Times are bleak in the games industry, and they’re no less challenging in the media that covers it. Twenty years ago there were dozens of print magazines and hundreds of games websites pumping out daily news, previews and reviews. Those numbers have declined steeply over the following years, and while the pandemic drove a brief spike in audiences and revenues that mirrored that of the wider games market – prompting a short-lived and ill-fated round of consolidation – the media landscape is now dominated by a small number of behemoths, with video influencers increasingly dominating conversation and marketing plans.
So launching a new games media website is a novelty – particularly one with a design and an editorial brief that would not have looked out of place in the glory days of the early 2000s. Respec is a new site launched by Tom Orry and Alex Donaldson, who have a combined tally of 40 years in games media, and who believe that there’s an opportunity to establish a new site with a small team, a clear voice, and a passion for playing and writing about games.
Both recently worked on Eurogamer (owned by GamesIndustry.biz parent IGN Entertainment) but Donaldson launched and managed RPG Site – which shares a platform and some staff with Respec – while Orry founded and operated Videogamer, an early adopter of Patreon funding before a series of ownership changes culminated in its removal from both Metacritic and Google due to AI-written game reviews.
Both are of the opinion that “a lot of websites have been chronically mismanaged on the financial side,” says Orry, and that there’s room for a “classic old-school style multi-format video games website” with a lean team focused on covering what they care about, rather than what they feel obliged to cover.
“There were loads of these around 15 years ago, but then they got squeezed by the ad market, acquired and run into the ground, or pushed too hard and ran out of money,” he says. “We think this kind of website, run on a tight budget and with the support of readers, can very much still exist in the year 2026.”
The core of Respec is old-school text-based games coverage, supported by a weekly podcast and a YouTube channel carrying a mix of reviews and more eclectic Let’s Plays. “Text is for the work, and video will be for the playful, fun, silly hangout stuff,” says Orry.
He believes that Respec can succeed by having a clear voice and a convivial feel. “The best video game magazines felt like clubs and the early websites/fansites felt like clubs,” he says. “We will talk to and with our readers, engage with them, and provide the kind of articles they enjoy rather than what we think will gain the most traction online.”
The voice will be distinctly local, too. “In a media space increasingly squeezed by US ownership, we want to make something that is totally unapologetically British, in keeping with the tradition of the magazines we loved growing up,” says Orry. “That might sound provincial, but we also know from many other examples both inside and outside games that this sort of tone travels well.”
Reader revenues
The site will be primarily advertising-funded with the bulk of its content being free to read, but with paid subscriptions via Patreon offering exclusive weekly podcasts and occasional features. While Donaldson believes it is “tremendously difficult to build a business that has direct user subscriptions as its primary revenue driver off the bat,” he hopes that users with sufficient income can be motivated to back the site and be rewarded with “some fun exclusives,” with a view to growing direct funding “significantly” over time.
Orry believes that the site’s clear independence will help to scale this. “Corporate-owned media, especially in the specialist sector in the UK, has struggled to get substantial financial support from readers,” he says. “Why support the corporation when that same entity is laying people off? Respec is entirely independent with the owners working on the site. Our goals are aligned, our expectations are reasonable, and we don’t need constant growth.”
In the meantime, Donaldson’s experience running RPG Site means he’s used to “extracting the maximum advertising revenue from our footprint while still respecting the user, and I will be doing that here.” Respec is currently funded from the profits of RPG Site owner Double Black, which Donaldson says it has “strong margins” that can absorb the costs until Respec achieves profitability, and with potential to expand in the meantime.
“We’re bullish about 2027 as a particularly strong year for the role-playing genre,” he says. “Strong performance on RPG Site will unlock more investment, as will growth in Respec’s earning potential.”
The backing of its established sibling means that Respec has time and space to establish its voice and find its audience, and build the credibility its founders see as crucial to the brand’s long-term success.
“In the first months, while page views will be a metric we’ll measure, the most important thing I’m going to be looking at is actually penetration within that audience,” says Donaldson. “Respect, reputation, trust. That can be reflected in more nebulous metrics like the mood in comments, on social media, and among industry colleagues – but also in concrete metrics like bounce rate, dwell time, and sessions per user. These are the hallmarks of a healthier site that is less reliant on search and in turn are things we can build a sustainable business around.”
“It’s easier than people realize to trick your way to high traffic numbers via search, but it’s more difficult to build an actual audience. A year in, obviously, we’re looking to have Respec clear of the suckling support of its genre expert sibling – but it’ll be one step at a time to get there.”
Their goal is not to build to the size of the established games sites, says Orry, but to create something “new and manageable. We love games media and want to give people something they can enjoy and support.”
“Ultimately, the goal is to build a brand that people feel invested in and trust – and to keep it independent,” says Donaldson. “We’ve experienced life inside bigger machines, and though it has its benefits, one thing my experience has gradually bequeathed me is an understanding that a small, fast moving ship can be wildly successful on its own terms – and more fun to work on to boot.”
