# Simon Carless

> Simon Carless is a British-born gaming industry veteran who spent 16 years shaping trade media and the Game Developers Conference at UBM/Informa before going independent in 2020 to found GameDiscoverCo - a newsletter, data platform, and consultancy focused on how players find, buy, and enjoy video games. With 43,000+ subscribers on Substack and enterprise SaaS clients including 90+ publishers and studios, he's become the de facto Bloomberg Terminal of game discovery data for the global indie games ecosystem.

- **Role:** Founder at GameDiscoverCo
- **Organizations:** GameDiscoverCo, Independent Games Festival, Video Game History Foundation, No More Robots
- **From:** United Kingdom
- **Nationality:** British
- **Education:** Bachelor of Arts in History, Durham University
- **Known for:** Co-founded the Independent Games Summit at GDC (2007), instrumental in mainstreaming indie game culture, Served as Chairman (then Chairman Emeritus) of the Independent Games Festival, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Gamasutra and Game Developer Magazine for 16 years

## Career timeline

- **late 1980s** — Started as demoscene musician on Amiga under alias 'Hollywood' (h0l) in groups Jetset/Skid Row and Axis
- **1996** — Founded Monotonik netlabel, one of the world's first netlabels for free online electronic music distribution
- **1996** — Graduated from Durham University with BA in History
- **1997** — Hired at Simis (later Kuju Entertainment) as game designer; worked on Terracide
- **1998** — First attended GDC as a developer; worked on Tank Racer at Kuju
- **early 2000s** — Edited games section at Slashdot
- **2004** — Published 'Gaming Hacks' with O'Reilly Media
- **2004** — Joined UBM as Editor-in-Chief/Publisher of Gamasutra and Game Developer Magazine
- **2005** — Joined GDC as an organizer
- **2007** — Co-founded the Independent Games Summit at GDC
- **2007** — Became Chairman of the Independent Games Festival (IGF)
- **2009** — Put Monotonik netlabel on hiatus after 13 years
- **2010s** — Became Global Brand Director for UBM TechWeb Game Group
- **2010s** — Rose to Executive Vice President at Informa, overseeing GDC and Black Hat
- **2019** — Launched GameDiscoverCo newsletter
- **2020** — Left Informa after 16 years in September 2020
- **2020** — Went full-time with GameDiscoverCo
- **2022** — GameDiscoverCo newsletter reached significant scale on Substack
- **2024-2025** — GameDiscoverCo Pro expanded to 90+ enterprise clients; newsletter hit 43,000+ free subscribers
- **2026** — Attended GDC 2026; analyzed Steam's annual business update showing 5,863 games earning $100k+

## Achievements

- Co-founded the Independent Games Summit at GDC (2007), instrumental in mainstreaming indie game culture
- Served as Chairman (then Chairman Emeritus) of the Independent Games Festival
- Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Gamasutra and Game Developer Magazine for 16 years
- Executive Vice President at Informa overseeing GDC (world's largest game developer conference) and Black Hat
- Founded Monotonik in 1996, one of the world's first netlabels
- Authored 'Gaming Hacks' (O'Reilly Media, 2004)
- Built GameDiscoverCo to 43,000+ Substack subscribers and 90+ enterprise SaaS clients
- Ranked #26 in Technology on Substack's paid leaderboard
- Founding board member of the Video Game History Foundation
- Investor and advisor to No More Robots indie publisher

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Covered Steam's annual business update showing 5,863 games earned $100k+ in 2025, nearly double 2020 figures
- **2026-03** — Attended GDC 2026, reported 'deal-light' environment with bootstrapped agile hits providing best ROI
- **2025-12** — GameDiscoverCo Pro expanded to approximately 90 enterprise client organizations
- **2025** — Analyzed Tiny Glade's 600k+ sales in debut month as major discovery case study
- **2024** — Newsletter surpassed 43,000 free subscribers and ranked #26 in Technology on Substack paid leaderboard

## Links

- Website: https://newsletter.gamediscover.co/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simoncarless/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/simoncarless
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simoncarless/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/simon-carless
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-23