Game Journalist Survey: 75% Say They Won’t Cover Blockchain Game News

Blockchain gaming is exceptionally unpopular among gaming journalists, according to a survey of 160 writers by video game PR agency Big Games Machine.

About 75% of respondents said they are unlikely to cover blockchain gaming news in the next six months to a year. Of course, if they had asked me, I would have said we cover it. They claim to have sent us a survey but I don’t see it in my inbox.

Non-fungible tokens – which use the blockchain’s digital ledger to authenticate unique digital items – have proven incredibly divisive among gamers and game developers. Team17 and GSC Gameworld rolled back their plans to do NFTs after players complained loudly on social media. And while game journalists can sit over that fight as objective reporters, that’s not what’s happening. Instead, gaming journalists have high animosity toward the subject, Big Games Machine said. Gaming journalists agree on the backlash against NFTs, with only 5% saying they are very likely to cover blockchain games.

The journalists believe that the public is not interested or receptive to coverage of blockchain games.

“Others stated a general lack of interest in covering blockchain games, while others were more passionate in the way they expressed their dislike of blockchain games,” the report said.

In their answers, the game journalists showed their prejudice against the status quo.

“I have yet to see any legitimate or compelling use for integrating blockchain options into games,” said one gaming journalist.

Another from the survey said: “Too much at once. The market is flooded and we’re not looking
a lot of readership on articles about blockchain games.”

Another gaming journalist said of game developers opposing NFTs, “Blockchain is a solution in search of a problem. It’s being touted as a panacea for problems that don’t exist and provides no real value to players.”

Another addressed the “environmentally damaging” nature of the blockchain, although Ethereum is moving to proof-of-stake verification and Layer 2 chains have reduced the cost of transactions and reduced the environmental side effects of transactions.

Staff and freelance journalists from publications including Eurogamer, Kotaku, CNET, and IGN contributed to the survey, many of whom shared additional context on their responses in the form of comments.

My hot take

Of course, my own opinion is different. I cover blockchain games because one of the lessons of being a business publication that covers games is that you have to follow the money. Blockchain games may not have been that much fun, but they generated billions of dollars in 2021.

That success led to a hype cycle that many skeptics rightly doubted. In the first half of this year, anywhere from a third to a half of all money invested in gaming companies went to blockchain gaming companies, according to reports from stat trackers at Drake Star Partners and GameInvest.

I’ve spoken to a number of game developers in the industry, from Chris Kassulke to Rami Ismail, who say the arguments against blockchain gaming outweigh the potential benefits. I’ve also spoken with a large number of gaming business executives – such as Gabe Leydon, Kevin Lin, Josh Williams, Justin Kan, Sebastien Borget, Will Wright, Mark Otero and more – who believe that blockchain gaming represents a chance to decentralize power in the gaming industry and give players ownership of the things they buy.

These executives compare blockchain gaming to the dawn of free-to-play mobile and social gaming a decade ago. Hardcore gamers and many game developers had a similar hatred for free-to-play business models – they were scams and associated with low-quality games and get-rich-quick schemes. But free-to-play games increased the gaming audience tenfold, helped make it the dominant form of entertainment, and now account for more than half of the gaming industry’s revenue.

The advocates believe it could happen again with blockchain games. I’m not here to agree or disagree with that. I’m here to cover what is one of the biggest divisions in the gaming industry so I can find out who is being disrupted. I don’t see the role of the games journalist as choosing which game form to write about. We should just cover it, both when the hype cycle starts and when it goes off and moves on to something new – like the metaverse. We will see if blockchain plays a role in keeping the metaverse open.

I don’t think all blockchain gaming deals are good and I see a lot of scams. We write about them when we can. I have seen the consequences of the crypto and NFT bust for the market and the players who want to make money. But our job is to sort through the scams and the potential leads. We ask them about the ethics of the business and how they can possibly succeed in turning attitudes around. Their answers are that minds will change when high-quality games – which take years to make – materialize along with the right technologies and business models.

Game journalism hurts

I am not here to fight with my colleagues, especially in a very tough time when the recession is hitting hard. The survey also shows how business is hurting and journalists are overworked. Unfortunately, we saw layoffs this week at FanByte, G4, and Future. And we’ve seen longtime executives leave publications like Game Informer.

