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IGN Entertainment acquires Eurogamer, GI.biz, VG247, Rock Paper Shotgun and more (Layoffs occuring)
- Thread starter dex3108
- Start date
I thought she went and did her own thing with others, did I misunderstand the shirt?
I hope Ian and Zoey land on their feet, though Ian is a bit of an HR nightmare I bet!
I believe all we know so far is that Liv Kennedy is safe and Alice Bell isn't.
She's also doing a D+D group thing but that's never going to be employment money.
I'm actually glad, it takes away any notion that 'gaming media' should be treated seriously. Unfortunately the consumers are unwilling to pay for access to independent journalistic media in order to sustain it, the people financially running it found the current model unprofitable so you've got as much as you paid for: Nothing. A single corpo consolidating gaming clicks market to copy-paste other corpos talking points. Which was largely what was actually happening already, just not so blatantly.
Like, honestly, the only actual journalistic works in years I saw was Schreier talking about behind-the-scenes and worker treatment and that one Walker interview with Molyneux which was made possible only because at the time Molyneux was not supported by a big publisher. Otherwise even that interview would be nonsense because Walker wouldn't dare to be antagonistic no matter how anti-consumer Molyneux was.
Like, honestly, the only actual journalistic works in years I saw was Schreier talking about behind-the-scenes and worker treatment and that one Walker interview with Molyneux which was made possible only because at the time Molyneux was not supported by a big publisher. Otherwise even that interview would be nonsense because Walker wouldn't dare to be antagonistic no matter how anti-consumer Molyneux was.
IGN shouldn't be allowed this much control over gaming news outlets. I quite like Eurogamer, hoping they and the other sites picked up through the deal remain open. Least Digital Foundry, Pure Xbox, Push Square and Nintendo Life remain independent per say. Might have to find a new place for my gaming news, not a fan of IGN in the slightest.
VGC is UK-based, right?
Hoping everyone affected by the layoffs lands on their feet
VGC is UK-based, right?
Hoping everyone affected by the layoffs lands on their feet
Christ fuck that. Alice Bell held together the RPS podcast for years so I guess that'll be dead now. If not by redundancies I can see people leaving out of spite. They obviously don't care about the current readership with such a move.
Hope she can land on her feet so I can get my updates on naval activity along the Irish coastline.
Strange times. Here in the Netherlands if I remember correctly (at least when I was working fulltime for a website, I'm a freelancer these days) you had to buy in to start the Dutch version of IGN. I don't have numbers but I know that here IGN has stiff competition from the local gamesites, like the ones I write for. I think that's healthier for the market. But of course international readers don't have any value in that because its all in Dutch. Understandable.
I at least hope local sites (no matter which country) can keep trucking along to get some other voices out there and not let IGN control the entire market. Although I have no quarrel with IGN, I'm also speaking from the viewpoint of my own livelihood of course. (Edit: like Nerun says two posts beneath me, people still visit the local sites, in his/her case German ones.)
To some of the people replying here that games journalism shouldn't be taken seriously at all: fuck me, I guess. Maybe think before you speak and put down tons of folks who've build their lives around the profession. I've been doing this stuff for 20+ years and I'd like to keep doing it for the rest of my life. I know plenty of other local journalist who, like me, put all their energy and passion into informing thousands and thousands of readers about games and the game industry each and every day. I understand the gamesites that write in their native language are just a minuscule blip on the radar of an international game forum like ResetEra, but it feels kinda lame to just claim game journalism is dead. Not without a fight as far as I'm concerned.
Anyway, my two cents. I hope the editors from the sites that have been bought all land on their feet, be it at the sites they work for or somewhere else.
I at least hope local sites (no matter which country) can keep trucking along to get some other voices out there and not let IGN control the entire market. Although I have no quarrel with IGN, I'm also speaking from the viewpoint of my own livelihood of course. (Edit: like Nerun says two posts beneath me, people still visit the local sites, in his/her case German ones.)
To some of the people replying here that games journalism shouldn't be taken seriously at all: fuck me, I guess. Maybe think before you speak and put down tons of folks who've build their lives around the profession. I've been doing this stuff for 20+ years and I'd like to keep doing it for the rest of my life. I know plenty of other local journalist who, like me, put all their energy and passion into informing thousands and thousands of readers about games and the game industry each and every day. I understand the gamesites that write in their native language are just a minuscule blip on the radar of an international game forum like ResetEra, but it feels kinda lame to just claim game journalism is dead. Not without a fight as far as I'm concerned.
Anyway, my two cents. I hope the editors from the sites that have been bought all land on their feet, be it at the sites they work for or somewhere else.
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Shame for the people who were let go and one company handling that many outlets isn't great news. Personally I don't hate IGN, I watch some of their videos, barely visit the website and read there though. I enjoy Eurogamer content from time to time and of course I love Digital Foundry content. Some of the people that did video reviews and videos in general for Eurogamer sadly left, so I stopped watching Eurogamer basically (DF is a different thing).
