Pushing Buttons: If Twitter breaks down, the games industry won’t ever be the same

Plenty of games have found real-world success through viral fame on the platform. But can gaming Twitter survive Elon Musk?

The End Days of Twitter have provided plenty of entertainment lately - not least someone using Elon Musk's new paid-for checkmark system to impersonate Nintendo of America and tweet a picture of Mario flipping the bird. But the chaos that has enveloped the funniest and most infuriating social media platform of them all is also causing consternation for game artists, developers and marketers, many of whom view it as integral to their careers. Very Online millennials make up a huge proportion of the video game workforce, and plenty of us have been networking and snarking on Twitter for our entire careers. If the platform either goes away or changes beyond recognition, it will affect the games industry and how it socialises.

Plenty of games have found real-world success through viral Twitter fame. Trombone Champ is only the latest example, elevated from the crowded field of weekly Steam releases with a tweet shared by PC Gamer. Untitled Goose Game - the beloved comedy game about a foul fowl - also picked up a huge audience there. And Cult of the Lamb is another recent game that owes at least some of its success to developers and fans' clever use of Twitter: it's the modern version of word-of-mouth. I have discovered countless games from seeing interesting clips on Twitter. It's where I first saw the Bafta-winning Unpacking. It's also where many journalists, streamers and publisher talent scouts hear about forthcoming games, and where players go to find out what's generating buzz.