A year ago, when we sat down to plan the rebranding of Respawn into TechPlay and our expansion into global market, we had plenty of ideas and a fairly ambitious plan. We wanted to build a better gaming publication. What we could hardly have predicted was just how much that idea would evolve in the space of a single year.
We launched TechPlay roughly six months ago. To our audience, it probably looked like the natural evolution of a gaming website — a new name, a new identity, more content and a broader market. For us, however, that moment marked the beginning of something much bigger.
While publishing news, reviews and guides every day, we were also building the platform behind the scenes and repeatedly coming back to the same question: what happens after someone finishes reading the news?
Today, we finally have an answer.
We no longer want to think of TechPlay simply as a gaming publication, but as a place that connects content, games and gamers.
Over the past three months, TechPlay has recorded more than 130,000 visits. That number matters to us, but what mattered even more was understanding what we could offer people once they arrived on the site.
Gaming does not end with reading the news. We have libraries and backlogs, keep track of release dates, collect achievements, rate games and constantly try to decide what to play next. The problem is that almost every part of that experience currently lives somewhere else.
We are not trying to replace Steam, PlayStation, Xbox, Discord, Reddit or YouTube. We want to create a place that brings those different parts of a gamer's life together in a more meaningful way.
At the heart of that idea is the TechPlay Game Database, which now contains more than 300,000 games. Each game can be connected to the content we publish, user libraries, backlogs, ratings and profiles.
Users also do not have to rebuild their gaming history from scratch. TechPlay allows players to connect and import their libraries from services such as Steam, Xbox and PlayStation, bringing games, playtime and achievements from different platforms together in one place.
That is why profiles are becoming a central part of the platform. The games you play, the platforms you use, your achievements, completed games, community activity, XP, levels and ranks gradually come together to build your gaming history.
If someone uses TechPlay for a year or two, we want their profile to genuinely say something about the kind of gamer they are.
Gaming journalism, meanwhile, remains one of TechPlay's foundations. News, reviews, guides and interviews are not going anywhere. What changes is what comes after them.
You might read about a game you have never seen before, open its page and add it to your backlog. A few months later, you might start playing it, connect it to your profile, finish it, rate it or discuss it with other players.
An article no longer has to be the point where your relationship with a game ends. It can be where it begins.
That is why we are developing forums, friends, leaderboards and other community features, alongside tools such as the Backlog Advisor, designed to help answer one of gaming's eternal questions: what should I play next?
There are also projects such as the GTA 6 HUB and WoW Analyzer. For some time now, we have also been working on TechPlay Frontiers, a browser-based game connected directly to the TechPlay ecosystem. Players will be able to build bases, collect resources, progress, form clans and compete against other players.
Mobile apps are coming soon as well.
Before any of that, however, TechPlay needs people who actually use it.
We are not claiming that we have built the perfect gaming platform. We have not. Some things will change, some will be simplified and others will probably be removed entirely. That is exactly why we have built much of TechPlay in public, releasing features to users as soon as they were ready.
Now we want you to create a profile, connect your gaming libraries, try the tools, join the community and tell us what is missing.
A New Beginning
Looking back at the conversations we were having a year ago, perhaps the biggest difference is how much the original idea has grown. Back then, we were planning a new gaming publication and an expansion into international markets. Today, we are building something much bigger.
More than 130,000 visits over the past three months have shown us that people are finding TechPlay. Now we want to build something that makes them want to stay.
For our team, this is not the moment when we can say the work is finished.
In fact, for the first time, it feels like TechPlay is truly beginning.
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