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THE PIXEL EMPIRE: 10 YEARS IN NUMBERS
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"A decade has gone by since Tom launched The Pixel Empire, a template gaming website with a smattering of Microsoft Paint-created logos and half-a-dozen reviews, back in May of 2012. Today, we celebrate the very many things that have happened in-between." Posted 19th May 2022.
By The Pixel Empire © 2022 |
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Hard to believe, but it’s ten years to the day since the website launched to an unsuspecting and, if we’re completely honest, entirely oblivious world. Dominated by Tom’s rickety attempts at logo-making, The Pixel Empire’s bold, colourful presentation aimed to evoke memories of the glossy, bright and inviting world of gaming magazines. Sadly, such publications have seen their popularity in steady decline and in 2022, print journalism in every form is being marginalised by the exciting possibilities broad about by video.
Whilst Tom tries gently to accommodate these modernisations into The Pixel Empire, his hope remains that the site will act as a useful and comprehensive resource for those who love discovering new games, rediscovering old favourites, or simply enjoy immersing themselves in a labyrinth of reviews, screenshots and retrospective articles. If you want a chuckle, have a look back at the six original reviews, preserved somewhat for posterity and, but for a couple of small presentational tweaks, largely as they were.
We’ve all got to start somewhere and it just so happens that, for all four of The Pixel Empire’s writers, that somewhere was a pair of consumer review sites: DooYoo and Ciao. Having spent nine years covering all sorts of everything, Tom left in 2012 to start a website that would allow him to write any kind of article, about any game he pleased. He felt consumer reviews had become bloated, with communities often rewarding verbose, gruelling articles that were regularly topping 2,500 words. Game reviews in particular had started to read like instruction manuals, containing little analysis or opinion. With The Pixel Empire, Tom’s aim was (and still is) to deliver in-depth critiques in the 700-1,200 word bracket, giving the reader all they need, but with as little filler as possible.
Within days of the launch, Tom was approached by Alan, one of the best and most entertaining writers he had encountered, to write for the site. Enlisting Alan, with his additional experience of PC gaming and Amiga, was a no-brainer: less than two weeks after The Pixel Empire launched, Alan’s first review (Batman: Arkham Asylum on PlayStation 3) was published, on 31st May 2012. Al and Tom share a common appreciation for 16-bit gaming as well as the magazines of yesteryear, which played a significant role in inspiring our first hi-score duel.
Within days of the launch, Tom was approached by Alan, one of the best and most entertaining writers he had encountered, to write for the site. Enlisting Alan, with his additional experience of PC gaming and Amiga, was a no-brainer: less than two weeks after The Pixel Empire launched, Alan’s first review (Batman: Arkham Asylum on PlayStation 3) was published, on 31st May 2012. Al and Tom share a common appreciation for 16-bit gaming as well as the magazines of yesteryear, which played a significant role in inspiring our first hi-score duel.
The duo would soon become a trio, as Tom identified that, with a need to cover as many formats as possible, two PlayStation-owning writers weren’t likely to deliver an entirely balanced multi-format experience. Tom enlisted The Pixel Empire’s youngest writer, Shane, in July, having been impressed by his Xbox 360 critiques over a number of years. His first review for The Pixel Empire was Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, published on July 23rd 2012. Since then, Shane has contributed a quite staggering 223 feature-length reviews to the site and continues to build his fantastic Youtube channel, SteadySphere Pixel Empire Reviews. He even convinced Tom to buy an Xbox 360 in 2021, a truly extraordinary achievement as the ed. seldom opens his wallet, under any circumstances.
The final piece of the Pixel puzzle was Chris. At its heart, The Pixel Empire needed 8-bit and 16-bit content, else what’s with the name? Chris has proven an encyclopedia of retro gaming knowledge down the years, delivering superb articles spanning a bewildering range of platforms. His most notable coverages centred around Amstrad platforms: Chris’s first article for the site was instant gold, a retrospective on his beloved GX4000, published on 14th September 2012. It was exactly the kind of deep-dive Tom had in mind when starting the site. As well as having penned three of the site’s five most popular reviews (Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, Super Tennis and Fantastic Dizzy), these days Chris is flying high with his brilliant Novabug Youtube channel. To this day, he’s still responsible for the hundreds of gorgeous banners at the head of each page.
Thanks as ever must go to these amazing chaps. The Pixel Empire is what it is thanks to your incredible contributions. Now: here’s some numbers to pour over from our first ten years!
