True Avatars - A Queer Video Game Podcast

I know right? You’re taking in every word from that title and thinking: “how can these people be trans and ***not*** have played Celeste?!”

…and all we can say is, we’re sorry! We’re making up for it by playing it now (better late than never) and sharing our thoughts right here for you.

Also this week! Games are addictive again, Dragon Quest turns 40, Fable was delayed, somehow Witcher 3 returned, and we have a few hopes and predictions for the next month of game announcements.

A small note: I messed up my audio despite doing everything to not mess up my audio, so I had to use Adobe Podcast Enhance to fix it up and I sound a little different because of that… Oops!

 

00:00:00 - Intro

00:11:35 - What We’ve Been Playing

00:11:44 - No Man’s Sky

00:15:28 - Dragon Quest VII Reimagined

00:25:53 - Celeste

00:42:24 - News

00:56:16 - Summer Gaming / Not-E3 Predictions

 

This episode was recorded on May 30 and 31 2026.

 

Follow True Avatars:

Official website: https://trueavatarspodcast.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TrueAvatars

Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/trueavatars.bsky.social

Twitter: https://x.com/TrueAvatars

Threads: https://www.threads.com/@trueavatars/

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@true.avatars

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trueavatars/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61569951551559

 

Guests:

Lloyd: https://www.twitch.tv/lloyd_lloydster

 

Sources:

Access-Ability Summer Showcase 2026: https://access-ability.uk/2026/01/30/access-ability-summer-showcase-returning-for-2026/

Story-Rich Showcase: https://www.fellowtraveller.games/blog/story-rich-showcase-premiers-june-6

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/fable-has-been-delayed-to-2027/

https://bsky.app/profile/thewitcher.com/post/3mmt5gshsa22r

https://support.cdprojektred.com/en/witcher-3/pc/sp-technical/issue/2973/upcoming-changes-to-minimum-requirements-for-the-witcher-3-wild-hunt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op9YgXhjgNM

https://dq11.jp/s/pf/faq/en.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsYz_CVdowA

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2026/05/dragon-quest-monsters-the-withered-world-has-been-rated-for-switch-1-and-2

This week we’re catching up on some headlines from during the podcast’s hiatus.

When I was doing show notes this week, I noticed that every headline seemed to come with some “good” news and some “bad” news, so we made a kind of game(ish) of it!

Amy-Lynn, Lloyd, and I pick from the good and bad news, choosing which we want to hear first. There’s headlines from PlayStation, Fallout, Bloodborne, Pokémon, and video game adaptation casting (Life is Strange and Sonic the Hedgehog 4).

 

00:00:00 - Intro

00:05:41 - News

00:06:14 - PlayStation

00:13:04 - Casting (Life is Strange and Sonic)

00:31:43 - Fallout

00:39:28 - Bloodborne

00:49:51 - Pokémon

 

This episode was recorded on May 20 2026.

 

Follow True Avatars:

Official website: https://trueavatarspodcast.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TrueAvatars

Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/trueavatars.bsky.social

Twitter: https://x.com/TrueAvatars

Threads: https://www.threads.com/@trueavatars/

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@true.avatars

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trueavatars/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61569951551559

 

Guests:

Amy-Lynn: https://www.instagram.com/amethystlylac

Lloyd: https://www.twitch.tv/lloyd_lloydster

 

Sources:

Twink Yoshi: https://x.com/nintendoamerica/status/2055317658015322471

https://bsky.app/profile/jasonschreier.bsky.social/post/3mm5jzsls5s2a

https://x.com/PlayStation/status/2056404450793938989

https://blog.playstation.com/2026/05/20/state-of-play-returns-tuesday-june-2/

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/life-is-strange-series-maisy-stella-tatum-grace-hopkins-1236678032/

https://pridesource.com/article/how-maisy-stellas-own-queerness-enriches-her-performance-in-my-old-ass

https://x.com/gingriich/status/2028892100478288114?s=46&t=sVUrhNeL5EXDMRDpzdemfQ

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/life-is-strange-tv-series-karyn-kusama-director-1236692403/

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/sonic-the-hedgehog-4-cast-keanu-reeves-idris-elba-1236692974/

https://toynewsi.com/14-62286

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fallout/comments/1rps0nv/fallout_3_remastered_seemingly_confirmed_via_new/?share_id=oFdPnZBfhPJ8xYdj8A1j1&utm_content=1&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2026/03/fallout-support-studio-insists-its-not-teasing-another-game

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/bloodborne-is-officially-returning-as-an-r-rated-animated-movie/

https://www.ign.com/articles/the-pokemon-company-is-already-considering-a-future-where-the-total-number-of-pocket-monsters-available-hits-maybe-10000

Amy-Lynn and Lloyd join me this week to discuss what we’ve been playing, which is quite sim heavy! Games include Pokémon Pokopia, Leafy Corner, and Retro Rewind.

For the news, we’re discussing an older headline: The Last of Us Season 3 finds its actor for Lev and… well, let’s just say they didn’t cast a trans masc actor like we all hoped.

 

00:00:00 - Intro

00:06:13 - What We’ve Been Playing

00:06:21 - Pokémon Pokopia

00:21:09 - Leafy Corner (Demo)

00:33:25 - Retro Rewind

01:06:30 - News (The Last of Us Casting)

 

This episode was recorded on May 12 2026.

 

Follow True Avatars:

Official website: https://trueavatarspodcast.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TrueAvatars

Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/trueavatars.bsky.social

Twitter: https://x.com/TrueAvatars

Threads: https://www.threads.com/@trueavatars/

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@true.avatars

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trueavatars/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61569951551559

 

Guests:

Amy-Lynn: https://www.instagram.com/amethystlylac

Lloyd: https://www.twitch.tv/lloyd_lloydster

 

Sources:

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ebay-rejects-unsolicited-proposal-from-gamestop-302769000.html

https://deadline.com/2026/03/the-last-of-us-michelle-mao-yara-kyriana-kratter-lev-1236761572/

We’re back, True Avatars!

