Sunday Special: The Year in Gaming
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What makes video games a significant art form?
This is Andrew Ross Sorkin, the founder of Dealbook. Every year, I interview some of the world's most influential leaders across politics, culture, and business at the Dealbook Summit, a live event in New York City. On this year's podcast, you'll hear my unfiltered conversations with Gavin Newsom, the CEO of Palantir and Anthropic, and Erica Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk. Listen to Dealbook Summit wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome to the Sunday special. I'm Gilbert Cruz. Over the past few months, we've talked about many different art forms, music, film, TV, theater, fashion. But there's a big one that we haven't touched yet. And in fact, it's one of the most popular artistic mediums in the entire world. It is a medium that some, perversely, still don't consider to be an art form at all.
What are the hosts' personal relationships with gaming?
I'm, of course, talking about video games. I love video games. I grew up playing them. I play them with my child. I play them for fun and relaxation. And sometimes, incredibly, I get to play them for work, which I did this week to prepare for today's show. And with a game of the year set to be crowned in December, there's no time like the present to talk about This Year in Gaming. With me today are two people who are eminently qualified to do that. Zachary Small is a culture reporter for The Times who covers art and video games. Welcome, Zach. Thanks. And Jason Bailey, a culture editor here at The Times, edits all of our video game coverage. Jason, welcome. Thank you. Excited to be here. So before we dive in, I think it would be great to talk about each of our relationships with gaming, how we got into it, what we love about this medium.
I think I could easily talk for half an hour about my history, but let's start with y'all. Zach? It would only take you a half hour to talk about this?
No, you're right. You're right. I was underselling it. I mean, for me, it was kind of a strange experience because I was about six years old. I had chicken pox and one of my cousins was like ordered to entertain me. So I'm sitting there scratching itchy in bed and he comes over and brings Super Nintendo and Super Mario World and I'm watching this. moving cartoon and i i mean i obviously still remember it clear as day um i think for me it was so important you know now my main job here at the new york times is covering the art world fine art painting sculpture blah blah blah um but video games are really my first interaction with a quote-unquote art form and i think that stuck with me and sort of influenced me throughout my life
Jason? Similarly to Zach, I came up on a Nintendo console. I'm a little bit older, though, so it was the original Nintendo Entertainment System.
Did you two have chickenpox?
I did not have chickenpox. It was a Christmas present. It was one of those where we opened all the presents, and then at the end was the big surprise, the Nintendo. But my parents hadn't thought it through, and they gave us some games as presents earlier, and we just opened them up, had no idea what it was, and threw it over our shoulder because we didn't have the console yet. So I really started there in the 90s with the classic Super Mario Bros.
How has the gaming industry evolved since the pandemic?
3 and Legend of Zelda. And as I got older, I kind of switched my interests more into first-person shooters in the 2000s. And now as a graying parent, I have less time, so I'm more interested in the indie games that you can actually complete in a few hours instead of dozens and hundreds of them. What do you think, Gilbert? What started you on this journey?
capitalism. I think, you know, there was a time when Nintendo was the big gift and, um, my parents said, we need to get this for our kids. They did. And I think I had almost every iteration of Nintendo after that. Uh, when I was in my twenties, I got an X-Box. I became obsessed with open world games, which I still am grand theft auto four and red dead redemption. And then there came a point There came a point where I said to myself, if I keep this console in my home, I am not going to want to do anything else with my life.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What makes video games a significant art form?
0:00–1:04
2
What are the hosts' personal relationships with gaming?
1:04–3:22
3
How has the gaming industry evolved since the pandemic?
3:22–6:09
4
What are the standout indie games of 2025?
6:09–8:07
5
What are the major releases in the gaming industry this year?
8:07–10:24
6
How does the Switch 2 compare to its predecessors?
10:24–12:44
7
What are the anticipated Game of the Year contenders?
12:44–15:23
8
What unique gaming experiences were shared by the hosts?
15:23–55:24
Speakers
6 identifiedMore from The Daily
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