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56-521: The Escapist (formerly known as Escapist Magazine ) is an American video game website and online magazine . First published as a weekly online magazine by Themis Media on July 12, 2005, The Escapist eventually pivoted to a traditional web journalism format. In 2018, Escapist Magazine launched Volume Two, a rehauled website in conjunction with its purchase by Enthusiast Gaming . The site name reverted to The Escapist in April 2020. Gamurs Group acquired

112-515: A "voluntary leave of absence" from The Escapist in February 2019. Nick Calandra, who joined the site in 2019 as the managing director of video, replaced Pitts as editor-in-chief in July 2019. In April 2020, the site name reverted to The Escapist . The site also launched The Escapist + , which allows readers to view the site without advertisements. Management under Calandra saw a surge in original content as

168-504: A 'number of employees' and shuttered its main office in Durham, North Carolina leaving the website's main operation out of Seattle. By late 2017, the site was reduced to Croshaw, a small streaming team and the editor-in-chief with the closure of the site seeming imminent as the community volunteers were the only contributors to the site besides Croshaw. In July 2018, The Escapist was purchased by Enthusiast Gaming , owner of Destructoid , and

224-419: A CD-ROM based magazine with a circulation of 150,000 at its peak. The website was updated weekly during its active period from 1994–1996. Another publication, Intelligent Gamer Online ("IG Online"), debuted a complete web site in April 1995, commencing regular updates to the site on a daily basis despite its "bi-weekly" name. Intelligent Gamer had been publishing online for years prior to the popularization of

280-696: A Mashable Open Web Award for Best Online Magazine in 2009 and was named one of the 50 Best Websites by Time magazine in 2011. Video game journalism Throughout its history, video game journalism has grappled with ethical concerns, especially around conflicts of interest due to advertising pressures and publisher relationships. These issues have led to both controversies, such as the 2014 Gamergate incident , and increased transparency measures. Additionally, new approaches to gaming criticism, like New Games Journalism , emphasize personal experiences and cultural context, while review aggregation sites such as Metacritic have become influential benchmarks for assessing

336-430: A background in marketing and new media. The premier issue featured pieces from well-known gaming-community authors including Jerry Holkins , Kieron Gillen , and John Scott Tynes . Following issues included work by Tom Chick , Allen Varney , Jim Rossignol and other top writers from in and outside the game industry, including a four-part piece by leading game designer Warren Spector . According to Themis, by late 2006

392-532: A circulation of 600,000 copies per issue by December 1985, increasing to 1 million in 1986. By 1992, British video game magazines had a circulation of 1 million copies per month in the United Kingdom. During the early 1990s, the practice of video game journalism began to spread east from Europe and west of Japan alongside the emergence of video game markets in countries like China and Russia. Russia's first consumer-oriented gaming magazine, Velikij Drakon ,

448-402: A few years afterwards, Alloy cross-promoted Smosh Games on The Escapist . In 2014, Alloy Digital merged with Break Media to form Defy Media , with a consolidated portfolio that did not mention The Escapist . On January 21, 2015, Defy Media announced it was cutting staff across a portfolio of its main sites including The Escapist, GameTrailers and GameFront . In 2016, The Escapist laid off

504-453: A four-fold increase in web traffic. Within the next four years, The Escapist contracted several creators including LoadingReadyRun , Miracle of Sound , and Bob "MovieBob" Chipman , as well as helping launch Extra Credits as a rebrand of its creators' videos. In 2010, The Escapist launched a membership service called the Publisher's Club which for $ 20 a year removed advertisements from

560-413: A fraction of the game's content, but waiting any longer beyond the embargo date will harm viewership of their site. A good deal of information in the video game industry is kept under wraps by developers and publishers until the game's release; even information regarding the selection of voice actors is kept under high confidential agreements. However, rumors and leaks of such information still fall into

616-452: A game’s success. The rise of video-oriented platforms has also shifted the influence from traditional game journalists to independent creators, underscoring the dynamic nature of video game journalism in the digital age. The first magazine to cover the arcade game industry was the subscription-only trade periodical , Play Meter magazine, which began publication in 1974 and covered the entire coin-operated entertainment industry (including

