Name: Patrick Book's review of Press Reset by Jason Schreier
Item: Press Reset
Rating: 4
Author: Patrick Book

Jason Schreier

From the bestselling author of Blood, Sweat, and Pixels comes the next definitive, behind-the-scenes account of the video game industry: how some of the past decade's most renowned studios fell apart—and the stories, both triumphant and tragic, of what happened next. Jason Schreier's groundbreaking reporting has earned him a place among the preeminent investigative journalists covering the world of video games. In his eagerly anticipated, deeply researched new book, Schreier trains his investigative eye on the volatility of the video game industry and the resilience of the people who work in it. The business of videogames is both a prestige industry and an opaque one. Based on dozens of first-hand interviews that cover the development of landmark games—Bioshock Infinite, Epic Mickey, Dead Space, and more—on to the shocking closures of the studios that made them, Press Reset tells the stories of how real people are affected by game studio shutdowns, and how they recover, move on, or escape the industry entirely. Schreier's insider interviews cover hostile takeovers, abusive bosses, corporate drama, bounced checks, and that one time the Boston Red Sox's Curt Schilling decided he was going to lead a game studio that would take out World of Warcraft. Along the way, he asks pressing questions about why, when the video game industry is more successful than ever, it's become so hard to make a stable living making video games—and whether the business of making games can change before it's too late.

Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry

Press Reset

Ben Booth

From the bestselling author of Blood, Sweat, and Pixels comes the next definitive, behind-the-scenes account of the video game industry: how some of the past decade's most renowned studios fell apart -- and the stories, both triumphant and tragic, of what happened next. Jason Schreier's groundbreaking reporting has earned him a place among the preeminent investigative journalists covering the world of video games. In his eagerly anticipated, deeply researched new book, Schreier trains his investigative eye on the volatility of the video game industry and the resilience of the people who work in it. The business of videogames is both a prestige industry and an opaque one. Based on dozens of first-hand interviews that cover the development of landmark games -- Bioshock Infinite, Epic Mickey, Dead Space, and more -- on to the shocking closures of the studios that made them, PRESS RESET tells the stories of how real people are affected by game studio shutdowns, and how they recover, move on, or escape the industry entirely. Schreier's insider interviews cover hostile takeovers, abusive bosses, corporate drama, bounced checks, and that one time the Boston Red Sox's Curt Schilling decided he was going to lead a game studio that would take out World of Warcraft. Along the way, he asks pressing questions about why, when the video game industry is more successful than ever, it's become so hard to make a stable living making video games -- and whether the business of making games can change before it's too late.

Patrick Book

I’ve never worked in games but I find the industry pretty fascinating, and this aspect of it especially. It parallels the journalism industry in a lot of ways, relying on a constant stream of passionate young people willing to take a lot of shit because they love the work until they can’t take anymore (although gaming exists on a much larger scale). It touches briefly on the wider adoption of work from home policies due to COVID-19, and it will be very interesting to see what kind of long term changes emerge as a result.

John Balek

For nearly as long as I've played video games I've heard about studio closures and cancelled games; it just seems like a natural outcome of the industry. Hearing about an exciting new game and waiting years to see it come to life, if at all, with drastically different results was a common experience growing up playing games. While I may not be as into gaming as I was as a kid/teenager, this behind the scenes, industry insight is still an interest of mine.

Press Reset offers in depth insight into how some of the most notable games and developers of the last 15 years came to be. Author Jason Schreirer does a great job of providing this information in a way that is insightful as well as approchable. Whether you are a hardcore gamer or completely unfamiliar with the gaming world I think you will find enjoyment and insight in each chapter. As a fan of Bioshock this book offered a lot of information I wasn't previously familar with and it was great to learn more about its development process. It really gave me a greater appreciation of how the game came to be.

In fact, the overall takeway I had from this book was a greater appreciation for how games are made. I had heard about situations like crunch hours, layoffs, and abrupt shut downs before but I had never really taken the time to look deeper into the senarios in which they arose.

I have worked for companies in decline, leadership changes, and aquisitions but these case studies really are another level. These are some of the most drastic examples you will see and unfortunately they are not the only ones. Game development is really one of the most brutal industries to work in. Schreier makes it a point to make this his thesis, offering a variety of different examples. They often feel repetitive in how they play out but that really just shows how apparent this problem is.

While it is great to get the background of how these closures, layoffs, and cancellations came to be I do wish Schreier would have spent more time offering solutions or exploring the other options being taken. This subject is really only explored in one, 25 page, chapter at the end and really doesn't feel like it offers much of a solution for readers to get behind.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was fun to read about games that were developed back in the late 2000's and early 2010's; as that was when I was more into gaming and gaming news. I remember reading Game Informer magazines with a few of these games featured on the front cover, and then seeing these games release to differenting sucess and output. I would recommend this book to anyone interesting in the behind the scenes of game development as well as those looking for business books on niche industries. While these situations are common in game developement I think readers can draw parellels to other industries as well.

Ben Booth &
Press Reset by Jason Schreier

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Ben Booth &
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