We’re looking for even more feedback on Siliconera, what you want to see from the site, and just things in general that you enjoy! We’ve started up a whole new survey so we can get your thoughts. Our goal is to constantly build on the site’s foundation to continue to make it (and our newsletter) bigger, better, and more able to cover everything you like! 

With this latest survey, we hope to get your insights about the site and things you like to check out online. That means answering a handful of questions about topics that matter to you. If you could please spare 5-10 minutes of your time, we’d really appreciate it! And in the end, your responses could really make a difference!

Thanks you all for visiting Siliconera and taking the time to fill out this survey. 

The post Shape Siliconera by Taking Our New Survey appeared first on Siliconera.

Been reading Siliconera for a while and have thoughts on the site, our newsletter, and what you’d like to see us do in the future? Well, we’d like to know what you’d think about us! Our Siliconera survey is live, and we’re hoping you’ll take part to help us learn more about what you’re interested in and enjoy.

We’re constantly aiming to make Siliconera a better and stronger site to visit, and that means checking in with our community to ensure we’re on the right track. Our survey consists of 15 critical questions that will shape not only our newsletter, but build up Siliconera itself! Could you please take 5-10 minutes to make your voice heard? We care about what you think, and really want to know more about you!

Thanks so much for being a Siliconera reader and for your time! Here’s hoping we all have a fantastic 2025!

The post Share Your Thoughts on Siliconera by Taking Our Survey appeared first on Siliconera.

Love Siliconera? Want to keep up with everything, see games we recommend above all others, and get an exclusive article every week? Want to also get a Switch? Now those points aren’t mutually exclusive. To help celebrate the launch of our Siliconera Speaks Up Newsletter, we’re running a contest to win a 64GB Switch OLED if you are already a member or are just joining it. Update: Our contest is over, and the winner has been contacted. Check your inbox to see if you won!

Here’s how it works. Sign up for our newsletter. Then, you can enter our contest for your chance to win a Switch. You can enter with your email for one entry, and it’s possible to earn additional entries as well! On January 31, 2025, we’ll pick one winner to get the console. This contest is open to everyone worldwide, though it is void where prohibited by law. You must be 18 or older to enter. You can read the full Terms & Conditions of the giveaway in the Gleam.io embed below.

You can sign up for Siliconera Speaks Up and enter our contest here:

Nintendo Switch

Good luck, and we hope you enjoy the Siliconera weekly newsletter! Every Friday, you’ll get an email with an exclusive article, the biggest recent news stories, things you won’t want to miss, a growing list of our most recommended games, and reminders of big game releases and updates coming up soon!

The post Subscribe to Siliconera’s Newsletter for a Chance to Win a Switch appeared first on Siliconera.

We’re pleased to announce that Siliconera offers its own free email newsletter. Every week, you can get one installment of Siliconera Speaks Up in your inbox and catch up with all the gaming news, reviews, and features you might have missed during the week. 

What can you expect? Good question! Primarily, this will be a way to help you catch up with something important you might have missed. We’ll curate a list of our most popular articles of the week, so you won’t miss out on major announcements and news stories. Did a big game drop? Links to our reviews will be there in case you want more insight into the title before making the plunge. 

Each week, there will also be an exclusive feature found only in our newsletter for subscribers. So if you sign up for the Siliconera Speaks Up newsletter, you’ll get an extra article to read in your email that won’t appear anywhere else. 

Finally, at the end of every newsletter we’ll name a few games (or game updates) coming up in the next few days. That way, you’ll never miss out on a possible title.

Here’s how you sign up:

We can't wait to talk about all of our favorite games and share the latest news with you!

The post Sign Up for the Free Siliconera Speaks Up Newsletter appeared first on Siliconera.

Greetings, everyone!

Every year at Siliconera as of late, we've been offering up surveys to help get feedback on the site. The goal is to help determine coverage spheres, see what people might (or might not) want, and generally find out what we should also consider doing or changing. Well, that time of year is here again.

Here's our latest Siliconera survey, and we would appreciate people filling it out. Topics include the site proper, game coverage, possible other topics people might want to occasionally read about, and thoughts on our current or possible video content.

