and Star Wars universes, using the easy art direction to make movies, music videos, and more. Now, a creative individual who goes by Dair on his channel has put up a full post-Apocalyptic AI film called “Good Boy” and it’s wowing audiences.
Brandon Sanderson Finally Admits What Wheel of Time Fans Knew All Along: The Show Was a Failure
Brandon Sanderson, the author who completed Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time after Jordan’s death and has spent years defending Amazon’s television adaptation in public, has finally conceded the show failed to live up to the books. It is the closest Sanderson has come to saying outright what most of the fandom concluded years ago, and it caps off a long, uncomfortable arc for an author who once called the show’s scripts “fantastic.”
Audiobook Producer Podium Entertainment Sold To Private Equity For Over $400 Million
Podium Entertainment, the audiobook publisher behind some of the genre’s biggest current hits, has been sold to private equity firms Flexpoint Ford and Shamrock Capital in a deal the Wall Street Journal reports at more than $400 million. Presidio Investors, which backed Podium since 2019, is the seller, with music-industry investor GoldState Music takin…
Popverse Is the Latest Geek News Site to Go Down, and It Won’t Be the Last
Popverse is losing its editorial news operation this month, becoming the latest casualty in a string of geek media closures tied to the collapse of the old online advertising model. ReedPop laid off Popverse’s editorial staff and confirmed the site will no longer function as a news platform, four and a half years after it launched in May 2022 as a compa…