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With Nintendo ending Twitter integration for posting Switch screenshots today, we thought it might be worth taking a closer look at one of the alternative micro-blogging apps which have popped up over the last few years and highlight a few great game-related accounts that are worth following.

After an extended period when new users required an invite code, Bluesky opened its doors up to anyone who fancied registering earlier this year. You may be toying with the idea of signing up, if you haven't migrated already, or perhaps you're just hedging your bets with preparatory accounts on Threads, Mastodon, and the like, should The Website Formerly Known As Twitter disappear one day.

At the time of writing, Bluesky is certainly a lot smaller, but it's also the closest to Twitter, look-and-feel-wise. It's seen a huge influx of users in recent months, including gaming industry and media figures from across the globe who are searching for a community with fewer bots, bother, and crypto bros.

We've picked out a handful of gaming-related accounts that we think are worth a follow — people who tweet skeet (yeah, we're not really down with that unofficial lingo, either) interesting, game-related stuff and tend to keep things positive. You'll find a mix of industry individuals, developer/publisher teams, games media people, and podcasters. You may well be following some of these elsewhere, but we wanted to give them a Bluesky signal boost and highlight that more and more gaming people are enjoying the blue hue. And now you can post gifs and send DMs and everything.

We're still on Twitter, of course — it's still filled with lovely people, it's just harder than ever to see them through everything else being thrown onto your feed. You can find the doomscroll discourse on Bluesky if you go looking for it (and the gaming news right now can be bleak), but we're here today to focus on stuff that makes us smile rather than cry.

We'll include each account's bio description, and you can click on the headers to check them out yourself.

Onwards, alphabetically!

Note. We should flag up top that you'll find several accounts here for podcasts we love with feeds which aren't hugely active beyond new episode notifications. The podcasts are great, though, so you'll forgive us, won't you?... You won't!? Complaints to the usual address.

Also, let us know in the comments if you've got other recommendations — we'd like to add to this list over time and build up a repository of lovely people.

8-4 Play

8-4 is a Tokyo-based localisation firm responsible for some of the best work in the field, with a rich history of Nintendo work under its belt, too. If you enjoyed games like NieR: Automata, Fire Emblem: Awakening, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Unicorn Overlord, and Dragon's Dogma, you've got these folks to thank for the sparkling localisation. The podcast occasionally touches on the company's work, but usually it's discussions on recent releases and gaming news with a Japanese perspective. All of the participants and guests are worth following — give the 'cast a listen for their handles.

While we may lament the demise of E3, far and away the biggest casualty was 8-4's E3 Hype Train episodes. Even without that annual choo-choo pick-me-up, this is one of the best gaming podcasts out there.

Every other week, tune in to 8-4 Play for talk about Japan, video games, and Japanese video games, straight from the 8-4 offices in beautiful downtown Tokyo.

Akfamilyhome

We'll go out on a limb and assume you like cool Nintendo stuff, in which case Akfamilyhome delivers with neat Nintendo-related videos and general good chat and cheer.

Also, if you're looking to part with a copy of Waterworld on Virtual Boy, you know who to contact.

Video maker, Nintendo collector, occasional artist. It's 'A-K', not 'ack'.

Before Mario

The Before Mario blog has always been great for Nintendistas intrigued by the history of the company, and this account covers it, as it does on Twitter.

Blog and book about Nintendo toys and games from 1889 to the early 1980s; from before Mario.
(+ occasional transgression into things more recent)

Capcom Official / Artworks II

Does what it says on the tin — an official account that posts Capcom artwork, as on Twitter. What's not to like?

Hello there! This is the official account of the Capcom Artwork Team.

Digital Eclipse

Home to Mike Mika, Chris Kohler, Drew Scanlon, and many other fine people, this studio was recently acquired by Atari and is producing some of the most exciting software anywhere — especially for lovers of retro and anyone interested in gaming history and preservation. That be us. And almost certainly you, too.

