GMAs Journalists’ Journalist nominees: Who is Matthew Castle?

This year’s Games Media Awards on October 15th will see the games media vote on the night for their ‘Journalists’ Journalist’, from a shortlist of six industry standouts.

Ahead of the big night, MCV speaks to nominee Matthew Castle about inserting fart jokes into freelance work, how awards can highlight under-appreciated writers, and the threat posed by Gav Murphy.

For the unaware, who are you and what do you do?

I’m the recently-appointed editor of Official Xbox Magazine, but am better-known for the eight years I’ve spent on Future Publishing’s various Nintendo magazines.

My favourite part of my job is taking Simon Parkin’s beautiful freelance copy and inserting dumb fart jokes into it.

What does it mean to be nominated for the Journalists’ Journalist prize at this year’s GMAs?

I’m not entirely sure what the award is actually for – as a Nintendo writer you get used to people not paying much attention to what you’re up to – but I’m certainly very pleased to be nominated for it. Any nomination is a welcome opportunity to get the parents off my back about getting a sensible job.

What is the importance of recognising the achievements of the games media?

Who doesn’t like a pat on the back? At a time when lots of people (or a few people with very loud voices) appear to hate all games media types, it’s nice to throw around some praise.

It’s also a great to celebrate some of the writers who aren’t massively mainstream – for every gobby spotlight-hogger there are 10 talented wordsmiths working for pennies and not getting the love they deserve.

"For every gobby spotlight-hogger there are 10 talented wordsmiths working for pennies and not getting the love they deserve."

Matthew Castle

Which parts of the industry are you most interested in covering and why?

My tastes were shaped by the gaming mags of old – N64, NGC and GamesMaster.

I don’t want to hear from suits about financial trends and share prices; I want to concentrate on games and the mad acts of fan devotion they inspire.

Arguably, producing a magazine in this day and age is a mad act of fan devotion, but I’m cool with that.

What games are you looking forward to this Winter?

Super Smash Bros for Wii U, The Evil Within, Far Cry 4, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Stealth Inc 2 – there’s too many to choose from. Luckily, the ease of my job means loads of downtime ripe for pla– oh, wait.

What are the biggest changes currently affecting the face of games media?

Gav Murphy left Future Publishing so now he can bully former colleagues on Twitter without risking the ire of HR. I don’t know about everyone else, but that’s the biggest threat to my working day.