Sinan Akkol (1997)
Turkish Game Journalist, Print Editor-in-Chief, Archival Broadcaster, and Mobile Studio Co-Founder
Entering professional game journalism in Istanbul during the summer of 1997 through a reader writing competition at LEVEL Türkiye, Sinan Akkol served a decade rising to editor-in-chief before co-founding the independent monthly Oyungezer in 2007, producing archival video retrospectives on Disket Kutusu, and co-founding mobile developer Fiber Games in 2020.
Editorial Leadership at LEVEL Türkiye and Co-Founding of Oyungezer
Sinan Akkol began his professional career in the summer of 1997 when Vogel Burda's newly launched Turkish edition of the Czech gaming monthly LEVEL held a nationwide talent competition inviting readers to submit sample game reviews. Selected into the Istanbul editorial office during the formative expansion of CD-ROM-bundled print media in Turkey, Akkol spent ten consecutive years at LEVEL Türkiye between 1997 and 2007, progressing from junior reviewer to senior section editor and eventually Editor-in-Chief. Throughout that decade, he helped standardize Turkish critical vocabulary for role-playing, strategy, and console genres, coordinated monthly optical-disc software compilations, and reported directly from international trade exhibitions including the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles and the Games Convention in Leipzig. In autumn 2007, Akkol departed Vogel Burda alongside veteran colleagues including Tuğbek Ölek and Serpil Ulutürk to establish the independent publishing house Seti Medya, launching the monthly magazine Oyungezer in November 2007 and guiding its print, special-edition, and web editorial operations until 2016.
Broadcast Journalism, Disket Kutusu Archival Work, and Fiber Games
Alongside his twenty-year career in newsstand print publishing, Akkol contributed to television technology and video game programs aired on Turkish thematic channels during the 2000s and 2010s, translating specialist hardware and industry analysis for mainstream broadcast audiences. Following his transition away from day-to-day print management in 2016, he partnered with industry colleague Furkan Faruk Akıncı to launch Disket Kutusu, an ongoing digital video and podcast series dedicated to documenting the history of 1980s and 1990s computing periodicals, local retail hardware culture, and oral histories with Turkish and international developers. Through page-by-page readings of archived issues of 64'ler, Amiga Dünyası, GameShow, LEVEL, and Oyungezer, the program established a widely referenced audiovisual record of domestic media history. In 2020, Akkol moved directly into commercial software production by co-founding the Istanbul-based mobile game studio Fiber Games with Volkan Turan and Furkan Faruk Akıncı, securing venture investment and releasing casual and licensed titles including Weld It 3D and Kral Şakir: Macera Adası.