Fandom Blows Up Giant Bomb - Multiple Key Personnel Depart - Fandom Pauses All GB Content For "strategic reset"

adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Yes, yes, another GB topic. This one has statements from Fandom too, though.

kotaku.com

Giant Bomb Escapes Fandom, Goes Independent

A cornerstone of gaming gets a fresh start after an editorial showdown with Fandom
kotaku.com kotaku.com

Giant Bomb's future is uncertain following a showdown with parent company Fandom, which also owns GameSpot, over editorial interference. Creative director Dan Ryckert announced on a recent livestream that he would no longer be appearing on the Giant Bombcast and co-host Jeff Grubb confirmed on social media on Thursday that he's no longer with the company. Giant Bomb content is currently on hold while Fandom engages in a "strategic reset and realignment of our media brands," it confirmed to Kotaku.
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"As you know, we've temporarily paused Giant Bomb live streaming and that content is currently available on demand for our audience," a spokesperson for Fandom told Kotaku in an email. "We understand this programming pause isn't ideal for our audience, but it's part of a strategic reset and realignment of our media brands. We have some creative ideas for the future of Giant Bomb that we're actively working on that we'll be able to communicate more about soon."
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"Well, that was a dream come true. Knew it wouldn't last, though," Grubb, who joined Giant Bomb in 2022 after a reshuffle that saw the departure of longtime host and cofounder Jeff Gerstman, wrote on Bluesky. "Out of a job at the moment. But I'll always be doing Game Mess," he added, referring to a podcast he cohosts with Games Beat reviews editor and Giant Bomb contributor Mike Minotti.
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"Needless to say I will no longer be contributing to Giant Bomb," Minotti wrote in a separate post. "Nothing but love to all the wonderful people from there and GameSpot. Jeff was a workhorse and a hero for the way he shouldered so much responsibility there, and I am furious with the way execs treated him."
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The news follows an ominous "pause" on Giant Bomb streams at the end of April and the takedown of an episode of the Giant Bombcast from YouTube this week after the hosts mocked apparent "brand safety" concerns recently foisted upon them by management at Fandom. Then in a livestream on April 30, Ryckert, a member of Giant Bomb between 2014 and 2020 who returned in 2022, announced he would no longer be appearing on the show and had no interest in Fandom's vision for Giant Bomb's future.
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Zacfoldor said:
It's nut-cutting time in this racket.

Everything's closed.

Alanah Pearce is still wrong though.
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Feels like the individually-supported Patreon model is the only viable thing for these kind of internet personalities / commenters now.
 
Games Journalism industry is a relic of 0% interest and an advertising boom. I bet the monthly salary bill there is eye watering with 2025 glasses on.
 
Polygon and now Giantbomb

Guess who's smirking right now

20aa1aad4b2de0c32b7c430580659edc36cc9811_full.jpg
 
I thought, from the thread title, that some crazy fans literally blew up some office building. Glad to see it's just some sort of unfortunate word play and that everyone is safe.
 
I wonder what their "creative ideas for the future" are.

There's clearly not enough money in this thing and all the personalities that managed to keep what little audience was still around are now all gone.

It's over.
 
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adamsapple said:
Feels like the individually-supported Patreon model is the only viable thing for these kind of internet personalities / commenters now.
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Jeff grubb is not entertaining in a video format. He did those shows with his co-host or whoever and they felt too long and too boring. I feel like if i want gaming news or i want to be entertained and get opinions on gaming stuff then i'll come on here and have way more fun and get more knowledgeable info from the people here.
 
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Cancelled my premium after the first time Dan left. They became completely unwatchable during COVID. I did just listen to the bombcast for the first time in forever only a few weeks back and was pleasantly surprised to find it was pretty entertaining. It's a bummer for the people there but they've been on borrowed time for years at this point. How many of these types of outfits are lucky enough to survive multiple "deaths"?
 
Liopleurodon said:
Anyone else who never really visited this site on a regular basis?
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It was only popular from 2008 to maybe 2013 so I think people of a certain age remember it well while most others have barely heard of it.

