Is video game journalism actually journalism? Depends who you ask. If you go by the stiff suits on morning TV, definitely not. Critics say games media is too dependent on publishers and their marketing; plus it lacks reporting, analysis, and critical context.

Games journalism has hit rock bottom

A few years ago I would’ve defended my trade against people like that. These days I have to admit—at least when it comes to mainstream gaming mags—they’re not wrong.

Why? Some of the “reasons” sound like this:

• "Red Dead Redemption fan just wants to tie up his horse, gets beaten up and then kicked by his own steed”
• "The 17 strongest mutants, ranked: villain or hero—who’s the most powerful on Disney Plus?”
• "Jurassic World Evolution 2: Dino hit is a total bargain, but only for a short time”

Those are real headlines from mainstream outlets, randomly grabbed by me in under a minute. Maybe you feel the same: that much trivial, infantilizing, dignity-free dreck makes my brain hurt. I count myself lucky that in 12 years of games journalism I never “had” to sink that low.

On the other hand, I’m almost grateful the pro mags keep pumping out this landfill journalism. That mess is exactly why I’ve launched my own, very particular games site: Mainstream Outside.

I want to do games journalism differently

But hold your horses—who even is this “I”? Pleased to meet you: Alex Nitschke, born ’74, Bavarian by choice, gaming since 1982, and formerly a professional games journalist in both German and English. I’m also a game designer at Haunted Mouse and an audio specialist at Knights of Bytes (Sam’s Journey).

I want to use that experience to build a magazine that…

1. …picks a form that actually fits this colorful, creative medium. In my opinion, the pro scene is packed with snoozy conformists who treat games journalism like a blend of straight news and calculated quips. No wonder they’re left coughing in the dust kicked up by Twitch, Kick, and YouTube creators.
2. …does honest journalism. Neither my team nor I care about publisher sensitivities, and if we write something, we mean every word. Mainstream mags are different; they talk a big game about “community,” but what they really want is traffic from Reddit and streamer coverage.
3. …only covers games with a soul. Which means: no AAA, no NFTs, no idle/clicker fodder or other primarily commercial software. It’s rarely interesting anyway (exceptions like the excellent Red Dead Redemption 2 prove the rule).
4. …sticks to one topic: video games. I’m tired of being pelted with news about Netflix shows, Marvel movies, or Lego on gaming sites, even when some games are based on them. There’s no big newsroom behind Mainstream Outside; that lets us actually stay on topic.

And what if the words “Call of Duty” do pop up?

The list above says “no AAA”, so what does that actually mean? It means our bouncer, Sigjaw, shows every Triple-A release the door (nobody knows what the “Sig” stands for—no one asks). You won’t find news, previews, reviews, or deep dives on big-budget games here.

If GTA, Call of Duty, Cyberpunk 2077 & friends show up anyway, it’ll be to poke fun at them. Kidding, mostly. The truth is, the big publishers’ growing greed helped fuel the indie boom. So it matters to watch the market holistically and put trends in context—whenever that’s relevant to Mainstream Outside’s audience.

Jokes aside, this isn’t my personal crusade against Triple-A. I know almost all the key titles in that space and like some of them (from “pretty alright” to “genuinely cool”). However, I still miss conceptual experimentation from the big players, and I’m not on board with their monetization tricks or their labor and data-privacy policies.

Mainstream Outside is a passion project

You know the saying “small but mighty”? That’s the plan here. I do care how many people end up reading this site—after all, it exists for folks like you, not just for me. But in the end I’ll take a small, sharp community over heaps of drive-by traffic (hardly shocking after everything I’ve just said).

So Mainstream Outside is no more and no less “commercial” than the games we cover. We highlight titles we genuinely believe deserve attention, and of course we’re human enough to be happy when our work gets recognized.

What’s clear to me: my team and I will do our best to earn that recognition. If, down the line, it looks like Mainstream Outside is getting some traction, I’ll figure out ways for you to support the site financially.

How exactly that might look, I can’t say right now, and I’m not worrying about it yet. I’ve never run my own games site, so I don’t know if Mainstream Outside can build a community, or what that crowd would even be like. I’ll let myself be surprised. And now: go!

Alex Nitschke

I’ve been into video games since 1982, spending 12 of those years in professional games journalism. I’ve also been developing games since the early ’90s, starting with a humble C64. Outside of code and keyboards, I’ve been a musician since 1989. Man, I have no idea how I can still be alive...

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