A little over three years ago Kevin reached out to me via email with an idea. That email, quickly turned into overkill — this very website — 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 joining 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 things do change, and as Kevin noted in this week's email digest, there are changes on the horizon. Another wrinkle amongst all of this? 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 noted in Kevin's email, 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!), working with a handful of rad, talented freelancers, interviewing folks in the gaming space, diving into a ton of cool indie gems, or simply sharing yet another AYANEO handheld — it's been fun.
The lesson here? That we should all 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 am 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 my long-running Switch Weekly newsletter. 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 Kevin, and thank you for reading.
Chris.
