Luke Smith (writer)

Luke Smith
Smith (left) with Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg in San Francisco, March 2007
Alma mater	University of Michigan
Occupation	Content Editor/Community Manager
Employer	Bungie
Known for	Video game journalism

Luke Michael Smith is an American writer. He is a staff member at Bungie, a video game development company, and is a former video games journalist. Smith wrote for a college newspaper and weekly papers in Michigan before being hired as one of the first new freelance writers for Kotaku. At Kotaku, Smith developed his writing style but soon left the site for a staff position as 1UP.com's news editor. Smith made a name for himself at 1UP, particularly through an article he wrote focusing on problems with the game Halo 2.

Smith was known for his direct approach to game journalism and scathing criticism of the video game industry. During his time at 1UP the site developed a greater profile and stepped out of its sister publication's shadow, but Smith grew frustrated with the contemporary state of gaming news and what he considered manipulation of journalists and readers into accepting promotional material as news. In April 2007 he left 1UP to become a Bungie writer and co-host of the developer's podcast.

Smith gradually entered into game journalism while working on an English Literature degree at the University of Michigan, writing about media in the college newspaper. After graduation, he worked for weekly papers in Dearborn and Detroit, Michigan, including Real Detroit Weekly.

Clive Thompson, a games writer with Slate, interacted with Smith over AOL Instant Messenger and the two began to bounce ideas off of each other for their respective writing projects; when games blog Kotaku started to expand from one writer (founder Brian Crecente), Thompson recommended Smith. Smith credits his time at Kotaku for helping him come into his own, develop his style and learn about attribution and citing sources, but he left after a short period of time. "At the time stories (on Kotaku) were unsigned. Kotaku was like the Brian Crecente vision. If I posted something or [fellow writer Brian Ashcraft] did people thought [Crecente] did. Also, there was no health insurance, it was just full-time freelance."