So you want to open your own video game website huh? Well with a 1 step program, you are likely to succeed at it very quickly. That one step? Don’t. You see, there is this very real thing about the world of Video Game Journalism, and it is one that you cannot escape, nor come close to. It is like a drill, being rammed into the back of your head from the time you start your site, until you reach a pinnacle of 100,000 unique viewers per month (the standard for most companies.)
You see, I have had my site for roughly 4 years now, mostly operating on my own. I have had the privilege of writing for other sites before, but going in on my own and on my own terms was a huge thing. I was tired of requesting to get games from idiots who do not even know the proper contacts. No I needed a place to call my own, and give others the same opportunities in which were given to me. As a Game Designer, they said “do some reviews, add them to your resume” blah blah blah. 4 years later I am here to tell you the absolute truth of what you can expect.
IGN is on top
This is the GOLDEN RULE in which you must always remember… know that the likelihood of you achieving their “success” is 1/1,000,000. Sorry to say it, but you will not become that big…ever. There are a select few who can, and rightfully should. The issue here is that those that work at said places are absolute tools that should never even be around writing for a game review. I am sure you want to know why right? Simple. They are paid to write half-@$$ed reviews, and keep the big AAA studios on top for scoring for as long as possible because that is what they are paid to do. Take a look at their scores, and tell me otherwise. Come on, giving such terrible games a good review score? Are you kidding me?
It is not about “free”
Ever heard of the expression that “nothing in this world is for free”; well it is the truth. If you live in the United States of America you have to claim all games you get on taxes as “unearned income” unless you are smart and utilize the “for testing purposes” clause. Though, not everything fits into that bracket, and if it does not expect to be audited; the IRS does not like people who do it.
You will not get "free games" (at least right off)
Unless you start off your site with proper contacts (like I did), do not expect to contact companies to get games for review. You see the PR world for Video Games has a hierarchy that they live by: IGN > Destructoid > Rock, Paper, Shotgun > Machinima > Youtube reviewers > Middle guys > You… Do you see how it works? Now, EA for instance has always screwed over the small sites, because if you send them an e-mail to request a game, they say “no, sorry we do not have any more to allocate”, but then a day later you find out they send 10,000 copies to the utter crap fest, circle jerk that is Machinima.
Support from Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony? FORGET ABOUT IT
Contacting these 3 companies is like trying to talk to the President while holding a AK47. Neither of these companies will ever give a crap about you, what you want to do, or whatever the reason for writing them is. Sure, you MAY have some success with Sony, at least on lesser known titles, but Nintendo and Microsoft? Screw you…
Journalists are a family
This is the ONLY great thing about being a part of this group of people and that is we have all shared a common goal. We do what we do because we just love to do it. I have found so much help from other journalists that it is unbelievable how much they will care to help.
Keep your friends away
This is just a personal experience, but having friends, family or anything else help you to review games is a huge problem. I have had family, and friends both get games from me, then up and leave for whatever stupid excuse they could come up with. It has honestly torn up some friendship because I put everything into what I do, and to have people betray me like that is fucking absurd. So do not do it!
Bad Review? BLACKLIST!!
This is the growing problem within the journalist industry, and if a gaming company does not like that you gave Call of Duty: Ghosts a 2/5 because it is the SAME FREAKING THING AS BEFORE IT, they will blacklist you and you will never get a game from them again. This all goes back to hierarchy. So if you are opening a site then I expect you to kiss a bunch of useless rear because otherwise you are screwed. I was blacklisted by THQ because I tried to get an interview with a Volition team member! There are some overly touchy morons in this industry so be warned.
There are too many for them to care
There are video game review / news websites all over the place, with 100s more opening each day. They came to the same conclusion that you did, that you want free games. Well, companies don’t give a crap about you because there are thousands just like you, who will give a terrible game a stellar review because you don’t know a thing. Just like you, they don’t have the balls to stand up and make a difference.
This business is not worth the trouble
Between finding a hosting provider, paying for CSS / Wordpress / HTML, and then being declined because it is a giant male genitalia measuring contest it is just not worth it. There is just too much politics to be even anything likable.
Regards,
A Video Game Journalist
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
I've had a great experience so far with running my site. You can't go in to the job thinking you'll never become as big as IGN and if that's what your goal is, then you should probably rethink why your doing games journalism.
We've given games low scores and not been blacklisted, and for the most part most PR are pretty nice to work with. It's not even EA's PR department that gives you trouble really, it's more 47 Comm. They're just crappy to work with.
In my opinion, from what you wrote here you were expecting way too much coming right out of the gate to an industry that has an established hierarchy. Working your way up is tough and as you said the majority of sites don't get far. It all depends on how much YOU put into it and unless you can find a niche to cover and have adequate writing skills, you won't get far and will just have another generic blog basically.
Or, as the common trend with new sites from what I've seen on here, take PR statements and make a news story out of it for quick traffic, which really annoys the crap out of me since they try to call themselves journalists, when all they do is copy paste Twitter statements and call it writing.
I've owned my own site for about 2 1/2 years now, and I find some of this to be untrue. Sure, it's tough starting out, but as long as you put up quality content consistently, have a nice-looking site, and are nice to the PR people you reach out to, you can easily secure review copies of games, hardware and more (yes, even from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo). It's all about hard work and consistency, and yeah, most sites will never be IGN, but that doesn't mean you should just give up and never even try. If nothing else, your writing skill will vastly improve which is a very useful skill to have.