I must admit I still use a lot of local content (German) though, like GameStar, GamePro, ComputerBase, PC Games / PC Games Hardware mostly. There are a lot of trash clickbait outlets here as well and big companies buying outlets or having bought them in the past, so many great websites vanished, therefore I get how many people feel about this news with IGN and the "smaller" outlets.
I used to work in this area as well for some years and it was already tough back then and hasn't gotten easier. Some found their place, expanded into different areas of finance mor interesting niche topics/reports through some click bait content and stuff. Not a fan of that, but at least you find a lot of great content still on these pages and try to ignore some click bait articles/news as best as you can.
I must admit I still use a lot of local content (German) though, like GameStar, GamePro, ComputerBase, PC Games / PC Games Hardware mostly. There are a lot of trash clickbait outlets here as well and big companies buying outlets or having bought them in the past, so many great websites vanished, therefore I get how many people feel about this news with IGN and the "smaller" outlets.
I used to work in this area as well for some years and it was already tough back then and hasn't gotten easier. Some found their place, expanded into different areas of finance mor interesting niche topics/reports through some click bait content and stuff. Not a fan of that, but at least you find a lot of great content still on these pages and try to ignore some click bait articles/news as best as you can.
Much respect. A writer must write, but can never know who reads. I'm sure you've informed, inspired and entertained more folk than you will ever know.
I remember watching all these sites start up, back when we all ran websites for fun and not money. It's wild how consolidation has destroyed what was once vibrant.
I wonder if games websites are actualy still popular? I get most of my gaming fix from here or YouTube tbh. EG became irrelevant years ago sadly, I used to read them every day 10 years ago not then they just started churning out dubious semi sponsered nonsense.
Oh great even less Indies will get limelight since ign only review big titles or popular indies
I can't speak for too many others but my site is more popular than ever, and it's reaching 25 years old. Websites are still very valuable and well used
How is this even possible? Were all these sites under a single company to begin with?
Edit: Ah I see, Gamer Network.
This is honestly so shady. I like IGN for Playlist and HLTB, that makes sense to expand what it offers. But buying these sites out makes no sense.
Edit: Ah I see, Gamer Network.
This is honestly so shady. I like IGN for Playlist and HLTB, that makes sense to expand what it offers. But buying these sites out makes no sense.
Consolidation of industry is a bad thing, it leads to layoffs. I guess it was a very poorly "be careful what you wish for", also bad TPO.
This is the result of people fighting over plastic boxes, and hoping they favorite company put the competition out of business.
I don't understand buying companies and not understanding the cogs that make them what they are. Simply looking at it from a bottom line perspective can sometimes do the opposite in the long run and compromise the bottom line.
Hoping for the best for all adversely affected by the acquisitions.
Hoping for the best for all adversely affected by the acquisitions.
DF lost me when they cosied up to wizard game after teasing they might do the right thing tbh.
Eurogamer and Oxboxtra ignored it completely.
Eurogamer and Oxboxtra ignored it completely.
I suspect that poster wasn't suggesting the internet itself was dying, more than what made the internet good is dying. It'll be the BnL of information.Is that a bad thing???
They don't care about the people or content. They care about the URLs and traffic. Just like MS didn't give a shit about the developers, only the IP.
Man I miss the golden age of gaming journalism in the early 2000s. I remember being allowed to get one magazine a week at the store, which would always be a gaming or football magazine, with so many to choose from. Then Saturday mornings I remember always watching the show Gamezville on Sky One and then once a month I would be allowed to rent one game from Blockbuster. A simpler time.
as much as i hope independent games journalism sees some growth from all of this, i'm not totally optimistic. having to rely on the generosity of an audience that's already being squeezed by rampant CoL crises to be able to continue publishing is a very risky proposition. god, this sucks.
Yes, what I"m saying is we're already in a hyperconsolidated shithole industry where there's always been cheerleading for acquisitions
Saw that Brendan Sinclair got laid off at GameIndustry.biz, which seems like a bad idea if you give a shit about a site you're acquiring.
bsky.app
Brendan Sinclair (@brendansinclair.bsky.social)
I've been laid off and need a new job. Maybe game journalism, maybe something else in games, maybe not games at all. Entertaining all possibilities at this point, so please reach out if you think I might be a good fit for you.
bsky.app
The reality is that these companies would have still had layoffs if not been shuttered long term.
Digital killed print. Blogs killed traditional digital. And now YouTube, streamers and such replace blogs.
""Alices are a force to be reckoned with. To treat an Alice poorly is to invite shame, dishonour, and contempt. Here are some of the best Alices in video games!"
View: https://x.com/rockpapershot/status/1793246269386727758?s=46
View: https://x.com/rockpapershot/status/1793246269386727758?s=46
That includes journalists too. Some may be affected now by layoffs. Which would be like friendly fire.
There are a number of those that clearly cheer for their favorite brand, just like regular fans, but pretending that act professionally.
No different than other journalists (sports, politics etc)
Partially. They weren't owned by Gamer Network fully, just partly and they had a partnership for the Eurogamer promotion.
IGN now owns that partial stake.
Many of these brands have a strong YouTube presence and it isn't helping. I still believe Luke and Aoife were effectively redundancies.
if the layoffs were redundancies then I don't know if thats true