The end of an era

While Zone5 is a fairly new project, I’ve been reviewing video games since 2007, professionally since 2011.
Over the years I’ve covered the largest AAA titles to the smallest indie start-ups on PC, PlayStation, Nintendo and most prominently on Xbox.
It’s been one hell of a ride which was also behind starting my own Public Relations agency, which spanned 4 years, won multiple awards and brought millions of eyes to up and coming indie games. as well as live streaming with started on Facebook, moved to Mixer where I was partnered with 3 large companies, AVerMedia, Digital Extremes (Warframe) and NerdorDie and eventually Twitch which was short lived due to my health putting a stop to both the PR and regular streams in 2020..

Now, another 4 years on, I kept the reviews going as a little side-hobby, keeping my foot in the door of the industry I’ve loved being a part of, but it’s finally time to say goodbye to the written reviews that have been such a large part of my life for 17 years.

With the ever-changing landscape of the games industry, written press is falling away fast with less and less publishers and PR agencies relying on reviews as they do a few click-bait videos on YouTube.

This has left the last year feeling more like a chore than a hobby I love, and while, for well over a decade, producing honest and unbiased reviews for hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of readers was always the priority, now it’s time to kick-back, relax and enjoy gaming sat my own pace.

There’s no plans for me to continue writing reviews, If there is any future content, it’ll probably be short videos to my small Youtube channel but the first priority is to spend some time with games I want to play, rather than games I feel obliged to play.

I’d like to thank my amaziing Wife Vicki who’s supported me with absolutely everytihg I set my mind to and good friends Colin and Stuart who joined me across various websites as well as Ricky, Lydon (Sloth), Sean (Yakuza) John (Orsom), Gaz (V), who have helped in one way or another make the years so much more fun.
There’s far too many within the PR industry to thank but Henry Clay (then of Activision), Amy Ellison (then of Microsoft) for their early trust and belief in 2011 and especially Suzane Panter (then of THQ) for helping me on my own journey into Public Relations as well as the many, MANY I’ve worked with over the years down to the final few weeks.

So, while few will see this, even less will read it, if you’ve ever worked with me in any capacity in the games industry,
Thankyou for what has been an amazing experience.

Zone5, will close and the domain will simply link to my YouTube channel. the reviews and data will drift away into the abyss of the internet, and you’ll probably find me still playing Warframe, or enjoying some slow-paced simulation game to match my age.

Keep gaming everyone
Thankyou all for the ride.