Derek Strickland
Derek Strickland tracks how the games business, hardware and content intersect, turning corporate moves and technical shifts into clear news for players and the wider industry. He is Senior Gaming Editor at TweakTown, focusing on gaming news and reviews that sit at the intersection of technology and interactive entertainment. Since joining TweakTown in 2015 he has filed well over ten thousand news posts alongside dozens of reviews, features and guides covering console, PC and online gaming.
Gaming business and corporate strategy
Strickland’s core news output follows the business side of gaming, concentrating on corporate strategy, mergers and studio realignments. He covers prospective deals such as EA’s potential merger with Savvy Games, presenting them as moves that could create international titans within the games industry. He tracks studio formations and reorganizations, including Rockstar’s creation of Rockstar Australia with a long-time collaborator, to show how major publishers expand their global development footprint. Stories on Smilegate taking over Lost Ark and planning to synchronize Western and Korean server content highlight his attention to how ownership changes affect live games and their communities. Across these pieces he centres the implications of executive decisions on the future of franchises, live services and player access.
Live games, updates and cancellations
Live-service operations and content pipelines are a recurring strand of his beat, from roadmap changes to hard cancellations on specific platforms. In coverage of Dying Light the Beast being cancelled on PS4 and Xbox One, he brings refund policies and platform-specific support to the forefront, making the business decision tangible for affected players. His Lost Ark reporting sets out long-term plans to synchronize updates across Western and Korean servers once Smilegate assumes full control, underlining the operational scale behind ongoing online worlds.
This thread of his work keeps attention on how long-term support, monetization and infrastructure shape everyday play inside service-driven games.
Console cycles and platform strategy
Platform transitions and sales policies form another focus, particularly around the lifecycle of the Nintendo Switch and other major consoles.
Coverage of Nintendo ending sales of the original Switch in Europe from mid-February 2027 ties hardware availability to regional market timelines, giving a clear sense of how long current devices will remain on shelves. He connects such platform decisions with cross-generation support issues, as seen in stories about games dropping last-gen versions like Dying Light the Beast on PS4 and Xbox One.
Through these reports he builds a picture of how platform lifecycles, regional strategies and company decisions converge in practical cut-off dates, support windows and upgrade pressure.
Intersection of gaming and hardware experimentation
Beyond corporate and platform news, Strickland returns often to the intersection of gaming and hardware, reflecting his stated focus on how technology powers play.
His work includes stories on unconventional builds, such as turning a Nissan Skyline into a fully-fledged gaming PC and racing rig for Forza Horizon 6, blending automotive design with custom gaming setups. These pieces sit alongside broader hardware-focused coverage, where he connects consoles, PCs and peripherals to the experiences they enable rather than treating them as isolated gadgets. The result is a beat that treats technology choices - from server infrastructure in online titles to bespoke rigs - as central components of modern gaming.
Output, formats and role at TweakTown
At TweakTown, Strickland holds a senior gaming role with responsibility for both news and reviews. Since 2015 he has produced over twelve thousand news posts along with dozens of reviews, feature articles and at least one guide, giving him a deep archive across multiple console generations and business cycles.
The bulk of this output is short-format news that breaks corporate updates, platform policy changes and content announcements quickly, while selected titles receive more expansive reviews and features. This mix of high-volume news coverage and targeted long-form pieces positions him as a consistent chronicler of how games, hardware and companies evolve over time.
4 more gaming journalists.
Adam Bankhurst
Adam Bankhurst covers the busiest crossroads of gaming and entertainment for IGN, with a focus on breaking news, live event roundups, and franchise guides. He reports on releases, updates, hardware, films, anime, and major fan universes including Disney, Star Wars, Marvel, Lord of the Rings, Nintendo, Final Fantasy, and Mass Effect. He has covered events such as E3 and PAX, and has written The Game Awards 2020: All the Winners and X-Men Movies in Order: The Full Timeline. His work turns announcements, shows, and timelines into clear, digestible stories. He leads with dates, decisions, platforms, prices, and viewing or playing order. He also helps manage IGN’s homepage and contributes news, reviews, previews, features, commerce, and wiki content.
Alejandro Josan
Alejandro Josan specialises in turning complex, high‑information subjects into concise, usable narratives with facts first and minimal opinion. He writes guides, lists, and features for GameTyrant, focusing on step‑by‑step instructions, completion times, and whether in‑game systems are worth a player’s time. His work on titles like Rhapsody in Scarlet, Harvest Moon: Echoes of Teradea, and High on Life 2 explains progression, mechanics, systems, and different completion paths with clear numeric framing. He also breaks down layered systems in games such as Palworld and Infinite Craft into short, direct explanations. Outside GameTyrant, he has an extended track record on live‑service games, especially Destiny 2, covering tier lists, seasonal content, weapon “god rolls,” patch changes, and build optimisation. At Suggest, he is a resident crime expert reporting on breaking crime news and rare medical cases with clear timelines and careful use of official information.
Alex Van Aken
Alex Van Aken is a multimedia video game journalist who specializes in long-form documentaries, developer profiles, and weekly conversation-driven coverage of major releases and industry trends. He is senior video editor at Game Informer, where he leads the video team, travels for cover stories and studio visits, and hosts The Game Informer Show podcast. His reporting centers on cover story features and developer-focused coverage that highlight how games are designed and produced, often anchored to tentpole titles like Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Halo: Campaign Evolved, and World of Warcraft. Van Aken also writes previews, impressions, and reviews across action-adventure franchises, live-service expansions, and racing games. He builds independent game documentaries, appears on major industry platforms, and cites consulting experience on notable series, grounding his work in visual and audio storytelling and direct access to creators.
Alexander Lee
Alexander Lee covers how games, platforms and creators intersect with business. He leads news coverage at GamesBeat across gaming, entertainment, technology, the creator economy and the future of media. His core beat is platform strategy, live services and new game models, with close attention to Roblox, creator tools, monetization, communication features, safety and emerging technology. He also covers esports, content creators, regulation, accessibility and how design choices affect players and developers. Before GamesBeat, he covered gaming, esports and creators through advertising and marketing. His reporting connects product changes and policy decisions to their effects on companies, creators and audiences. He reports from industry events, uses participant voices to show business impact and analyzes longer-term strategy. He also hosts and joins podcast conversations with industry leaders.