Imogen is leaving RPS, come and say goodbye
Heart-breaking news
As that age-old saying goes, all good things must come to an end. As we prepare to put a full stop on the year and see out 2021 from our cocoon of Christmas chocolate wrappers, we must also sadly bid farewell to our news writer Imogen Beckhelling, who is heading off for a new adventure in the games industry in the New Year. Today is Imogen's last day at RPS, so come and say goodbye.
Imogen joined RPS in January 2020 as our full-time news writer after impressing us from afar as Eurogamer's news intern. Working together with Alice0, Imogen's excellent reporting has touched every corner of PC gaming imaginable. She's covered it all, from the big, night-long E3 and Geoff Fest conferences all the way through to the weird and wonderful delights of things like Demon Deleter, a Google spreadsheet MMO, and the dangers of baking banana bread while playing Valorant.
She also jumped right in when it came to getting involved with every corner of RPS, too. As our resident online FPS expert, she joined Ed as the new co-host of our fortnightly Ultimate Audio Bang podcast earlier this year in May, taking over from James Law (RPS in peace). Imogen drew on her deep and extensive knowledge of games like Valorant and Apex Legends to help keep listeners up to date with their fast-moving metas, and dissected the latest news with her usual sharpshooting precision.
Speaking of Apex Legends, she also shared her passion for sliding about its battlefields with our also dearly departed vid bud Colm Ahern (RPS in peace) back in April. You can watch it in full below:
But it's Imogen's fantastic interviews I'll miss the most. Her love of in-game languages knows no bounds, and I'm devastated that we won't have anyone investigating the origins of Assassin's Creed's Isu language anymore, nor anyone to quiz Jett: The Far Shore's developers about how their fictional language evolved out of gibberish choral music. I also loved her big developer roundtable on why early access is better than ever this year. She's always been able to root out fun and interesting stories regardless of whether she's talking to tiny indie devs such as the creators of Inscryption, Tunic and Darkest Dungeon 2, or big mega studios such as Arkane Lyon and Respawn.
Indeed, Imogen's never been afraid to ask tough questions. I'm still hugely proud of her big report into the treatment of Paradox Interactive's QA staff, and she's tackled all the big, heavy news issues of the day with aplomb (and man alive, it sure has been a year on that front).
Alas, now it's time for something new, and Imogen's going to be taking a break from games journalism while she figures out what that is. She will be greatly missed, as will her sassy (and correct) hot takes on all things Mass Effect.
So please join me in wishing Imogen all the best for the future in the comments below. If you've been saving that thumbs-up emote, now's the time to use it.