People
Analysts, critics, reporters, and executives who lead the global games conversation. Leans heavily towards English speakers at the moment.
Fifty entries: forty-three analysts, critics, reporters and executives who cover the industry, and seven maintained lists of them for when one name is not enough. Forty are in English; the rest write in Korean, Spanish, Japanese, Bahasa Indonesia, Turkish, Finnish, Swedish and French.
Language
50 of 50 shown
These rows
| Portrait | Name | Role | Who they are | Language | Where they post |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Christopher Dring | Founder, The Game Business (ex-GamesIndustry.biz) | Publishes UK and EU sales charts and market data commentary nobody else assembles. Interviews platform holders on the record | English | |
 | Jason Schreier | Reporter, Bloomberg | Breaking industry-structure reporting (layoffs, acquisitions, studio mismanagement) with primary sourcing. Also covers the labor angle no analyst touches | English | Bluesky + Bloomberg |
 | Joost van Dreunen | NYU Stern, SuperJoost Playlist | Academic-grade frameworks applied to current deals and platform strategy. Bridges investor and scholarly views of the industry | English | |
 | Mat Piscatella | Senior Director & Video Game Industry Advisor, Circana | Posts the monthly US sales/MAU charts everyone else screenshots. Threads add methodology context (e.g., 2026 digital-projection change) unavailable elsewhere | English | Bluesky |
 | Matthew Ball | CEO, Epyllion | Long-form structural essays on games/media economics ('The State of Video Gaming' decks) that set industry-wide framing for a year at a time | English | X |
 | Piers Harding-Rolls | Head of Games Research, Ampere Analysis | Console/subscription market sizing and M&A analysis from one of the few independent UK research shops. Regular public columns | English | |
 | Simon Carless | Founder, GameDiscoverCo | The reference source for Steam/PC discoverability data: wishlist conversion, platform trends, monthly new-release charts | English | |
 | Stephen Totilo | Founder, Game File | Original reporting on platform policy, ratings boards, and company decisions. Breaks primary-document stories (FTC filings, lawsuits) usable as Tier A sources | English | X |
 | Eric Benjamin Seufert | Mobile Dev Memo, Heracles Capital | The reference analyst on mobile ad-tech, ATT/privacy fallout, and platform economics. Annual mobile-gaming predictions are an industry fixture | English | X |
 | Matej Lancaric | Independent UA consultant, Brutally Honest newsletter, two & a half gamers podcast | Granular, practitioner-level UA and creative-strategy teardowns of specific live mobile titles. Names numbers and networks | English | |
 | Michail Katkoff | Founder, Deconstructor of Fun | Systems-level deconstructions of top-grossing F2P games and annual 'state of mobile' reviews. The standard vocabulary for F2P design analysis | English | |
 | Phillip Black | Co-host, Game Economist Cast | Applies actual economics training (pricing theory, market design) to game monetization. The analytical layer above standard F2P commentary | English | |
 | Jakub Remiar | Product & Game Design Consultant | Game designer using psychological background to better understand player experience and current market trends in the games industry. | English | |
 | Anton Slashcev | Founder @ Playhero | Co-founder of Unlock Games and Dino Games | English | |
 | Ashley Kang (강지혜) | Founder, Korizon Esports | The main English-language bridge into LCK/Korean esports. On-the-ground reporting and interviews, plus rare public documentation of Korean team-press dynamics. Secondary beat: esports business | English | YouTube |
 | Kim Seong-hoe (김성회) | Ex-game developer, runs 김성회의 G식백과 | The de facto public-policy explainer for Korean gaming: led the 210,751-signatory constitutional challenge to the Game Industry Act's pre-censorship clause, testified at National Assembly audits, presented at a presidential 민생토론회 on loot-box odds. Video format but the function is regulation/industry explanation. Scope-rule borderline, curator's call | Korean | YouTube |
 | Lee Jang-ju (이장주) | Director, 이락디지털문화연구소, cultural psychologist (PhD) | The main Korean academic voice countering gaming-disorder/질병코드 framing with psychological research. Regular columns (Edaily, 게임뷰) analyzing hits like 붉은사막 through cultural psychology, the KR parent/family/anxiety discourse layer. Secondary beat: kids, family & platform policy | Korean | Press columns (Edaily, ETnews, 게임뷰) + conferences |
