VentureBeat welcomes Sebastian Haley as lead review writer for GamesBeat

As part of our expansion of GamesBeat, we are pleased to announce that VentureBeat has hired Sebastian Haley as lead review writer. If you haven’t noticed, Sebastian has been writing high-quality, witty and critical reviews of the biggest video games of the fall season.

His first freelance review for GamesBeat/VentureBeat was about Batman: Arkham City, where he said Catwoman stole the show in October. Since then, he has written reviews of King of Fighters XIII; The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword; The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim; Assassin’s Creed: Revelations; and Battlefield 3.

Sebastian also covered this year’s BlizzCon, several breaking news stories such as the launch issues of Battlefield 3, and has created a starter guide full of tips and tricks for gamers playing Skyrim. He’ll be writing game reviews and producing videos for VentureBeat and helping us turn GamesBeat into a first-class game news and reviews publication. In his reviews, you’ll see a strong dedication to the views of the consumer. Sometimes he leaves the companies and the hardcore fans howling, but his unflinching reviews are always based on a thorough play-through of every aspect of the game. As a result of his thoroughness, Sebastian has an ungodly number of achievement points on Xbox Live.

Sebastian has written for numerous international gaming outlets over the past several years, including the award-winning gamesTM Magazine, Play, Bitmob, and Destructoid, as well as authoring The History of Resident Evil and The History of Halo books for Imagine Publishing. Please join us in welcoming Sebastian to VentureBeat.

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.