this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2025
362 points (98.7% liked)

Games

42982 readers
922 users here now

Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.

Rules

1. Submissions have to be related to games

Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.

This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.

2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil

No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.

We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.

3. No excessive self-promotion

Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.

This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.

4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts

This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you're submitting before posting to see if it's already been posted.

We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.

5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW

Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.

No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.

6. No linking to piracy

Don't share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.

We don't want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.

Authorized Regular Threads

Related communities

PM a mod to add your own

Video games

Generic

Help and suggestions

By platform

By type

By games

Language specific

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Dremor@lemmy.world
JonsJava@lemmy.world
fxomt@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Dremor@jlai.lu
PerfectDark@lemmy.world
362
More than 1,200 games journalists have left the media in the last two years | VGC (www.videogameschronicle.com)
submitted 1 day ago by ampersandrew@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world
113 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

“For quality games media, I continue to believe that the best form of stability is dedicated reader bases to remove reliance on funds, and a hybrid of direct reader funding and advertisements. If people want to keep reading quality content from full time professionals, they need to support it or lose it. That’s never been more critical than now.”

The games media outlets that have survived, except for Gamespot and IGN, have just about all switched to this model. It seems to be the only way it survives.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] echodot@feddit.uk 6 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

That's because a lot of the reviews weren't been read because they weren't trustworthy, if you reviewed a game poorly (even if it deserved the poor review) the journalist wouldn't be invited back to review the next game that studio put out or were still the publisher could blacklist you blocking you from potentially dozens of games every year. Nintendo do this all the time.

[–] Rooster326@programming.dev 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Nobody is stopping them from buying their own copy, and reviewing at release with an honest review.

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 1 points 1 hour ago

Tradition, their egos, money and entitlement seems to be doing a fine job. (but yeah the access journalism model has to go)

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

Those same outlets still review Nintendo games. They just review them late.

[–] Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 hours ago

And nothing of value was lost...

[–] lechekaflan@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago

It's so bad now that nearly all the articles are mainly clickbait or written to favor a particular game (no matter how mediocre), and someone had to create what's called Saved You A Click.

[–] Gorilladrums@lemmy.world 8 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Back in like 2012, a gaming journalist would write an honest review of a game they tried or they would give an update on the industry or they would share interesting tips and info about certain games and franchises. The sites would clean, maybe a couple of ads here and there, but the overall atmosphere is driven by genuine passion.

Today, you don't get any of that. Instead you get an advertisement masquerading as an article. The reviews aren't authentic, the updates are basically a part of marketing campaigns, and the info they give is to push readers to buy something. The sites are all completely cluttered with ads, a lot of the articles are just AI slop, and the industry is driven by greed. Why would anybody go there anymore? Might as well just go see a youtube review or get the game and try it out yourself.

[–] paultimate14@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

You have a much more optimistic memory of gaming review platforms than I do.

I remember getting several different magazines in the 90's and they were always the same thing. Any "professional" journalist knows that their livelihood is based on selling games. Journalists have to strike a balance between their audience and publishers, which makes negative reviews incredibly rare.

It's not just videogames. Music, movies, TV shows, books, comics, consumer products. Unkess you're paying out the nose, reviews almost always have some sort of bias towards trying to sell things. I find the best opinions come from other sources: people I know personally, organic community discussions on the internet (though those are not immune to corporate influence), or when products are only mentioned in contexts where the author clearly will not benefit. For example, a journalist making a list of the top-10 games of all time putting Ocarina of Time on it is probably not incentives to do so... Unless Nintendo is trying to promote a re-release.

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 1 points 1 hour ago

Yeah, review have always had a slant and people forget just how bad they where in the past. I would rather watch someone play the game and skip the reviews, however it must be said the old slanted review model has largely died off. We don't buy magazines with advertorials anymore, and the appetite to pay for such content is at a low point by both consumers and advertisers.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Do you feel that way about the site reporting the linked article?

And I know the likes of IGN have been a mess for far longer than 2012.

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 4 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

Do you feel that way about the site reporting the linked article?

Yes, although I am not the first dood, but posting as someone who did read the linked article it is a barely veiled attempt to support the "writer's" media and looks more like a lazy filler article to meet a quota. I use quotes around writer as the article in question is 2/3s quotes more in the style of an interview with "Veteran games journalist Alex Donaldson" and a few comments from "Press Engine co-founder Gareth Williams" (nothing wrong with that per say). The other 1/3 is "data supplied to VGC by Press Engine..." (again nothing wrong with this on its own). The issue is when we take the article in its whole this seems more like someone talked to a colleague or two then put a header on it using in house data from a "... popular PR tool used by developers and publishers to distribute codes and press releases to a global database of journalists and content creators." and adding a few other comments from the very founder of the program used in house to round it out making a very thin and kinda lazy article. This reminds me very much of the stuff written I saw many many years ago when I worked at a newspaper watching that media circle the drain.

