Amidst a wave of reform in the games media landscape, Ralph Panebianco, best known for the Skill Up YouTube channel, has launched a new website for the industry’s news. The new site, called This Week in Videogames after the popular video series on his channel, is ad-free, reader-supported and built with the vision of delivering “concise, curated news updates from the world of videogames.”
The new This Week in Videogames site launches amidst a mixed state for the games industry. As GamesBeat itself can attest, several websites are either launching or going independent; but other websites such as Polygon and IGN are facing layoffs, parent company complications and uncertain futures.
This Week in Videogames doesn’t have ads, per its own mission. Instead it offers subscription for readers, both in a free tier and in “Supporter” and “Benefactor” tiers. The paid tiers receive access to an exclusive newsletter, an ad-free version of the weekly show and access to restricted portions of the website. The website also lacks any content created with AI.
GamesBeat spoke with Panebianco about the new venture, and how its mission fits into the games industry’s landscape. He noted that his venture likely couldn’t have happened without the support of his existing audience: “The thought of starting a fresh website from scratch without an existing audience in 2025 seems crazy, but I was lucky that I had a bit of that momentum thanks to YouTube.”
Bringing This Week in Videogames to readers
While speaking with Panebianco, we spent time discussing the larger rise of independent gaming websites — not only GamesBeat and This Week in Videogames, but Giant Bomb, Game Business, Aftermath, Second Wind and Digital Foundry. The common thread, Panebianco noted, was genuine enthusiasm for the subject matter, “I think there’s a shift where people recognize that big media conglomerates can’t do this. It has to be us — people who actually are in the trenches, play videogames, have direct relationships with our audiences and actually give a shit about this stuff.”
Edmond Tran, formerly senior editor of GameSpot, runs the site while Panebianco continues to create content for the YouTube channel. The two entities will be largely separate, with YouTube subscribers receiving the same content they did before. Tran said on his Bluesky account: “This is up there as one of the most demanding things I’ve ever done for sure, esp. with a tiny indie team. Work/life balance is chaos, and there are so many things I’ve been busting to do but just haven’t had time for in these starting weeks. But the response has been very motivating and energizing!”
In addition to Tran and Panebianco, This Week in Videogames features the work of staff writer Maddie Agne and columnists Simon Carless of GameDiscoverCo and Nathan Brown of Hit Points. Stuart “SuperDonk” Kimball and Austin Bolliger, who’ve both worked on the Skill Up YouTube channel, also contribute to the website writing features and reviews.
When asked about the site’s future, Panebianco added: “I believe, fundamentally, that people will support good games coverage. That’s it… My audience are not just casual videogame enjoyers. These are hardcore enthusiasts, and I think those people will recognize, appreciate and value games coverage, original reporting, a website that doesn’t have any ads.”