{"id":15525,"date":"2025-08-17T22:20:32","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T22:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo4.dedicatedhost247.com\/newstime\/why-the-former-editor-of-polygon-is-making-a-podcast-for-old-gamers\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T22:20:32","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T22:20:32","slug":"why-the-former-editor-of-polygon-is-making-a-podcast-for-old-gamers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo4.dedicatedhost247.com\/newstime\/why-the-former-editor-of-polygon-is-making-a-podcast-for-old-gamers\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the former editor of Polygon is making a podcast for old gamers"},"content":{"rendered":"


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In a recent episode of Post Games<\/em>, host Chris Plante explores how video games can help players understand death. He\u2019s interviewing Kaitlin Tremblay, who is working on Ambrosia Sky<\/em>, a game about death.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhat is it about games that is so useful for exploring the topic?\u201d Plante asks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI think there\u2019s something really lovely about the way in which games invite players in,\u201d Tremblay says. There is \u201csomething quite lovely about asking a person to cooperate and to be a part of the story, and to move through the space.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s a tone, and a substance of conversation, unlike any I\u2019ve heard on a gaming podcast before. And it underscores what\u2019s so unique about Post Games<\/em> \u2014 and how it might stand out from other gaming media, by acting a lot more like a slower and more cerebral NPR show.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Within weeks of leaving Polygon<\/em>, where he was the editor-in-chief, Plante started Post Games<\/em>, which he describes as<\/a> \u201ca weekly podcast about how and why we love video games.\u201d He\u2019s targeting an older demographic and models Post Games<\/em> after an NPR-like format with tightly-edited segments and weekly episodes that last for about an hour. And he\u2019s asking fans for support via Patreon to help keep it going.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cPractically everything in games media targets young people\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Many other video game podcasts are \u201calmost entirely for people under the age of 30 who can afford to listen to multiple shows that are four hours long this week,\u201d Plante tells The Verge<\/em>. \u201cPractically everything in games media targets young people \u2014 both because it\u2019s being produced by young people and because it\u2019s the demographic sales teams believe they have the best shot at selling.\u201d But players over 35, he says, have \u201cvery different interests and expectations.\u201d There are a lot of people that fall in that category, with the Entertainment Software Association reporting that<\/a> more than half of the 205.1 million Americans playing video games are older than 35.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s really basic supply and demand shit,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd yet very few places want to meet this demand. The publications older audiences turn to for information \u2014 newspapers, magazines, and audio \u2014 have given gaming culture scraps at best, and worst, ignored it entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Before I go any further, I should make a few disclosures. Plante, until May, was the editor-in-chief of Polygon<\/em>, formerly The Verge<\/em>\u2019s sister site dedicated to gaming and entertainment. He was a co-founder of Polygon<\/em> when it launched in 2012, and he later worked at The Verge<\/em> from September 2014 to July 2017. I never worked with him directly, but I met Plante for the first time in person earlier this year over dinner at the Game Developers Conference.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This is all to say that when Vox Media announced on May 1st<\/a> that it sold Polygon<\/em> to Game Rant<\/em> owner Valnet, and Plante said that he wouldn\u2019t be<\/a> part of the site moving forward, I was bummed for him. But by the end of the month, he had published the first episode of Post Games<\/em>, and he\u2019s posted a new episode every week since. It\u2019s a great podcast.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Each episode is about an hour long and split into three acts. Much of the show revolves around interviews on a certain topic, and a third act features Plante discussing the news of the week. But the broader topics of the episodes don\u2019t always align with the current big thing in gaming.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The first episode was about the history of the Independent Games Festival\u2019s Seamus McNally Grand Prize, for example. The second was about sexy games. When the episodes do tackle topics of the moment, Plante tries to put his own spin on things; when Death Stranding 2: On the Beach<\/em><\/a> came out, Plante scored a rare interview with YouTuber videogamedunkey<\/a>, who initially hated<\/a> the first Death Stranding<\/em> but revisited it two years later<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.<\/figcaption>Image: Kojima Productions<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The show is available for free with ads, but people who pay a $5 per month subscription on Patreon<\/a> get early access to ad-free episodes with a bonus segment and access to an exclusive video every month. While planning out what Post Games<\/em> would be \u201cmy logic was, if I wasn\u2019t willing to spend $5 on it, then why would anybody else?\u201d Plante says. The show just hit 1,000 paid subscribers, and even if things flatten from there, \u201cthat would be enough to cover my family\u2019s health insurance.\u201d If the show gets 2,000 by the end of the year, \u201cI\u2019ll feel confident about this being my future.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Game journalists who leave or were laid off from traditional gaming publications are increasingly doing their own thing, such as the worker-owned Aftermath<\/em> from former Kotaku<\/em> writers<\/a> and Patrick Klepek\u2019s parent-focused Crossplay<\/em><\/a> Substack publication. And while publications everywhere are facing pressure from things like AI search engines and Google Zero<\/a>, Plante argues there are a lot of audiences that are underserved by more traditional business models because of their reliance on scale.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cAs somebody in the media, you hear a lot about how great independent media is because of its benefits for the people who make the media, but I think there\u2019s a larger conversation that needs to be had about the benefits that it has for the audience, for the readers,\u201d Plante says. \u201cI think if you focus on the readers and the audience, you will find more business opportunities for more independent creators or more just smaller funded creators.\u201d He also says that if mainstream publications don\u2019t want to serve the \u201chumongous and growing audience\u201d of older gamers, \u201cI\u2019m happy to.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Plante sees Post Games<\/em> as his thing for the next long while. \u201cMy only dream for the future of the show is that I\u2019m doing this in 10 years,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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