Freelance Journalist
Toronto, Canada Area
- Current
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- Contributing Editor at Gamasutra
- Writer at Edge
- Writer at Exclaim!
- Content Director at Independent Games Festival Mobile
- Writer at The Globe and Mail
- Writer at Eurogamer
- Writer at Twitch Film
- Contributing Editor at Torontoist
- Columnist at Game Reactor
- Writer at Insert Credit
- Past
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- Writer at CBC
- Writer at Rock Paper Shotgun
- Community Manager at The Dobbs Challenge
- Editor at Games On Deck
- Writer at Gamsutra/Game Developer Magazine
- Panelist at Montreal International Game Summit
- Speaker at Future Play 2007
- Writer at Plan B Magazine
- Writer at Broken Pencil
- Writer at GamesIndustry.biz
- Columnist at GameSetWatch
- Writer at The Banter
- Senior Tester at Absolute Quality
- Education
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- University of Strathclyde
- University of Paisley
- University of Glasgow
- Recommended
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4 people have recommended Mathew - Connections
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122
connections
- Industry
- Online Media
- Websites
Mathew Kumar’s Summary
If you were to ask Mathew Kumar to describe himself in a sentence, it’d probably be "The best damn games journalist in Canada." Then he’d probably follow that up with "Well, probably the only games journalist in Canada, really."
He’s selling himself short, though. Mathew has written about movies, music and more, depending on his whim, but it just happens to be his whim (and his greatest successes) has mostly been in the field of games journalism.
Mathew began to write about video games by covering the UK trade shows for Insert Credit, arguably the internet’s first new games journalism outlet.
(He’s still conflicted about that term.)
In 2005 Mathew made the move to Toronto, Canada, following his heart (or rather, a girl with a job that could support him) to sit in his place as “The best damn games journalist in Canada”, and branch out, covering film (including the Toronto International Film Festival) for Twitch Film and Torontoist, where he became Film Editor.
Since then he’s held a variety of positions within his freelance games journalist remit. While maintaining writing credit at Eurogamer, Edge and The Globe and Mail, Mathew has also served as editor of Think Services’ mobile games industry website Games On Deck, helped found the Independent Games Festival Mobile as content director of the inaugural event (and has performed a similar task for The Dobbs Challenge) and was recently promoted to contributing editor at Gamasutra.
Mathew Kumar’s Experience
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Contributing Editor
Gamasutra
(Online Media industry)
March 2008 — Present (1 year 10 months)
Provide and edit news, interviews and show coverage for the important games industry website.
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Writer
Edge
(Online Media industry)
September 2007 — Present (2 years 4 months)
Provide news interviews and features: highlights include a six-page feature interview with Nintendo’s Yoshiaki Koizumi in the February 2008 issue.
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Writer
Exclaim!
(Online Media industry)
January 2007 — Present (3 years )
Provide reviews of cinema and DVD releases for the Canadian music magazine.
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Content Director
Independent Games Festival Mobile
(Computer Games industry)
January 2007 — Present (3 years )
As content director of the inaugural IGF Mobile, I helped develop the festival, created and updated the website, judged entries and maintained communication with entrants, finalists and judges before helping present the awards at GDC 2008, which included an IGF Mobile Pavillion at the GDC Expo.
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Writer
The Globe and Mail
(Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Newspapers industry)
May 2006 — Present (3 years 8 months)
Provide games reviews for the online technology section of the Globe and Mail, the newspaper with the largest circulation in Canada.
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Writer
Eurogamer
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Games industry)
November 2005 — Present (4 years 2 months)
Provide regular reviews and features for the respected, and popular, British games journalism website.
Provided extensive coverage of 2006’s Electronics Entertainment Expo. -
Writer
Twitch Film
(Online Media industry)
September 2005 — Present (4 years 4 months)
Provide coverage and reviews for respected Canadian film website Twitch Film, including some of the world’s earliest reviews of films premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
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Contributing Editor
Torontoist
(Online Media industry)
September 2005 — Present (4 years 4 months)
Provide regular film coverage, city news, and a weekly film column, for the respected Toronto city blog, a member of the Gothamist network.
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Columnist
Game Reactor
(Online Media industry)
July 2005 — Present (4 years 6 months)
Provide a monthly opinion column for Game Reactor magazine, Denmark’s biggest games magazine. Translated into Danish before publication.
