2003
2023
VIVI AV V GAME RE
ere’s a question for you: Do you consider yourself a part of the games industry or the game industry? For
Jamie Sefton, managing director of Games Republic
Game Republic el presidente Jamie Sefton grants an audience to Richie Shoemaker as Yorkshire’s industry network celebrates 20 years of interdependence
ME REPUBLICBLIC H
most, we’d wager, the plural is the dominant term. It’s a subject that comes up early in our discussion with Jamie Sefton, because, as you can imagine, people often refer to him out of habit as the managing director of Games Republic. We have been equally errant in the past (and have a vexed email from Sefton to prove it), and on the day before our call ITV’s caption writers were guilty of the exact same sin. “I fucking told them it’s Game Republic,” says
Sefton with faux rage. “It’s because they were covering the Yorkshire Games Festival, so it’s obviously a typo… Sloppy local TV! “I can’t complain,” he adds with a smile. “There’s
the National Video Game Museum and I’ve called it the National Video Games museum, so I do it myself.” If you take nothing else from the words that
follow, dear game/games industry reader, heed these: It’s Game Republic. Games Republic is something else. Let’s continue shall we.
36 | MCV/DEVELOP April/May 2023
LIFE CHANGING The reason for our catch-up is because this year is the 20th anniversary since Yorkshire’s preeminent games industry network was founded. Back then Sefton was just establishing himself as the second-in-command on PC Zone magazine (a tough gig given the shoes he had to fill), but by 2008 he’d taken over and then vacated the editor’s chair, moved back home to Saltaire and was ready for a new challenge. Thankfully, one presented itself when a friend pointed out that Game Republic was looking for a new head of state to run local events and provide support for Yorkshire’s gamedev community. “I just thought ‘God Almighty, that job is just
perfect for me’,” recalls Sefton, who realised with dread that he might have to do something he’d not done for years – write a CV. “I hate doing all that stuff. My wife however is brilliant, so she helped me get everything together.” Inevitably Sefton found himself called for
an interview, which, thanks to a list of global contacts built up from a decade of games journalism and no small amount of enthusiasm
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