The Games Press

Episode 27: Chris Tapsell (Editor-in-chief of Eurogamer) 28.05.2026 1u

Chris Tapsell is the new editor-in-chief of Eurogamer, having first started at the site back in 2016 when the two of us worked there together. In the years since then, Chris and I have spent many evenings talking about how we'd run Eurogamer if we were in charge and of course, for me, that was mostly a risk-free exercise as I'd never have to put any of my grand plans into action. For Chris, however, things are a little different. He's now the one behind the reins and it'll be up to him to hel...

Episode 26: Keza MacDonald (Author of Super Nintendo: How One Japanese Company Helped the World Have Fun) 09.03.2026 44min

Keza MacDonald is the video games editor for The Guardian and most recently, she's also the author of 'Super Nintendo: How One Japanese Company Helped the World Have Fun', a deep dive into the rich, creative history of one of gaming's most important companies. We recorded today's episode in front of a live audience as part of Keza's book tour which happened to swing through Brighton last month and if you can forgive some dodgy audio, I think there's a lot to get out of this conversation as we...

Episode 25: Maddy Myers & Zoë Hannah (Co-founders of Mothership) 09.02.2026 1u 15min

Maddy Myers & Zoë Hannah just launched Mothership, a brand new site all about games, gender and identity. Their initial pitch promises a different kind of gaming publication "for her, them, and yes, him too", which feels surprisingly radical given the state of games coverage and, erm, the world, in 2026. In today's episode we discuss the retreat of feminist writing across the mainstream games media, whether "subscription fatigue" is a real concern for this new wave of independent outlets ...

Episode 24: Wesley Yin-Poole (Director of News at IGN) 04.02.2025 57min

Wesley Yin-Poole is in charge of the news desk over at IGN and has been reporting on the games industry for almost two decades at this point. He's also been a mentor of mine ever since our days working together at Eurogamer where he helped shape some of my very first stories, while he himself published some incredible work on the rise and fall of Lionhead Studios and its notorious co-founder, Peter Molyneux. Wes is one of the best games reporters in the business and I'm so happy to finally h...

Episode 23: Jason Schreier (Author of Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, And Future of Blizzard Entertainment) 07.10.2024 1u 22min

Jason Schreier is a games reporter for Bloomberg, best known for his extensive reporting on the volatile reality of AAA game development. On today's episode we'll be talking about his latest book, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, And Future of Blizzard Entertainment and the frankly horrifying number of interviews he needed to complete over the course of his reporting. Despite having a young baby to look after and exactly two and a half hours of free time each day (when said baby is soundly asleep...

Episode 22: Nicole Carpenter (Senior Reporter at Polygon) 21.08.2024 50min

Nicole Carpenter has been reporting on the games industry at Polygon for the last five years, where she's perhaps best known for her coverage of unions and the increasingly vital role they're playing in shaping the future of video game development. In fact, not only has she reported on this subject diligently over the last few years, she also wrote what is perhaps the defining piece of journalism on the subject: The Rise of the Video Game Union. "....the type of journalism we're doing impac...

Episode 21: Grant Stoner (Accessibility & Disability Reporter) 18.07.2024 44min

Grant Stoner is a freelance reporter who specializes in covering accessibility and disability across the games industry in his work. Among other work, he writes a monthly column for IGN where he recently examined how the mass layoffs ripping through the games industry have affected disabled game workers, in particular. This is a great example of why Grant's perspective is so necessary in the games media right now, shining a spotlight on an often overlooked area of games and the people who pl...

Episode 20: Sarah Parvini (LA Times) 28.05.2024 35min

Sarah Parvini was a games reporter at the LA Times until just a few months ago, having been among those who were hit by a staggering round of layoffs at the paper earlier this year. In fact, the publication is meant to have shed around 20% of its newsroom in one fell swoop. Journalism is in a rough state, folks. In this episode you'll hear guest host Nicole Carpenter talk with Sarah about what it's like reporting on the games industry for such an established publication and how she managed t...

Episode 19: Chelsea Reed Miller (IGN Creators Guild) 19.04.2024 46min

Chelsea Reed Miller is a video editor for IGN and a spokesperson for the IGN Creators Guild, a brand spanking new union that's been officially recognized by IGN's parent company just a couple of months ago. In today's episode, you'll hear guest host Nicole Carpenter talk to Chelsea about what that means for people working at one of the biggest publications in the games media and why it's important to think about collective action before things start falling apart, if possible. "The best tim...

Episode 18: Quintin Smith (People Make Games) 06.03.2024 1u 14min

Quintin Smith is one third of People Make Games, although hopefully you already knew that. Outside of his work with us, he's also known as the co-founder of board games behemoth Shut Up & Sit Down and now, as of just a few weeks ago, he's started something brand new, exploring the world of TTRPGs. It's called Quinns Quest and it's extremely weird and good, just like Quinns. "If you just go into a community going 'hey, I wanna understand why this is fun for you', people will tell you! Peo...