Ekamy and Lloyd join me for this mildly revamped version of the podcast, which has a greater focus on games discussion and less focus on news. What’s in store for the future? Just how scaled back is news? Where are the special segments? The changes aren’t as drastic as they might seem, so please listen for all the details!

This week we talk about a few modern classics, the quality level of the latest Life is Strange, and the Switch version of the Tomodachi Life sim game.

Plus, we do have a couple news stories: GameStop is buying eBay…? And the Bank of America wants you to pay a lot of money for GTA 6 to save the games industry.

Please note that this episode was recorded before Nintendo announced their price increases!

 

00:00:00 - Intro

00:10:18 - What We’ve Been Playing

00:10:36 - Trace Memory (Another Code)

00:20:43 - Psychroma

00:29:59 - Homodachi Life: Living the Dream

00:42:26 - Dustborn

00:51:07 - Neverway Demo

01:01:26 - Life is Strange: Reunion (Double Exposure SPOILERS)

01:13:25 - News

 

This episode was recorded on May 5 2026.

 

Follow True Avatars:

Official website: https://trueavatarspodcast.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TrueAvatars

Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/trueavatars.bsky.social

Twitter: https://x.com/TrueAvatars

Threads: https://www.threads.com/@trueavatars/

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@true.avatars

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trueavatars/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61569951551559

 

Guests:

Ekamy: https://www.twitch.tv/ekamy

Lloyd: https://www.twitch.tv/lloyd_lloydster

 

Sources:

https://investor.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-details/2026/GameStop-Proposes-to-Acquire-eBay-at-125-00-Per-Share/

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/04/business/gamestop-buys-ebay-intl

https://www.ign.com/articles/video-game-industry-would-have-difficulty-selling-games-for-80-if-gta-6-cost-70-bank-of-america-says?utm_source=twitter

Sorry for the late episode this week, True Avatars! I am traveling again but there is a lot of queer game stuff happening these days, thankfully.

This week’s headlines include Stardew Valley’s 10th anniversary (with new marriage candidates), Overwatch has a new (mobile) spin-off, Until Then has DLC (with trans rep), Wolverine has a release date, eSports are coming to the Gay Games, and a pretty big update about the Discord age verification scandal.

Pokémon just reached its 30th anniversary and they had tons of news to share in their Direct-style live stream. Amy-Lynn and Nicole are back to discuss it all, including the new games: Winds and Waves!

 

00:00:00 - Intro

00:05:21 - News

00:35:17 - Pokémon Turns 30 and Announces Winds and Waves

 

This Pokémon segment was recorded on Feb 27 2026 and the news segment was recorded on March 2 2026.

 

Follow True Avatars:

Official website: https://trueavatarspodcast.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TrueAvatars

Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/trueavatars.bsky.social

Twitter: https://x.com/TrueAvatars

Threads: https://www.threads.com/@trueavatars/

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@true.avatars

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trueavatars/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61569951551559

 

Guests:

Amy-Lynn: https://www.instagram.com/amethystlylac

Nicole: https://www.instagram.com/nicoletyngs

 

Sources:

https://fortune.com/2026/02/24/discord-peter-thiel-backed-persona-identity-verification-breach/

https://www.pcgamer.com/software/platforms/discord-delays-its-global-age-verification-rollout-and-cuts-ties-with-peter-thiel-backed-verification-vendor-after-upsetting-almost-everyone-on-earth-weve-made-mistakes/

https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/article/24244645/development-update-overwatch-rush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geiTg6Z7w3A

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/playstation-finally-confirms-marvels-wolverine-release-date-and-its-coming-before-gta6/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7GI-k5Gqnw

https://cogconnected.com/2026/02/until-then-is-getting-the-afterimages-dlc-later-this-year/

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2026/02/uk-retailer-game-closes-all-standalone-stores-as-it-enters-administration

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-02-27/sony-s-bluepoint-pitched-bloodborne-remake-before-closure?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc3MjIyMjY3OSwiZXhwIjoxNzcyODI3NDc5LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUQjRWUTJLR0NURlowMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJCMUVBQkI5NjQ2QUM0REZFQTJBRkI4MjI1MzgyQTJFQSJ9.s6maZIveh-F152mZBWUNjPFeE0Lm7AFRegwaizQvVlA&leadSource=uverify%20wall

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/eas-skate-studio-confirms-layoffs-as-it-moves-to-better-support-the-games-long-term-future/

https://www.gamefile.news/p/tencent-timi-montreal-closed

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/games-media-set-for-more-layoffs-as-ign-owned-eurogamer-cuts-editorial-staff/

https://checkpointgaming.net/news/2026/02/valve-sued-by-new-york-attorney-general-for-promoting-illegal-gambling/

https://bsky.app/profile/kemowoomy.bsky.social/post/3mfqenszzxk2l

https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2026/attorney-general-james-sues-game-developer-promoting-illegal-gambling-through

https://gaymingmag.com/2026/02/gg-valencia-the-gay-games-welcomes-esports-to-the-quadrennial-event-for-the-first-time/

https://www.gaygames.org/

https://www.ign.com/articles/saudi-owned-rts-takes-full-ownership-of-evo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh2WcRJOVPU

https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/see-the-new-trailer-for-pokemon-winds-and-pokemon-waves-coming-to-nintendo-switch-2

https://x.com/SerebiiNet/status/2027436478591103269?s=20

https://serebii.net/news/2026/27-February-2026.shtml

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/features/pokemon-pokopia/