The Video Game Library Newsletter - Vol. #055

Welcome back to The Video Game Library Newsletter!

First off, a huge THANK YOU. We’ve officially passed 5,000 subscribers to the newsletter, which is honestly wild to think about. What started as a very niche little attempt to track video game books has grown into a weekly resource for thousands of readers, collectors, researchers, publishers, authors and fans. I’m incredibly grateful that so many of you are here for it.

And thanks to the influx of paid subscribers and Ko-Fi contributors who’ve joined the community! It’s been a lot of fun to get to know you guys!

And this week, you are getting another MASSIVE newsletter.

After a packed fortnight of announcements and releases, we have a huge lineup of 60 books to cover across art books, comics, manga, magazines, academic books, strategy guides, activity books, collector’s-edition extras and plenty of regional surprises. Final Fantasy, Stardew Valley, SNK, Capcom, Sonic, Tomb Raider, Minecraft, God of War, Dragon Quest, Animal Crossing and many, many more all make appearances this time around.

Behind the scenes, it’s also been a huge week of cataloguing for The Video Game Library itself. More than 200 books have been catalogued since the last newsletter, including major work on Dragon Quest, Mario manga, obscure strategy guides, Thai Pokémon activity books, Command & Conquer guides, Zelda material, wrestling guides and more. As always, the volunteer team has been doing amazing work helping expand the archive in directions I never could’ve tackled alone.

This week’s Spotlight is a great literary homage to the Video Game Advertisements of yesteryear.

My gaming time, meanwhile, has mostly been spent playing Lunar: The Silver Star Story Complete alongside the Cartridge Club this month. This is only slightly interfering with my website/newsletter commitments. What an awesome game though!

On the less fun side, I’m still seeing more and more AI-generated video game books flood into online stores. Had a new trilogy of Italian books that looked really cool, but alas, AI slop.

Lots to get through this week, and I hope you’re able to support and come along for the ride! It helps keep the project independent, ad-free, and free to focus on celebrating the HUMANS behind these books.

Now, let’s dive into another enormous roundup of releases around the world!