Editorial Policy

Last updated: 7 May 2024

Rock Paper Shotgun publishes news, features, reviews and other original journalism, criticism and analysis of PC games, hardware, the industry and community. This coverage includes written content on the Rock Paper Shotgun website, videos on our website and YouTube channel, and audio content distributed on podcast platforms.

We are committed to producing professional coverage that upholds the highest possible standards of accuracy, integrity and quality.

We cannot cover everything in the large and fast-moving world of PC games. What we do write about is at the discretion of the editorial team and selected based on what we think will be of interest to our readers and what is of personal interest to us as writers and experts.

News

We report stories as we see them, and strive to be fair, accurate and comprehensive in our reporting. Our editorial content may express a point of view on a story, but will always uphold our standards of honesty, transparency, impartiality and value to the reader.

When reporting on stories that reflect on individuals or organisations in a manner which they may disagree with, we will seek comment directly and offer the right to reply. Stories will be updated with the most accurate and up-to-date information possible, or supplemented by a follow-up story as necessary. If you believe you have something to add to a story we have reported or feel you deserve the right to reply to a story, please contact the team.

We do not report on rumour, speculation or unsubstantiated claims without attempting to verify the information with credible sources. Any potential factual errors we are informed of will be verified and corrected as necessary, with a necessary disclaimer or notice of correction.

Sources

We will respect the request of any sources to remain anonymous, and protect the identity of any confidential sources. Any information provided confidentially will be verified with additional sources before publication. No sources will be paid for information.

We will always provide clear and prominent attribution when reporting on information from another publication, including a link to the original source. Approved imagery from photographers and other sources will be appropriately credited.

Corrections

We strive to be as accurate as possible with everything we publish. We will amend inaccurate stories as necessary, adding a correction notice to the bottom of the story.

Professional relationships with publishers and other companies

We will provide clear disclosure if any of our coverage is enabled by travel or accommodation provided by an organisation such as a publisher or PR agency.

Sometimes we may have to agree to non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) or embargoes that require us to publish our content after a certain time and/or date to enable us to cover certain games, events, individuals or organisations. We will only agree to such agreements if we feel they will not compromise the related coverage in any way.

Our coverage will always strive to be as accurate and truthful as possible. In the case that an organisation or individual, such as a publisher or designer, stops talking to us, we will make every effort to continue to provide coverage with the same standard of impartiality, fairness and accuracy. Out of professional courtesy, the details of any such relationship will not be disclosed unless the team feels it absolutely necessary to preserve the integrity of our coverage or the Rock Paper Shotgun brand.

Rock Paper Shotgun staff and contributors may not provide paid consultancy or “mock reviews” for publishers, designers or other game creators. Members of the team and external contributors may not write about a company for which they have worked in the last two years.

Conflicts of interest

Unless specifically disclosed, Rock Paper Shotgun staff will not write about companies in which they have a financial interest or by which they have been employed. In any instance where we feel there is a potential conflict of interest - such as when covering a game being worked on by a former staff member of Rock Paper Shotgun - this potential conflict will be disclosed at the end of any article about said game.

Reviews

Please see our complete review policy for information on how we handle reviews of video games and hardware.

Advertising

Rock Paper Shotgun’s editorial and advertising are handled by separate teams. Rock Paper Shotgun’s website and video content will never be influenced or impacted by commercial considerations. Any sponsored content will be clearly labelled as such, and produced in a way that preserves the editorial integrity of the team and other Rock Paper Shotgun content.

We sometimes link to retailers such as Amazon using affiliate links, from which we may receive some money. When present in content, these links will be expressed using impartial language. Affiliate links have no influence on editorial content or coverage.

All content that appears on the Rock Paper Shotgun website and on the Rock Paper Shotgun YouTube channel is at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief and strives to uphold the standards set out above. If you feel that any of our content has failed to uphold these standards, please contact the Editor-in-Chief.

At Rock Paper Shotgun, we seek out in-game promo codes to help get readers free stuff in them. This could be from free skins in Roblox to XP boosts in a mobile game. To make sure that these pages are always up-to-date, we test every one of these codes to make sure they work and do regular sweeps to remove expired promo codes. We have no affiliation with these promo codes and do not make any direct revenue from readers using them.