Five video game journalists you should be following, 20/08/2026

This week’s Video Games Industry Memo is sponsored by Games In Italy

Discover Italy’s video game industry at gamescom

• 1I recommend a load of video game journalists you should be following

• Esports Nations Cup gets delayed until next year due to ongoing conflict in the region

• Mortal Shell II generates plenty of hype ahead of today’s release

Hello VGIM-ers,

I’m writing this week’s introduction from a train streaking its way back from Edinburgh’s Book Festival, where I got to talk about all things Power Play to a bumper crowd. Thanks to Caro Clarke for being such a swell host.

If you want to see me on tour later this year, I’ve got good news for you. I’ve confirmed that I’ll be heading to Jersey, Guildford and Stratford-upon-Avon for their book festivals this Autumn. Tickets are available here.

And don’t forget, VGIM goes Daily for gamescom next week. Free subscribers will get a delivery Monday through to Friday morning. Paid supporters will get an exclusive audio extra with their newsletter called the “Insider Track”, featuring some intriguing on-the-ground interviews.

Get subscribed as a paid supporter of the newsletter here.

Obvious oversight: Last weekend, I read Joost van Dreunen’s fascinating deep dive into the state of video game media. If you’ve not read it, you really should read it here. But upon finishing the piece, I realised something. Despite writing lists of books, podcasts and newsletters that you should consume to understand the industry, I hadn’t written one about the journalists who make much of that coverage possible. D’oh.

Route one journalism: So in this week’s VGIM, I’ve done my best to correct that. I’ve picked five video game journalists whose work I’ve followed closely over the past year, explaining what they cover, what’s interesting about it and why I think it’s valuable. And then because I’ve realised there are so many great journalists out there – despite the grimness of the chart featured above – I chucked in a load of additional tips at the bottom of the page. Enjoy!

Somehow still around: Chris is the Senior Editor for News at Game Developer. Full disclosure: I’ve known him for the better part of a decade, since we both briefly worked at Pocket Gamer together in 2015 (lord, bury me in the cold hard ground). But in the past few years, it’s fair to say that he’s really hit his stride.

Newsworthy journalism: Chris’s biggest strength is that he’s a Proper News Hound. He has developed a habit of breaking news, including reporting on the imaginative giant rat protest staged by unionised workers at Bethesda to oppose Microsoft layoffs. He’s got a habit of pulling together well-sourced behind-the-scenes features, such as this week’s feature about what EA employees think of their new Saudi owners. He also asks tough questions fairly, even if overly jumpy PR pros don’t like it when he does.

Holding power to account: One of van Dreunen’s points about games journalism is that it works most effectively when it sits outside of the institutions it covers. Chris’s reporting provides a meaningful check on companies, something that the industry – including its executive class – should be grateful for.

Top of the game: Nicole Carpenter is one of the best freelancers in the business. After being inexplicably laid off by Polygon, game publications across the world were quick to bring them on board to get the benefits of her excellent reporting.

Real range: Nicole has written for the New York Times about the role of video games in reducing violence amongst prisoners at Rikers Island prison. She reported on the removal of the horror game Horses from sale on Steam and Epic Games for Aftermath, being one of the only writers to assess a content censorship decision against the age-rating criteria one of the storefronts used to justify the game’s removal. Nicole also reported on Roblox hit experience Grow A Garden for Game File well before it hit its record-breaking peak.

Mad respect: From what I’ve heard from editors and writers across the biz, Nicole is one of those rare all-rounders capable of tackling business and cultural stories in a way that can bring consumers with her. Even in a tough games journalism landscape, that’s something to be known for.

A literal gap in the market: The Middle East has become an important hub of the video games world. Yet English-language reporting on the region is often poor or patchy, leaving much of the activity in the area underreported.

On-the-ground reporting: Isa Muhammad, Pocket Gamer’s MENA Reporter, is one of the few writers covering the region effectively. He’s written features on some of the more complex market dynamics, such as Roblox’s entry into Saudi Arabia through an education partnership with the Public Investment Fund-backed Savvy Games. He covers public policy developments in the territory, including news of cross-governmental partnerships in places such as Abu Dhabi. He also maintains a healthy interest in public policy globally, covering stories such as Apple’s ongoing challenges with regulators in Europe and beyond.