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672-399: A negative review. In 2007, Jeff Gerstmann was fired from GameSpot after posting a review on Kane & Lynch: Dead Men that was deemed too negative by its publisher, which also advertised heavily on the website. Due to non-disclosure agreements , Gerstmann was not able to talk about the topic publicly until 2012. In a 2012 article for Eurogamer , Robert Florence criticised

728-457: A relaunch was announced with former editor-in-chief Russ Pitts at the helm. These changes came into effect September 2018, along with a website name change to Escapist Magazine Volume Two . The Big Picture , produced by MovieBob, was the first series to be officially relaunched alongside the continued Zero Punctuation . Following a Twitter exchange with Zoë Quinn over a now-deleted article about Gamergate, Russ Pitts announced he would be taking

784-468: A result, Extra Credits broke ties with The Escapist , moving to Penny Arcade and later becoming independent. Macris would later become involved with the sale of Themis Media to Alloy Digital, as well as supporting the Gamergate controversy in 2014 by openly adopting stricter policies. On November 15, 2012, it was announced that Themis Media had been acquired by Alloy Digital for an undisclosed sum. For

840-557: Is a model of New Journalism applied to video game journalism . A 2010 article in the New Yorker claimed that the term New Games Journalism "never caught on, but the impulse—that video games deserved both observational and personal approaches—is quite valid." It cites author Tom Bissell and his book Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter as a good example of this type of gaming journalism. As retrogaming grew in popularity, so did reviews and examinations of older video games. This

896-441: Is becoming increasingly significant. A year ago, I would have advised any developer to get in touch with as many press outlets as possible, as soon as possible. I still advise this now, but with the following caveat: You're doing so to get the attention of YouTubers." Rose interviewed several game developers and publishers and concluded that the importance of popular YouTube coverage was most pronounced for indie games, dwarfing that of

952-916: The Gamergate controversy that started in August 2014, both Destructoid and The Escapist tightened their disclosure and conflict of interest policies. Kotaku editor-in-chief Stephen Totilo said writers were no longer allowed to donate to Patreon campaigns of developers. Kotaku later disclosed that journalist Patricia Hernandez, who had written for them, was friends with developers Anna Anthropy and Christine Love , as well as being Anthropy's former housemate. Polygon announced that they would disclose previous and future Patreon contributions. Reviews performed by major video game print sources, websites, and mainstream newspapers that sometimes carry video game such as The New York Times and The Washington Post are generally collected for consumers at sites like Metacritic , Game Rankings , and Rotten Tomatoes . If

1008-520: The video game industry ). Consumer-oriented video game journalism began during the golden age of arcade video games , soon after the success of 1978 hit Space Invaders , leading to hundreds of favourable articles and stories about the emerging video game medium being aired on television and printed in newspapers and magazines. In North America, the first regular consumer-oriented column about video games, " Arcade Alley " in Video magazine, began in 1979 and

1064-615: The 'user-submitted' model, where readers write stories that are moderated by an editorial team, is also popular. In recent times some of the larger independent sites have begun to be bought up by larger media companies, most often Ziff Davis Media , who now own a string of independent sites. In 2013–2014, IGN and GameSpot announced significant layoffs. According to a 2014 article by Mike Rose in Gamasutra : "The publicity someone like TotalBiscuit ... can bring you compared to mainstay consumer websites like IGN , GameSpot and Game Informer

1120-457: The Metacritic score and subsequent effect on bonus payment schemes. Eurogamer , prior to 2014, were aware that they generally graded games on a scoring scale lower than other websites, and would pull down the overall Metacritic score. For this reason, the site dropped review scores in 2014, and their scores are no longer included in these aggregate scores. Kotaku also dropped review scores for

1176-484: The UK —caused Eurogamer to self-censor. Eurogamer's editor-in-chief Tom Bramwell censored the article, and Florence consequently retired from video games journalism. According to a July 2014 survey by Mike Rose in Gamasutra , approximately a quarter of high-profile YouTube gaming channels receive pay from the game publishers or developers for their coverage, especially those in the form of Let's Play videos. Following

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1232-527: The dedicated gaming publications. David Auerbach wrote in Slate that the influence of the video games press is waning. "Game companies and developers are now reaching out directly to quasi-amateur enthusiasts as a better way to build their brands, both because the gamers are more influential than the gaming journalists, and because these enthusiasts have far better relationships with their audiences than gaming journalists do. ... Nintendo has already been shutting out

