It’s been a year.  But not all in a bad way!

I was laid off at the end of September… but it was the kind of layoff where you get a huge severance package and where “getting back to work” was not an immediate priority.  I’ll be looking for something probably in January.

In the meantime, I have been doing a massive cull of hardware.  I had …an uncomfortable number of surplus PCs and Macs that were being used as test boxes and for duplicating customer scenarios.  I don’t have them anymore.   I still have, mmm, 3 PCs and 2 Macs and I recognize that there is still room for reduction there.

I also got rid of my Xbox Series X and have the PS5 disconnected and ready to go to GameStop.  We still have three Switches, two Vitas, an Xbox 360, a PS3, a PSP and a 3DS so it’s not like we don’t still have entirely too many dedicated gaming systems around, but this will be the first time in nearly 30 years that I have not owned either the current Xbox OR the current PlayStation or (more commonly) both at the same time.

This is only possible because so many games have come to PC.  In fact, that’s why I still have the 360 and PS3 – there are a lot of games from that generation that are stuck on those hardware platforms.  I probably should go through and see whether I can get rid of some of the remaining systems via emulation.  I think Xbox 360 emulation is still rather behind the curve, but the rest of the systems may be feasible.

Interestingly, a number of Xbox games turned out to have come with PC licenses – games like Gotham Knights, or Mortal Kombat 11, or the Ninja Gaiden collection.  I initially thought this was because they were GamePass titles, but it’s been a couple of weeks since my GamePass subscription lapsed, and I still have them.

I had a mild burst of annoyance when I watched the Genshin Impact 5.2 preview program and they mentioned that there would be a special wind glider given away to people for playing on the Xbox, but they have since clarified that this will be available via other platforms as of 5.3.

Anyway, I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress in just the last couple of months.  Maybe I’ll even hold on to this momentum for a while.