36 replies to this topic

[Kirbutashi]

Apparently later today, Jeff and Davison will have the inside scoop on "Gerstmanngate" or whatever people called Jeff's exodus post Kane & Lynch to commemorate their return to their former employer.

Meanwhile, 1UP loses more men as if on a schedule of layoffs.

(Oh, and Tested's team is expanding their coverage and partnering up with Jamie and Adam of Mythbusters fame!)

[levitynyc]

Giantbomb is terrible.

[juanster]

I was just thinking about when Gamespot was good last night. I loved Button Mashing.

[Wenny]

I'm so glad I only read Nintendo Power.

[richrad]

I get all my game news from the iOS top ten apps list.

[KnightAttack]

Mik's going to find his way in here and tear it up. I can feel it.

1up's been sucking for a long time though. I still can't read reviews on the site. It's been broken for me for months now. The comments are covering the entire page, so you can only see bits of the review in the background. How the mighty have fallen.


Still, it's sad to see people get laid off.


But I lol at Giant Bomb. "We wanna stay independent give us money!" - Sometime later - "WE SOLD OUT!"

Edited by KnightAttack, 15 March 2012 - 01:29 PM.

[SaitoH]

Looking forward to the Gerstman interview, but I'm concerned how this will change Giantbomb. At least John Davidson is Gamespot, so maybe it won't be all bad.

[mik]

Well, the two guys who always contacted me to do reviews, Justin Haywald and Thierry Nguyen, have left the building. So I guess I won't be stealing their games and money anymore.

The Giant Bomb thing... I assume will be discussed on this week's P1 Podcast. Perhaps I'd better let my sarcasm dissipate until then.

[PlayerOneStewy]

1up's been sucking for a long time though. I still can't read reviews on the site. It's been broken for me for months now. The comments are covering the entire page, so you can only see bits of the review in the background. How the mighty have fallen.

I had the same problem until very recently. When I brought it up with Sam K one night he got me in touch with some of their web guys and they seemed totally shocked about it. They even worked with me a bit to try and fix the issue with no results.

Then, one day, it just worked.

[Jonnjonzz]

So that leaves 3 people working at 1up now?

[PlayerOneCJ]

Terrible news for Scooter and Matt - I don't really know the other folks.

I'm not up on the newest news but wasn't 1UP purchased by UGO who then was purchased by IGN (who already has like 3 competing gaming sites)? Something had to give, right?

[Indy aka Rex]

After the pre-UGO exodus, 1up just, stopped being relevant. I don't even know why I still have it bookmarked, I haven't been back there since sometime in 2010 when I closed my account. It's a shame, it used to be my favorite gaming site.

[SickBoy]

I think that back in the day Greg echoed some of my thoughts on Gerstmann: the circumstances of his departure were iffy, but it's not like the Kane & Lynch review (especially) or his body of work (in general) were beyond reproach.

Will be interested to read whatever I can about the breakup, although I suspect I'll be craving some perspective at the end of the day.

Unfortunate about 1Up, but not entirely surprising.

[mik]

I think that back in the day Greg echoed some of my thoughts on Gerstmann: the circumstances of his departure were iffy, but it's not like the Kane & Lynch review (especially) or his body of work (in general) were beyond reproach.

Exactly. Too many people overlooked that, I think.

[Fahrenhype]

So what was the overall summary of this? Today was the day I realized I cannot keep up with 30+ page GAF threads, Twitter, or 47 minute Justin.tv videos. Three and a half hour podcasts aren't helping either.

[PlayerOneStewy]

Giant Bomb and their comic site were bought by CBS, and so they're moving back to the GameSpot offices but will be their own entity within that network. Jeff was fired because the new management at the time were more worried about threats from publishers to pull ad dollars than they were about editorial integrity. Apparently all those responsible for the whole fiasco are no longer with the company.

And so it goes.

[mik]

Edited by mik, 15 March 2012 - 08:32 PM.

[probune]

I like Giantbomb stuff and will probably continue to pay for it unless it becomes shitty. Not really unhappy that they "sold out" or anything.

[SaitoH]

The interview seemed more like a reason for Jeff to say that Gamespot editorial is ok! He wouldn't be here if it wasn't. C'mon back people! John has changed the site, so it's not bad anymore and we want you to take a look. Did we mention that GiantBomb trusts Gamespot?

[Thrillhouse17]

John Davison is way older than I expected. Disappointment.

[KnightAttack]

John Davison is way older than I expected. Disappointment.

He's also been around forever.


The good news is, most of the big sites (other than IGN) are run by people who you can trust. I'm not super happy with all the list-crap that GamesRadar has been doing lately, but seeing Gary Steinman run it is a good thing.

[mik]

LOL @ that GIF. Fantastic.

[RareMonkey]

sad about 1up, used to be my favorite site. hopefully all goes well with giantbomb

[MojoBox]

I've mostly stuck around 1up because I tend to jibe with Jeremy Parish on a lot of stuff, but the general writing quality has been in a hopeless nose dive for years now. Sucks, since it really felt like the Internet successor to EGM once upon a time.