Also on the point of:

The sites are all completely cluttered with ads, a lot of the articles are just AI slop, and the industry is driven by greed.

This is not AI slop but good old fashioned 4:30 on a Friday human slop covered in ads, for example I got 2 pop ups with ad block reading it. This is what it looks like without ad blocker:

But then again, you get what you pay for and I guess the irony here is that the article (that could be used as a captain obvious joke) pointing out the collapse of games media is in itself an example of a degrading quality of writing leading to the demise of said media. The real joke is that the article does not even touch on the degrading quality of the writing and experience (other then a "...lack of diversification in content...") but instead putting the blame on every thing else (thanks google, AI, COVID and advertising spending I guess?).

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

What would the "good version" of this article look like in your opinion? VGC doesn't have quotas, btw.

The real joke is that the article does not even touch on the degrading quality of the writing and experience

I'll say that you state that as fact, but it's a perception that not everyone shares.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I'll say that you state that as fact, but it's a perception that not everyone shares.

I've said this in my own top level comment but it's worth reiterating here to just make the point. Nobody trusts games media anymore and they don't trust them because they do things like the above screenshot and engage in articles for access, in real journalism stuff like that is supposed to be disclosed. However the only ones that actually ever seem to bother are YouTubers with integrity.

I think the idea that quality is degrading is not a niche opinion by any stretch of the imagination. It's basically the majority viewpoint of gamers.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 0 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Is it? How do you know?

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 0 points 2 hours ago

I’ll say that you state that as fact, but it’s a perception that not everyone shares.

Not everyone shares the perception that we live on a sphere, what is your point?

This reeks of wilful ignorance to the facts of the state of the media currently.

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

I have old some old magazines that are at least readable with ads that don't move. This is not a radical take, just like all corporate media the quality has declined in general (not suggesting that there was a lack of bad journalism in the past). Also, they may not have hard quotas there but the writers are paid to make articles and content to fill the site (it is like how best buy did not do commission vs future shop but where both the same company and fired those that did not make sales regardless).

As for how to improve this particular article, I would say a good start is to pick a format, is it a op ed or an interview? Or is it a report on events? I would go the op ed direction myself and rely less on the quotes from other journalists and data from the weird internal marketing source. I would have likely incouraged having a message and then sprinkled in actual employment numbers from major publications throughout the article and not done what this one did that was "this program sends out less free codes" as a data point. The data used is too weak for anything other then an opinion piece but the article is too light on the writer's input to be one.

There is also a big "citation needed" part that should have set off a editor.

"If amateur, part-time, or freelance writers are included, the number of departures from the games media swells to more than 4,000 people since October 2023."

"If" indeed! They went from 25% down and then if you include free lancers swelling to more then 4,000 people. That's just sloppy writing. At least give initial numbers and keep the format consistant.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Also, they may not have hard quotas there but the writers are paid to make articles and content to fill the site (it is like how best buy did not do commission vs future shop but where both the same company and fired those that did not make sales regardless).

The incentives are very different when the writers own the company and are largely paid by monthly subscribers.

There is also a big “citation needed” part that should have set off a editor.

How would you have cited "declining quality of writing" as an inciting factor? How would you measure it? And why did it just become a problem in the past few years rather than any of the problems that are listed in the article?

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 0 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

How would you have cited “declining quality of writing” as an inciting factor? How would you measure it? And why did it just become a problem in the past few years rather than any of the problems that are listed in the article?

The part I am talking about is below the the part you are quoting. It was a critique on the part that goes:

"According to Press Engine’s database of ‘tier 1’ publications that cover games (which is defined as major websites, both specialist and mainstream, with seven-figure-plus audiences), the global pool of game journalists has declined by 25% in just two years. The vast majority of these departures were from specialist games websites like IGN, Polygon, or Gamepot.

If amateur, part-time, or freelance writers are included, the number of departures from the games media swells to more than 4,000 people since October 2023."

I am not sure if you are just a touch upset that everyone does not agree that your writer owned slop factory is of high standards or if you just missed the part where I was trying to point out the weak writing as asked. But if I was to "cite" the declining quality of writing, I could do so by referencing old popular articles compared to current ones, I could show screen shots of the ever mounting assault of ads, or I could do what I am doing here and just assume that my audience is not wilfully ignorant of the current state of the format.

