The Top 50 Videogame Journalists in the World

The international daily videogame news service Next-Gen.biz recently did a feature on the 50 most influential videogame reporters in the world today. Yours truly made the list (page 4) and this very column is mentioned in the story. While it's an honor to be on this short list, it's worth noting the wide range of TV, online and print journalists who are behind the burgeoning gaming industry. Each writer has a picture, which allows some of you to put a face to the names you're probably very familiar with.

According to a recent online survey from GamesPress, there are roughly 17,000 journalists in the world today covering videogames. While this number doesn't cover every small blog and gaming Web site, it does show that there's quite a lot of writing going on in the games business.

And yet as the game industry grows (it's expected to top $44 billion from it's current $30 billion in a few years), the industry is pretty small. Every time I attend a press event, it's the same small group of 50 or so reporters who are there. Even the international events rarely have more than 100 reporters, outside of an E3. And once you're in the industry, it's something you never leave. Whether a reporter, marketer, PR rep or developer, the same people tend to move from company to company and job to job, but almost all of them stay in the industry. It's not surprising, though. I also cover beats like sports and entertainment for some of my outlets, especially since just about everything converges with videogames these days. There's simply not another field out there as interesting and entertaining to cover. So those who are fortunate enough to enter this club, never, ever leave.