This article was originally published on March 14, 2025 - read the full issue here

By Patrick Garratt

When I was approached to start researching the possibilities surrounding Knowledge last year, the hole it's been ultimately conceived to fill became quickly visible. The industry I left in 2017 after the sale of VG247, a consumer site I partly owned, is not the one operating today. I missed the videogame industry's great implosion, an ongoing event violent enough to earn a dedicated Wikipedia page, and the changes to its accompanying press.

Today's B2B videogame media has transformed as much as the industry it covers. Viewing from outside, I couldn't seem to find answers to some top-line questions, the most obvious one being, "What do I do now that I've lost my job?" The B2C products I'd worked on previously succeeded by helping players, so it seemed logical to aim at assisting professionals in games, at developers and publishers who need help to navigate what's become, for many, a nightmare environment.

Everything I'd learnt about content and narrative pointed in this direction. Media, be it fictional or otherwise, succeeds based on its level of utility. It answers a question. As I started watching social media again, it became obvious the community had picked up a lot of the slack in the form of commentary, job postings and amplification of creative work. Transformations in the more traditional B2B media environment had granted opportunities to writers and journalists, generally one-person bands and usually working via the medium of newsletters, to create meaningful businesses and readerships. There was clearly room for a product focused on independent development and the substantial mutations in triple-A publishing. Many skilled videogame professionals have suddenly found themselves without direction and are seeking contact to find a way forward creatively and financially. How does the media facilitate that exchange?

Knowledge was made to help. Building on Edge’s unique authority in the prosumer videogame media, I'll be working alongside the amazing Marie Dealessandri (ex-GamesIndustry.biz, ex-MCV) to create an indispensable publication to help videogame developers, promoters and investors find their professional way through the coming years. We'll be dissecting products and projects, both technical and narrative, to aid those already working within the contemporary videogame industry and those who aspire to do so, and channeling advice from those currently thriving. You'll see commentary from the industry, portfolios from Bluesky, interviews with engine-makers, and more. We want to be part of the conversation, not a camera shooting from 10,000 feet.

I'll be at GDC next week, so get in touch if you want to chat in San Francisco. And welcome. Making this project a reality has been an enriching experience. I hope we're creating something that'll benefit us all.

This article was originally published on March 14, 2025 - read the full issue here