Support Eurogamer to view the site ad-free - and much more

It's a big day! We've just opened a supporter program for Eurogamer, enabling readers - for the first time in the site's 22-year history - to pay to read the site without ads and with many other benefits, including exclusive articles.

Subscriptions come in two tiers: Standard, priced at £3.99 / $4.99 per month, and Premium, which costs £5.99 / $7.99. You can save by buying yearly subscriptions.

Standard tier offers the ad-free reading experience, with a tweaked, cleaner site layout; an exclusive monthly "Letter from the Editor" column; discounts on Eurogamer merch (and other products from the ReedPop store), and supporter status emblazoned next to your username in the comments in a proud and fetching pink.

Premium tier has all the benefits of Standard plus some additional exclusive articles and access. You'll support the return of the Eurogamer Podcast, and get early access to new episodes. You'll be able to participate in "Ask Eurogamer" live Q&A sessions on the site. And you'll get to read the Eurogamer team's thoughts on the world beyond gaming in an exclusive weekly Off Topic column.

For more info, and to sign up, head over to our Support Us page. Or read on to find out more about why we're doing this, and the thinking behind our offering.

This is something I've wanted to do for a long time. Along with much of the internet, Eurogamer has, since its inception in 1999, been supported by ads. A few other things, but mostly ads. Advertising has been how we pay our bills, pay our writers, and make money. For the most part, this works. We're lucky to have a great ad sales team who gets what we do, and we've always fought to keep our advertising as unobtrusive as possible while keeping up with the trends and pressures of the online advertising market. It's not always easy, and we sometimes have to make compromises, but we think we do an OK job.

There's no getting around it, though: web advertising can be annoying, and some people would rather not have to see it. Sure, you get to read our site for free in return, but the bargain doesn't always feel great. We ask you not to use adblockers, but until now we've never offered a viable alternative ourselves. It felt important to do that.

On a more idealistic level, I feel that it's important for the future of online journalism - all journalism, really - to reintroduce the idea of paying to read it. We're proud of the work that we do and think it has value, but we don't place a dollars-and-cents, pounds-and-pence value on that. It feels like the right time to start. Although Eurogamer has been lucky enough to be consistently stable financially, the wider business model for journalism on the internet doesn't seem sustainable, and we should do our part to change that.

One thing we decided very early on was that we didn't want to lock all of our work behind a paywall. We wanted to keep it freely accessible to everyone. So, inspired by the example of The Guardian (as well as of some of our competitors), we've created this supporter program where subscription is entirely optional, but comes with a bunch of (hopefully attractive) benefits, ad-free viewing first and foremost among them.

Of course you'll have noticed that we are doing some exclusive content. It was very important to me that this feel additive, that it shouldn't feel like we were taking anything away from the free reading experience. Anyone should be able to visit Eurogamer and feel that they are getting coverage of games that is as complete as it has ever been. But with your support, we'll be able to do a few things we wouldn't otherwise have been able to do.

First of these is to bring back the Eurogamer Podcast. As you can tell from its very long, on-again, off-again history, the podcast is something we love doing but often struggle to find a reason to prioritise. Your support will fix that. This new incarnation of the podcast - an interview series, led by Bertie Purchese, available in both video and audio and featuring both EG staffers and special guests - will be supported by Premium subscribers and each new episode will be exclusive to them for two weeks, until the next episode drops.

We also want to lift the curtain a bit and invite supporters in to learn more about the stories behind the stories, and to start a dialogue with us about what we do. To that end, all supporters can read a monthly Letter from the Editor, while Premium subscribers will be able to join live "Ask Eurogamer" Q&A sessions with Eurogamer writers using our live blogging platform on the site. These will touch on topics both general - how we do reviews, say - and specific - such as going deep on a new release with the reviewer, or talking about the latest announcements with the news team.

Finally, just for fun, Premium subscribers will get a new weekly Off Topic column, in which Eurogamer staffers will get to sound off about all the stuff outside of gaming we're passionate about. I'm adamant that Eurogamer should remain a games-focused site - we're not about to start reviewing Marvel movies - but between us we've got an eclectic bunch of interests which can't help but inform our writing and our perspective of games. This will be the place to go deeper on those, to read Christian Donlan on cooking or art history, Martin Robinson on motorsport or synthesizers. Indulge us!

We wouldn't be able to justify doing any of these things without your support - and we hope you enjoy them as much as we're going to enjoy making them. We hope they can bring the Eurogamer team and community closer together. We hope you like the look of the site without ads! Mostly, we hope you'll consider supporting us in the work we do, because we love doing it. Whether you decide to become a supporter or not, though, very sincerely, thank you for reading.