Hi, hello, and welcome to a new edition of the overkill digest newsletter.
Today, I have a different kind of announcement: overkill in its current form is dead. But don’t worry, it’s not going away, so let me explain.
overkill is run by a company based in Luxembourg, co-founded by Chris and myself. We’re currently taking steps to close down the company. There are many reasons behind this decision, but two major ones stand out. First, I’m about to start a new job at the company I’m working for, which will lead to a shift in priorities. Since overkill Media is a company, I’d have to keep up with regular administrative work, which takes time and mental bandwidth. With less free time, I’d rather spend it on actual writing rather than paperwork.
The other reason is that Chris has decided to use the closing of the company structure as a natural point to step away from the project. Before any rumors start: there's no bad blood whatsoever, and in fact, Chris is still reviewing this newsletter before it goes out. He’s simply using the opportunity to focus more on his own project, Switch Weekly. In fact, I can even announce an upcoming rebrand of that very project....
You know what, I'll let him explain:
Ok, so a little over three years ago Kevin reached out to me via email with an idea. That email, quickly turned into overkill, and within just a few short months we found moderate success and a ton of enjoyment in serving a new audience — folks super passionate about the, then new, Steam Deck.
Prior to overkill I'd been obsessing about the Nintendo Switch for years with my own weekly Nintendo newsletter and related survey, so I was pumped to get to do it all over again for another handheld!
Since that initial launch, the scope of our offering here evolved, and we grew with it — proudly reaching an audience of hundreds of thousands of readers each and every month.
But, as Kevin highlighted above, things do change — and another wrinkle amongst all of this has been the grim death knock from Google, harming the prospects of many sites across the indie web.
This dramatic shift in the landscape, along with the changes in Kevin's day-to-day role as mentioned above, make for a clear line in the sand. It's a line that means I'll be returning to my Switch Weekly project, and stepping away from overkill.
Working on overkill has been both an education and a joy — sharing tidbits, opinions and cool finds with you all over the past few years has been a genuine blast. Be that getting my own Steam Deck, visiting Gamescom with Kevin (twice!), interviewing folks in the gaming space, or simply sharing yet another AYANEO handheld — it's been fun.
The lesson here? Probably send that email, seek out collabs, and say yes — just to see where it may lead. The destination may not be what I'd envisioned, but I sure as hell enjoyed the journey (yeah, that's cheesy, but whatever)
I'm sad to be walking away, but I'm excited to see what Kevin does solo (you're in good, beautifully tattooed hands) — and I'm hyped to reimagine what my long-running Switch Weekly newsletter can be. I'm going to be evolving it over the next few weeks in some pretty substantial ways, so if you've any interest in all things Nintendo please do jump over and subscribe to the free newsletter, along with the YouTube channel. Oh, and I guess follow me on Bluesky for everything in between.
It's been fun, it's been overkill. Thank you.
Chris.
What this means is that I will now take steps to transform overkill from a for-profit website into a hobby. And it will be one that over time will probably become even more closely aligned with my own personal interests since it’s now a solo project. There won’t be drastic changes just yet, but the redesign that’s still in progress will continue, albeit with a shift in scope.
The biggest change for now is that I’m ripping out all kinds of monetization, disabling ads, and cancelling the subscriptions of the few people who still had a premium plan running. Most were renewing in the next two weeks, so we somehow picked the perfect timing to do all of this.
I also created a second email list, that is completely opt-in. If going forward you want all posts (except this newsletter) I publish per email, you can sign up here. (You can also just use RSS.)
digest meanwhile will still be the same, but I'll see it more as the director's cut of overkill. It'll include everything published to the website, and whatever I didn't publish but still deem share-worthy. And it will be email-only.
And now, with all that being said, let’s get to this week’s news:
🚀 Big Moves
The Boox P6 is a new smartphone-sized e-reader. (This is a link to Boox' Weibo profile.) This alternative to the Boox Palma (or successor, I am not sure yet), comes with a SIM card tray. It is not completely clear if we will be able to make phone calls, but with a SIM card you could at least make Whatsapp calls on the go.
There will be two models, one with a colored e-ink screen, and one with a black and white screen. It will also have stylus support, making it a potential competitor to the reMarkable Paper Pro Move, which I am currently testing.
I'm planning to pick one up as soon as they are globally available and review it here. Though no one yet knows when they'll launch and how much they'll cost outside of China. I'm expecting around $400.
Anbernic is launching a dual screen handheld. And it'll be below $100, which is an insane price. While Anbernic didn't reveal the specs yet, the next comparable device is the AYN Thor at around $250. I am, by the way, getting the Thor on Thursday, so expect a review further down the line.
The Thor is very likely more powerful than the Anbernic, but it cannot beat it on price, even if the RG DS would cost exactly $100.
🎮 Platform Updates
AltStore PAL is coming to the UK. The alternative App Store for iOS is currently available in the EU, and will come to Australia, Japan and Brazil in 2025, with the UK following in 2026.
The biggest reason to install AltStore on your iPhone is to be able to easily install all different kinds of emulators. For example, I run Dolphin through AltStore. And you could also install games from Epic Games this way.
💻 Hardware & Software
Qualcomm is buying Arduino. I don't completely know how to feel about this. I don't own an Arduino myself, and I don't really know what Qualcomm would want to do with the company. But at least for know, they are committing to remain agnostic.
Fractal is now making gaming headphones. My current Gaming PC is inside a Fractal Define 7. Before that I used a Define R6. Before that an R5. And before that an R4. I think you get it, I like Fractal. And now, Fractal got into gaming peripherals with the Scape, a gaming headset, which The Verge seemed to like. Maybe I need to check this out, too.
🎲 Playthings
Battlefield 6 is live, and it's what we all wanted. I've played the first beta a couple of weeks ago, then had my PC die on me during the second beta weekend. But now that BF6 is live, I've only played a couple of matches (I currently have a friend visiting, and I am trying not to be the unsocial buddy), and let me tell you: it's exactly what we all wanted Battlefield to be.
I'll be sharing more of my thoughts in a few days, but going by the fact that nearly 750,000 people have been playing this game at the same time should make it clear that Battlefield is back, baby!
📌 Quick Hits
- dbrand is now offering orange skins. They are copying Apple's Cosmic Orange. I like the colors of the original iPhone 17 Pro, so I might pick up a skin or two.
- Elgato is now making gaming chairs. And it actually looks decent. I am not the biggest fan of the gamer aesthetic, which this chair thankfully doesn't belong to. This looks more like a competitor to Herman Miller chairs. I might pick one up, as they'll cost $500 (which is four times cheaper than the Herman Miller Embody for example.)
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🔮 Looking Ahead
- Pokémon Legends: Z-A is coming to Switch and Switch 2 on October 16. Which is not that good, because I still need to finish Ghost of Yotei, Clair Obscur, Silksong and play more Battlefield 6.
Ok, that's all. Thanks for reading!
See you,
Kevin (and for the last time, Chris).