thisweekinvideogames.com
This Week in Videogames is a reader-funded gaming news site built to give people useful reporting without ads, sponsored posts, AI-written stories, or endless filler.
What is thisweekinvideogames.com?
This Week in Videogames, often called TWIV, covers important news, reviews, new game releases, interviews, and deeper stories about the video game world.
The publication says on its About Us page that it is fully independent, owned by its editorial staff, and funded mainly by its readers.
The team includes experienced games journalists and creators such as Edmond Tran and Ralph Panebianco, who is also known for the Skill Up YouTube channel.
The publication began in 2025 and entered a gaming media market where many older websites were cutting staff, changing owners, or chasing more advertising money.
A GamesBeat report about its launch described TWIV as part of a wider move toward smaller and more independent games publications.
Why does its business model matter?
The most interesting part of TWIV is not its website design or even its gaming coverage, because its biggest experiment is how the journalism gets paid for.
Most large websites need huge visitor numbers because every extra page view can create more advertising money.
That system can reward websites for publishing many small stories, using dramatic headlines, and writing articles mainly because people are searching for certain words.
TWIV says it does not want that pressure, so it tries to make money directly from people who think the reporting is worth supporting.
This creates a simple promise between the site and its readers, because the reader becomes the customer instead of an advertiser.
That does not automatically make every article better, but it gives the writers a different reason for choosing what deserves their time.
What can readers find on the site?
The news section mixes larger reports with short updates that can explain an important development without turning every small announcement into a long article.
This approach is useful for readers who want to know what happened but do not want to open ten pages to understand one day of gaming news.
The reviews section covers PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, and mobile games while using clear labels such as Recommended, Mixed, and Not Recommended.
The site also has features and longer stories, which gives its writers space to examine gaming culture, developers, business decisions, and unusual people or ideas around games.
Its release calendar is another practical feature because people can quickly check what games are arriving across different platforms.
What makes TWIV different from bigger gaming sites?
TWIV is trying to win by being smaller rather than pretending it can publish more stories than giant gaming networks.
Its idea of “quality over quantity” means choosing fewer stories and hoping readers trust those choices.
The site also promises no AI-generated articles, which is important because its whole product depends on readers believing that real people researched, judged, and wrote the work.
Its lack of normal advertising also makes pages feel less crowded because there are fewer banners, pop-ups, affiliate boxes, and other things competing with the article.
This creates a calmer reading experience, but it also puts much more pressure on memberships to pay the staff and keep the publication healthy.
How much of the website is free?
TWIV has a free plan that includes its weekly newsletter plus access to news, reviews, previews, and occasional longer pieces.
The supporter plans currently show a $10 monthly tier, with an annual option that costs $108 and includes a seven-day trial.
Paying supporters receive extra long-form articles, comments, a private Discord community, another newsletter, staff Q&As, and ad-free versions of the weekly TWIV show.
A higher Benefactor plan starts at $20 per month and mainly lets people give additional financial support while receiving public credit from the publication.
Who will get the most value from this website?
TWIV makes the most sense for people who follow games closely but feel tired of opening sites packed with ads, repeated announcements, search-driven guides, and recycled stories.
It is also a strong fit for readers who care about independent journalism and want experienced writers to spend more time selecting stories instead of producing as many pages as possible.
People who mainly want huge databases, walkthroughs, game codes, shopping guides, or minute-by-minute coverage may still need larger gaming websites alongside it.
What is the biggest challenge for TWIV?
The same model that makes the website interesting also creates its biggest risk because asking readers for money is harder than showing millions of visitors advertisements.
A smaller team must also make difficult choices about which stories to cover, so some games, studios, or breaking events will naturally receive less attention.
Its success therefore depends on trust more than scale, because readers must believe that the stories TWIV chooses are valuable enough to keep coming back.
Is thisweekinvideogames.com worth visiting?
Yes, especially for readers who want a clean and focused way to follow games without being pushed through an advertising machine.
TWIV is most interesting as proof that a gaming website can treat fewer articles, experienced writers, reader support, and a pleasant reading experience as features rather than weaknesses.
Whether that model can grow for many years is still an open question, but that question is exactly what makes This Week in Videogames one of the more interesting experiments in modern games media.