Polygon Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary and Looks Forward to the Next Decade of Entertainment in New Editorial Package

Polygon — Vox Media’s next-generation gaming and entertainment brand — is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a new editorial package, “The Next 10,” and the relaunch of its merch store.

Launched in 2012 helmed by Chris Grant, now group publisher of Polygon and The Verge, Polygon was Vox Media’s investment in gaming and has become the leading media property for entertainment coverage, including curations and critiques of video games, film, television, and comics. Over the last 10 years, the brand has solidified itself as a leading industry voice by redefining the exponentially complicated and rapidly changing world of modern entertainment.

“Polygon has always been well ahead of its time as a modern publication, bringing joy and inclusivity to the gaming community, treating its members with the respect and appreciation they deserve. Ten years into its journey, Polygon is defining and leading the future of pop culture and entertainment coverage.” — Jim Bankoff, Vox Media co-founder, chair, and CEO

To mark a decade in media, Polygon has created The Next 10, a new editorial package sponsored by Doritos that looks forward to the next 10 years of entertainment. In this package, Polygon asks questions and makes bold predictions, including: “What will the game industry look like in 10 years?”, “In 10 years, gamers will use AI prompts to build what they play”, “What’s next for the MCU over the next 10 years?” and more.

Co-founder and editor-in-chief Chris Plante kicks off The Next 10 with an essay on lessons learned from Polygon’s life on the internet, and how the site plans to stay young for decades to come. As Plante writes in his editor’s letter, “Every day, we help our audience learn, grow, and make the most of what brings them joy. And we try to do the same for ourselves. If we consistently do both, I have no doubt we’ll still be here in 2032.”

Polygon is an inclusive gaming and entertainment brand for today’s modern audience who grew up online playing games and are deeply immersed in these worlds. The brand has seen massive success with video, amassing over 78 million hours of watch time on its YouTube channel over the last 10 years and currently averaging a view duration of over 8.5 minutes [YouTube Analytics]. Vox Media’s audiences are also passionate and engaged in Polygon’s website content: “Animal Crossing: New Horizons guide - Jolly Redd’s art, real or fake?” and “Zelda: Breath of the Wild shrine maps and locations” have become the #1 and #2-most-visited pages in Vox Media’s history [Google Analytics].

The Polygon staff is also relaunching the official Polygon Merch Store with limited edition anniversary clothes, including a custom 10th-anniversary logo variant designed by Cory Schmitz, who created Polygon’s original logo. Another new addition to the merch store is Like a Hurricane: An Oral History of Street Fighter II — Polygon’s second book — published in collaboration with Read Only Memory and following its lauded oral history of Final Fantasy 7. Like a Hurricane tells the story of the creation of one of the most important and beloved video games of all time – Street Fighter II – and its subsequent impact on the industry, its creators, and the game-playing public that so warmly embraced it.

Last week, Polygon released a new zine, The Rise of the Video Game Union, featuring a comprehensive guide to unionizing the gaming industry. Assembled by a team of reporters who spoke with dozens of workers, this free-to-print and share pamphlet explains the history of unionization in games, the steps workers are taking to unionize and how it could transform the industry, and a collection of additional legal sources for people interested in taking their own next steps.

Polygon is also gearing up for the release of its original feature-length documentary, The Great Game: The Making of Spycraft, in 2023. The documentary — written, directed, filmed, and produced by Polygon — tells the never-before-told story of how former KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin and ex-CIA Director William Colby worked together … on a video game. The Great Game traces how both men rose to the tops of their fields following World War II, before falling out of favor with their respective agencies — on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, both living on American soil, Colby and Kalugin played themselves in Spycraft, a multi-million dollar game that was among the most advanced of its time — and is now almost entirely forgotten. Watch the trailer for The Great Game here.

About Polygon:

Polygon is Vox Media’s next-generation entertainment network, illuminating the entertainment world through the lens of those who grew up playing video games, reading comics, and obsessed with internet culture. As a leading industry voice, Polygon is a top source for smart, critical, and entertaining content surrounding cultural moments borne of gaming and the future of entertainment. Polygon truly understands these next-generation communities because they are the fans, and are embedded in YouTube, Twitch, TikTok and your favorite gaming communities.