Open Mic
· 8 min read
CD Projekt Red Called It Silosis, Almost Lost the Studio Over It
Cyberpunk 2077's launch exposed an org chart, not a bug count. Here's what CD Projekt Red tore down to ship Phantom Liberty.
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Product management through the lens of pop punk, anime and game dev. Building cooler products with more energy and less corporate nonsense.
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What's moving in anime, metal, J-pop and punk right now. One sharp take. No recap.
Animelo Summer Live has run at Saitama Super Arena every year since 2005, always in late August. The 2026 edition, “Messenger,” ran July 10 to 12 at Makuhari Messe instead, a one-year move forced by redevelopment work on the home arena, with Saitama already booked to host again in 2027. It follows the 20th anniversary edition in 2025, which drew a record 87,000 fans on the strength of the milestone lineup. Losing the venue and the calendar slot in the same year is the first real test of how much of that draw depends on the ritual rather than the lineup.
BABYMETAL opens for My Chemical Romance on August 30, then heads out on their own 20-date headline run three days later. The opening slot was the funnel, not the ceiling.
Olivia Rodrigo's Daisy Chain Fields puts Bikini Kill, Chappell Roan, Doechii, Mitski and the Breeders on one all-female festival bill. The point is infrastructure, not branding.
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Open Mic
A Sixth-Grade Teacher Ran a Forced Ranking System. The Kids Broke It Before Microsoft Did.
· 6 min read
In a 2005 Japanese drama, a homeroom teacher built a point system that turned twenty-four kids into informants. GE and Microsoft ran the adult version. Both failed for the same reason.
Open Mic
Balatro Wasn't Poker. Everyone Read It Wrong.
· 7 min read
LocalThunk built a math toy in poker clothes. Then the world kept mistaking the costume for the product.
J-Pop Drop
What Overfly Was Actually Casting For
· 6 min read
Luna Haruna came from Gothic Lolita fashion, had one prior single and got the closing theme for SAO's messier second half. LiSA had the Aincrad OP. That turned out to matter.
Open Mic
Sunraku Played 100 Terrible Games. Then He Beat the Boss 30 Million Players Missed.
· 6 min read
Rakuro Hizakura spent years hunting kusoge, broken games nobody else wanted to touch. When he entered Shangri-La Frontier, 30 million players were already there. None of them had found what he found.
Open Mic
ConcernedApe Had Help on the Table. He Left It There.
· 7 min read
Eric Barone spent four and a half years building Stardew Valley alone. Publishers offered teams. Fans offered help. Every offer assumed the problem was speed.
Open Mic
Leslie Tickets
· 7 min read
Build a Rocket Boy raised £233M with Rockstar's DNA. MindsEye launched in June 2025 with a Metacritic score of 37. The story isn't about money or talent.
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