 | Lee Kyung-hyuk (이경혁) | Editor-in-chief, GameGeneration (게임제너레이션), director, Dragon Lab | Runs Korea's dedicated games-criticism webzine. PhD work on games as time-rights commodities. Author of 『현질의 탄생』 on Korean monetization culture, the meaning layer KR trade press doesn't cover | Korean | gamegeneration.or.kr + books/columns |
 | Lim Hui-seok (임희석) | Internet/Games Analyst, Mirae Asset Securities | Sell-side games analyst posting a daily public Telegram digest: KR/global games news, Google Play grossing rank movements, and his own coverage notes (Krafton, NCSoft, Nexon) in near-real time. The single fastest public feed on Korean publisher performance | Korean | Telegram |
 | Wi Jong-hyun (위정현) | Professor, Chung-Ang University, Korea Game Society | The most-quoted academic voice on KR game policy: P2E, loot-box regulation, China export licenses. Runs his own strategy-commentary YouTube channel | Korean | YouTube |
 | David Gibson | Senior Analyst, MST Financial (Tokyo/Adelaide) | Sell-side coverage of Nintendo/Sony posted publicly in near-real time: hardware forecasts, tariff/pricing math, earnings reads. Frequently ahead of trade press | English | X (@gibbogame) |
 | Jini | Writer/editor, ゲームゼミ / Interacrit, lecturer, Tokyo University of the Arts | Japan's leading independent paid games-criticism operation on note.com. Long-form analysis of games as culture and business, JP industry context unavailable in English | Japanese | note.com |
 | Dr. Serkan Toto | CEO, Kantan Games (Tokyo) | Tokyo-based consultant translating JP industry filings and moves for a global audience in real time (e.g., Pokémon Co. financials from Kanpo gazette filings) | English | X |
 | Chenyu Cui | Senior Analyst, Games, Omdia (Shanghai) | Published APAC market monitors spanning China and Korea PC/online markets, one of few analysts covering both under one methodology. Secondary beat: Korea. Reports are paid. | English | Omdia research |
 | Daniel Ahmad | Director of Research & Insights, Niko Partners | The default English-language source on China game approvals, regulation, and Tencent/NetEase strategy. @ZhugeEX threads are the fastest reliable read on ISBN batches. Secondary beat: market analysts | English | X |
 | Hongyu 'Eddie' Chen | APAC Coordinator, The Esports Advocate | Described as the only China-based Chinese journalist writing esports business for Western media: Hero Esports/VSPO, tournament economics, sponsorships from inside the market. Secondary beat: esports business | English | X |
 | Josh Ye | Tech Correspondent, Reuters (Hong Kong) | Wire-service reporting on Tencent, NetEase, and China gaming regulation with primary sourcing. Career-long games beat (ex-SCMP/Abacus) | English | X |
 | Lisa Hanson | CEO, Niko Partners | 20+ years of China market modeling. Podcast and Substack appearances explain regulatory and market-entry dynamics at the strategic level | English | |
 | Tobias Seck | Co-founder & business analyst, The Esports Advocate | The rare esports writer with a finance-analyst background, reading earnings reports and insolvency filings rather than press releases | English | esportsadvocate.net |
 | Andy Robertson | Founder, Family Video Game Database, author, Taming Gaming, freelance (Forbes/BBC/Guardian) | Runs the largest hand-researched family games database (3,700+ titles) with PEGI/accessibility/parental-control detail. Live reporting from family-gaming events | English | X |
 | Rachel Kowert, PhD | Research psychologist, founder, Psychgeist, Visiting Researcher, Cambridge | Monthly digests of trust & safety, extremism, and mental-health research in games, translated for practitioners. Has testified to US Congress. Secondary beat: academics who post | English | |
 | Sonia Livingstone | Professor, LSE, Digital Futures for Children | Leads the research program behind most serious UK/EU children's-digital-rights policy (RITEC, age-appropriate design). The 'Parenting for a Digital Future' blog posts ongoing research | English | |
 | Dal Yong Jin | Distinguished Professor, Simon Fraser University | The central scholar of Korean game industry and platform imperialism in English, essential where the Korea shelf is thin. Steady stream of new books/papers | English | Academic publications |
 | Marc Steinberg | Professor, Concordia University | Platform studies and Japan's media-mix economy, the theoretical framework behind how JP games/IP franchising actually works | English | X |
 | Mia Consalvo | Professor, Concordia University | Long-running research on cheating, monetization ethics, and player cultures. Regularly posts and podcasts about current games research | English | Academic publications |
