Zack Zwiezen

Zack Zwiezen is a longtime staff writer at Kotaku, covering gaming from big industry news to small community stories. His work is defined by an interest in online worlds, evolving live-service games, and the odd corners of gaming culture, alongside straight-ahead reviews and previews. He writes frequently and across formats, from daily news posts to deep-dive reviews and recurring culture features, and also contributes to the site’s visual presentation. Before joining Kotaku, he wrote about video games for outlets including Kill Screen and USgamer, giving him experience across different styles of games coverage.

Online worlds and live-service games

Zwiezen has an ongoing focus on persistent online games and live-service shooters, tracking both new modes and long-term support.

He has spent years covering major online worlds like Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Redemption 2 for Kotaku, building a body of work around updates, shifts in design, and community activity in those spaces. His recent coverage of Marathon’s first PvE mode launching next month fits the same pattern, looking closely at how new cooperative content changes the feel and appeal of a multiplayer shooter.

Across these pieces he treats online games as evolving services rather than static products, paying attention to small design decisions and their impact on regular players.

Reviews and hands-on impressions

Reviews and detailed impressions make up a substantial part of Zwiezen’s output, often highlighting specific mechanics or odd touches that define a game or device.

He has reviewed major releases such as Psychonauts 2, offering a full Kotaku Review that assesses how the long-awaited sequel lands for players and where it succeeds. His review of Highguard, a free-to-play shooter, focuses on how boring visuals and an overload of ideas complicate otherwise excellent combat, showing an emphasis on clarity and practical player experience.

He revisits established titles and remixed versions too, including Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced: The Kotaku Review, where he evaluates how a refreshed take on a familiar game holds up today. Zwiezen also extends his review lens beyond conventional games, writing pieces like The Automatic Pizza Vending Machine In The Detroit Airport: The Kotaku Review, which treats a quirky real-world machine with the same structured scrutiny he brings to software.

In a Land Of Boring Consoles, The Steam Machine Is Fun And Quirky illustrates his interest in hardware that stands out, balancing enthusiasm for unusual design with straightforward assessment. Across these reviews he foregrounds concrete details - combat feel, visual style, interface quirks - reflecting his stated preference for small details and “weird stuff” in games coverage.

Industry news and console coverage

Beyond reviews, Zwiezen reports on industry developments, future releases, and platform strategy, giving readers clear information about what is coming and when.

He has covered future role-playing games from the studio behind Starfield, noting timelines that stretch to 2028 and situating them within broader expectations for big-budget RPGs. His reporting on Saros, a major Sony exclusive launching in March 2026, explains how the title fits into the company’s slate of early-year releases and positions it as one of the first big exclusives of that period.

Hardware and console trends also appear in his work, with coverage of machines like Valve’s Steam Machine framed against a backdrop of more conventional, “boring” consoles. In these pieces the focus stays on dates, platforms, scope, and business context, while still allowing space for clear, accessible framing for players who follow news at a practical level.

Gaming culture columns and recurring features

Zwiezen contributes regularly to Kotaku’s culture-oriented coverage, using recurring features to track how games show up in webcomics, diaries, and community stories. He writes Sunday roundups of video game-related webcomics, creating a consistent space for smaller, creator-driven work that sits adjacent to mainstream releases. His byline appears on Kotaku Game Diary pieces, where he writes more reflective, personal-feeling notes about what he is playing and how specific games fit into day-to-day life. He participates in site-wide packages such as The Bests and Year in Review, helping define which games and moments matter at the end of a calendar year and why they stand out. Across these culture posts and features he returns to the same core interests described in his author bio: odd details, community-driven stories, and the parts of gaming culture that sit just outside standard previews and release-day news.

Taken together, Zwiezen’s work at Kotaku blends steady reporting on major industry developments with a strong appetite for unusual games, quirky hardware, and lived-in online worlds.

He moves easily between daily news, long-form reviews, and recurring culture features, keeping the focus on clear explanations, specific examples, and the practical experience of playing games over time. His background writing for outlets such as Kill Screen and USgamer supports that range, but his current output is firmly anchored in Kotaku’s gaming coverage and the varied formats the masthead uses to cover the medium.