| People Make Games | |
|---|---|
 | |
| YouTube information | |
| Channel | |
| Years active | 2018—present |
| Subscribers | 525 thousand [1] |
| Total views | 35.9 million [1] |
Last updated: 3 September 2024 | |
People Make Games (PMG) is a British investigative video game journalism YouTube channel. The channel focuses on the developers and people who make video games. People Make Games has reported on topics such as video game crunch, [2] [3] outsourcing, [4] and worker exploitation.
The group was created by the couple [5] Chris Bratt and Anni Sayers in 2018. They were previously both journalists working for Eurogamer . Sayers creates the graphics. Quintin Smith, a journalist from Rock Paper Shotgun , joined in 2020. [6] The channel is viewer-funded with Patreon; [7] in June 2022, the Patreon made US$17,409 per month. [6] Additional funding comes from Loading Bar, a chain of bars in London and Brighton. [8]
In a video published in August 2021, Smith accused Roblox's parent company, Roblox Corporation, of exploiting the platform's young game developers. [9] [10] Smith argues the revenue split is significantly less favourable toward developers than other video game marketplaces, [11] [12] [13] and players are incentivized to keep all ingame currency, which Smith likened to scrip, on Roblox through high minimum withdrawal amounts and unfavourable exchange rates. [14] [15] In a followup video released in December 2021 titled "Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper.", he further accused the platform of having child safety issues [16] [17] [18] and criticized its "collectibles stock market" by likening it to gambling. [19]
In March 2022, the channel reported on three video game studios publishing under Annapurna Interactive — Mountains, Fullbright, and Funomena. In all three cases, employees reportedly reached out to Annapurna Interactive, addressing concerns regarding abuse and a toxic work environment being created by the studio founders. In hopes of getting Annapurna Interactive to mediate, employees stated that the publisher was siding mostly with the founders in question. According to one former studio employee, representatives of Annapurna Interactive had been quoted responding that "without strong personalities, games don't get made." Bratt described these incidents as part of a greater pattern of auteur culture that can be found across the independent film and video game industry. [20] [21] Following the video, Robin Hunicke, one of the heads of Funomena, issued a Twitter apology, before stating to staff alongside Funomena co-founder Martin Middleton that there would be layoffs at Funomena and that the studio would likely close due to the video and its impact on the studio's ability to secure outside funding. [22]
In their video titled "Making Sense of VRChat, the 'Metaverse' People Actually Like" released May 2022, PMG praised VRChat's ability to provide a social space for transgender and disabled people as well as furries, while criticising the approach of Meta Platforms to virtual reality, and its "sexless, Zuckerbergian, brand-friendly presentation". [23] [24]
In November 2022, PMG reported on skin gambling in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and argued that Valve generally avoided taking action on gambling websites using their game, thus "facilitating unregulated gambling by children". [25]
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | New York Game Awards | Best Games Journalism | Nominated | [26] |
| 2023 | Nominated | [27] | ||
| MCV/Develop Awards | Media Brand of the Year | Won | [28] | |
| The Game Awards | Content Creator of the Year | Nominated | [29] |
A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with employee responsibilities split between individual disciplines, such as programmers, designers, artists, etc. Most game development companies have video game publisher financial and usually marketing support. Self-funded developers are known as independent or indie developers and usually make indie games.
Thomas Andrew Tallarico is an American video game music composer, sound designer, and television producer. Since the 1990s, he has helmed production for numerous video games through his self-titled company. He co-hosted the television series Electric Playground and Reviews on the Run from 1997 until 2006. In 2002, he created Video Games Live (VGL), a global video game music orchestra.
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Roblox Corporation is an American video game developer based in San Mateo, California. Founded in 2004 by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel, the company is the developer of Roblox, which was released in 2006. As of December 31, 2023, the company employs over 2,400 people.
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Coffee Stain Studios AB is a Swedish video game developer based in Skövde. Founded in 2010 by nine University of Skövde students, the company is best known for Goat Simulator, which was released in April 2014, and Satisfactory, released as an early access game in 2019. Their parent holding company also operates Coffee Stain Publishing, a publisher, and majority-owns developers Coffee Stain North and Lavapotion. In November 2018, the Coffee Stain group was acquired by THQ Nordic AB.
Wattam is a 2019 puzzle-platform game developed by Funomena and published by Annapurna Interactive. It was designed by Keita Takahashi, better known for creating the Katamari Damacy series, and was released for PlayStation 4 and Windows on December 17.
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Annapurna Games, LLC is an American video game publisher and developer. The company is a division of Annapurna Pictures, and was founded in 2016. Notable games published by the company include Donut County, Kentucky Route Zero, Outer Wilds, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Wattam, What Remains of Edith Finch, Telling Lies, Neon White and Stray.
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In the video game industry, crunch is compulsory overtime during the development of a game. Crunch is common in the industry and can lead to work weeks of 65–80 hours for extended periods of time, often uncompensated beyond the normal working hours. It is often used as a way to cut the costs of game development, a labour-intensive endeavour. However, it leads to negative health impacts for game developers and a decrease in the quality of their work, which drives developers out of the industry temporarily or permanently. Critics of crunch note how it has become normalized within the game-development industry, to deleterious effects for all involved. A lack of unionization on the part of game developers has often been suggested as the reason crunch exists. Organizations such as Game Workers Unite aim to fight against crunch by forcing studios to honour game developers' labour rights.
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...we've been in a relationship for nearly seven years now.