About Us

Hookshot is an online media publishing company formed in 2010 (as Nlife Media) that specialises in creating vibrant and informative websites, YouTube channels and Social Media accounts with a strong community-based focus. We are partners of market-leading ReedPop who act as an advertising sales arm globally across the network.

18+ million Monthly Unique Visitors
33+ million Monthly Page Views
840k+ YouTube Subscribers
1.8+ million Social Media Followers

Our story began in 2005 when Nintendo Life was founded by our CEO Anthony Dickens. It was later amalgamated with Nintendo-focused sites Virtual Console Reviews and WiiWare World, bringing Darren Calvert and Damien McFerran on board. In 2010, Nlife Media was formally established to represent the business interests of the network, and the three founders would go on to enter a commercial partnership with Gamer Network (the company now known as ReedPop).

Push Square and Pure Xbox were added to the picture in the subsequent years, and in 2021, Eurogamer and Gamer Network founder Rupert Loman-West joined the company as chair and Nlife Media was renamed Hookshot Media.

In 2022 Time Extension was launched with a focus on looking back and celebrating the rich history of video games .

Management

Anthony Dickens

Founder & CEO

Anthony launched Nintendo Life in late 2005 and has remained at the helm ever since. He loves Nintendo but sometimes gets confused and tells everyone that F-Zero X is the best game. We've tried getting him help, but alas...

Growing up in the 1990's he developed a passion for video games by playing Game Boy, Super Nintendo and PC games. With a keen interest in the Internet and IT he fell in love with software development and programming, becoming a professional website developer in the early 2000s.

Anthony honed his craft as a developer and was director of the website development company Cuttlefish for nearly 15 years before shifting his sole focus to Hookshot's family of websites, Nintendo Life, Push Square and Pure Xbox.

Today, Anthony is both the Founder & CEO of Hookshot but also its lead developer and continues to develop the bespoke CMS that sits under the family of websites.

More recently, Anthony helped conceptualise and launch Hookshot's latest website, Time Extension along with Damien McFerran.

Damien McFerran

Editorial Director

Damien has been writing professionally about tech and video games since 2007 and oversees all of Hookshot Media's sites from an editorial perspective. He's also the editor of Time Extension, the network's newest site, which – paradoxically – is all about gaming's past glories.

Damien began his professional journalistic career with Retro Gamer magazine and has since written for Pocket Gamer, Eurogamer, CNET, Red Bull Gaming, SFX Magazine and many other clients within the tech and video game industries.

Darren Calvert

Operations Director

Growing up with a ZX Spectrum and a Sega Master System and his exhaustive knowledge in the fields of SEO and digital marketing, Darren's organisational prowess helps steer Hookshot's portfolio in the right direction.

Darren has previously worked for companies such as Nokia, as well as a diverse range of high-profile clients.

Rupert Loman-West

Chair