Category Archives: Journalism

The National Union of Journalists has announced a panel event on April 18 in London that will see members of the UK gaming press come together to discuss growing competition and high turnover in the game writing circuit. The event will give insight into making money as a paid writer and other topics.

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GI International has announced Warren Spector will be writing a monthly column for the site. Spector’s column will focus on “serious subjects about the industry and will pose questions that Spector himself may not have the answers to.” The first column will be posted this week.

A bit of media news now: Alloy Digital has announced the completion of its acquisition of The Escapist. GamePolitics reports the terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but both Alloy and previous Escapist owners Themis Media seem happy enough in statements, referencing the site’s established audience as well as Alloy’s deeper advertising revenue pockets. The Escapist launched in 2005 and presents a broad range of content; it’s particularly well known for its popular video series such as Yahtzee’s Zero Punctuation and Jim Sterling’s The Jimquisition.

Everyone likes to argue over a list of best games, but it’s especially fun when a mainstream publication joins the fray. TIME’s top 100 list of best video games of all time runs in chronological order, kicking off with educational mainstay The Oregon Trail and ending with Mass Effect 3. Seven 70′s games appear, but only two games make the cut from the last two years, the afore-mentioned Mass Effect 3 and Batman: Arkham City. Otherwise, it’s a fairly even divide between the 80′s, 90′s and 00′s. Take a look, and don’t forget to exercise your frothing fanboy outrage in the comments when you notice Shooty Mc ShootShoot or Whimsical Indie are not included.

A Twitter account, Facebook page and “coming soon” splash page have gone live for USgamer, the upcoming States-side edition of Eurogamer. The New York-based site is expected to launch in early 2013, but staff are already active on social media. Eurogamer launched in the UK in 1999 and has regional arms in Germany, France, Portugal, the Benelux, Spain, Italy, Sweden,Denmark, the Czech Republic and Brazil.

Future Publishing’s US arm has confirmed it will cease production of PlayStation: The Official Magazine.

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Scottish writer Robert Florence sparked a series of events that brought “games journalism” to its knees last week. Patrick Garratt says the time has come for an indelible line to be drawn between the industry and the media.

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Polygon, formerly known as Vox Games and The Verge’s Gaming section, is now live on its very own domain.

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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that News Corp. has enlisted the help of investment bank Allen & Co. in order to auction off IGN after several attempts to find a buyer.

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Andriasang, long our favourite source for English-language Japanese games news, is closing. Although the site will remain browsable, founder Anoop Gantayat is moving on to a new opportunity and anticipates being unable to keep up his rapid-fire translations. Good luck with your new pursuits, sir, and thanks for the many years of sterling service.

The US version of PTOM is now available in digital formats, it’s been confirmed on the PS Blog. You can get it now on Apple Newsstand, Google Play, and Zinio. It costs a reduced $0.99 at the moment. You can subscribe for $19.99 per year.

Mobiles Republic has announced Appy Gamer is now available for iPhone, iPad, Android and Android tablets.

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Sega is to sponsor the first Games Writer of the Year award at the year’s GMAs, Intent’s announced.

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The Games Journalism Prizes awards have launched in the UK. It’s been set up by a non-profit group in the UK, and is to be judged by the likes of Rob Fahey, Leigh Alexander and Guy Cocker. It’s open to any piece of games writing in calendar 2012.

Our friends at EDGE have launched an iPad app. The digital version of Future UK’s venerable trade mag is on sale at half-price until July 18, at £1.99/$2.99/€2.49. It promises more content than the print edition as well as interactive elements like video and even free iOS games. There’s even a free sample. Top stuff team, looks pretty tasty on the old iPad.

GameTrailers has relaunched its website. It looks well organized. Good job guys. Go check out the spiffy new duds.

GameTrailers.com turns 10 this year, and in order to make the occasion special, it has decided to relaunch the site. Brad Winters, GM of GameTrailers has told GI International the site will be relaunched “from the ground up,” with a “brand-new, everything from the back-end to the new logo, a new look and feel.” The relaunch started a year ago, after noticing a “heavier year-over-year consumption,” of original content,” said Winters. Video views from GT’s original content average 40% of total monthly views, which is up from 28% in 2010 and viewers average 44 minutes per visit. The site will undergo stress-testing over the next few weeks. You an look over the upcoming changes via the site’s production blog.

Reviews for Yager’s Spec Ops: The Line are going live. Get every score after the break.

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Explosive Alan Productions, which was formed by members of the now defunct Inside Xbox team, has raised $16,762 towards a new multi-format show which for the time being is codenamed Project Possum. Formed by Ashley Denton, Dan Maher and Gareth Wild, the fellas asked for contributions to the project via IndieGoGo instead of Kickstarter – due to the former accepting PayPal – setting a crowd-funding goal of $10,000. Within no time at all hardly, the project met its funding and there are still 30 days left to contribute.

Following the launch last month of its site servicing the Middle East, IGN has signed a licensing deal with Blah! Asia – a division of Spiral Media – to publish IGN Asia Pacific. The site is available in three languages: English, Chinese Mandarin and Malay and will cater to ten markets including Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong and China.

IGN Asia Pacific editor-in-chief, Maxime Villandré said, “We will be reaching out to players with a wider variety of game titles and indulge it with unique voices: stories and exclusives delivered in local languages by resident gamers, heroes and industry players, which establish rapport on content that energizes Asia.”