marksutherland reviewed Press Reset by Jason Schreier
Review of 'Press Reset' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
An insight into the nomadic careers of game developers and the industry dynamics that cause so many studios to go bust. In many ways this is the answer to the concerns I had about "blood sweat and pixels", though the focus is more on the economic issues than others power dynamics like sexual harassment. Many of the same companies and characters turn up in multiple chapters which maybe raises the question of how broad his research was, but there's plenty of detail in what he has gathered. Towards the end he raises the issue of trade unions and looks at the potential of a consultancy model to address the instability of the industry, but doesn't seem to commit to either. This is less of a manifesto than a report on the current state of video game development though, and it's definitely a step up on his previous book.