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A review by justjonsbooks
Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry by Jason Schreier
3.0
For some reason I thought I had already started a review for this book but it looks like I must have just thought about it in my head instead of actually writing it… so let’s get to it!
Simply put, I didn’t like this as much as Blood, Sweat and Pixels. I think what made that first book so special was that it focused on the games first and the ups and downs that developers faced during the production process. It opened a door into the world of game development like a behind the scenes and it included games that I loved while also introducing me to new/old games that I then wanted to support just because of the amazing work that the developers did through so many hardships.
This book however is quite different, it focuses specifically on the people and their struggles working within a volatile industry. The chapters aren’t so much about specific games but rather the corporate world, the downfall of a studio until their inevitable shutdown, or the varied career of a specific developer as they get laid off multiple times. It was very insightful, but most of it was actually quite depressing.
It did the opposite to the first book, which made me appreciate the creation of video games, whether they are a success or a flop. It instead made me for the most part start to dislike the industry for how it’s run. It made me dislike the large corporations of games that I’ve been playing for years. It made upset and angry with how developers are treated, how unsecured their livelihoods can be.
I soon found myself just losing interest in all the doom and gloom and the long detailings of random developers careers. A lot of it felt repetitive with people inevitably being laid off as their studio shuts down, and the more I read the more I wished some parts were just summed up in a couple paragraphs instead of whole chapters. I think the only story that actually stood out to me was about the ex baseball player who decided to make a studio, simply because it was something different.
Ultimately I think this book does do what it sets out to achieve but I sadly didn’t enjoy or find it as memorable as I would have hoped.
Simply put, I didn’t like this as much as Blood, Sweat and Pixels. I think what made that first book so special was that it focused on the games first and the ups and downs that developers faced during the production process. It opened a door into the world of game development like a behind the scenes and it included games that I loved while also introducing me to new/old games that I then wanted to support just because of the amazing work that the developers did through so many hardships.
This book however is quite different, it focuses specifically on the people and their struggles working within a volatile industry. The chapters aren’t so much about specific games but rather the corporate world, the downfall of a studio until their inevitable shutdown, or the varied career of a specific developer as they get laid off multiple times. It was very insightful, but most of it was actually quite depressing.
It did the opposite to the first book, which made me appreciate the creation of video games, whether they are a success or a flop. It instead made me for the most part start to dislike the industry for how it’s run. It made me dislike the large corporations of games that I’ve been playing for years. It made upset and angry with how developers are treated, how unsecured their livelihoods can be.
I soon found myself just losing interest in all the doom and gloom and the long detailings of random developers careers. A lot of it felt repetitive with people inevitably being laid off as their studio shuts down, and the more I read the more I wished some parts were just summed up in a couple paragraphs instead of whole chapters. I think the only story that actually stood out to me was about the ex baseball player who decided to make a studio, simply because it was something different.
Ultimately I think this book does do what it sets out to achieve but I sadly didn’t enjoy or find it as memorable as I would have hoped.