My heart goes out to those who have lost their jobs and it is easy to see why journalists disappear and move into other industries. Most often I see them becoming game producers themselves. I’ve covered games for 26 years, and I know very few peers who have lasted as long as I have. It is not an easy life. But I’ve always had a passion for the work, which has brought me into contact with so many people in the games industry – many of whom I’ve spoken to over and over again over the years.

It is clear that media has changed with the arrival of influencers, creators, streamers and the like. About 76% of respondents acknowledged that the shared space between influencers and game journalists exists. However, many noted the differences between the two and vented frustrations when influencers are given preferential treatment (codes, access) over journalists, the report said.

With an ever-increasing workload, increased pressure on KPIs and shrinking resources to cover an endless list of games, respondents share the reality of working in games journalism in 2022, the report said.

“The gaming industry is becoming increasingly competitive and as a result we are seeing the media landscape grow and develop. Since we first conducted this survey in 2018, we have seen the pressure on journalists increase, says James Kaye, director at Big Games Machine, in a statement. “Unfortunately, the findings from the 2022 survey show that journalists are working under increased pressure, but despite this they are not getting the lead times they need from publishers and PR professionals to review titles. This is problematic, especially given the size of triple-A games and the additional time required to write these reviews and create additional content formats around them.”

Over half of respondents create video content, and 40% create podcast/audio content, so PR people should ensure their media packs/items include plenty of audio and video content when pitching games for review.

Online blogs and websites are still the dominant content medium for our respondents, although it is interesting to see that over half of them also create video content. It’s not clear if this content is native to the website(s) they write for or for platforms like YouTube and Twitch.

Either way, PR people may want to consider including additional video content in their media packages beyond the typical game trailers, so time-honored journalists don’t have to spend extra time gathering footage, the report said.

The life of game journalists

The report said that 42% of game journalists receive between 11 and 30 pitches daily, and 21% receive over 30 pitches daily. I receive more than 500 emails a day, but I can’t say how many of these are presentations.

Journalists don’t get enough time from PRs and game studios to review games and do their job properly. Most respondents vented frustrations with short lead times, and over half said three weeks’ lead is the minimum to properly evaluate a game before a launch, the report said.

The transition from “traditional” media platforms to “multimedia” platforms is well under way. Over 50% of respondents produce video content, and 40% create audio content and/or podcasts, the report states.

PC is the most popular platform for journalists, with over 86% of respondents reviewing games on the platform. This compares to Nintendo Switch (84%), PlayStation 5 (76%) and Xbox Series X/S (67%).

About 40% of respondents are engaged in podcasting, and BGM expects this to grow with podcasts gathering large audiences and services such as Spotify and Apple Music heavily promoting them. PRs and studios should consider how to track podcast coverage and how to work with journalists to create
podcast content such as providing studio staff for interviews.

Fewer than 10% of journalists create content for print publications. It’s no secret that gaming magazines are becoming increasingly difficult to find on store shelves. While it is highly unlikely that we will ever return to the golden years of gaming magazines, there is still some hope in the rise of independent and specialist print publications such as Wireframe, Switch Player and, of course, the beautiful Lost In Cult’s [lock-on] game journals.

Over 80% of respondents said it was “important” or “very important” to feature a game directly from a developer or publisher, emphasizing how much they value direct relationships and appreciate the studios that invest the time to do this. That said, 68% of journalists gave the same answer to being contacted by PR people.

Also interesting is the influence of other gaming media on journalists when discovering which games to cover, with 40% of journalists saying it was moderately important. For journalists, it can affect them to see a competing publication dedicating a lot of time and space to a game they had no intention of covering.

Virtual reality hardware access issues are a potential problem for game reviews, with only 35% of respondents having access to VR platforms.

Tips, guides and reviews are becoming an increasingly popular beat among journalists, mainly due to SEO factors. 34% of respondents are involved in guidance/review work. I can honestly say that GamesBeat’s own revenue is not dependent on SEO factors, and therefore we don’t cover many of the things that are popular among other game journalists. Our events generate revenue and help us focus on building a community of gaming business leaders.

Our next gaming event is GamesBeat Summit Next 2022 25-26. October in San Francisco. You’ll probably learn a thing or two about blockchain games and the metaverse—and traditional games, too.