 | Salone Sehgal | Founding General Partner, Lumikai | India (IN): the most-quoted analyst on Indian gaming market structure. Leads the State of India report and gave the definitive framing of the post-RMG-ban market reset. Active through the 2025 report cycle and 2026 press | English | |
 | Rishi Alwani | Co-founder, The Mako Reactor, bylines in Yahoo Finance India, IGN India | India (IN): two decades covering the console/PC side of the Indian market (pricing, distribution, platform-holder neglect) and a reliable corrective to gambling-adjacent PR framing. Publishing through 2026 | English | X |
 | Ernesto Piedras | Director General, The CIU | Mexico (MX): the economist behind essentially all recurring Mexican gaming market data. Publishes gaming/telecom analyses continuously (console-market piece July 2026) and is the default expert quoted by national business press | Spanish | X |
 | Hugo Abel Castro Duarte | President, GDMEX, director of Gamacon | Mexico (MX): the most visible advocate-explainer of the Mexican dev industry. Fiscal policy, LatAm positioning, industry formalization. A trade-association president and event owner, so read as informed advocacy, not neutral analysis | Spanish | |
 | Darang S. Candra | Director for Southeast Asia & East Asia Research, Niko Partners (Jakarta-based) | SEA: the most consistently cited analyst on Southeast Asian gaming. Market models, esports economics, cybercafé and regulation analysis across all six markets. A decade of research experience and active through 2026 | English, Bahasa Indonesia | |
 | Ozan Aydemir | CEO, Gaming in Türkiye, MENA and EU, author of the Türkiye Game Market Report | Turkey (TR): the person behind the sector's primary reference report for a decade. His commentary frames each year's data (2026: the shift from user growth to engagement depth). Quoted by every national outlet covering the market | Turkish, English | |
 | KooPee Hiltunen | Director, Neogames Finland | Nordics (Finland): the most-quoted explainer of the Finnish industry's condition. Writes candid state-of-the-industry analyses (including a frank 2026 assessment of the funding and layoff climate) rather than promotional summaries | English, Finnish | |
 | Johanna Nylander | Editor, Spelutvecklarindex / Game Developer Index (Dataspelsbranschen) | Nordics (Sweden): editor of the bloc's flagship data series and its research team lead, the person behind the methodology every Swedish industry figure rests on. Current through the 2025 edition | Swedish, English | |
| Bluesky starter pack directory, games sections | N/A | The single durable entry point to the Bluesky curated-list layer. Its games journalism, game journalists and gaming journalism sections index roughly 28 packs between them, covering critics, magazine makers, journalists turned developers and per-outlet staff lists. Start here rather than trying to keep a roster of packs current. | English, Multilingual | Web directory indexing Bluesky | |
| Games Writers, by Reconnect | N/A | Over 200 games writers in one pack, the largest games-writing list found in this scan. The companion to reconnect.quest and the best single starting point for Anglophone games writing. | English | Bluesky | |
| Reconnect (reconnect.quest) | N/A | An aggregator of games writing with per-writer pages rather than a follow list, so it routes to the work instead of the account. Useful where you want to read someone before deciding to follow them. | English | Web | |
| JV, Culture Jeu Vidéo (journalistes) | N/A | The Bluesky accounts of journalists writing for JV magazine. Narrow by design and therefore useful, since it maps one French outlet's masthead rather than the whole market. | French | Bluesky | |
| Gente guay de los videojuegos a la que seguir | N/A | Press, developers, writers and industry professionals working in games in Spain. Cross-market rather than single-outlet, which makes it the broadest Spanish-language entry point found here. | Spanish | Bluesky | |
| Video Game Critics & Journalists | N/A | People who write about games, described by its curator as running from investigative reporters to tastemakers. A second volume exists, which is a signal the first filled up. | English | Bluesky | |
| Game Journos turned Game Devs | N/A | People who moved from writing about games to making them. A niche no general pack covers, and useful for tracing how the press and development layers connect. | English | Bluesky |