We give gaming's history the respect it deserves. Devs of the Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story, Wizardry: PGMO, Atari 50, TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection, The Making of Karateka, the Gold Master Series, DE Arcade & more. Visit us at digitaleclipse.com!

Gaming Alexandria

Loads of great retro gaming material and peripheral treats from the folks at Gaming Alexandria. If you're not the sort of person who enjoys hi-res scans of Adventures of Lolo Famicom box art...why are you even here!?

Official bsky account for Gaming Alexandria. Website dedicated to preserving video games.

Hidetaka Suehiro (SWERY)

The Deadly Premonition director and White Owls CEO posts in English on various topics, including games, films, cats, and single malts.

CEO of White Owls Inc.
I'm creating unique, spirited work based on the slogan: From Osaka to all of YOU around the world!

Jeff Gerstmann (The Jeff Gerstmann Show)

A veteran games journalist from the '90s and co-founder of Giant Bomb, Jeff left GB a couple of years back and has been helming his eponymous show ever since. Covering recent releases, retro developments, and news, he makes commanding a mic solo for multiple hours look incredibly easy. Check him out for informed opinions, retro love, an enormous and ongoing ranked NES game list, and the very hottest of takes on all the video games (and the wrestling and the energy drinks).

I have been on the internet since 1992, send help

Jeremy Parish

A retro-focused ex-games journo (and indeed a Retronaut — also on Bluesky), Jeremy Parish will be familiar to anyone with an interest in old-school Nintendo. He's currently over at Limited Run heading up their print output, so if you're after intelligent chat on a variety of gaming topics (check out his excellent Video Works series while you're at it), he's a refined fellow and refined follow.

Also an authority on good gin.

Retronauts Co-Host, NES Works Producer, Limited Run Book Guy, and Occasional Human. Did not invent the word "Metroidvania." He/him.

Julian "Jaz" Rignall

C'mon, it's Jaz Rignall, people — godfather of British games journalism and a stand-up chap to boot. You should be following JR already.

Playing video games since 1976.
Writing about them since 1983.

Kimimi (Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster)

Kimimi has been writing excellent deep dives on games across all platforms (really, all the platforms) for many years now as a contributor to a bunch of gaming sites (including this one). Her site Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster is a vast treasure trove of work — from long reads to very long reads — that's a pleasure to dip into with a coffee, whether you're into games old or new.

Yep, *that* Kimimi. Hi and/or sorry
She/they 🏳️‍🌈
Freelance writer - hire me!
Contributing writer @ PC Gamer
Come smother yourself in rare/retro/rareretro/weird/normal/enthusiastic gaming goodness.

Necrosoft Games

The Demonschool devs and home of Brandon Sheffield, we're very much looking forward to their next game, which finally got a Friday 13th September release date at the weekend. Following them on Bluesky was a substitute for when we weren't staring at our PR inbox hoping for release date news.

Necrosoft Games makes tiny entertainments for your fun receptacles. Hyper Gunsport out now! Demonschool out 2024.

Now for some shameless self-promotion...

Nintendo Life, of course

Pff, what shills! Yes, we joined Bluesky a while back, so you're able to find all Nintendo Life stories on our feed there, too, along with our friends over at Push Square, Pure Xbox, and Time Extension.

Loads of gaming goodness, whatever your platform preference, from an assortment of lovely people. A fine place to start, we'd say. Objectively speaking, the best video game websites in existence, we'd say. A dastardly attractive and intelligent editorial team, we'd say. Informed, insightful, incred—what's that? You agree!? What a lovely person you are.

The latest Nintendo Switch news, reviews and videos. We are the most visited #Nintendo site in the world.

Let's take a look at some more.

Masahiro Sakurai (Smash guru)

Yes, Sakurai-san is on Bluesky, too, with 39.3k followers at the time of writing. All his gaming stuff, natch, plus a dollop of sweetness now and then.

Sora Representative Game Designer/Game Director
Kirby, Super Smash Bros., etc.
I made an account for now!*

(*via Google Translate)

SEGA Japan

This official account is up and running if you've gotta get your blue-sky gaming news fast.

