. Ethics and Policies

I've been closely following events regarding the state of video games journalism over the last week and feel many important and salient points have been raised by the gaming community. The gaming media as a whole has been forced to look at its practices and re-evaluate how it operates, and we are no different at ..

These recent events have affected us all, and many accusations about a lack of impartiality in the gaming media have been delivered by those in and outside the industry. Much of this has centred on the frequent interactions between the gaming press and the PR departments of the gaming publishers necessary for securing the tightly controlled preview and review materials required for thorough and extensive coverage.

The games industry finds itself in a difficult position in 2012, with AAA games suffering from swelling developing costs and dwindling sales. Publishers are more concerned about guarding their titles than ever, and are devoting more and more resources into creating their own content portals that celebrate their titles. PR exists for all manner of entertainment industries, and relationships between . staff and gaming publishers will need to exist for us to deliver timely and relevant content, but if recent events have made one thing clear it is that we have a duty to provide readers with as much information about our practices as possible.

It is easy for me to say to you that the . editorial team is honest - something I wholeheartedly believe is true - but that matters for very little if you don't think so too. As a company we've worked hard over the last eight years to turn . into a leading games website, building on the foundation of a love for games and a desire to tell people about them, and our editorial team puts the reader first in everything we do. I truly believe our editorial content is some of the most insightful and confident in the industry, from our long-running podcasts to our longform reviews, but we believe in doing better. I want us to be the best.

In order to ease any of the valid concerns you might have about how we cover games, I've drawn up and expanded on a number of new and existing editorial policies that should make our work more transparent and less liable to influence from outside parties. As with all things, these will no doubt evolve over time, and we're keen to hear your feedback to ensure we are doing all we can to help you trust our content and writers. This ongoing debate is not something that should simply be addressed with the publishing of a single article, but an ongoing commitment to delivering transparent editorial content written to an exacting and discerning standard. We truly welcome your continued feedback.

No exclusivity deals on our content

Delivering exclusive content often requires screening your editorial copy through game publishers. We will not be part of any exclusivity deals pertaining to reviews and previews. If any of this content is offered to us, and only us, it will be turned down.

Specifics around reviews will be made clear

Our reviews will feature clear information about which platform the game was reviewed on, how code was provided (debug or retail code), and where the game was played. We still believe it's in your best interest to get reviews up in time for release, so we will consider attending publisher-arranged review events on a case-by-case basis. All instances of this will be clearly labelled as such in the review.

Articles involving arranged and hosted press trips will be made explicit

At . we already run fewer previews than many other sites, as we believe there's very little new material or critical opinion to offer once you've had the initial reveal. But when we do preview games, or write any features around publisher-arranged press trips, we'll clearly state who played the game, how much was shown off and how we got to attend the event in the first place. Travel and accommodation paid for by publishers or other third-parties will be declared in all coverage gained from the event.

We will declare where our news comes from

Much of gaming news come from publishers via press releases, but things like release dates, announcements and new trailers are relevant content that appeal to many. But readers deserve to know where this information is being sourced from: if we're writing news from a press release, we'll clearly state that it came from a press release. If it's sourced from another news outlet, we'll source it clearly. If it's from an interview we've conducted, we'll state who the interview was arranged by and how it was conducted.

We will make it clear who is providing competition prizes

We often run competitions on ., and many of these prove hugely popular with the community. We will state clearly who provided us with competition prizes. Competitions reported on by . will be identified as competitions not in association with ..

Our staff will not promote products through competitions

. staff will not enter any competition that is insular to a single event or promotes any product through the act of entering.

Promotional materials

We will not accept promotional materials (anything that isn't a game) with a value of £50 or more. . staff won't accept gifts and goodie bags at press events.

Finally, I must talk briefly about advertising. Many people will likely point out that our site is funded by and large through advertising deals with games publishers. . is a site entirely dedicated to video games. It is no surprise that most of our advertising is about video games. Our advertising team, however, works entirely separately to the editorial team. No content will ever be created by our editorial department as part of an advertising deal.

Thank you for your continued support, and we welcome all feedback.