Summer Game Fest Co-Host Teams Up with Player.gg to Enhance Game Discovery on ‘Substack For Players’

Lucy James, a seasoned video producer and on-air personality with over a decade of experience, is embarking on a new adventure in the gaming world. After 12 years at her previous role, she’s stepping away to join the wave of independent gaming media talent. However, instead of opting for platforms like Patreon or Substack, she’s teaming up with Player.gg, a platform designed to help gamers discover new titles. This week marks the platform’s public launch, coinciding with Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest. James will be curating a newsletter called lookingfor.game, which will focus on PC gaming recommendations for subscribers.

“GameSpot has been my home for 12 years; it’s taken me all around the world and given me incredible opportunities,” James shared while co-hosting Summer Game Fest Live with Keighley. “It’s a special place filled with talented, creative individuals who consistently exceed expectations. The output might suggest otherwise, but GameSpot operates with a much smaller team than you’d think. Everyone there is passionate about their work and excels at it, despite the various challenges faced over the years.”

She added, “Twelve years is a long time to be anywhere, even in a place you love. I’ve been eager to explore opportunities in the indie game scene, and when everything aligned with Geoff and FirstLook, I knew it was time to make the leap. The positive response to my indie coverage on Friends Per Second has reassured me that there’s an audience for lookingfor.game, and I’m excited to build a community and share amazing games.”

FirstLook, which launched earlier this year, is a player relationship platform tailored for the gaming industry and was recently acquired by a gaming infrastructure startup. It enables private online playtests for various developers. Player.gg will enhance this experience by helping users track new game announcements, recommend existing titles, and manage Steam wishlists. The Summer Game Fest will serve as a significant opportunity to showcase its capabilities.

“There is no effective cross-platform game discovery,” said Player.gg co-founder Robert van Hoesel. “If you play on PC, Xbox, and Switch, there’s no easy way to find all those games in one spot. The focus has been primarily on wishlists, while many studios want to foster relationships with players through playtests and community engagement. With Player.gg, we aim to simplify game discovery and facilitate connections with developers.”

This initiative arises from the growing fragmentation of the internet and the absence of a platform that effectively bridges the gaps left by Steam and social media. While anyone can join Player.gg, only selected curators will be able to send newsletters and charge subscriptions. “We’re essentially creating a Substack for games, where subscriptions are valuable for curators and help them produce high-quality content,” van Hoesel explained. “We do charge a fee for payments and email services, but our primary revenue comes from business-to-business interactions.”

James is thrilled about her partnership with Player.gg to launch a new game discovery newsletter and platform.

While many gaming journalists have found success on Substack, there’s a running joke about the lack of a dedicated gaming section among its newsletters. “FirstLook understands gamers,” James noted. “I had a rather disappointing meeting with another platform and quickly realized that they wouldn’t provide the attention or technology we need, nor understand our project like FirstLook does.”

Player.gg benefits from integrations with Steam and the Internet Game Database for information retrieval. “Curators can collaborate with studios and games in their content, which may include exclusive beta invites or paid promotions,” van Hoesel added. “For FirstLook, the value lies in building the ecosystem itself, and we hope more developers will utilize our products, which are seamlessly integrated into Player.gg.”

These direct relationships with game developers could create a beneficial cycle that helps Player.gg establish itself in a competitive market. FirstLook plans to expand its features and continue developing the platform, while Player.gg will host lookingfor.game, which remains fully owned by James.