[Creation is life] Four people in charge will widely report on the news of SEGA, which continues to create moving experiences such as games, events, goods, etc., and the situation inside SEGA.*

(*via Google Translate)

Shinya Kumazaki (Kirby Director)

HAL's Shinya Kumazaki has loads of great Kirby and general gaming-related posts and is well worth a follow.

Kirby Series／General Director
Game Designer
[🎮Everyday life and daily photos. I mainly reply to acquaintances.]*
[🙏We cannot answer questions about our products.]*
cat／dog／game／draw／hobby

(*via Google Translate)

Simon Parkin (My Perfect Console)

A familiar name in video game (and much wider) journalism for many years now, writer Simon Parkin's My Perfect Console podcast has been a real treat since launching in 2023. 'Desert Island Discs, but for games' is a reductive description, but it gets you in the ballpark. His guests come from different fields, not just game dev, and some of the best episodes feature people you've never heard of. Throw in some game choices which may well expand your genre horizons and it's an essential listen.

Simon himself admits that he's not lightening on social media and his Bluesky bio is a tad succinct ("Author and journalist"), so let's add his description of My Perfect Console below instead.

In My Perfect Console, Simon Parkin, award-winning writer for the New Yorker and The Observer newspaper's video game critic invites a well-known guest from the worlds of gaming, film and television, music, comedy and more to pick the five video games they would like to immortalise on their very own fictional games machine. They discuss those five games in chronological order of release, interspersed with biographical chat about the guest’s life and career –– a lens that often leads to new and unexpected insights.

Tokyo Game Life

A contributor to this here website, Tokyo Game Life's Bluesky account is always filled with Nintendo tidbits. with an accompanying podcast that makes good on discussing the topic of its title. If you're interested in Japan and games (but the 8-4 team's shocking dismissal of googly-eyed Rare games means an instant veto), what are you waiting for?

Tokyo based video game podcast focusing on Nintendo and gaming culture in Japan’s capital. Available on your favorite podcast app!

The Video Game History Foundation

Home of the excellent Frank Cifaldi, The Video Game History Foundation is worth supporting wherever you can find it. Not a huge amount of recent activity, but absolutely one you want to follow to show them you care.

Non-profit dedicated to preserving, celebrating, and teaching the history of video games.

Yuzo Koshiro

Video game composer extraordinaire. After a brief spell, Koshiro-san seems to have retreated to Twitter, so we're putting him here just because we need more of him and his stellar tunes on our feeds.

Video game music composer/enthusiast

Obviously, this is the tip of the iceberg, but the takeaway is that there are plenty of great gaming people — many of whom you'll have enjoyed following on Twitter for years — to catch up with on this newer platform.

You can still find us (and many of them) on Twitter, of course, but we wanted to give Bluesky a specific shoutout here in case you're looking to stretch your wings and expand your social outlook a little.

Frequently Asked Questions

Hang on, what's Bluesky?

Bluesky is a Twitter-like social networking website and app where you can post words and pictures in a similar manner.

Though a lot smaller than Twitter, Bluesky has become more popular recently. As of February 2024, when it opened up to users without a code invite, it has over five million users compared to Twitter's estimated 415 million, but many people have commented that the smaller community gives it an 'early-Twitter' feel.

And how do you sign up for Bluesky?

Just goes to bsky.app or download the Bluesky app, create an account, and boom, nothing but Bluesky will you see.

Is Nintendo on Bluesky?

Nintendo isn't currently on Bluesky, no.

Sega is there, but we all know that they do that Nintendon't.

What about Threads? What about Mastodon? What about...

Yeah, we'll see. Right now, we think that Bluesky is doing a better job of capturing the 'Old Twitter' feel, while Threads feels like Facebook squeezed into a vaguely Twitter-y format. And Mastodon is a whole other thing. But who can say what the future holds?

Are you on Bluesky? How have you been finding it? Got more great gaming recommendations for lovers of the world of Nintendo and beyond? We'd love to add to this list, so let us know below.