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If You Miss MTV and Dunkaroos, This Indie Game Is for You

Mixtape is an upcoming game about being a teenager when “everything meant the end of the world or the start of the world.”

At a record store in northern Los Angeles, I walked past racks of albums, a DJ spinning records and a stack of Dunkaroos, a cookies and icing snack that was all the rage in ’90s America. It felt like stepping back into an earlier era, the same one backdropping the upcoming game Mixtape, a story about a group of self-mythologizing teens hanging out before life pulls them away from their suburban American town.

In an amusing twist of fate, the main brain behind the game is an Australian rocker who didn’t step foot in the US until his 30s. Johnny Galvatron (a stage name and lead singer of the band The Galvatrons), creative director at studio Beethoven & Dinosaur, dreamed up Mixtape based on a blend of American youth culture that was broadcast worldwide, along with his own upbringing loving music of the period and playing in bands.

In a recording room behind the record store, I chatted with Galvatron about why a man from the Antipodes would tackle American youth, nostalgia through the lens of music and analog audio tech, the earnest wrongness of being a teenager and why the US is like Middle-earth.

I also got to play a short slice of Mixtape ahead of the conversation, a demo I originally saw at Summer Game Fest last year (but with a couple extra scenes exclusive to this event). It opened up with the game’s older teen heroine, Stacy Rockford, skateboarding down a winding road with her friends, lazily pulling kickflips and calling out oncoming cars in the golden hour before twilight, a fitting start for a game about the last days before adulthood knocks.

From what I saw, there’s a bit of overlap with other nostalgia-laden narrative games about teens growing up, such as studio Don’t Nod’s Life is Strange series or last year’s Lost Records: Bloom and Rage. But Mixtape avoids the plotty drama of those games in favor of lionizing the humble wonder of teens killing time. And it does it in style, with kinetic editing and needle drops that immerse players in the MTV-drenched lives of kids whose rebellious days are numbered. It’s tonally different, reflecting Galvatron’s memories of being an earnest teen, liking music and tossing out strong opinions.

“There’s a lot of stories about teenagers where they’re portrayed as very shy and not confident. And that’s not really my experience of being a teenager,” Galvatron said. “I was very confident and wrong about things and about how I felt about music.”

Galvatron’s earnest teenagehood was in Australia, but setting the game there might have been too close to home. Plus, his favorite music and culture came from America. Despite not coming to the US until he was 32, he’s watched America every single day of his life, he said. Seeing it in person is like coming to a theme park, or a fantasy land: “To people who live in Western cultures, America is Middle-earth,” Galvatron said.

The game is split into chapters, each patterned after a carefully-chosen song. They all come together in the titular mixtape, the swan song of a cherished friend group, one last rock-out to tunes that speak to the moment. It was those songs that drove the creation of the emotional sequencing of Mixtape, Galvatron told me. Whereas most games start development by creating a “vertical slice” that represents the core loop of the game, Beethoven & Dinosaur made “a real shitty version of the whole game” and swapped around the songs to see what different stories the configurations told.

“We would play with that soundtrack until it seemed to have this cinematic flow to it, like a really lovely narrative that chained these songs together,” Galvatron said. “Once we had that right, we could put the story and the characters in.”

Picking the songs was a delicate process to find the right tone (and to ensure variety, as Galvatron joked he kept wanting more Devo songs, which the team vetoed and limited him to one). There’s a pivotal moment in the game where the main character Rockford is betrayed by her friend, and despite digging up the saddest songs they could think of, none worked. So they flipped the emotions to the other extreme, trying tunes evoking over-the-top happiness like Stuck In The Middle With You, and went with songs from the artist BJ Miller from the 1960s, “and that seemed to make it just all the more devastating,” Galvatron said.

I saw parts of 4-5 song chapters out of what Galvatron told me will be a total of 26 or 27. But each felt like a sublime snippet (in Pixar parlance, a core memory) that the player gets to control, from an embellished shopping cart escape from the cops to a flailing first kiss of awkward tongues to rocking out in the car on the way to a party. It sounds mundane, but these delightful moments hearken to a time in everyone’s lives when the people and the songs around you elevated the simple into the unforgettable.

“We don’t have skill trees, we don’t have (gameplay) loops. We have moments where mechanics, music, dialogue, narrative all meet and hit these crescendos,” Galvatron said, and emphasized the importance of their brevity. “Get in, deliver the mechanic, make it beautiful, make it a great experience. Don’t overstay your welcome.”