1288-403: The dispute, a number of other contracted creators spoke out in support of Extra Credits , relaying similar stories of mistreatment by the management. Among them were MovieBob, James Stephanie Sterling , LoadingReadyRun , and the creators of No Right Answer . Later, those creators would also break ties with The Escapist , leaving Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw as the sole contracted creator by 2017. As

1344-450: The embargo as to be able to include specific criticism towards features that were marked off-limits in the embargo agreement, such as for 2013's SimCity . Additionally, modern lengthier games can offer more than 20 hours of content, and the amount of time journalists have to review these advance copies prior to the embargo date is limited. It has become a concern of these journalists that they are knowingly publishing reviews that cover only

1400-420: The end of the weekly PDF issues and a shift in layout to one more similar to other websites. Although the weekly topic and publish schedule was retained, new regular content additions included more game reviews, editorial articles, conference coverage, and a relaunch of Shoot Club by Tom Chick . The most notable addition to the content lineup was Zero Punctuation , a weekly animated review series that led to

1456-596: The first magazines entirely dedicated to video games began appearing in 1982, beginning with ASCII 's LOGiN , followed by several SoftBank publications and Kadokawa Shoten 's Comptiq . The first magazine dedicated to console games , or a specific video game console , was Tokuma Shoten 's Family Computer Magazine (also known as Famimaga ), which began in 1985 and was focused on Nintendo 's 8-bit Family Computer . This magazine later spawned famous imitators such as Famitsū (originally named Famicom Tsūshin ) in 1986 and Nintendo Power in 1988. Famimaga had

1512-546: The first two electronic video game magazines was the "first to be published regularly" online. Originally starting as a print fanzine in April 1992, Game Zero magazine, claims to have launched a web page in November 1994, with the earliest formal announcement of the page occurring in April 1995. Game Zero's web site was based upon a printed bi-monthly magazine based in Central Ohio with a circulation of 1500 that developed into

1568-399: The hands of video game journalists, often from anonymous sources from within game development companies, and it becomes a matter of journalistic integrity whether to publish this information or not. Kotaku has self-reported on the downsides of reporting unrevealed information and dealing with subsequent video game publisher backlash as a result. In 2009, the site published information about

1624-686: The market for video game magazines in North America. Computer Gaming World (CGW) reported in a 1987 article that there were eighteen color magazines covering computer games before the crash but by 1984 CGW was the only surviving magazine in the region. Expanding on this in a discussion about the launch of the NES in North America, Nintendo of America's PR runner Gail Tilden noted that "I don't know that we got any coverage at that time that we didn't pay for". Video game journalism in Japan experienced less disruption as

1680-405: The more recognized examples, members of Obsidian Entertainment were to have gotten bonuses from Bethesda Softworks for their work on Fallout: New Vegas if they obtained a Metacritic score of 85 or better out of 100. After release, the game only obtained an 84 aggregate score from Metacritic, one point away, and Bethesda refused to pay them. Video game reviewers are aware of their impact on

1736-469: The most widely followed games like Counter-Strike , League of Legends , and Dota 2 . While self-made print fanzines about games have been around since the first home consoles, the rise of the internet gave independent gaming journalist a new platform. At first ignored by most major game publishers, it was not until the communities developed an influential and dedicated readership, and increasingly produced professional (or near-professional) writing that

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1792-433: The nature of interactivity with video games creates unique challenges in how these embargos are executed. In agreements with publishers, media outlets will get advance copies of the game to prepare their review to have ready for this date. However, embargo agreement may include other terms such as specific content that may not be discussed in the review. This has led to some publications purposely holding off reviews until after

1848-447: The publication into a separate print property in February 1996. Future Publishing exemplifies the old media's decline in the games sector. In 2003 the group saw multi-million GBP profits and strong growth, but by early 2006 were issuing profit warnings and closing unprofitable magazines (none related to gaming). Then, in late November 2006, the publisher reported both a pre-tax loss of £49 million ($ 96 million USD ) and

1904-525: The publisher. In November 2015, the site reported they had been "blacklisted" by Bethesda and Ubisoft for at least a year; they no longer got review copies, nor received press information from the publishers, nor can interact with any of their company's representatives. New Games Journalism ( NGJ ) is a video game journalism term, coined by journalist Kieron Gillen in 2004, in which personal anecdotes, references to other media, and creative analyses are used to explore game design , play, and culture. It

