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Jeff finally taps out
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GB posted an update about it, it's all very corporate and gay "we've decided to go our separate ways, we are a community, we will go on" etc etc
 
Stasi said:
Jeff finally taps out
View attachment 3359992
GB posted an update about it, it's all very corporate and gay "we've decided to go our separate ways, we are a community, we will go on" etc etc
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Can't help but feel melancholic about this. Took a look at the website for the first time in like 5 years today, real ship of Theseus situation going on there, I don't recognize anyone on the site. Sad.
 
Stasi said:
Jeff finally taps out
View attachment 3359992
GB posted an update about it, it's all very corporate and gay "we've decided to go our separate ways, we are a community, we will go on" etc etc
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That's a fucking dagger to them. r/GiantBomb thread about the announcement.

www.reddit.com

r/giantbomb - Giant News - Giant Bomb

725 votes and 1,120 comments so far on Reddit
www.reddit.com www.reddit.com
archive.is

Giant News - Giant Bomb : giantbomb

archived 7 Jun 2022 01:29:40 UTC
archive.is archive.is
Rorie just said in gb chat that he didnt write it and he didnt know who did
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Huh...this is so sudden, too. Maybe it really is like you said, he tapped out. I can't blame him, the name Giant Bomb doesn't really mean much at the moment. Without Jeff Gerstmann, it'll mean even less.
EDIT: they caught this quote from Jeff
"Well I won't bore you with the details of all the similarly herky-jerky plans that we went through all year here around staffing, physical locations, trade shows, and all that stuff. Let's just say I spent a lot of 2021 in meetings that ended up going nowhere."
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Considering their countdown stream on Twitch has a fucking christmas tree on it and one of their jannies was complaining on Twitter that they had gotten no warning about the stream before it went live I'd say this was a pretty sudden departure on Jeff's part.
 
Stasi said:
That's a weird comment, sounds like there was a lot of corporate bullshit in the background. Maybe he didn't expect meddling in a website he founded, mentally checked out a few years ago and now finally had enough. That buy out a few years ago was a disaster.
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Could have been meetings where the suits were scratching their heads and asking why they were paying 10+ people Bay Area salaries for youtube videos that averages at 3k-7k views and how to fix that. I don't think they were trying to throw them under the bus but they probably had suggestions like "how about preparing a little?" and "is there a carbon monoxide leak in all your homes? We can send someone to check so you don't die on stream."
 
Stasi said:
That's a weird comment, sounds like there was a lot of corporate bullshit in the background. Maybe he didn't expect meddling in a website he founded, mentally checked out a few years ago and now finally had enough. That buy out a few years ago was a disaster.
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It's most likely that he doesn't have the control he (or any of the old guard) wanted.

Giantbomb worked best in a dedicated physical space, which got upended for COVID (which I have no idea why, it's not like 4 people in a room broke any kind of protocols). It sounds like corporate really liked the idea of not paying GB's rent anymore and decided "no more physical space" and "just stream from home" became the new mantra, leading to a much worse product. On top of that - it looked as if both companies (GB and GB's owner) invested $0 in everyone's WFH setups so it looks completely like amateur dogshit that devalues the product even more. This probably accelerated the "Nextlander" split, with Vinny and company realizing that if corporate wasn't going to invest in the product - they could just do their own twitch streams and not have to kick anything back to a bigger company.

Giantbomb has been crazy, their hiring has almost entirely been dogshit - they have two full time producers but the streams still look like inconsistent garbage, they're trying to swing around to becoming a "podcast network" and using "part time friends". I'm sure corporate had all kinds of suggestions but the core of it should have always been "get some likeable people together in a room", and it sounds like it wasn't going to be that ever again.

The press release mentions nine "core" GB members, but I can't even name 4 of them - and the idea that Voidburger or Matt Roarie would be "core" is kind of insulting to the concept. Giantbomb is officially dead, but it died a brutal death years ago and people are just finding the body now.

I sincerely wonder what Jeff does next, if he even has the energy or drive left to start something new or if he's just going to try lazy twitch streaming or mediocre corpo job.
 
Giantbomb will quietly get merged into Gamespot within the next 2 years. Site has been a dying husk basically since Ryan.

Also they are going live in about 10 minutes, this is the stream currently. I bet theres a lot of internal panic going on, they are gonna lose most of the remaining subs because of Jeff.

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www.twitch.tv

GiantBomb - Twitch

!countdown !news - 10 AM ET / 7 AM PT
www.twitch.tv www.twitch.tv


Looks like Dan Ryckert is back.
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I'm actually kinda interested but can't tune into the stream because of work. If anyone is watching keep us posted about any salt from the stream and/or chat!
 