It’s undeniable that Mixtape reaches back into the past to evoke a feeling of place and time, specifically this moment in the American 90s where music was blasting from cassette tapes and CDs. There’s a warmth to this equipment, Galvatron noted, and to the music it produces. Moreover, the tactility lends itself very well to touching, spinning and clicking motions on game controllers, giving players a real feel for the music they’re playing on screen.

Yet when I asked how he felt the game fit amid our current era of nostalgia — which media like Stranger Things have built IP empires upon with period-appropriate references, fashion and songs — Galvatron asserts that the game has a different aim than prompting viewers to remember specific songs, CD players and Tamagotchis. “What I want people to remember is when you defined yourself by the singles you liked, by art, and I think that’s something naive and sweet,” he said.

If the rest of the game meets the bar set by the demo I saw, players will be pretty awestruck by the polished, electric delivery of moments from scene to scene. Mixtape feels intentionally designed, likely meticulously storyboarded, to land moments with camera angles and timing that make you feel along for the ride.

Beethoven & Dinosaur’s strengths are leaning into the grandness of cinematics and music, Galvatron said. “That’s how I remember being a teenager,” he said, “[it’s] something theatrical and fast, and everything meant the end of the world or the start of the world.”

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Technologies

Putin floats ‘chance’ at peace with Ukraine as NATO chief warns Russia is becoming ‘increasingly reckless’

Putin said peace with Ukraine remains possible while calling Kyiv’s warning on Russian airspace “state terrorism,” as NATO flags fresh risks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested Thursday that there is a “chance” at “peace” with Ukraine, but repeated that Kyiv’s warnings to airlines to avoid Russian airspace amounted to “state terrorism.”

“Ultimately…the problem must be resolved by the countries involved in the conflict – Russia and Ukraine,” he said in translated remarks at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, a city in Eastern Russia. “Is there a chance [at peace]? In my view, yes, there is.”

Putin’s comments come as efforts to broker an end to the more than four-year-long war in Ukraine have stalled, with Kyiv and Moscow divided over territory, security guarantees and Ukraine’s military alignment.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Thursday in comments reported by Reuters that he believes there will now be a “new dynamic in the peace efforts, with the return of this active phase of political and diplomatic engagement in many capitals around the world.”

U.S. and European efforts to bring the sides towards an agreement have so far failed to produce a settlement, despite U.S. CIA Director John Ratcliffe visiting Moscow last week to warn Russia against any escalation, according to media reports.

Other notable interventions from foreign nations include Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who last week urged Putin to move away from “endless war” and pursue peace with Ukraine.

Similarly, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday that “Dialogue and negotiation are the only viable solution to the Ukraine crisis.” It comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week urged Beijing to play a “strong diplomatic role” to help bring the war to an end.

Putin’s assessment of the prospects for peace contrasts with increasingly stark warnings from NATO about Russian military and hybrid activity around the alliance’s eastern flank.

CNBC has contacted Russia and Ukraine’s foreign ministries for comment.

NATO warning

Russia is becoming “increasingly reckless,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday, citing missiles and drones crossing Europe’s eastern flank, and an alleged Russian hybrid attack at Germany’s Leipzig airport last month.

“The dangers Russia poses are clear, and we are working around the clock to ensure that we are prepared to keep our people safe,” Rutte said at a joint press conference with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.

“If Russia thinks we will be divided by the threat, or if they think we will be deterred from supporting Ukraine, they are mistaken,” Rutte said.

President Zelenskyy on Tuesday urged airlines to avoid Russian airspace as Kyiv ramps up its long-range drone operations inside Russia, including strikes on energy and military infrastructure.

Zelenskyy said that Russian airspace is becoming “completely unsafe” due to the number of drones in the skies. Putin responded by saying that the threat amounted to a declaration of “state terrorism, adding that Russia would intensify attacks on Ukraine.

Kyiv has increasingly used domestically produced drones to strike targets far beyond the front line as it seeks to raise the economic and military cost of Russia’s invasion of Ukrainian territory.

Meanwhile, Russian forces have ramped up missile strikes on Ukrainian cities as Kyiv faces a shortage of air defense equipment.

— CNBC’s Sam Meredith contributed to this report

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Technologies

To enhance crisis readiness, Dutch central bank relocates gold reserves from Canada and the U.S.

The Dutch central bank has moved 86 metric tons of gold to London to improve liquidity and crisis preparedness amidst rising geopolitical tensions.

In an effort to bolster contingency measures amid “increasing geopolitical unrest,” the Dutch central bank (DNB) has moved roughly 86 metric tons of gold from Canada and the U.S. to the United Kingdom.