Thank you for your time!

The post Siliconera 2022 Site Feedback Survey is Live appeared first on Siliconera.

Siliconera now has its own TikTok channel and Snapchat show. On both, you can see clips from some notable Vtuber segments around the web. On Snapchat, you can catch our series and see a weekly episode with a few special segments. On TikTok, each short segment highlights a notable moment during others streams.

Want to follow along? You can already see some of our videos now!

Here's how you can follow us on Snapchat:

You can also tune in on TikTok.

The post Siliconera Snapchat and TikTok are Live appeared first on Siliconera.

Hi, everyone!

Just wanted to let people know we’re in the process of moving to a new host today. This means things might be a bit weird. Tech is handling things, and we aren’t expecting any issues.

However, we wanted to let everyone know in the event anything does happen. (And not have anyone worried that this might be some bad April Fools’ joke.)

We are expecting everything to be completed within the next few hours. Also, following the move, our search function will return.

Hope you all have a good day!

The post Pardon Our Dust as Siliconera Moves appeared first on Siliconera.

We want to make sure we're properly serving our community. What would you like to see more of from us? Is there a sort of content we aren't offering that you would enjoy? Please take our survey and let us know what you think.

Thank you for your time! Hope you have a lovely day!

The post What Would You Like to See at Siliconera? appeared first on Siliconera.

2020 has been something of a transformative year for everyone at Siliconera. We joined the Enthusiast Gaming family and merged with Japanator. Our content expanded, bringing scored reviews to the site for the first time. Forums were brought online as another outlet for the community to come together and expand on discussions from our news posts and other featured content.

It's no secret that Disqus has been experiencing a lot of issues lately. There have been plenty of days where it just doesn't seem to be working. Sometimes the timecode is out of sync and trying to reply to comments is impossible. Other days, it flat out goes down for hours. Going forward, we have made the decision to close Open Thread in hopes that we see fewer Disqus errors.

What does this mean for our Open Thread users? On January 1, 2021 we will be permanently closing Open Thread. This is a difficult decision, as we know there are quite a few members of our community who visit OT. We ask that you utilize the forums and our Discord server instead. Please use this month to explore and settle in with our community platforms. Start a thread, share your art, tell us about your 2020 Game of the Year picks. We can't wait to see you there.

The post So Long and Thanks For All the Posts, Open Thread appeared first on Siliconera.

Hi, everyone!

Today, we’re introducing a new, optional feature for our readers that will hopefully make browsing our articles easier for you and help support (i.e., pay) our writers and staff. Siliconera+ is a way to read and visit without having to deal with any sorts of ads.

We’re kicking things off with one tier and option. For $1.99 per month (or $19.99 per year), you’ll have an ad-free experience on the site.

However, we are working to offer additional options for visitors. We’ve taken input from surveys into consideration. Based on your feedback, we’ll offer two additional tiers with things like an email newsletter which goes over important stories and includes original articles, discounts at some stores, and opportunities to help choose which games we’ll stream and playtest. (To be clear, this would not influence which news stories we cover. People at higher tiers would only be able to help vote on which games we would stream for you or if we go out of our way to playtest certain games.)

We thank you in advance for your support and want to keep trying our best to provide the most up-to-date gaming news from Japan. We have great things planned, like more streams and our newly launched forums.

Thank you for reading!

The post Introducing Siliconera+ appeared first on Siliconera.

Hello there, Siliconera community! It's Annette, your friendly social media manager here to ask a quick favor from you all.

As you all know, the staff work hard every day to make Siliconera the best place for you to find your gaming news. So it should come as no surprise that we are always talking about ways we can improve your time here.

One of the discussions we've had lately revolves around offering an ad-free viewing experience for a low monthly fee. We get it. Ads are not our favorite thing either, but that is how we pay our staff and keep the lights going in our secret internet bunker. If you have a few minutes to take this survey for us to give us an idea of what we might be able to offer as part of a "premium" Siliconera service, that would be very helpful and we would really appreciate it.

