The group was created by the couple[4] Chris Bratt and Anni Sayers in 2018. They were previously both employed byEurogamer. Sayers creates the graphics. Quintin Smith, a journalist fromRock Paper Shotgun, joined in 2020.[5] The channel is viewer-funded withPatreon;[6] in June 2022, the Patreon madeUS$17,409 per month.[5] Additional funding comes fromLoading Bar, a chain ofbars in London and Brighton.[7]
Screengrab ofPeople Make Games report of the Roblox marketplace, which they criticized for not giving any warning before users spend real-world money.[8]
In a video published in August 2021, Smith accusedRoblox's parent company,Roblox Corporation, ofexploiting the platform's young game developers.[9][10] Smith argues therevenue split is significantly less favourable toward developers than othervideo game marketplaces,[11][12][13] and players are incentivized to keep allingame currency, which Smith likened toscrip, on Roblox through high minimum withdrawal amounts and unfavourable exchange rates.[14][15] In a followup video released in December 2021 titled "Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper.", he further accused the platform of having child safety issues[16][17][18] and criticized its "collectibles stock market" by likening it to gambling.[19]
In March 2022, the channel reported on three video game studios publishing underAnnapurna Interactive — Mountains,Fullbright, andFunomena. In all three cases, employees reportedly reached out to Annapurna Interactive, addressing concerns regardingabuse and atoxic work environment being created by the studio founders. In hopes of getting Annapurna Interactive to mediate, employees stated that the publisher was siding mostly with the founders in question. According to one former studio employee, representatives of Annapurna Interactive had been quoted responding that "without strong personalities, games don't get made." Bratt described these incidents as part of a greater pattern ofauteur culture that can be found across the independent film and video game industry.[20][21] Following the video,Robin Hunicke, one of the heads of Funomena, issued a Twitter apology, before stating to staff alongside Funomena co-founder Martin Middleton that there would be layoffs at Funomena and that the studio would likely close due to the video and its impact on the studio's ability to secure outside funding.[22]
In their video titled "Making Sense of VRChat, the 'Metaverse' People Actually Like" released May 2022, PMG praisedVRChat's ability to provide a social space fortransgender anddisabled people as well asfurries, while criticising the approach ofMeta Platforms tovirtual reality, and its "sexless, Zuckerbergian, brand-friendly presentation".[23][24]
In November 2022, PMG reported onskin gambling inCounter-Strike: Global Offensive and argued thatValve generally avoided taking action on gambling websites using their game, thus "facilitating unregulated gambling by children".[25]
