Retro XP is moving

Goodbye to Substack, hello to Beehiiv

It’s a long overdue move that was delayed for multiple reasons — a loss of freelance work that could help pay for it, a lack of viable newsletter options to make up for that loss of work — but Retro XP is finally leaving Substack behind. This publication isn’t stopping at all, though, as it’s simply moving over to Beehiiv. The address is the same as it was, except swap .beehiiv for .substack, leaving you with retroxp.beehiiv.com. The archive here will remain up, so as not to create deadlinks all over the place, but all the pieces that published here in the last five years have already been transferred over to the new location.

So, if you were recommended this newsletter from elsewhere and find yourself looking at this final post, you’ll want to head over to the new home of Retro XP at Beehiiv to subscribe instead. If you were already subscribed, then your email has been imported over, so you don’t have to do anything new or different in order to receive those emails going forward. If you happen to notice that you aren’t receiving the emails, though, then please let me know, or attempt to subscribe directly over at the Beehiiv address, just in case something wonky went down in the transition process.

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If you care about the why behind the exit, here you go: Substack has long had an issue as a home for political extremists on the far right, transphobes, and fascists, and that’s the reason I wanted out, but again, leaving was an issue when alternatives were going to cost money I didn’t have. Between Substack’s recent partnership with Bari Weiss’ Free Press and discovering that Beehiiv has a free tier that fits my audience size a la Substack, it was time to finally pull the trigger, though, so I have.

You might have noticed that Retro XP has been free to read here, despite my mentioning a need for some additional funding to move off of Substack. That was intentional — Retro XP will remain free to read, now and as long as it exists, but I might at least open up the ability for paid subscriptions that exist more as donations, tips, what have you, rather than to put up a paywall and lock anyone out of what I write. The reason for that move would be that Substack would no longer be in line to get a cut of any money coming from readers — it was important to me that this didn’t happen, given that they do things like use that money for partnerships with the likes of Bari Weiss, but as it’s no longer a concern, I should be able to eventually open up that option for those who are willing and able to help keep me in a position to write this thing at all.

Thank you for your patience, both here in reading this explanation, and with the transition to Beehiiv, and for those of you who have been waiting for me to leave here for the same reasons I wanted out. Wanting to leave was easy, but being able to actually do so was more difficult. I’m glad that it’s now something I’m able to do.

This newsletter is free for anyone to read, but if you’d like to support my ability to continue writing, you can become a Patreon supporter, or donate to my Ko-fi to fund future game coverage at Retro XP.