Cecilia D'Anastasio reports on video games, the creator economy, platform governance and esports. Her reporting methods include embedding in virtual worlds and investigative data journalism. She is a reporter at Bloomberg News. Previously, she worked for WIRED and Kotaku. Her words have also appeared in VICE, The Nation, Jezebel, Gothamist and the Columbia Journalism Review. She writes an infrequently-updated metal newsletter called Tar Pit.

Cecilia was included among Forbes’ 2021 “30 Under 30” in media and named SXSW’s first Game Industry Journalist of the Year in 2020. In 2019, she won the Writers Guild award for digital news writing, the International Game Developers Association’s Positive Impact Award and the Knickerbocker Award for Best Games Journalism presented by the New York Videogame Critics Circle. In 2018, Cecilia was listed among Variety’s “Most Influential In Video Games.” She was nominated for the 2022 and 2023 Esports Awards’ “Esports Journalist of the Year.”

Some reporting highlights below:

• “Amazon Wants to ‘Win at Games.’ So Why Hasn’t It?” (WIRED)

• "Inside The Culture Of Sexism At Riot Games" (Kotaku)

• “Google and Microsoft Are Supercharging AI Deepfake Porn” (Bloomberg News)

• “Roblox’s Pedophile Problem” (Bloomberg Businessweek)

• “Can EA’s FIFA-Free Soccer Game Win Fans?” (Bloomberg Businessweek)

• “The Gritty, Underground Network Bringing Japan’s Arcades to the US” (WIRED)

• “Sarah Bond Thinks Outside The Box” (Bloomberg Businessweek)

• “Pokimane Has Done Enough—and Has So Much Left to Do” (WIRED)

• “US Malls Avoid Death Spiral With Help of Japanese Video Arcades” (Bloomberg Businessweek)

• “How Roblox Became a Playground for Virtual Fascists” (WIRED)

• “Twitch’s New Star of Streaming Charts Is Anime Avatar Ironmouse” (Bloomberg News)

• “From $1 Billion to Almost Worthless: FaZe Clan Runs Out of Hype” (Bloomberg News)

• “Child Predators Use Twitch to Systematically Track Kids Livestreaming” (Bloomberg News)

• “Xsolla’s CEO Spends Like a Billionaire on Back of Company Cash” (Bloomberg News)

• “Xbox Has Always Chased Power. That's Not Enough Anymore” (WIRED)

• “The Metaverse Is Simply Big Tech, but Bigger” (WIRED)

• “A Bird-Feed Seller Beat a Chess Master Online. Then It Got Ugly” (WIRED)

• “Welcome to Planet Egirl” (WIRED)

• “Roblox Lures Pro Game Developers Who Compete With Coding Kids” (Bloomberg News)

• “In Minecraft’s Dream SMP, All the Server’s a Stage” (WIRED)

• “Fantasy's Widow: The Fight Over The Legacy Of Dungeons & Dragons” (Kotaku)

• “Shady Numbers And Bad Business: Inside The Esports Bubble” (Kotaku)

• "Sex, Pong, And Pioneers: What Atari Was Really Like, According To Women Who Were There" (Kotaku)

• “Dungeons & Deceptions: The First D&D Players Push Back On The Legend Of Gary Gygax” (Kotaku)

• "Where Is the New Cyberfeminism?" (The Nation)

Contributed Research:

• "The Real Death Valley," a joint investigation by the Weather Channel, Telemundo and The Nation Institute's Investigative Fund. In 2015, the investigation received an Emmy for “Outstanding Investigative Journalism in Spanish”

• "Home Is Where The Hate Is," a joint investigation by The Center for Investigative Reporting and The Nation Institute's Investigative Fund. A database of nine years of domestic terrorism incidents

Radio/TV Interviews:

• “How The Metaverse Blurs The Line Between Virtual And Reality” WBUR’s “On Point.” Original article here

• “Roblox: The Gaming Platform With a Predator Problem” (Big Take)

• “The Dark Side Of The Video Game Industry” (Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj. Original article here)

• “Will the Toxic Gaming Culture Change?” (The Recount)

• “Video Game Champs And Venture Capitalists” (On The Media)

• “Getting Gamers To The Polls” (NPR’s It’s Been A Minute. Original article here)

• “Is Video Game Addiction A Thing?” (NPR’s 1A. Original article here)

• “Game Mode: Consoles And Community” (NPR’s 1A)

• “Maker Of Donut County Is Shocked When A Free Knock-off Beats His Game To The Market” (CBC. Original article here)

• “Reporting On Second Life And Getting It Right” (The Drax Files. Original article here)