The year was 2005…
The gaming world was living out its last great days of the Xbox/PS2/Gamecube era. The excitement for the next generation of consoles was in the air — the Xbox 360 would be launching later in the year, and the PlayStation 3 and Wii would trundle along in the following year. Those consoles would unknowingly explode the medium’s popularity and bring a whole new group of gamers to revel in the hobby. The internet was firmly becoming a part of our daily lives, with music, news, shopping, and more starting to quickly shift into the online realm.
But something was missing: a platform for the “hardcore gamer” voices to be heard. We knew we had to step in and do something, so what did we do? With the shifting trends in the world and rapid increase in technology, we created a website, of course.
Oh, who are we kidding? We launched a print magazine!
The Hardcore Gamer Magazine
If you were a hardcore gamer in the 1980s through the early 2000s, there’s no doubt that one of your highlights every month was opening an issue of your favorite gaming publication for the first time. There was something special about seeing colorful blasts of new screenshots and discovering new game announcements, products, and even ads to bring you up to speed and make you want to pre-order every game under the sun. It’s a feeling that we’re still nostalgic for and why we still yearn for physical magazines.
Hardcore Gamer - First Edition
Launching with Darkwatch featured on the cover— a game that many of our editorial staff will still argue is underrated — Hardcore Gamer Magazine was an instant success, with a writing crew that lived and breathed video games and a gaming fanbase that did the same. With the help of an online fansite that connected people (many of whom remain friends nearly twenty years later), Hardcore Gamer truly filled a niche for the most dedicated of gamers.
Celebrating 15 Years of Hardcore Gamer with Darkwatch
Even as Hardcore Gamer thrived, we knew the online space was important. So in addition to the fansite, Hardcore Gamer Magazine was offered in a free, digital PDF version every month, providing gamers with news, reviews, previews, and more. Over the next four years, Hardcore Gamer Magazine flourished and became a notable player in gaming journalism, with exclusives and other articles that were never seen before in the medium. But finally, the internet caught up to us.
By early 2009, it became clear that gamers' interests shifted to wanting information the moment it was announced, so the last few issues of Hardcore Gamer Magazine were published as digital-only editions. After a few years of keeping the basic magazine format online, and with the emergence of high-speed smartphones and the rapid increase of internet users, it was finally time to go all-in on this whole new “World Wide Web" thing.In 2012 Hardcore Gamer was reborn as a full-fledged website, ready to compete with the big boys.
We’re Online!
And compete we did. Hardcore Gamer was still an independently owned and operated publication run by a single person with no backing behind them; but our content spoke for itself. Within a year of being online, we had traveled to most major gaming events, amassed an impressive writing staff and were pumping out reviews of not only all major AAA games, but incredible indie and import games many outlets didn’t bother covering. That “hardcore” sect of gaming was back and loving it.
Hardcore Gamer grew month after month, year after year. With a major site redesign encompassing a giant database of games, we began to become known as the go-to resource for those who wanted an independent, unfiltered take from people who love games even more than they do writing about them.
Hardcore Gamer Around the World
Not only have we produced hundreds of articles a month ranging from the complete niche to the AAA side of things — publishing many exclusives along the way — but we have been invited to countless studios and events around the world, including EA, Activision, 2K, Ubisoft, SEGA, Toys for Bob, Vicarious Visions, Spike Chunsoft and many, many more.
We hosted the San Francisco press event for NIS America in 2015, going as far as to present the director of Danganronpa with a physical “Hardcore Gamer” trophy to cap off the event.We hosted a PAX panel with the legendary Suda51 in 2016(indeed an important milestone for a team that has worshiped every game he’s had his name on). And we couldn’t be more proud of the countless industry legends and celebrities we’ve interviewed over our 20 year history.
In 2021, we celebrated another milestone when we published our 50,000th article,a retrospective covering some of our favorite moments in our publication’s history.
Simply put, we couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve accomplished over nearly twenty years. We have persisted through multiple console generations, technology advancements, and more as we grew to become one of the largest gaming websites in the world, and the one we believe more than any other has represented the true gamer’s voice.
By 2023, still operating independently after all those years, it became clear that Hardcore Gamer had grown as big as it possibly could on its own, so we joined theValnetfamily of websites to ensure we had the resources we needed for our ultimate goal.
Valnet Acquires Hardcore Gamer
From WordPress to Valnet’s Lighting Fast CMS: Emaki
The transition from our old, bloated WordPress instance to Valnet’s proprietary CMS (Emaki) has transformed HG to become a competitive publishing operation with features that help our content creators thrive and make content truly beautiful for our readers.
Valnet Develops Database Tooltip Technology Powered by Hardcore Gamer
As Hardcore Gamer has always looked to the future and adapted to the times, we desired to innovate even further with the content we provide, and what better way to cater to those serious about gaming than to go into depth about every single item in a game? As such, our innovative “Tooltips” were launched in May 2024 afterinvestment from Valnet.
Tooltips allow readers to highlight weapons, items, characters, and more in an article and have all the data they would want to know about them immediately displayed on their screen without having to leave the page — whether that’s how long a cooldown is or what an attack power is.
Whether utilizing dark or light mode, these Tooltips make Hardcore Gamer a one-stop shop for anything a hardcore gamer would want to know about a game — from its announcement to its review to our favorite parts about it. Or, when you’re really getting into the nitty-gritty of gameplay, how to get past that challenging boss or what the raw DPS is for a particular sword.
Hardcore Gamer has been busily working on the development of these Tooltips for the games our readers treasure the most. The technology on Hardcore Gamer has already been such a success that it is now appearing throughout Valnet’s gaming portfolio, which includesGame Rant,TheGamer,DualShockersandScreen Rant.
Hardcore Gamer Databases
Comprehensive Databases for the biggest games
Game Databases Are Now Part Of Our Gaming DNA
AtHardcore Gamer, we’re obsessed with creating the internet’s most comprehensive compendiums and strategy guides for ongoing and massive open-world games. We’ve recently assembled teams of gamers who obsess over every aspect of each database we create, working in tandem to provide gamers with everything they need to succeed, even in the most complex environments.
As we move further into the future, you’ll see a lot more gaming guides for your favorite games, curated by ourteam of gaming-obsessed database editors.
With even more dynamic features coming in the future that are part of Hardcore Gamer’s ultimate goal, readers will find it difficult to ever need (or evenwant) to click away from our comprehensive content.
The Future of Hardcore Gamer
And what is that ultimate goal? The same as it has always been —to become the most prominent gaming publication in the world. A modest goal, we know, but it’s one we refuse to stop short of achieving.
We firmly believe that hardcore gamers are the lifeblood of the industry and consume the most gaming info that comes their way. As we move forward, we promise to continue to be a voice for those who have to 100% every game, try every indie title, and attempt to learn Japanese just so they can be the first to experience that next great RPG. We firmly believe that Hardcore Gamer will not only be the hardcore gamer’s voice but alsothegamer’s voice before long.
So, in the months and years to come, expect even more gaming goodness, from deep-cut reviews to guides helping you find that impossible-to-locate hidden collectible to exclusives about the next great game. We couldn’t be more excited to have you along for the ride, and we totally promise our plan isn’t world domination.
To get an idea of the type of content Hardcore Gamer regularly covers and the kind of games we love, check outour favorite games of the decade.
