Ryan Gilbey, The Guardian:

They have decreed that Love is Strange should have the same rating as Saw III (“strong grisly violence and gore, sequences of terror and torture, nudity and language”), My Bloody Valentine (“graphic brutal horror violence and grisly images throughout, some strong sexuality, graphic nudity and language”), and the new Sin City film (“strong brutal stylised violence throughout, sexual content, nudity, and brief drug use”).

It’s an insult to anyone’s intelligence to find that Love is Strange received its R for nothing more than “some strong language”. What – not even a teensy-weensy bit of terror and torture? No grisly images or graphic nudity? I wonder if the director, Ira Sachs, feels a bit like the faithful spouse accused erroneously of adultery: if he is going to be pilloried anyway, maybe he should have committed the crime for which he is being punished and thrown in a few chainsaw murders just for the hell of it.

Two nights ago, my fiancée and I watched Captain American: The Winter Soldier. Mid-way through the action packed, gunplay heavy film, she looked over at me and said, “it’s amazing they blame video games for gun violence.”

She echoed my thoughts exactly. I felt that I had seen more violence in this semi-children’s film than any video game I had played over the past year. There was something unnerving about the amount of bullets spraying into the air, masses of headshots, and deadly explosions. Something Polygon brought to light after this years E3 Expo. It was a feeling I’d also experienced weeks prior at a showing of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Both films are rated PG-13.

I’m not saying that overboard gun violence shown in films is a problem; though, I am now easier unsettled than I when I saw The Matrix in high school. All I’m saying is that if violence isn’t the reason for an R rating, then we need to reevaluate the measure of two f-bombs (something kids are prone to hearing multiple times per day on streets, schoolyards, and homes) and/or expressions of sexuality or acts of sex that are completely natural landing R ratings. If a 13-year-old, nay the swaths of  children that watched Captain America: The Winter Solider and/or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, can handle lengthy gun battles and on-screen death, then a bit of language and sexuality is not going to hurt any.

Update: Ghostbusters, rated PG. Kids of the 80s sure turned out rotten.

Eric Johnson, Re/code:

According to data provided to Re/code, an April Nielsen study found that 31 percent of PS4 owners did not own Sony’s previous console, the PlayStation 3, but did own an Xbox 360 or Wii. Seventeen percent did not own any last-generation console.

The people surveyed were Americans, age 7 to 54, and were a subset of a total of 1,200 “active gamers” surveyed by Nielsen between February and April.

However, there’s one big caveat to the survey, which is that it asked only what consumers currently owned at the time of the survey, not what they had owned in the past. So, people who sold their PlayStation 3 in order to buy a PlayStation 4 would’ve been marked down as non-PS3 owners.

Assuming that most people didn’t do that, though, the numbers underscore why launching at a $100 lower price point than the rival Xbox One was so beneficial for Sony.

These numbers are much bigger than I would have thought. I knew the PS4 was out pacing both the Xbox One and (not surprisingly) the Wii U, but 17% adding consoles to their homes is astounding. Sure, they may have had PS2s, Xboxes, and Gamecubes, but 17% after the longest generation cycle, I assume it’s safe to say these are new console owners… if we are assuming of course.

Russ Frushtick:

But, there comes a day when you feel like you’re not learning as much as you were, or you’re not conquering as many new challenges as you used to. Even with awesome, amazing jobs like this, there comes a time when you feel like you need to try something fresh. Something new. That’s been buzzing in my ear for the last few months and, as of two weeks ago, I let my boss, Chris Grant, know that I was taking the leap. (He was super cool about it, by the way.)

I’ve always enjoyed Frushtick’s work. Sad to see him leave Polygon and the games media-at-large but happy to see him leave on his own terms. Godspeed Frushtick. Looking forward to the August Besties more than ever.

UPDATE, 5/3/16: Russ is back:

It’s been nearly two years since I left and an educational two years at that. I took a break from the gaming industry and expanded into new areas. I wanted to broaden my professional experience, get out of my comfort zone, and dive into some new things. I worked with some great companies and great people but there was always a tugging. A desire to return to return to this place and work with these amazing people.

Great news. And what does this mean for the future of Besties?

Joe Russ, developer of Jenny LeClue, as quote by Polygon:

Growing up in a family of divorce is all about choices, and how your parents’ choices can greatly affect you — at least as much as them. It’s about accepting that sometimes the right choices have tough consequences.

These are the things I want players to be able to explore in the game and be part of in writing the narrative with us. Growing up is about making these choices and learning to live with the consequences. Becoming an adult is, for me, about understanding that you have responsibility for your actions.

Divorce is an interesting well of inspiration. This concept sounds intriguing. Looking forward to playing Jenny LeClue.

Jack Moore on Mo’Ne Davis and Emma March:

The narrative of the gimmick girl in sports is doubly damaging. Not only does it foster a lower expectation of women’s abilities — in both genders — it also creates an assumption that women aren’t earning their spots when in reality they are almost certainly facing even higher standards than the men they compete against.If the sports world is truly going to house gender equality, we need to give girls the freedom to choose their sports. We need to stop pressuring them to take the path of least gender resistance. And we need to stop holding them to a higher standard when everything else is already working against them.

Great read on gender equality in sports. Bring me right back to the Finnish Hearthstone Tournament and gender segregation in chess. A very interesting conversation.