My Newest: On Crimson Desert vs. The Gaming Press

Hey everybody,

First off, I owe you all an apology. It’s been a minute because the final longform Game & Word piece, and I really recognize your persistence greater than you recognize. But why has it taken so lengthy? Well, the quick model is that I’ve been heads-down getting Spawn Point Marketing (my fractional CMO consultancy for sport studios) off the bottom, and it’s been consuming most of my writing bandwidth.

But the excellent news is that via this work, I’m nonetheless creating content material you’ll discover fascinating… simply in a barely totally different venue.

Case in level: my newest article simply went dwell on the Spawn Point Marketing Substack, and I wished to share it right here as a result of it sits proper on the intersection of each publications.

Crimson Desert Mogged the Gaming Press is a deep dive into what Crimson Desert’s launch (+4 million copies offered, 276K concurrent gamers on Steam, 82% constructive score) tells us in regards to the widening gulf between the mainstream gaming press and the gamers they’re alleged to serve.

In the article, I break down the double requirements in how critics scored Crimson Desert versus video games with equivalent points, lay out the case for and in opposition to the press as a significant driver of sport gross sales in 2026, and shut with actionable advertising classes for indie and AA studios making an attempt to determine the place to speculate their restricted sources.

If that type of evaluation feels like your factor, contemplate subscribing to the Spawn Point Marketing Substack for extra sport advertising technique, case research, and business breakdowns like this one. It’s a sister publication to Game & Word — the identical voice and the identical rigor you’ve come to like, simply aimed on the enterprise aspect of constructing video games.

Read the complete piece right here:

As for Game & Word correct, my subsequent piece will likely be on divinity and apotheosis in video video games, and it’s within the last stretch. I’m making use of some ending touches as we communicate. It’ll be definitely worth the wait! (…I hope)

Thank you, sincerely, for sticking round. This e-newsletter’s readership means loads to me, and I don’t take your persistence as a right.

More quickly!

GG,

~Jay