Nicole Carpenter

Senior Reporter

Nicole Carpenter is a senior reporter at Polygon, specializing in investigative, long-form features about labor issues in the games industry, as well as the business and culture of games. She also writes news, criticism, and reviews. Nicole received the New York Videogame Critics Circle’s Knickerbocker Award for Best Games Journalism in 2023, and has appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered, Marketplace, and Morning Edition to talk about her work.

Before joining Polygon in 2019, Nicole contributed to The Washington Post, The Verge, Time, IGN, Vice, and more. She lives in New England with her basset hound mix, black cat, partner, and horde of Pokémon Squishmallows.