If you have any questions regarding the survey, feel free to ask them below. I will do my best to answer them for you.

The post Siliconera Potential Paid Membership Feedback Survey appeared first on Siliconera.

Hi, everyone! Siliconera is adding a new type of article. Every once in a while, for major releases relevant to the site, we’ll be conducting scored reviews.

So, what does this mean?

How often will we see Siliconera reviews?

Siliconera will remain 90-95% news, with about one feature each day. That feature could be an interview, a playtest or a review.

Reviews will not appear at the same frequency as interviews or playtests. There will never be more than one review per week.

A game could get a review, then also get more focused playtests in the form of guides or closer looks at more specific parts of a game. However, a playtested game might not get reviews.

How will Siliconera get review copies?

Review copies, unless noted, are provided by the game's publisher or developer. However, there will be no undue influence on reviews. In addition, we will not conduct any playtests or reviews on games for which there is a conflict of interest.

At the end of every review, we will also fully disclose whether we received a review copy.

What will Siliconera’s review scale look like?

Siliconera will have a ten-point review scale with no halves or decimal points.

1. A score of 1 means that a game is completely broken, to the point that it is unplayable.
2. A score of 2 means that a game may work and not be broken, but there are points where it is irredeemable and not worth playing.
3. A score of 3 means that a game probably has one interesting aspect. Maybe the soundtrack has some real bangers. There could be one character with an interesting arc.
4. A score of 4 means we are looking at a game that, if the price is cheap enough, could be worth it. It probably isn’t great. It is very likely tedious. There could be an okay story or maybe there’s an interesting skill tree system. It is worth acknowledging, but maybe not owning.
5. A score of 5 means we’re looking at an average game. It won’t be earth-shattering, but it works and can sometimes be fun. Especially if you like its genre or someone involved with its development.
6. A score of 6 means that the game might be really appealing to someone who likes that developer, genre, composer or artist. But it won’t be perfect, and people who don’t have some sort of connection going in might not be feeling it.
7. A score of 7 is considered good. It might not be on entirely solid footing, but it’s a game that will be of interest to fans of the genre and maybe have something that catches the eye of people interested in similar genres.
8. A score of 8 means we absolutely recommend it. Even if you don’t like the genre, you might really like it! Things really come together, and there’s not just one element that’s special. The whole game is great.
9. A score of 9 is a fantastic game. If you own the system it is on, you should own the game. It might even do something special for the genre as a whole. If you get it, even if you normally don’t like that kind of game, you will very likely have a good time.
10. A score of 10 is a game everyone should play. If you don’t have a system it is on, you should consider getting that system. It does something important and notable for the genre. It might need a patch or two, as games don't need to be totally perfect to achieve this core, but it is otherwise remarkable.

What happens if a major patch or update is released that significantly changes a game?

Should there be a major change, Siliconera will have a follow-up playtest going over the alterations. If it is enough to merit a review score change, we will add a paragraph to the review explaining the updates, assign a new score and offer a link to the playtest update going over the changes.

The post The Official Siliconera Review Guide appeared first on Siliconera.

Hi, everyone! Just wanted to alert you all to Siliconera's latest game giveaway on Twitter. Until March 20, 2020, people have a chance to acquire a Granblue Fantasy Versus PC key. Our friends at XSEED Games have given us three Steam keys for the fighter from Arc System Works and CyGames based upon the mobile game.

So, how do you register to possibly get one of those three copies? Well, all you have to do is follow us on Twitter. Then, you have to like and retweet the following tweet. If you do, you'll be entered and could be one of the three people who will get a Steam copy of the game. (The winners will be DMed the code, so please keep your DMs open and wait for us to message you if you are picked as a winner!)

Need new friends to keep you company? Our friends at XSEED Games have given us codes to share with you! You could win 1 of 3 Granblue Fantasy Versus PC codes by entering.
1. Follow @siliconera
2. Like and RT this tweet.
Winners will be picked on March 20, 2020. pic.twitter.com/lZ7kk7WFfD

— Siliconera (@siliconera) March 17, 2020

Granblue Fantasy Versus PC and PlayStation 4 versions are immediately available worldwide. And don't forget that Zooey was recently revealed as a future DLC character!