Basically,
New core crew for GB: Jeff Bakalar, Jeff Grubb, Tamoor Hussain, Lucy James, Jess O'Brien (VoidBurger), Jan Ochoa, Jason Oestreicher, Matt Rorie, and Dan Ryckert.
Aren't like 3 of these gamespot people? Whatever, Lucy James definitely sounds familiar.

I guess I should finally check Nextlander and see if Gerstmann makes the jump.
 
Stasi said:
I'm actually kinda interested but can't tune into the stream because of work. If anyone is watching keep us posted about any salt from the stream and/or chat!
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You missed the most production value that site has had in years with a cringe sketch of them all looking at a ouija board that spelled out Mario Kart and Dan Ryckert. It was about 5 minutes long.
 
CHARizard said:
Site has been a dying husk basically since Ryan.
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they had some ok stuff for a few years after that. hiring Dan was the smartest decision they ever made, he had enough enthusiasm to counter the cynicism of everyone else but didn't alter the tone or style of the site too much. Giant Bomb East was probably the real killer since it split the core group and they could never match the original ratio. They also didn't seem to know the ecosystem anymore. I don't think anyone went to giant bomb as a website for their journalism but because of their personalities. They should have kept it small and avoided hiring people on the grounds they were good journalists, and they could have continued in perpetuity ala RLM, or at least ended in a less shambling state.
 
Smaug's Smokey Hole said:
Could have been meetings where the suits were scratching their heads and asking why they were paying 10+ people Bay Area salaries for youtube videos that averages at 3k-7k views and how to fix that. I don't think they were trying to throw them under the bus but they probably had suggestions like "how about preparing a little?" and "is there a carbon monoxide leak in all your homes? We can send someone to check so you don't die on stream."
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Not surprising that Jeff finally jumped ship, but blaming it on meetings is rich coming from him. The site is/was staffed by a lazy, overentitled bunch who were exposed by Dan leaving, followed by the pandemic. The husk of Giant Bomb will probably be quietly dragged behind the shed and aced before the end of the year, which is a good thing. It had a good five or six years before the shambling zombie skin-suit version took over and soured everything, but those were some good times.

I'm actually surprised the simp money for Nextlander is still going strong, to be honest. Vinny is saddled with the happiness void that is Alex, and the informational black hole (and incredibly lazy) called Brad. Even Vinny got into the excuses/laziness mode, but it sounds like he at least tries to inject some enthusiasm. His grifting for Masterpiece Transformers rubs me the wrong way, though. Send me some wholly unearned Transformers, retards!
 
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www.twitch.tv

jeffgerstmann - Twitch

Jeff Gerstmann: Video Gaming Done Right
www.twitch.tv www.twitch.tv

Gerstmann live now. 13K viewers as of now, tons of subs coming in. His first words "Feeling it all sink in now, weirdly emotional"

Hes going through his beginning as a journalist, how he started in highschool and going to CES.

"I am now self employed"

Creating a new podcast

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Patreon going live soon, "all happening quickly, a bit ramshackle"

www.patreon.com

Jeff Gerstmann is creating a wonderful video game podcast (and more). | Patreon

Become a patron of Jeff Gerstmann today: Get access to exclusive content and experiences on the world’s largest membership platform for artists and creators.
www.patreon.com www.patreon.com
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Sounds like hes going the streamer route, which may mean I actually watch his content again. I always liked when he played old games that you could tell he really enjoyed. Solo operation with his wife helping.

Hes gonna start the first episode of the podcast now. Sounds like we will not get a real reason for leaving GB.
 
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The minimum tier on the patreon is £4 and he already has almost 2.5k patrons so at minimum he is making £10k/$12.5k per month.

I think Jeff is gona be alright doing this solo thing lol
 
CHARizard said:
Hes gonna start the first episode of the podcast now. Sounds like we will not get a real reason for leaving GB.
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I feel like the reason is there, if you read between the lines.

He expressly stated that he wants to do actual video game journalism (ex - doing interviews, going to trade shows, being present for reveals, etc) and that doesn't seem to be with GB was ever going to do again.

It sounded like Jeff was happiest when Giantbomb physically had to go to E3 every year and push out tons of footage, was less happy when it turned into "rent a hotel conference room somewhere near E3 and just watch the coverage there and talk over it" but at least it was still a group thing and he'd get his interviews every year, and is no longer happy that it's "a group of streamers all in different places try and talk over an event, and only one of them (him) is remotely a professional".

It sounded like Jeff wants to be a professional journalist and not a content creator, and GB is just going to do content creation 100% moving forward.
 
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