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Writer
Insert Credit
(Online Media industry)
July 2003 — Present (6 years 6 months)
Writer for the seminal new games journalism website. My work has included interviews, reviews, and in depth reports on trade shows such as London’s ECTS.
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Writer
CBC
(Government Agency; 5001-10,000 employees; Broadcast Media industry)
July 2008 — July 2008 (1 month)
Provided extensive coverage of 2008’s E3 Business & Media Summit for the CBC News Tech Bytes blog.
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Writer
Rock Paper Shotgun
(Online Media industry)
July 2008 — July 2008 (1 month)
Provided extensive coverage of 2008’s E3 Business & Media Summit.
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Community Manager
The Dobbs Challenge
(Computer Games industry)
February 2008 — July 2008 (6 months)
As community manager of the inaugural Dobbs Challenge, I helped to develop the contest and create the website. As part of my duties I updated the website, communicated with entrants and the community (via e-mail and through moderating the Dobbs Challenge forum) and judged entries.
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Editor
Games On Deck
(Online Media industry)
December 2006 — April 2008 (1 year 5 months)
Provided daily news and twice-weekly features, along with other editorial duties, for the mobile games industry website.
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Writer
Gamsutra/Game Developer Magazine
(Online Media industry)
July 2005 — April 2008 (2 years 10 months)
Provided product reviews, interviews and show coverage for the important games industry website and publication.
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Panelist
Montreal International Game Summit
(Computer Games industry)
November 2007 — November 2007 (1 month)
Took part in the closing session of the Montreal International Game Summit, a panel discussion on games journalists and their importance in, and interaction with, the games industry.
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Speaker
Future Play 2007
(Computer Games industry)
November 2007 — November 2007 (1 month)
Led a session discussing Machinima’s history and its place as part of game culture, including showing and critiquing some famous works in the genre.
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Writer
Plan B Magazine
(Online Media industry)
July 2004 — July 2007 (3 years 1 month)
Provided monthly reviews, news and opinion columns for music publication Plan B’s games section.
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Writer
Broken Pencil
(Online Media industry)
June 2006 — January 2007 (8 months)
Provided features and reviews on the independent gaming and film scenes for Broken Pencil, the magazine of zine culture and the independent arts.
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Writer
GamesIndustry.biz
(Online Media industry)
November 2006 — November 2006 (1 month)
Provided features on the launch of the PS3 and Wii in North America.
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Columnist
GameSetWatch
(Online Media industry)
June 2006 — September 2006 (4 months)
Provided “Letters From The Metaverse’”, a column covering the emerging virtual world of Second Life.
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Writer
The Banter
(Online Media industry)
August 2004 — July 2005 (1 year )
Writer for Paisley University’s student newspaper.
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Senior Tester
Absolute Quality
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Computer Games industry)
July 2002 — July 2005 (3 years 1 month)
As a senior tester, my work involved gameplay and regression testing and bug report writing, For two weeks in development of my first project I took over the project as lead tester. Later I performed tester duties on a cell phone games, PC ports, and European cell phone provider Orange’s content deployment system. I led the European arm of the testing for a PS2 game in which I managed a team of 6 language testers. I last worked for them as an engineer porting games between cell phone handsets.
Mathew Kumar’s Education
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University of Strathclyde
Stage 3-4 , Japanese , 2003 — 2005
These classes encouraged development of conversation skills, vocabulary and expressions, introduced complex grammatical points, and practice in Hiragana/Katakana and Kanji.
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University of Paisley
Bsc , Computer Games Technology , 2001 — 2005
Learned a broad spectrum of skills including 3D modeling and animation with Lightwave; programming with C++ and Java on PCs, mobile phones and PS2s; game design and artificial intelligence. My honors year dissertation was an investigation of emergent AI for sheep flocking.
- Activities and Societies:
- University of Paisley Student Newspaper
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University of Glasgow
Stage 1-2 , Japanese , 2001 — 2003
These classes encouraged development of conversation skills, vocabulary and expressions, introduced complex grammatical points, and practice in Hiragana/Katakana and Kanji.
Additional Information
Mathew Kumar’s Websites:
Mathew Kumar’s Honors:
12/2003
Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 4 | Japanese Embassy, London, England
