Brian Shea

Brian Shea is an executive editor at Game Informer who pairs long-term industry experience with hands-on play across a wide range of games. He has written about video games for more than 18 years across multiple publications and has created thousands of pieces of content in both print and online formats. His coverage stands out for the way it connects editorial packages, data-driven features, and recurring formats like lists, streams, and podcasts to his own extensive time with the games he writes about.

Editorial leadership and long-term coverage

In his role at Game Informer, Shea helps steer major editorial initiatives, including marquee issues and large feature packages. His byline on the digital launch of the E3 2017 Hot 50 issue shows him as a key voice presenting the magazine’s curated view of the most important games coming out of a major trade show.

He also breaks down the outlet’s 300 Greatest Games of All Time list “by the numbers,” turning a broad editorial ranking into a structured, statistics-driven feature that highlights trends, genre representation, and historical weight.

Across these projects, he treats lists and rankings as starting points for analysis rather than simple countdowns. That approach signals a reporter who is comfortable moving between front-facing announcements and deeper explanatory pieces, and who can frame internal editorial decisions for an external audience without losing clarity.

Nintendo focus and All Things Nintendo

Shea is the host of All Things Nintendo, a weekly podcast devoted to Nintendo news and games.

Through that role he maintains a steady, platform-specific lens, following the company’s new releases, live-service updates, and legacy catalog while keeping pace with broader industry developments. His own completion lists include multiple The Legend of Zelda titles, Pokémon entries, Mario games, and other Nintendo series across handheld, console, and modern platforms, underscoring a deep, practical familiarity with the catalog he discusses on air.

On Game Informer’s broader podcast, he joins conversations about topics like the one-year anniversary and raid system of Pokémon Go, bringing live-service and mobile perspectives into traditional games coverage. Weekend Warrior columns show him spending time with titles such as Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Go alongside other releases, reinforcing that his Nintendo focus is built on ongoing personal play rather than distant commentary.

Interviews, crossovers, and live gameplay

Shea’s reporting often sits at the point where games intersect with other entertainment fields and cultural conversations.

In a recent piece he speaks with the head of RGG Studio about Tupac’s controversial Stranger Than Heaven inclusion, using a direct developer interview to explore how licensed music, artist legacies, and in-game storytelling collide in a modern release. He also fronts cross-media features such as playing UFC 3 alongside champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, turning an athlete crossover into an accessible look at how a sports title plays from both fan and professional perspectives.

Live streams and gameplay sessions are a recurring part of his work, including extended coverage of Madden NFL 17 where he hosts two hours of in-depth play. These pieces tend to foreground mechanics, feel, and feature sets while retaining a conversational tone, giving viewers and readers a close look at how a game behaves over sustained sessions rather than in brief clips. Together, the interviews, celebrity collaborations, and live gameplay formats show a reporter who treats games as part of a wider entertainment and culture ecosystem.

Lists, completion logs, and community touchpoints

Shea maintains detailed public logs of the games he finishes each year, publishing full lists for 2016 and 2017 that span genres and platforms from big-budget releases to smaller downloadable titles. Those lists include action games, RPGs, sports simulations, fighting games, platformers, and puzzle titles, reflecting an unusually broad playing pattern that feeds back into his coverage. By presenting exact completion dates and platforms, he shows not just what he has played, but how systematically he tracks his own time with games.

Weekend Warrior posts extend that habit into shorter-term windows, sharing the specific games he is working through at a given moment, such as Bloodborne, NBA 2K15, MLB 15: The Show, and various Nintendo titles. He also writes personal interest pieces like his five favorite rock albums of 2015, indicating a willingness to bring music and wider culture into a games-focused platform when it adds context or personality. These recurring formats position Shea as a journalist whose coverage is anchored in consistent, transparent engagement with the medium, and whose perspective on any given title is informed by long-running, documented play rather than occasional sampling.