You can not out of one side of your mouth state the industry of writing is dying then say out of the other that the writing has not suffered.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I know you were talking about another part of the article, but you had a similarly uncited reason for the shrinking games media work force. I don't care if you don't like VGC, but I really don't see a time when the writing was better, and I wanted to see what you were expecting.

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 0 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I am not writing for a publication but sure I guess you expect the same level of journalism as VGC so lets cover it a bit.

Lets use their own words About how they 5 years ago where getting 7 million views a month. That great, and the article although a fluff piece about themselves is not nearly as bad as the one linked before. But hey that could just be different writers after all, but nope both done by the editor in chief Andy Robinson. And don't get me wrong VGC is one of the better ones, but at 7 million views a month they are not competing with video from places like twitch and you tube. In fact the written coverage on games has become a walled garden of insiders writing tone deaf articles and reviews in general.

Take the reviews for example, VGC's coverage on Borderlands 4 Does not even address the games broken state but gives it 4/5 stars vs VGC's coverage 6 years ago on Anthem Where they lambaste the game for it's faults. Hell we can take this further and look at coverage on the same thing under different media in current times, the VGCs review of Borderlands 4 has no view counter on it but also has no comments, where as a smaller creator on youtube using clickbait has over 6000 comments and more views then they have subscribers (425,000).

I am sorry you don't see the degradation of written games media, and I understand it was never top shelf stuff, but it is not a controversial take that needs extraordinary evidence. People are clearly not happy with the quality and content (hence the constant downsizing due to dropping revenues) leading places to sell out more to cover the bills thereby leading to a death spiral. Just look at coverage of some of the worst most broken releases to get why audiences are turning away:

Redfall getting a 4/5

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League getting a 4/5

Redfall getting a 90

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 getting a 8/10

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Take the reviews for example, VGC’s coverage on Borderlands 4 Does not even address the games broken state but gives it 4/5 stars

That's because it's not broken; it performs poorly relative to its visuals. It's an excellent game.

You've done little to convince me that "mistrust" of games media is any more than people getting upset that reviewers have different opinions than they do. I can tell you right now, for instance, that Jordan Middler loves Pokemon, so it's no surprise to me when VGC gives good reviews to Pokemon games. I've got a friend who really gelled with Suicide Squad as well, so I know it's possible for people to really enjoy that game. In this very thread, you can see people who are convinced that reviewers are paid off or playing difficult games on extra easy modes, neither of which are true, because they just can't reconcile that anyone could possibly enjoy a game that they didn't enjoy or weren't interested in.

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Its a non functioning product at launch, something that should be called out in a review. It is a low quality slop review, whether or not I agree with the conclusion. You can like or dislike a game counter to a review but I expect that at the very least an attempt will be made to point out pitfalls, and that was not done. The Suicide Squad was a bad game, someone liking it does not justify a dishonest or lazy review. You can not toss out one anecdotal view while pushing your own without looking a bit silly.

In this very thread, you can see people who are convinced that reviewers are paid off or playing difficult games on extra easy modes, neither of which are true, because they just can’t reconcile that anyone could possibly enjoy a game that they didn’t enjoy or weren’t interested in.

Neither of which are true is a bold statement that needs more then a "trust me" level of response. Next your going to tell me that redfall was actually good without much issues is more likely then some one was paid to write a fluff piece (a thing that happens in all forms of journalism). You seem to be pushing the idea that its the audience is wrong and desperately assuming that people don't like the media state due to an inability to reconcile their own preferences with the articles (wild and odd).

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Its a non functioning product at launch, something that should be called out in a review.

It literally functions. I've played it at launch and will continue playing it. Watch Austin's review on SkillUp, who had the benefit of releasing his review some time after launch but started during the embargo period, to see why a reviewer would not call it out.

The Suicide Squad was a bad game, someone liking it does not justify a dishonest or lazy review

The quality of a game, and the evaluation of it in a review, is entirely subjective.

Neither of which are true is a bold statement that needs more then a “trust me” level of response.

Try looking right under the comment where someone who has been a paid reviewer called it out as nonsense. Or ask literally anyone in the industry. It's come up on podcasts like Friends Per Second and Giant Bomb over the years enough times. If this was all a big marketing stunt where reviews were bought and paid for, someone would have blown the whistle by now.