Similar to Angry Video Game Nerd it existed at a time when people would visit specific sites for video content as opposed to Youtube or social media. They had one of the most popular podcasts at the time in any category, not just gaming. It'd be high up in the charts with the likes of This American Life.

The co-creator died a few years after Giant Bomb started and they began bringing in new people and then split the group into two offices and tried a bunch of weird things over the years while undergoing several acquisitions.

These days it's just some thing that carries the name, but some of us are still interested in hearing about the latest because at one point in history they were a bigger deal.
 
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Sebastian1295 said:
Jeff grubb is not entertaining in a video format. He did those shows with his co-host or whoever and they felt too long and too boring. I feel like if i want gaming news or i want to be entertained and get opinions on gaming stuff then i'll come on here and have way more fun and get more knowledgeable info from the people here.
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That's fine but sources like Grubb are often enough the source of those rumors that drive discussions on forums like GAF in the first place.

We do kinda need these folks as well otherwise the only things we'll ever have to talk about are the official sanitized PR statements from publishers only.
 
I had mostly stopped watching/listening back in like 2019 but tuned out completely after Gerstmann got the boot. I have some decent memories of Dan, though, so I hope he ends up doing something interesting next.
 
MMaRsu said:
The fuck did that clown have to do with any of it?

Literally nothing

Who cares about that chump
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Either he was trying to get a rise out of people by posting Grummz, or he is oddly trying to assign the credit of journalist sites imploding to Grummz.

However, if a multitude of people fell for the idea (and still believe) that Frosk killed G4 rather than the actual truth of them blowing away too much money for them to reasonably cover, I'm sure the same will happen for this news and Grummz/other controversial figures surrounding this.
 
The true Giant Bomb is long gone, but memories of exceptional E3 coverage was forever imprinted in people's brains incl. mine. Those were the golden days.

HItIN1A.gif
 
adamsapple said:
That's fine but sources like Grubb are often enough the source of those rumors that drive discussions on forums like GAF in the first place.

We do kinda need these folks as well otherwise the only things we'll ever have to talk about are the official sanitized PR statements from publishers only.
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we have nate the hate we do not need anyone else
 
March Climber said:
Either he was trying to get a rise out of people by posting Grummz, or he is oddly trying to assign the credit of journalist sites imploding to Grummz.

However, if a multitude of people fell for the idea (and still believe) that Frosk killed G4 rather than the actual truth of them blowing away too much money for them to reasonably cover, I'm sure the same will happen for this news and Grummz/other controversial figures surrounding this.
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frosk did give it a push to death
 
adamsapple said:
Feels like the individually-supported Patreon model is the only viable thing for these kind of internet personalities / commenters now.
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Yeah, I made the point a few years ago: the folks with real insight, thought, or charisma migrated to their own self-run businesses, YouTube, Twitch, and Patreon - leaving only the dregs behind at the publications. This is why Meta Critic scores aren't worth much - the people who's opinions are counted in those scores are illiterate tourists who treat video games as a stepping stone to something else. Generally speaking, I'd take a random 10k sub YouTube gamer over the biggest publication most days.
 
adamsapple said:
But it's still around after all the years, that's the point Gerstmann's making. Giantbomb has been sold to multiple different big corps in the last decade, by comparison.
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this but at the same time the only ones keeping it alive are the woketards imo.
 
rkofan87 said:
frosk did give it a push to death
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G4 2.0 was destined to die based on the financial reports. Her push is equivalent to a finger nudge.

Frosk being placed at the cause of the blame/scapegoat is the neater narrative wrapped with a bow, and it lets the people who tanked the business to potentially get away with it again at another company.

The only news anyone cared about that came out of that mess was that Frosk completely retired from the industry. So you can take it as a win.
 
I never understood why they sold themselves to CBS Interactive. Not staying independent is usually the beginning of the end for outlets like these.
 
rkofan87 said:
wtf jeff
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Eh i think Jeff sucked ass in the end, they could have gone down the patreon route or anything other but he also felt lazy. They barely marketed themselves and the youtube content was just not there . They also didnt embrace Twitch streaming or youtube streaming
 
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