24 Comments
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Jeremy Jackson's avatar

Great stuff this year, the quality of content is amazing for a thrice-weekly, single person publication!

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Good Game Lobby's avatar

Congrats on an amazing year of games journalism! You are an inspiration Stephen!

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manifest's avatar

Going with December Early Adopter.

Cheers to one year, and many more. 🏝️

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Alex B's avatar

Congrats on a great first year!

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Ravi Hiranand's avatar

Amazing job so far, you’re doing such good work. Love the description of Game File as a “no bullshit” publication!

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Harrison Polites's avatar

Over 1000 paid subs in a year, working solo to break the global industry wide scoops that you break is an outstanding effort.

Congrats mate! Onwards and upwards!

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Willy from Philly ButNotReally's avatar

Go with December for the "birthday." You've done an excellent job so far!

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Gavin McFarland's avatar

Thanks for a great year, Stephen - you've done incredible work, and I can't wait to see what Year Two holds!

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Brennan Ross's avatar

Congrats on year 1 done! Excited for all coming from you for the upcoming year. Also your sale worked, I did your Black Friday deal and I'm 100% going to be re-upping when my annual runs out

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Stephen Totilo's avatar

I had a Black Friday deal? Did Substack do that? I had no idea!

Regardless, thank you!

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Brennan Ross's avatar

Oh wait my memory is garbage; receipt is 8/5/24, so whatever sale that was for!

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Stephen Totilo's avatar

Ha ha. Yes, that's the one.

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Stephen Camburn's avatar

Thank you for all your energy and honest content in the past year!! This anniversary article is really informative and absolutely feels like it comes right from the heart!!

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Dominik Bošnjak's avatar

Happy anniversary!

I made a meme to illustrate my newly developed dilemma https://imgur.com/a/TmmGRs8

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Stephen Totilo's avatar

Ahhh. I thought it was going to be about whether you were a December Truther or a January Believer!

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Dominik Bošnjak's avatar

No dilemma there—the first Game File article says Dec 2024 in all caps!

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ExServ's avatar

Hi ! I'm a content creator myself, former journalist and I also get by with the support of my audience so I probably know some of what anguish you can feel daily ^^ I'm really glad to have subscribed to your newsletter and it's now my major source of informations.

I also follow Simon Carless GDC newsletter and some bluesky accounts but that's it ! All the best for the next years.

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Simon K Jones's avatar

Fascinating update, Stephen. As someone writing a much smaller scale newsletter, the fluctuations in paid subscriptions is quite unnerving, and looking at it on a short time scale can drive you mad. There do seem to be annual patterns, which I'm now noticing having been going for 3 years (quite different to your patterns, which is interesting).

Right, I'm off to upgrade my subscription.

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Josh Bertone's avatar

Original Reporting is the main draw definitely for me and I'll be taking you up on that promo next month. (Been archiving pay walled posts for a few months to come back to) Whenever I click on any article the first thing I do is try and find the link to the original source, it is my biggest pet peeve accidentally reading an article that is just summarizing the real article like it's theirs. You going the extra mile to gather scoops and even your own screenshots doesn't go unnoticed!

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Kurogane's avatar

I love your work Stephen! I discovered you by Scheier's recommendation.

The way you do things is always thoughtful and considerate yet you always deliver.

I can't afford to be a paid subscriber, but I'll continue to recommend Game File for everyone I know.

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James Andrew Perla-Adams's avatar

This is an incredibly refreshing look into how you're running Game File.

I always appreciate when readers/subscribers/members get a limited view of how the sausage is made, as it were. Remap Radio does something similar and it's one of the reasons I keep my membership going. (Crossplay also does this)

Glad you're still reporting! You're one of the best voices out there. Keep it up!

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