1960-498: The relationship between the video games press and publishers, characterising it as "almost indistinguishable from PR", and questioned the integrity of a games journalist, Lauren Wainwright. In the controversy that followed, dubbed "Doritogate" (after a video of Geoff Keighley emerged of him sitting in front of bottles of Mountain Dew, bags of Doritos and an ad banner for Halo 4 ), the threat of legal action—the result of broad libel laws in

2016-415: The review. Within the industry, Metacritic has become a measure of the critical success of a game by game publishers, frequently used in its financial reports to impress investors. The video game industry typically does not pay on residuals but instead on critical performance. Prior to release, a publisher may include contractual bonuses to a developer if they achieve a minimum Metacritic score. In one of

2072-410: The reviews are scored or graded, these sites will convert that to a numerical score and use a calculation to come out with an aggregate score. In the case of Metacritic, these scores are further weighted by an importance factor associated with the publication. Metacritic also is known to evaluate unscored reviews and assign a numeric score for this as well based on the impression the site editors get about

2128-632: The rise of eSport popularity, traditional sport reporting websites such ESPN and Yahoo launched their own eSport dedicated sections in early 2016. This move came with controversy, especially in the case of ESPN whose president, John Skipper, stated eSports were a competition instead of a sport. The response to the shift was either great interest or great distaste. However, as of January 2017, ESPN and Yahoo continue their online coverage of eSports. Yahoo eSports ended on June 21, 2017 In addition, ESPN and Yahoo , other contemporary eSport dedicated news sites, like The Score Esports or Dot Esports, cover some of

2184-435: The sale—in order to reduce its level of bank debt—of Italian subsidiary Future Media Italy. In mid-2006 Eurogamer 's business development manager Pat Garratt wrote a criticism of those in print games journalism who had not adapted to the web, drawing on his own prior experience in print to offer an explanation of both the challenges facing companies like Future Publishing and why he believed they had not overcome them. With

2240-423: The same reason. Eurogamer later reverted to scoring reviews. Frequently, publishers will enforce an embargo on reviews of a game until a certain date, commonly on the day of release or a few days ahead of that date. Such embargos are intended to prevent tarnishing the game's reputation prior to release and affecting pre-release and first-day sales. Similar embargos are used in other entertainment industries, but

2296-500: The site in September 2022. The company's entire video production team resigned to form Second Wind in November 2023 after editor-in-chief Nick Calandra was fired. The Escapist was conceived as a PDF-format magazine by Themis Media, whose president Alexander Macris had previously found success with its sister site WarCry Network . Editor-in-chief Julianne Greer had not been involved in the gaming industry before The Escapist , and had

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2352-736: The site transitioned from a gaming news focus to gaming commentary. In October 2020, Bob Chipman's contract with The Escapist was not renewed. Later in October, the Escapist Movies YouTube channel was relaunched. In April 2021, the Escapist Plays YouTube channel was relaunched as " The Escapist Live ". In May 2021, the Escapist Movies YouTube channel merges with the main Escapist YouTube channel. Enthusiast Gaming sold

2408-480: The site, conferred forum benefits and entry into special contests. Around the end of July 2011, there was a dispute between The Escapist and James Portnow, co-creator of Extra Credits . After not being paid for months, the Extra Credits team needed to pay for surgery for their artist, Allison Theus. They began a charity fund on RocketHub , separate from The Escapist , and received substantially more money than

2464-414: The sites gained the attention of these larger companies. Independent video game websites are generally non-profit, with any revenue going back towards hosting costs and, occasionally, paying its writers. As their name suggests, they are not affiliated with any companies or studios, though bias is inherent in the unregulated model to which they subscribe. While most independent sites take the form of blogs ,

2520-419: The then-upcoming PlayStation Home before Sony had announced it, and Sony severed its relationship with Kotaku . When Kotaku reported this on their site, readers complained to Sony about this, and Sony reversed its decision. Kotaku has also published significant detailed histories on troubled game development for titles such as for Doom 4 and Prey 2 , as well as announcing titles months in advance from

2576-466: The time, it was called "the first national videogame magazine found only online". Game Zero Magazine ceased active publication at the end of 1996 and is maintained as an archive site. Efforts by Horwitz and Shubert, backed by a strong library of built up web content eventually allowed IG Online to be acquired by Sendai Publishing and Ziff Davis Media , the publishers of then-leading United States print publication Electronic Gaming Monthly who transformed

