Tabletop Simulator developer Berserk Games has announced big changes coming this year, with "a series of major updates that we will be releasing for free with the goal of modernizing Tabletop Simulator and setting up the platform for success over the coming decade and beyond."

Version 2.0 of the popular virtual tabletop will include a significant overhaul of the interface, making it easier to play and more Steam Deck-friendly. We'll be able to switch between a "Play Mode" that is "designed to streamline gameplay and make the playing experience less cluttered and confusing" and an "Edit Mode" for "creators and power users who want expansive control over their creative process."

So far, so good. It's also hard to quibble with promises to improve the performance, graphics, online stability, and VR support. Some players aren't so impressed by the promise to implement a Creator Marketplace for user-generated content, which is to say: paid mods.

While you can buy DLC to play games like Zombicide in Tabletop Simulator, the Steam Workshop is where the real action is. It's full of unofficial mods recreating games like Uno and Settlers of Catan, as well as resources like D&D miniatures, all of which are available for free. The addition of a Creator Marketplace will, Berserk Games says, "expand the library of available Tabletop Simulator content without interfering with existing free Steam Workshop submissions."

Not everyone believes that promise, which is why the Steam comments are the way Steam comments usually are, and on the subreddit there's a doompost declaring that Tabletop Simulator is enshittifying into a Roblox-style marketplace. If modders are encouraged to monetize their work, the hypothesis goes, it'll draw the litigious attention of more board game publishers and that'll be it for unlicensed mods that let us play Advanced Heroquest or whatever. Sounds a bit cynical to me, but so does about 90% of what people post to Reddit.

Interactive superhero show Dispatch was a critical success, receiving a healthy 89% in PC Gamer's review, and now we've learned it was a commercial success, too, selling over 3 million copies in 2025.

That figure comes from an animated infographic AdHoc Studio posted on Bluesky earlier today, which is festooned with all sorts of stats (fair warning, it spoils some choices you'll be faced with in-game). According to the studio, players answered 727 million calls, dispatched over 1 billion heroes, and watched an estimated 23 million hours of gameplay on YouTube and Twitch.

💾 Clocking out on 2025🎆 HAPPY NEW YEAR! 🎆

— @adhocstudio.com (@adhocstudio.com.bsky.social) 2026-01-01T19:03:22.790Z

That's all well and good, but I'm here for the funny tidbits—like how only around 164,000 players got through the game without falling for anyone. Nearly 2 million players romanced Invisigal and another million romanced Blazer, so maybe Baldur's Gate had the right idea with how, erm, eager its cast was to win the player's heart over. Videogame romance remains popular as ever, regardless of what you might hear elsewhere.

Funnily enough, Dispatch itself was almost even saucier than it turned out to be, with "some sex scenes" cut during development. In the end, I'm just glad it came out at all and did so well, given the arduous road its creators took getting it out the door.

This all reminds me that I need to play Dispatch myself before long. It seems like a worthy revival of the sort of interactive adventure game Telltale was king of back in its heyday, and as Fraser mentioned in his above review, it has "rizz for days." That's the sort of endorsement I can get behind!