When I got the opportunity to review PRESS RESET, Jason Schreier’s second book, I almost literally dove to my computer to send the email. As an indie journalist, finding things to cover before release, is a big deal. Getting this book is a HUGE deal. A few years ago, when I discovered that Jason Schreier was first putting out a book, I was instantly interested. I had always been fascinated by the process of making games, I had shipped one title myself, and had been writing about them for years. That first book, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels was a breeze. I coursed through it in little more than a week, listening to the audiobook while on the road for another game studio I was employed by.

Where Schreier’s first book focuses specifically on the difficulty developers have experienced building their games, PRESS RESET tells the myriad stories of those who are left on the side of the road when the game industry’s volatility shows its face.

It’s something that we have all become familiar with. We all remember Star Wars 1313, the closure of Visceral, the reframing of Irrational. What we don’t know is what exactly happened to those people. Each of these instances impacted the lives of dozens, sometimes hundreds of developers. PRESS RESET digs in to tell you how these closures happen, the decisions that lead to studio insolvency, the contextual distance between shareholders and developers, and - most importantly - what happens to the people most affected when a studio goes under.

On its face, you would imagine this book to be a deluge of grim stories with little hope, and you would partially be right. You read about teams split in two and sent to separate conference rooms, with one room keeping their jobs and the other room getting severance packages. You read about the dissolution of a studio branch that was so poorly communicated to the public that even the parent studio would continue to use its name in press releases for years. But Schreier’s investigative writing doesn’t stop there.

PRESS RESET is a deep dive into the inner workings of these disasters, finding the human elements in the mix. Sometimes it's a matter of sales just not living up to expectations, sometimes it's a studio lead with eyes bigger than their stomach, often it is moving goalposts dictated by a group of execs divorced from the day to day. Yet, instead of being just a collection of sad, discouraging stories, PRESS RESET reads as a multipronged attack. On the one hand a recounting of numerous shutdowns that drives home the message that, while perhaps it shouldn’t be, this is “normal” in the industry. On the second hand a scathing review of the AAA gamespace at large, with its oversized teams, detached shareholders, and unrealistic expectations. And finally, an uplifting tale about the recovery from these things.

Schreier is masterful in walking through these stories from chapter to chapter. Rather than being purely anecdotal he works with common threads from studio to studio, closure to closure. A gameplay designer, an artist, a lead from one studio go together to the next endeavor. Friends who dream of starting their own studio, now with no job, decide to take the leap. Sometimes a name from a previous chapter pops back up a few studios later. This book makes a clear case for the concentric circles in the game industry. Devs know other devs, hear of closures, and ring up their acquaintances to bring them onto new projects. It’s encouraging in this way. Despite seeing the industry at its worst, which is often the result of higher-ups, one of the best parts of this industry is when its members lean in to support each other in times of need.

Many of these stories get into the personal details of these people. Couples and young parents facing the prospect of moving for the umpteenth time. People who have relocated across the country only to be out of a job eight months later. Studios in the north eastern United States that, post closing, don’t leave many options for their employees but to move to another city. Developers shying from the prospect of crunching for another game, especially as the hours in the office impact their ability to be a good partner or parent.

And yet, considering all these things, and despite the nature of many of the stories in PRESS RESET, I often found myself finishing a chapter with a glimmer of hope. In between the messy closures and layoffs, bankruptcies and restructuring, there are stories of indie studios being born. Creative people with their safety net removed looking to continue doing what they love, but not for another big company mired by red tape, communication snafus, and difficult leadership personalities. It’s a different story for those smaller studios, yet still, familiar problems arise. As they too look for funding, seek publishers, or build games in living rooms, you can’t help but feel like these are the places game development is most free.

In the end, while tracking you through some of the most confounding cases, watching the industry at its highest levels abusing its workers and then letting them go with no warning, Press Reset tells a surprisingly uplifting story about the resilience of developers in the face of unknown futures. Schreier is a master at getting to the human element in this industry. He flexes that talent in PRESS RESET by weaving a narrative of trials and tribulations across an industry and over more than 20 years of games. PRESS RESET is a must read, whether you just love to play games or desire to get into the industry. Student, teacher, or amateur, this book will show you the cost that so many are willing to pay to make the games that we love, and then will show you how some are choosing to forgo that cost by trying to make games a more sustainable, less volatile space.

PRESS RESET: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry is a slam dunk. Get your copy when it releases on May 11th. Preorder here.

@LubWub
~Caleb

Press Reset - Review