Fact is though I mostly get my gaming news through podcasts these days, and I prefer it that way. Just... not the Bombcast. No thanks.

[BeauRosser]

Wait, wait, wait... so what does this mean for Tested (Tested is fantastic)? And are Giantbomb and Comicvine NO LONGER part of Whiskey Media?

EDIT: Oh wait... Mythbusters took over Tested. That's.... very strange, but I'll accept it.

Edited by BeauRosser, 16 March 2012 - 05:45 PM.

[probune]

And are Giantbomb and Comicvine NO LONGER part of Whiskey Media?

yep

[Ginormousj]

The way 1up has been gutted over the years has been incredibly depressing. I'll stick around as long as Jeremy is still there, but I remember when 1up Yours was a huge inspiration to me (the only reason we ever started a podcast), and it seemed like there was a more thoughtful approach to most of the content published, especially those cover stories. Besides Jeremy and Sam Kennedy, who else from the "glory days" is still there?

I've never been a Giant Bomb reader (and that's not likely to change), but John Davison's another one of those guys for whom I have a ton of admiration, so I think this sounds like a positive development for those guys and their site.

[dammitmattt]

I always got the impression that Whiskey Media was created and developed with the intent to sell it off.

I don't always agree with the Bombcast crew, but I love the guys so I hope it works out well financially and professionally for them. They all took a pretty big risk and I hope it paid off.

Kudos to Jon D for bringing in some of the rare compelling personalities that are still around in the games press. Maybe I'll go to videogames.com, I mean Gamestop, I mean Gamespot again. He did some decent work with Gamepro before it went under.

[Fahrenhype]

I always got the impression that Whiskey Media was created and developed with the intent to sell it off.

That was the impression I got. Giant Bomb did not have ads on it for a long, long time. And even after they appeared it was just that Meebo bar. The only vague reference to actual income was the API for all of the Whiskey content databases, but I doubt that generated much revenue.

I'm also not sure about the "sell out" comments because even now, I have no idea how much power Jeff, Ryan, etc. had within Whiskey. The one thing that disgusted me was the attempt to ransom the back half of Bombcast to get premium memberships that included access to content on other sites I did not care about. That clearly could not have been their decision, and as the numbers have shown, Giant Bomb and Comic Vine were the click earners for that network.

So long as the Bombcast and quick looks remain the same, I don't see a huge issue. It is the only site that has really kept up with what GameTrailers does for me (Gamersyde is good for high quality videos as well) because most of what I get from it is A/V content. Reviews can be interesting but I really don't care about that segment of "gaming journalism" anymore. There are a lot of other ways to decide if a game is worth trying.

[Dry County]

I remember when 1up Yours was a huge inspiration to me

Man, it feels like forever since the days of 1UP Yours and The 1UP Show.

I hope that 1UP's departed find solid ground quickly. I also hope that Giant Bomb doesn't change, at least negatively.

[Dream]

I'm kinda surprised that the story behind Gerstmann getting fired was pretty much exactly what everyone thought it was. This is a rare case of the internet jumping to conclusions and actually being mostly correct. I thought there would have to be more to it because you'd think that gaming websites get pressure over reviews from advertisers all the time, especially one as big as Gamespot. I guess we found out that they had some incompetent management at the time, and they were already under some heat for the R&C Future review.

Interesting though, that the official story never got out one way or another in the last 5 years.

Edited by Dream, 19 March 2012 - 04:24 PM.

[mik]

We heard Jeff's side of the story, which just happens to match up exactly with the conclusion his internet defenders jumped to.

I'm sure there's more to it. Positive.

[Kirbutashi]

He was probably still heavily into energy drinks at the time and charged them all to Gamespot. Enough was enough.

[Dream]

We heard Jeff's side of the story, which just happens to match up exactly with the conclusion his internet defenders jumped to.

I'm sure there's more to it. Positive.

Good point. Hearing only the side of the person who got fired is highly unlikely to be the whole story, especially when in his recollection he apparently didn't do anything wrong. And really, with GiantBomb and Gamespot now joining, obviously they won't say anything that would make Jeff/GiantBomb look bad or undermine their credibility. With the other side having moved on and unable to defend themselves, I guess this is all we're going to get, and how history will be written.

Edited by Dream, 20 March 2012 - 10:52 AM.

[RobTurboGA]

If Jeff was allowed to tell his side of the story, does that mean the people who were at Gamespot, who are now gone, are able to tell theirs? I haven't heard anyone ask for that or even consider the possibility.

I'd love to hear it.

[Thrillhouse17]

The podcast got a lateral move in quality. Now it sounds like they're recording in a radio in a studio. Before it sounded like they were all in the same room using high quality microphones.

[Owozifa]

I feel the surest sign of the Gamespot takeover so far has been the latest ogre penis sized Civ 5 ad on their front page.