The post Don’t Forget to Take Part in Siliconera’s Granblue Fantasy Versus PC Twitter Giveaway appeared first on Siliconera.

Hi, everyone!

Siliconera is going to be updating its logo! Our community's opinion is super important to us, so we wanted to run some early-stage options by you. While we want to involve everyone in the process, please understanding that design by committee isn't the ideal way to make a firm design and we're going to try to make some sane compromises based on your feedback.

In terms of creative direction, we wanted to preserve some part of the dinosaurs and joystick that have been an iconic part of our image since 2003, as well as incorporate elements of the site we just merged with, Japanator.  We have three in-progress candidates so far. Two adopt variants of the  Japanator mascot, Ai-Fi, into the design, while one sticks with the two dinosaurs who have been with us over the years.

So now, we ask you to please weigh in on the designs we have so far. We may share other earlier doodles in the comments, so keep an eye out! The final product may be slightly different, as we're still gathering internal feedback as well.

Feeling extra creative?  Feel free to post your own design ideas in the comments as well. We'd love to see your remixes.

Also, to help give you a better idea of how things could look, here's a gallery showing all of these images in-action.

[gallery size="medium" ids="827011,827010,827009" link="file"]

Thank you in advance for your help, and please feel free to let us know more of your thoughts in the comments!

The post Help Siliconera Pick Our New Logo appeared first on Siliconera.

Greetings, everyone!

We are about to head into a new era… a Siliconera, if you will. Siliconera and Japanator are teaming up. All of the news and features you’d expect from Japanator are going to find a new home at Siliconera, where we’ll all work together to talk about our passion for Japanese games and culture. Now that we’re both part of the same network, we feel like it’s only natural to perform a Fusion Dance and team up.

Don’t think of this as a goodbye. Think of this as a “We’re moving down the street.” The people you know and love from Japanator will all still be here. We’re just all coming together as one community.

Siliconera and Japanator BFFAQS

Hold on! What’s Japanator?!

We’re glad you asked! Japanator is a Japanese culture blog that focuses mainly on anime, Japanese film and music, and Japanese gaming, and currently hosts writers Christian Chiok, Red Veron, and Josh Tolentino. Japanator hosts cosplay galleries, seasonal anime previews, weekly recaps and reviews, and features and interviews with creators. After a few years and much deliberation, we’ve decided that coming together with Siliconera is the best way forward for both sites.

What will happen with Japanator’s Christian, Josh, and Red?

You’ll now start seeing them appearing on Siliconera, ideally! We’re working out the details, but expect to begin seeing stories from them in the near future.

Will we still see insights into Japanese life and culture?

Indeed you will! Since Siliconera is focused on video games, you’ll occasionally see news stories like “Check Out a Day in the Life of a Manga Author” or “Japanator Exclusive: An Interview with TRUE” appearing on the weekends.

I come to Siliconera for video game news, not stories about anime, cosplay, and Japanese pop music. What does this mean for me?

As always, we’re going to do our best to make sure any supplemental stories have a connection to video games. For example, if we did a news story about a mangaka, it would be one who has helped contribute to a game or whose series has been turned into a game. If we did an interview with a Japanese musician, it would be one whose music appeared in games.

Japanator did reviews and Siliconera does playtests. What will happen here?

At Siliconera, we do playtests instead of reviews so we can better express our passion for games and keep coming back to certain elements of them we consider important. (Plus, we feel there are times when even a “bad” game can have something good about it, and we’d like to try and remain passionate and positive about them!) So going forward, you’ll be seeing only playtests and not reviews.

Who do I contact if I have any concerns/questions about this?

Our comments are open, so please let us know. In addition, you can reach us at tips@siliconera.com.

We’re really excited to come together like this, and we hope everyone can join together to celebrate things they love about Japanese games and pop culture!

The post Siliconera and Japanator Are Teaming Up appeared first on Siliconera.