If you like to take a global approach to video game news, you’ve probably been to American video game media and you’ve probably read about Alanah Pearce there. The journalist moved from her native Australia to the US, and writing about games (and a strong presence on YouTube and social media) eventually led her to work directly in the games industry, serving as a writer at Sony Santa Monica Studios since 2020. But now the communicator has reported that that phase has come to an end, at least as it was developing so far.
Alanah tells in a video (which you can watch here) that she has had to painfully leave her full-time job at SSMS to care for a terminally ill family member in Australia. Although working at Santa Monica Studio is her dream job, now, with the fatal outcome, she has become more aware of how far away she has felt from her family in the 10 years she has worked abroad (there are only ten paid holidays a year in the US). Alanah now wants to establish herself as a freelancer, but acknowledges that the time difference between living back in Australia and working in an American job is equally complicated.
In any case, we’ll certainly miss her touch and vision in future Sony Santa Monica games, although we assume that in future releases (such as that unannounced new IP they have in the works) she’ll have a prominent place in the credits.