2632-691: The video game press for years." He concluded that gaming journalists' audience, gamers, is leaving them for video-oriented review sites. Journalism in the computer and video game media industry has been a subject of debate since at least 2002. Publications reviewing a game often receive advertising revenue and entertainment from the game's publishers, which can lead to perceived conflicts of interest. Reviews by 'official' platform-specific magazines such as Nintendo Power typically have direct financial ties to their respective platform holders. In 2001, The 3DO Company 's president sent an email to GamePro threatening to reduce their advertising spend following

2688-461: The web, originally having been based upon a downloadable "Intelligent Gamer" publication developed by Joe Barlow and Jeremy Horwitz in 1993. This evolved further under Horwitz and Usenet-based publisher Anthony Shubert into "Intelligent Gamer Online" interactive online mini-sites for America Online (AOL) and the Los Angeles Times' TimesLink/Prodigy online services in late 1994 and early 1995. At

2744-402: The website had 150,000 monthly readers. The website MMORPG.com noted that the webzine had become the "flagship brand" for Themis, which runs other websites and ventures related to the gaming industry, with the reputation of "a widely read and highly respected form of game journalism" and "paying writers top dollar". On July 9, 2007, the site relaunched with a completely new design, which also saw

2800-403: The website to Gamurs Group in September 2022. On November 6, 2023, Calandra alleged he was fired from Gamurs Group, citing "not achieving goals" as the justification. The entire video team, including Croshaw, subsequently resigned to form an employee-owned outlet titled Second Wind ; Gamurs kept the rights to Zero Punctuation among other Escapist properties. The Escapist Indie Showcase

2856-465: Was Computer and Video Games , which premiered in the U.K. in November 1981. This was two weeks ahead of the U.S. launch of the next oldest video gaming publication, Electronic Games magazine, founded by "Arcade Alley" writers Bill Kunkel and Arnie Katz. As of 2015 , the oldest video game publications still in circulation are Famitsu , founded in 1986, and The Games Machine (Italy) , founded in 1988. The video game crash of 1983 badly hurt

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2912-406: Was held from June 11–14, 2020 focusing on indie games. The main showcase video was aired first on June 11 and used the "direct" format, as well as featuring messages from the developers behind the games. Streams were held after the showcase where The Escapist team played some of the games while interviewing their developers live. They partnered with GOG for the event. The Escapist Games Showcase

2968-579: Was held from November 10–12, 2020, as part of the digital EGLX event. In May 2008, The Escapist won the Webby Award and 2008 People's Choice Award for Best Video-Game Related Website. The Escapist also won this award in 2009 after a protracted voting battle between the members of The Escapist and the website GameSpot. In 2011 The Escapist again won three Webby Awards: Best Games-Related Website, People's Voice Best Games-Related Website and People's Voice Best Lifestyle Website. The Escapist also received

3024-599: Was launched in 1993, and China's first consumer-oriented gaming magazines, Diànzǐ Yóuxì Ruǎnjiàn and Play , launched in mid-1994. Often, game reviews would be accompanied by awards, such as the C+VG Hit, the YS Megagame or the Zzap!64 Gold Medal, awarded usually to titles with a score above 90%. Other features would be gameplay hints/tips/cheats, a letters page, and competitions. There are conflicting claims regarding which of

3080-440: Was necessary for Theus's surgery. They planned to use this extra money to create a game publishing label, where the revenue would go directly into funding subsequent projects. Alexander Macris, owner and co-founder of The Escapist, stated the money should have been used to create more episodes of Extra Credits for The Escapist and to compensate Themis Media for donation incentives, such as premium memberships and T-shirts. During

3136-721: Was penned by Bill Kunkel along with Arnie Katz and Joyce Worley. The late 1970s also marked the first coverage of video games in Japan, with columns appearing in personal computer and manga magazines. The earliest journals exclusively covering video games emerged in late 1981, but early column-based coverage continued to flourish in North America and Japan with prominent examples like video game designer Yuji Horii 's early 1980s column in Weekly Shōnen Jump and Rawson Stovall 's nationally syndicated column, "The Vid Kid" running weekly ran from 1982 to 1992. The first consumer-oriented print magazine dedicated solely to video gaming

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