Editorial standards and corrections

1. How we choose and check news

We cover what's new, true and useful to players. We'd rather publish five stories worth reading than fifty written to fill a feed.

• Original sources first. The studio, the publisher, the platform holder (PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, Steam) or the official store page comes first. Other outlets can help us find a story, but they don't prove it.
• A second check. We check each story against the original source and, wherever we can, a second source.
• Every story links to its source, so you can read the original for yourself.
• Fresh and genuine. We don't reheat old news with a new headline, or rewrite the same press release several ways.
• Leaks, rumours and insider reports. We don't chase every rumour. When a leak matters to players and we're reasonably confident it's real, we may report it. It's clearly labelled as unconfirmed, says where it came from and carries a spoiler warning where it needs one. When the studio or publisher confirms or denies it, we update or correct the story.
• Headlines say what the story says. No clickbait.
• Embargoes are kept. If we're trusted with news early, it stays private until the agreed time.

2. Release dates and countdowns

Release dates only go on the site when the publisher, the developer or an official store (Steam, Nintendo UK, the Xbox UK store or the PlayStation Store) has announced them, and we save the source with every change. We don't use rumours, leaks or retailer placeholder dates, even when we've reported the leak itself as news: a leaked date never goes on our release calendar or countdowns. When there's no day yet, we show the official window, such as "Spring 2027". Dates can still move, so please check with the retailer before you buy.

3. Reviews and verdicts

• We play the game properly before we give a verdict, and we say which platform we played on.
• Every review ends with a straight verdict: Play it, Wait, Skip or Slop. The best Play it games can also get The Player Code Pick.
• Slop is our label for games we believe are low-effort, padded with cheap AI content, or cash grabs. It's our critical opinion, part commentary and part satire, and we always explain why we gave it.
• A verdict is an opinion, based on our own experience of the game. Your experience may be different.
• Review copies. If a publisher gave us a free copy or a review code, we say so on the review. It never changes the verdict.

4. Independence: money never touches a verdict

We don't accept payment, gifts or favours for coverage or for a better verdict. Sponsors, advertisers, affiliate partners and Patreon supporters have no say over our reviews, news or verdicts, including about their own games or products. Anything paid for is labelled. Our sponsorship and advertising policy has the details.

5. Facts, opinion and "Our take"

News stories report what happened. When we want to add what we think, it goes in a separate, clearly marked Our take at the end, so you can always tell facts from opinion.

6. Covering the people who make games

Games are made by people. When studios cut jobs or close, we report it with care and on the side of the people affected. We check the numbers, label estimates as estimates, and don't name or speculate about individuals who haven't chosen to speak publicly.

7. Pictures and credits

• We use official images only: press kits, official sites, official store pages and platform blogs.
• Every picture is credited, in the style "© Publisher".
• We don't use AI-generated pictures to stand in for game art or footage.
• If we're not sure we're allowed to use something, we ask first, or we don't use it.

8. Who decides what goes where

Alan Gardner, our founder, owns the editorial line. He sets the rules our writers and AI helpers follow, chooses the featured story at the top of Today (it's never picked automatically), and is responsible for everything we publish. Our AI transparency page explains how AI helps with our work.

9. Corrections

We'll get things wrong sometimes. When we do, we fix it openly.

• Spotted a mistake? Email hello@theplayercode.com with "Correction" in the subject, a link to the page and what's wrong. Please include a source if you have one.
• We'll look at it promptly, normally within two working days, and reply to tell you what we decided.
• Factual mistakes are corrected on the page. If the change matters to readers, we add a note saying what changed and when. We don't quietly rewrite history.
• Small fixes, like a typo or a broken link, are made without a note.
• If a story turns out to be wrong at its heart, we take it down or rewrite it, and say so.

Unhappy with how we handled it? Our complaints procedure explains what happens next. We're not a member of a press regulator such as IPSO or IMPRESS, so complaints come to us.