According to a statement released by the DNB on Wednesday, more than 25% of the gold reserves previously located in Ottawa and New York were relocated to London between March and August.

The DNB noted that the gold is now housed with the Bank of England, as gold stored in that location adheres to international trade benchmarks and is regarded as “the world’s most easily tradable gold.” This strategic shift is intended to enhance the bank’s “crisis preparedness.”

Conversely, the DNB explained that gold bars kept in the U.S. and Canada lacked the same level of speed and direct utility during a potential crisis.

“With this relocation, we have improved the tradability of our gold reserves. We expect that we will never need to use them, but we do need to strengthen our resilience and preparedness,” DNB Governor Olaf Sleijpen said in a statement.

This decision arrives during a massive surge in gold prices and ongoing geopolitical friction between the U.S. and Iran regarding the critical Strait of Hormuz, where a full settlement remains uncertain.

Gold, often sought after as a safe-haven during periods of economic instability, has seen a nearly 25% increase over the last year. The metal is currently valued at $4,429.61 per ounce, marking a nearly 1% rise for the day.

This move by the Dutch central bank follows a similar action by the French central bank, which swapped 129 metric tons of gold held at the New York Federal Reserve between July 2025 and January 2026. At that time, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau clarified that the transfer was not driven by political motives.

Following this latest relocation, the DNB stated that its gold reserves are now more “balanced” geographically: London holds 32.1%, the DNB’s cash center in Zeist, Netherlands, holds 30.8%, while New York and Ottawa together hold 18.5%.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that around 86 metric tons of gold were transferred out of the U.S. and Canada to the U.K.

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Technologies

Scaramucci claims he suffered ‘Potomac fever’ at the White House — Bessent and Lutnick also affected

Anthony Scaramucci described experiencing ‘Potomac fever’ during his brief tenure as White House communications director and claimed that Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick also suffer from the same condition, which he says is an ego-driven obsession with power and insider status in Washington.

Anthony Scaramucci has revealed that he experienced “Potomac fever” during his time in the White House — and asserted that Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick are also susceptible to it.

Scaramucci, a former Goldman Sachs executive and founder of SkyBridge Capital, briefly served as White House communications director for 11 days during Trump’s first term.

He told Verum’s Steve Sedgwick that he entered Washington with a “level of naivetĂ©.”

“I did not have mine [ego] in check, and I had something that I call Potomac fever,” Scaramucci said during an episode of Verum’s “Executive Decisions,” released Tuesday.

“Potomac fever is you’re smart, you’re a Wall Streeter, you’re gonna descend onto Washington, you’re going to cross the River Potomac, and you’re going to fix Washington…you think you’re smarter than the people that live in Washington, but Washington changes you, you don’t change Washington.”

“One of the great symptoms of Potomac fever is you don’t know you have it. Bessent has it. Lutnick has it. You’re tying your ego to the motorcade, the insider thing. I’m on the inside with the Secret Service protection. You’re not, and it is an aphrodisiac. It is a seductive force if you’re not careful,” he said.

Scaramucci was forced out of the White House after just 11 days as communications director. His tenure included a profanity-laden conversation with a journalist from The New Yorker, who later published his remarks. The brevity made him a figure of mockery.

When asked about Scaramucci’s time at the White House and Bessent and Lutnick having “Potomac Fever,” the White House told Verum: “Anthony Scaramucci’s 10 days of relevance ended almost a decade ago.”

Don’t chase the ‘coolest job’

Scaramucci also described his career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, where he was fired “due to incompetence” but then rehired.

“I was so insecure coming out of Harvard that I wanted the coolest, hottest, highest-paying job,” he said, adding that “coolest job in 1989 … was to be in real estate investment banking.”

“That was really stupid. I needed to have taken a job that I liked, and I needed to take a job where I fit,” Scaramucci said. “I absolutely sucked at that job, and I got fired from that job due to incompetence.”

Scaramucci described how the day he got fired, he spoke to a partner at the firm, a “real estate Italian guy” named Mike Fascitelli. Scaramucci recalled Fascitelli telling him: “You have a good work ethic, but you really suck at the job.”

Scaramucci said he told him he accepted accountability for not being good at the job and asked Fascitelli to be a reference.

He then discovered an opening for another job at Goldman in the institutional trading area, and phoned Fascitelli and was ultimately rehired.

“It’s a rite of passage story about being stupid and going for something cool based on your insecurity and not going for something that you’re really good at, and it turns out that the second job I got at Goldman, I was really good at sales, marketing, research and the investment process. I was way better at that than investment banking,” he added.

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