You seem to be pushing the idea that its the audience is wrong and desperately assuming that people don’t like the media state due to an inability to reconcile their own preferences with the articles (wild and odd).

And yet you're doing it right now. I can see why you would distrust a review if you don't understand what a review is.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 5 points 17 hours ago

They don’t need humans to write the engagement slop articles anymore.

[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 8 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I miss Total Biscuit 😭

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

They're really aren't any other good game reviewers. They used to be Nerd Cubed but he doesn't seem to do game reviews anymore. There's Sid Alpha, but if he feels particularly frisky he'll put out a whole two videos a year, so that's not very helpful.

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 1 points 2 hours ago

Legendary Drops seems to have some solid takes. I find I get more of watching people play the games though these days.

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 16 points 23 hours ago

Yeah, it turns out people don't like advertising pretending to be reviews.

[–] stringere@sh.itjust.works 2 points 17 hours ago

I tried contributing to game8. They only accept payment through paypal. I've closed my paypal account.

An effort was made.

[–] slumberlust@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Shout-out to Nextlander and Giantbomb for keeping gaming journalism alive.

[–] madjo@feddit.nl 3 points 11 hours ago

And sites like Aftermath.site

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 7 points 1 day ago

Giantbomb is legit the fucking goat.

[–] Auth@lemmy.world 5 points 22 hours ago

I hate games journalists. I'm sure there are some good ones but most of them are corporate trash and their reviews are thinly veiled ads. They dont care about the games they write about. They dont take the time to learn the games and are just generally bad at games. Basically the entire industry is just shitting out the most dogshit video game opinions 24/7. I'd rather go to Lemmy or Reddit and read what actual players have to say about games.

[–] whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Special interest journalism is usually overrun by corporate interests and inflated reviews. Find someone who knows the history of the industry and was fired or left an organization for something like reporting a low review to search out integrity for individuals.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] PissingIntoTheWind@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

This is why I still pay the NYT for access. They may suck. But I am trying to keep some of the good ones employed.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Why do you feel they suck?

[–] PissingIntoTheWind@lemmy.world 5 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Defended a genocide in Palestine. Also fucked over Biden during the election.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago

I gotta say, I don't see it. I did start reading the NY Times toward the end of the election cycle, but it seems to me that hardly a day goes by without showing the awful things Israel's doing; Bret Stephens has his own opinions, but they're in the opinion column. Of what I've seen, I think they reported Biden's administration accurately, and if that fucked him over, it's not really their job to withhold that. That's how I see it, anyway.

[–] Aielman15@lemmy.world 97 points 1 day ago (15 children)

Journalism at large is dangerously close to dying. People favour free click- and rage-bait headlines on Facebook over quality journalism. The latter can't compete because quality costs money, while cheap quality articles oversaturate the market. AI only exacerbated the issue.

[–] turdcollector69@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Journalism at large died a while ago, gaming journalism has been an absolute joke for over a decade.

I have no respect for 99% of modern journalists, they just push 1%er propaganda and post mugshots while jerking themselves off as being self appointed "guardians of democracy."

There are some who are trying to do some good and they have my utmost respect but they're needles in haystacks.

[–] ieGod@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 hour ago

I'll only address journalism as it relates to video games/reviews, but my opinion is that there are better ways to communicate information about a game than reading about it.

For me the big one is simply seeing it played. I've read beautiful reviews of games that when it comes time to play do not click for me. Watching someone else play it gives me way more context and appreciation. My go to for this is simply youtube. I skip the middle man entirely. I get a wide range of videos from different players in an easy to access format. Others I know use twitch to similar effect. As the options for providing this information grow, older media lose footing. I'm not surprised at all. I'm not sure we should lament it, truthfully.

[–] Auth@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago

You even see it here. People will post "quality journalism" and then it gets attacked because its nuanced and doesnt extrapolate into extreme claims.

People are so used to the rage-bait and bad journalism that its hard for actual reporting to break through. As well as it takes 1000x more effort to gather the evidence and story for quality reporting. Its bad, we need to start supporting journalists through gov subsidies and donations.

load more comments (12 replies)
[–] setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (7 children)

The entire industry was flooded with mouthpieces for developer statements, and opinion piece hottakes. How many of those people does an industry really need? (Or more importantly: How many of those people can it financially support?)

As for reviews, they are for the most part similarly worthless and hard to trust. There's about five YouTubers who I actually trust the opinions of, and I haven't felt left out at all with that as the extent of my gaming journalism intake.

I can't be certain, but I suspect a lot of gamers are completely burnt out on the professional gaming journalism industry.

load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›