DualShockers, Independence, Affiliates, and You

Lou Contaldi April 2, 2018 1:37 PM EST

Beginning April 3, 2018, DualShockers is expanding our business practices to make sure we are well equipped to keep delivering independent, niche content.

Good afternoon, readers – this is Lou Contaldi, Editor-in-Chief of DualShockers. We interrupt you from our regularly-scheduled news reporting to touch on something important to us: our creative independence.

Now, it’s no secret that gaming is a somewhat expensive hobby – many of us have our bookcases stacked (to some degree) with collector’s editions of PlayStation Vita classics (**cough cough** Freedom Wars), emptied boxes of consoles, and any figure that speaks to you. All of us who want to stay current in the latest and greatest gaming trends are putting aside a good chunk of their paycheck towards gaming.

As you can imagine, this extends to gaming journalism. Not only are we picking up all of our favorite gaming content, but DualShockers as a round-the-clock, international gaming outlet needs to keep the lights on – including website costs, salaries, the occasional travel expenses for Tokyo Game Show, and more. As we continue to grow, the Editorial Board quickly realizes that in 2018 ad revenue is not cutting it — even more because some of our articles don’t fit within the realm of ad-approved content.

To cut to the chase, we are making some changes to how we monetize DualShockers to make sure that we stay fiercely independent. We want to make sure we aren’t beholden to the whims of conglomerate media companies or advertisers that would stop us from covering the games we love (that may not be “advertiser-friendly”). More importantly, we want to make sure you – all of the readers of DualShockers – are kept in the loop of any change we make and how you can choose to support us.

Beginning tomorrow, April 3, 2018, we will start adding affiliate links in our articles to trusted retailers. For instance, when we run a story on the excellent God of War Stone Mason’s Edition, there will be a link at the bottom letting you know where you can pre-order it – each click or purchase gives us a small cut of revenue to keep us up and running.

Critically, we will never add an affiliate link without letting you know it is an affiliate link. Keeping up with our strong ethical standards, this disclosure will follow each story with an affiliate link:

This post contains an affiliate link where DualShockers gets a small commission on sales. Any and all support helps keep DualShockers as a standalone, independent platform for less-mainstream opinions and news coverage.

The retailers we will work with are some of the biggest and most-trusted in the gaming community, including PlayAsia, Amazon, Humble Bundle, and Best Buy. Obviously, we will do our best to find you the best deal – or, in the case of limited edition products, where the game is available.

Thank you again for reading DualShockers, and being a part of independent, niche gaming journalism.