Providing regional balance: I know I enjoy Isa’s work because he writes crisply about policy. But his coverage of the MENA region is fair and informed, making him a handy journalist to follow if you truly want to understand what’s happening in an emerging industry powerhouse.

Experienced pro: Matthew has been a familiar figure within games journalism for many years. He’s previously been an editor at the likes of Polygon, Eurogamer and Digital Spy, as well as contributing for The Guardian, Mobilegamer.biz and Rock Paper Shotgun. But while he’s certainly worth following for his wider work, I’m tipping him here because I think One More Catch, his publication, gives us a glimpse of where consumer video game media could go next.

Gotta catch ‘em all: In contrast to other writers on the list, Matthew’s site is dedicated to Pokémon Go and the next generation of Pokémon games. One More Catch features guides on how to catch rare Pokémon in the real world, on-the-ground reporting from in-person events for the community and includes relevant (and sometimes literally tasty) news that the community is interested in.

Serving the community: I’ll freely admit that it has been many a year since I have meaningfully played many of the games that Matthew covers. But in a sector where game communities can easily exceed the populations of major cities, One More Catch feels like the consumer games journalism equivalent of a subscription-backed local news service. That makes it something well worth keeping an eye on.

Reporting from beyond the Grev: Mikhail was an editor at Launcher, The Washington Post’s video games and esports vertical. Launcher was shuttered in 2023, but he stayed on at the Post. He was then eventually laid off by WaPo completely in 2026 because that’s journalism/game journalism for you. Since then, he’s been working independently as a freelance journalist and as the editor of his own newsletter, ReaderGrev. And he continues to break stories well worth reading.

Live service optimism: I enjoy his work because he covers subsections of the industry that I tend to spend less time exploring. Mikhail writes engagingly about live-service games, such as this write-up of the satirical intent behind Bungie’s Marathon. His depth of interest in games like Valorant means he’s got excellent ‘ins’ at Riot, allowing him to grab esports exclusives that others can’t get a hold of. His contact book is clearly great too, as evidenced by a recent long-read with Jason Schreier about the Bloomberg journalist’s decision to start a YouTube channel.

Personal perspective: I remain a little sceptical about the long-term commercial prospects of writer-led outlets because, frankly, I’ve seen the economics of it far too clearly firsthand. But in a fragmented media landscape, Mikhail’s a reminder that great reporting featuring exclusive insights that’s delivered from a unique perspective is always valuable.

• I skipped over plenty of journalists working at major media outlets here because I feel like their work gets plenty of attention. But if you are interested in writers from Big League outlets that I follow, Laura Cress (BBC News), Keza MacDonald and Keith Stuart (The Guardian), Gene Park (The Washington Post) and Jason Schreier and Cecilia D’Anastasio (Bloomberg) are all regular reads for me.

• In terms of the biggest business journalists, my go-tos for information are Stephen Totilo (Game File), Chris Dring (The Game Business), and Neil Long (MobileGamer.Biz). At the main trade outlets, Jon Hicks has built a great team at GI Biz, including Alex Forbes-Calvin, Sophie McEvoy and Lewis Packwood, to name but a few. Craig Chapple at Pocket Gamer Biz is a regular read of mine, particularly his Friday newsletter.

• On social video, I follow Jake Brigstock’s coverage of games for the i100, Tamoor Hussain’s excellent cut-downs from his Twitch feed, and Rob Leane’s videos for The Radio Times (not just because he was nice about Power Play in one of them, I swear). The Daily Mail’s games team has also done a remarkable job growing an enormous audience for video game news via a social video-first strategy, posing an interesting question about where growth truly comes from in the modern media landscape. Chris Bratt’s People Make Games is my favourite games journalism-focused YouTube channel.

• I’ve previously recommended podcasts via VGIM. But the voices I’m most drawn to in the current landscape are Samuel Roberts at BackPage, Steffan Powell and the team at Press X to Continue and Maddy Myers on Triple Click.