Episode 17: Stephen Totilo (Reporter at Game File) 23.01.2024 1u 14min

Stephen Totilo has been a games journalist for two decades now, making him one of the most experienced people in the field. His career spans a stint at MTV News as its first ever games reporter, nine years as Kotaku's Editor-in-Chief and until recently, he wrote a twice-weekly gaming newsletter for Axios. Today, Stephen is looking to strike out on his own with Game File, an independent newsletter published on Substack and funded directly by his audience. "I have concerns about a younger gen...

Episode 16: Nathan Grayson & Riley MacLeod (Just launched Aftermath) 07.11.2023 57min

Nathan Grayson and Riley MacLeod have just launched a brand new, worker-owned games publication called Aftermath, along with some other ex-Kotaku staff you'll recognise. As in, today, right now! Chris grabbed them for an interview a few days ago to talk about the challenges that come with starting something fresh, crowdfunding and what being "worker-owned" really means in this context. "You know — and everyone knows — that 2022 and 2023 have been nightmarish for games journalism, and for jou...

Episode 15: Patricia Hernandez (Former Editor-in-Chief at Kotaku) 23.08.2023 1u 3min

Patricia Hernandez is now the former Editor-in-Chief of Kotaku, having been fired from the position just a few days ago. In today's episode we're going to be talking to her about what's happened and digging into the increasingly strained relationship between Kotaku's editorial team and the company which owns the site itself, G/O Media. "I can't really go into specifics about the reason because it does involve other staffers and their personal information, so I just want to be sensitive to th...

Episode 14: Rebekah Valentine (Senior Reporter at IGN) 30.06.2023 1u 1min

Rebekah Valentine is a Senior Reporter at IGN and an instrumental figure in the site's latest ambitions to establish itself as a true home for longform video games reporting. She's also just been on the ground at Summer Games Fest, the potential successor to the games industry's biggest, flashiest trade show, E3. How do the two shows compare from a reporter's perspective and will E3 ever manage a revival? We'll be asking Rebekah all about it. "I am now two and a half years in and I'm ...

Episode 13: Double Fine PsychOdyssey (2 Player Productions) 28.03.2023 58min

2 Player Productions is a documentary crew that's been embedded with Double Fine Productions for more than a decade now, having first come onboard in order to follow the development of Broken Age and create the Double Fine Adventure series. However, it's their latest work that's absolutely knocked my socks off. Double Fine PsychOdyssey is, quite simply, the best video games documentary work I've ever seen. It follows the much longer development of Psychonauts 2 and is just the most vulnerabl...

Episode 12: Tyler McVicker (Formerly Valve News Network) 08.02.2023 1u 8min

Tyler McVicker has been utterly obsessed with Valve for more than a decade now, having reported on almost every scrap of news, speculation and datamined morsel to come out of this famously secretive company at the heart of the games industry. Having just published our own report on the reality of working at Valve, with its "flat" structure, no managers and no job titles, I wanted to talk to Tyler about the challenges that come with trying to understand such an unusual business. And one of th...

Episode 11: Sam Greer (Just made a video for People Make Games!) 05.09.2022 1u 11min

Sam Greer is a freelance games critic, having previously worked for Glass House Games and GamesMaster magazine. More recently, she worked with People Make Games (that's us!) on an incredible video about the lack of working class people employed in the games industry. That's what we'll be talking about in today's episode. "I think when we talked about it before my worry was that the video would just be one of those things that people would retweet and go 'oh this is so important', you know?' ...

Episode 10: Hirun Cryer (Former Guides Editor at USGamer) 26.05.2022 55min

Hirun Cryer first got his break in the games media writing guides over at USGamer. And guides content, dear listeners, is perhaps one of the most overlooked part of this entire job. Frequently responsible for the lion's share of a publication's traffic, despite rarely appearing on the homepage itself, video game guides are hugely important to the overall success of some of your favourite games sites. So why are guides writers so often underpaid and overworked? "You know how people say there ...

Episode 9: Danny O'Dwyer (Founder of Noclip) 29.04.2022 1u 19min

Danny O'Dwyer creates video game documentaries for Noclip, a crowdfunded YouTube channel first launched in 2016. Known for their high production value and behind-the-scenes access to some of the most successful game developers in the world, Noclip has had a huge influence on PMG's work over the years. Prior to starting his own company, Danny is perhaps best known for his work at GameSpot, where he hosted shows like The Point and The Lobby. "The reason I wanted to do the Bethesda stuff is tha...

Episode 8: Lucy James (Senior Video Producer at GameSpot) 28.03.2022 1u 3min

Lucy James is the head of GameSpot's video team, managing a team of hosts around the world. Having moved from London to San Francisco, you'll have likely seen her face on all sorts of GameSpot video stuff, as well as her more recent appearances on Giant Bomb's The Very Online Show. In this episode we talk about the differences between the UK and US games media, the effect COVID has had on GameSpot's flagship shows and I get to quiz Lucy about the brilliant Audio Logs series. "Typically game ...