The final piece of the Pixel puzzle was Chris. At its heart, The Pixel Empire needed 8-bit and 16-bit content, else what’s with the name? Chris has proven an encyclopedia of retro gaming knowledge down the years, delivering superb articles spanning a bewildering range of platforms. His most notable coverages centred around Amstrad platforms: Chris’s first article for the site was instant gold, a retrospective on his beloved GX4000, published on 14th September 2012. It was exactly the kind of deep-dive Tom had in mind when starting the site. As well as having penned three of the site’s five most popular reviews (Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, Super Tennis and Fantastic Dizzy), these days Chris is flying high with his brilliant Novabug Youtube channel. To this day, he’s still responsible for the hundreds of gorgeous banners at the head of each page.
Thanks as ever must go to these amazing chaps. The Pixel Empire is what it is thanks to your incredible contributions. Now: here’s some numbers to pour over from our first ten years!
615 feature-length reviews penned by four writers. Not only that, you can throw into the mix a further 68 second opinions and 40 features. We have been busy! The Pixel Empire has yet to cover mods or fan translations, though last year Tom enjoyed writing about a prototype/unreleased game for the first time, SWAT II: Global Strike Team, on PlayStation 2.
No surprise perhaps that the PlayStation family has seen the most reviews, having dominated the industry for extensive periods over the last 27 years. Sony’s ability to draw third-party support and deliver huge libraries of quality software has meant they’ve frequently been the first port of call for turn-of-the-millennium gamers. Pricing and availability have meant Nintendo has a smaller portion of the review pie than we think it ought to, though this should improve going forward.
Only 24 reviews covering games from the 1980s though, what’s going on with that? Turns out, we’re not as retro as we thought. Still, the fascinating by-decade breakdown shows we’ve reviewed games from five different decades, which is pretty cool.
Only 24 reviews covering games from the 1980s though, what’s going on with that? Turns out, we’re not as retro as we thought. Still, the fascinating by-decade breakdown shows we’ve reviewed games from five different decades, which is pretty cool.
Of all of the numbers, this is the one that would have surprised Tom the most back in 2012. With a bit of luck, we’ll hopefully pass 40 within the next year. For those of you thinking, “how the heck have you not covered x or y formats in that time?” (ZX81, Saturn, N64 and Mobile are the most notable holes in our catalogue), we’re always seeking to cover more. However, with the odd instance where software/hardware costs are exorbitant or emulation is not deemed accurate enough, we may have to wait a little longer. The seventh-gen has proven very popular ground to cover: the Xbox 360 has more reviews than any other platform with 73, just pipping the PlayStation 3 on 72.
Tom is once again numerically our stingiest writer, doling out an average score of 6.67 out of 10. It’s long been rumoured that this might be due to his willingness to forgo writing about his favourite games for the far more enjoyable pursuit of covering stuff that’s irredeemably awful. Tom aside, all of our writers’ average scores come out slightly lower than nine years ago, but we must marvel for a moment at just how similar Shane’s average is to that of the site’s. Maybe, during the early days, we were more motivated to cover those landmark titles that helped us develop a passion for gaming. Rather than, for example, disappointing film tie-ins, soulless annual updates or Yetisports Deluxe.
Contentious much? Nintendo earns the bragging rights as the brand with (currently) the highest average review score. However, with significantly fewer reviews than the PlayStation or Xbox libraries, the jury is still out on whether the Japanese giant’s platforms offer the best software, overall. Example: both the Game Boy Advance and the Wii have a mountain of shovelware that we’ve so far given a respectfully wide berth. Whilst Sony rank the tiniest of fractions behind Microsoft, they have the consolation of seeing the original PlayStation net the highest average for a single platform (30+ reviews): an impressive 7.07 out of 10 from 56 titles covered.
In case you hadn’t noticed, The Pixel Empire hands out a ‘Star Game’ award to all those wonderful games worthy of a 9 out of 10, or higher. The rate of those achieving this gaming equivalent of the Victoria Cross sits at a little better than 1 in 5. However, when it comes to 10 out of 10s, it’s a rather more exclusive club. We’ve dished out 31 maximum scores: around 1 in 20 games so far covered.
Thank you to those who’ve chatted with us via all manner of platforms. Discussing such a broad range of gaming experiences has been a pleasure. What will the next ten years hold for The Pixel Empire? Well, we’ve plenty more ideas in the pipeline and many more formats to cover. Gaming continues to evolve in new, exciting and often-unpredictable ways, but we never lose sight of the importance attributed to the titles of yesteryear, of which we have so many great memories still to share. Hopefully, the next ten years will see us making many more!
WHEN WE WERE YOUNGER...
The Pixel Empire's 1st Birthday (2013)
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The Pixel Empire's 2nd Birthday (2014)
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