• There’s also a long list of people whose work I generally watch out for when chucking links into VGIM. This includes Lucy James, Rollo Romig, Vikki Blake, Chris Tapsell, Bertie Purchese, Patrick Klepek, Luke Plunkett, Rebekah Valentine and Nathan Grayson.

• And of course, I wouldn’t be able to tap out of this piece without referencing VGIM’s cadre of freelance writers: Tom Regan, George Young and Anna Mahtani. They’re all brilliant and well worth your time.

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Delayed until next year: The inaugural Esports Nations Cup has been pushed back to 2027. The tournament, which was intended to introduce international competition to the esports calendar, has claimed that the ‘wider regional situation’ has made hosting it this year impossible. As we discovered earlier this year when speaking to the Esports Foundation about moving the Esports World Cup to Paris, the organisers really don’t want to mention the war when discussing the postponement.

Cutting the cut: Apple has proposed to the Northern District Court of California that it charge developers a 15% fee for purchases made outside of its store, dropping to 5% for small businesses. The company was forced to propose the structure as part of its ongoing legal battle with Epic Games, submitting the terms in a filing issued shortly after the Supreme Court rejected its attempt to pause action in the lower courts. Epic has since stated that it believes the proposals are “far outside of the bounds of the North Circuit’s guidance on permissible fees.” The fight continues.

Under investigation: Roblox is under investigation by the bipartisan Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism over issues of child safety. In a letter issued to David Baszucki, Roblox’s Chief Exec last week, the Committee’s Chairman Josh Hawley and ranking member Richard J. Durbin “appears to prioritise revenue and engagement metrics over the safety and wellbeing of our children”, citing the 65,381 cases of suspected child sexual exploitation that the platform reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children last year. The company’s safety chief Matt Kaufmann has said that the company “look[s] forward to sharing the facts about how we work to protect children on the platform” ahead of the committee’s 31st August deadline.

Getting Twitchy: Backlash has continued against Twitch, following last week’s announcement that users would have to opt out of having their content used for AI training purposes. BBC News reports that Mary Kish, the company’s head of community, hosted an official live stream to help streamers turn off training. The outlet also reported that it is unclear how long the company has been using streams to train models, suggesting training may have been taking place before the announcement.

Sacré bleu!: Finally, France’s constitutional council has struck down the country’s mooted social media ban for teens. Anyone under the age of 15 was set to be barred from opening an account on social platforms from September onwards. However, the court has blocked the law from going into force because it will “disproportionately infringe upon the freedom of expression and communication” of teens and “fail to provide the legal safeguards necessary to ensure the right to respect for private life.” France’s Government will likely need to tweak rules to pass them before President Emmanuel Macron steps down in 2027.

Legendary game developer Warren Spector has announced that he is retiring from making video games…Ryan Rubin has joined Blizzard as a Senior Producer…Mario Kart aficionado and VGIM enthusiast Lukas Roper is now Senior Unity Developer at ColePowered Games…David Bailey has popped up as Lead Commercial Manager – Licensing at Games Workshop…And Tim Repa-Davies is now VP Business Affairs and General Counsel at publisher Secret Mode…

A16Z Games has a Manager, Growth post open in the States…Supercell has a fascinating opening for a Marketing Lead, New Games in its London office…Avalanche is hiring a Senior Game Designer in Sweden…TripleDot need a new Producer…And The Pokemon Company wants to choose you as its Influencer Marketing Manager in Bellevue…

• Mortal Shell II – Souls-like sequel that is generating a lot of buzz from in-the-know influencers lands in hands today.

• STALKER 2: Cost of Hope – Major non-linear expansion to the 2024 hit role-playing game arrives on PC and console.

• STEINS;GATE RE:BOOT – The incomprehensibly capitalised and punctuated titled visual novel is available after a recent reboot.

How can you get people to understand the importance of investigative journalism? By getting them to play, of course.

The Global Investigative Journalism Network explores how games like Predatorgate, a short narrative experience based on one journalist’s experience of Greece’s Predator spying software scandal, can build media literacy in a world crying out for it.