Why we’re going back to the games of our youth

As millennials return to the games of their youth, remakes of Star Fox and Halo suggest there is still plenty to learn from the past • Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here As much as some people more or less cease to listen to new mu

The Guardian|Wed, 12 August 2026 at 14:00

As millennials return to the games of their youth, remakes of Star Fox and Halo suggest there is still plenty to learn from the past

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As much as some people more or less cease to listen to new music in their 30s , I have noticed a retreat to safe, familiar gaming territory among some of my fellow millennial gamers.

Retro collections are started, or resumed; jewel-cases of PS1 classics or cardboard boxes with SNES or Mega Drive games have started to colonise the living-room shelves. People are replaying things from their university days, or sticking to comfort games such as Stardew Valley. Many of the friends I used to game with never bothered to pick up a PlayStation 5 at its launch, and now that current-generation consoles are becoming prohibitively expensive , they see no need. With thousands of great older games, why bother playing something new?

This summary was compiled from a public newswire feed. The original reporting is by The Guardian and remains their copyright — read it at the source.