Jeff Gerstmann was fired from Giant Bomb !!! WTF

In recent episode 021 of the Jeff Gerstmann show podcast he dropped the bomb that he was fired !!!

Discuss....

I'm not sure what there is to discuss, Jeff was as clear as he is going to be for a bit, I'd wager. I'm not even sure it was that big of a bomb, it seems like he put in some form of notice and they said "nah". That happens a lot, although it is pretty disrespectful to run out the previous owner, even if he does want out himself.

Really recontextualises that bombcast and the way his 'leaving' was talked about... Makes me wonder just how much damage the RV takeover really has done to this site, particularly in retrospect. The whole RV era just seems like a time fraught with so much unnecessary bullshit that had such a damaging impact on many people. Things seem to have stabilsed and become better, but it also feels like it didn't have to turn out this way, had RV had any fucking clue about what made this site popular in the first place and not tried to fuck it into the dirt.

It's also a bit hard not to be wistful about the different forms of 'the good old days' of Giant Bomb - I really like the mix/crew in place (as much as I sometimes am over Dan's constant loud yelling about certain topics and all of the weed talk - not sure why, but all the weed talk kind of bothers me/makes me uncomfortable a bit; not sure if it's the fluid legalities around it or that I just find almost all parts of weed culture annoying, because talk of drinking/being or getting drunk doesn't bother me...). I really liked the mix before Jeff was fired, GBeast Classic (with Jeffy B and Austin), and Business Dave's contributions to UPF. I know nothing good can stay that way forever, but it just feels like RV fucked a whole lot of things up in ways that shouldn't have happened. But hey, I don't work there... What do I know?

He only touched on it without too much in the way of details, from what i understood he wanted something but the response was that he'd be shown the door, and since he was kinda thinking of leaving anyway he did.

We had another very public situation recently where someone claims something and everyone believes them before the facts are in, so i recommend instead of people reading this thread title and responding just wait until the actual events are explained in however many months/years time, right now this story is under NDA.

The part you're leaving out is that he was going to leave anyway. In either case this site would have continued without Jeff on staff, but it's shit that it happened that way. Doesn't affect how I view everyone else on staff and the work they put in.

As someone who just 11 months ago loved and continues to advocate for a job I loved and the coworkers who helped make it sing, I found what he was willing to say about his departure intensely relatable. Sometimes the thing you build, unfortunately or not, satisfies business interests you’re no longer interested in crafting considerations for. And often times that business would rather say “fuck you, thanks for whatever you say you did” than acknowledge your true value.

Wether an unwanted role within wiser company hierarchy, a content mandate or simply performative dispassion, both parties were likely 100% right to separate. No matter how immediately bizarre the sentence “Giant Bomb fired Jeff Gerstmann” reads for any enthusiast of a decade-long vintage.

@himsteveo: regarding the weed, just keep in mind that the crew could be normalizing hookah (what up, European nations and majority Black/African U.S. districts where hookah is quite normalized) or dosing their lunchtime herbal tea with kratom instead.

Or, y’know, at least try to forget all the ways the yuppie culture of the 90s tried to program non-smokers (of whom I often consider myself a member these days) to fear weed as pesticide for the smart bits of your brain and a sure path towards oversize knit hoodies and paying hard earned money for soundboard rips of Dave Matthews performances.

What I see is Jeff seems satisfied with where he is and the fact he can be home. I know the feeling of knowing unless the big boss gives into my demand I can just walk. What's more, whatever the circumstance, he went without any "controversy" either way to that might have driven views to the site. Fired, walked away, or just parted ways...I'm guessing any views for GB are about them and what they make not about controversy.

Jeff is going to have an amazing few years with his kids - lucky kids and lucky dad.

I mean, if you read between the lines, you would have known he was fired months ago. This isn't really news, nothing about this seemed amicable.

He seems way happier, and Giant Bomb, at least creatively, seems in better shape than it's been in years, so all's well ends well I guess.

Jeff said it himself, he was going to leave anyway. So anybody who wants to believe he would have stayed at Giant Bomb forever if it weren't for those evil RV people is living in a fantasy land.

I don't want to be mean here but the writing was on the wall for a long time. Jeff had sounded burnt out for a long time and I really think it was hurting the product. He has always been cynical and to a point I respect that, but to me it increasingly sounded that he just didn't like anything because he was personally in a bad place. But this is what almost always happens to people across all industries that stay in the same position for too long. When was the last time Jeff took a vacation, and I mean more than one week? And then he has to raise 2 kids in a pandemic? It sounds like Jeff is in a far better place now that he gets to work on things that he is excited again. So it sounds to me this thing has worked out for both parties.

Extremely low effort rage bait initial post aside, Jeff is happy, the crew on GB is happy, NXL is happy, everyone is happy. Why parts of the community feel it is necessary to armchair litigate everything over and over again is beyond me. Theres more GB and related content than in the entire existence of the site. Enjoy it. Or you know, just parts of it. Or none of it. The drama is not fun.

I dislike the weed talk as well. I don't have a problem with weed and think it should have been legalized decades ago, but I still get uncomfortable when people talk about it so openly. I still get the feeling weed is "bad" and people are "bad" for doing it, even if I know and believe that's not true. The anti drug propaganda we were fed growing up is hard to shake.

Has anyone checked to see if anyone in RV management use to work on Kane & Lynch?

Wasn't this obvious?

Few things. first,this is the least surprising news. I think in his very first podcast he says that setting up his patreon and all that was very sudden and unplanned. It doesn't matter either way, though, because this is now the universe we are in.

secondly, the weed talk, which seems to the the actual topic of this thread by mentions. I fully endorse the legalization of weed on a federal level and do not judge others for using it, but yeah, I get a little annoyed by people thatwont stop talking about it. I live in Portland, and I am literally the only person I know, including my parents, that doesn't smoke weed. And I used to but it gives me panic attacks nowadays with such repeatable regularity that I just have decided to stay away from it. It can be annoying when people talk at length about just one thing, not because it's bad or wrong, but just because it gets old. Hearing someone else talk about being high is not really an interesting story.

Hey folks they don't talk about weed that much. Come on now.

hearing people over the age of 30 talk about how much they love weed is the saddest, most pathetic thing.

Considering his first show was really thrown together and on the fly, I figured something unexpected happened. Seems like the relationship was past fixing at that point, anyway.

Hey, everyone's moved on. Jeff says he'll be angry about it for a long time, but it's in the past at this point and everyone's in a better place. He's gonna be the only one that'll elaborate on it when he wants to, but there isn't much of a reason to revisit it.

All I got from this is the GB folks certainly won't elaborate on the situation, since it's Jeff's personal business and his story to tell.

@monkeyking1969 said:

This is the single most important thing. Also honestly kind of rare and amazing to see a company reorganization that all parties seemed to walk away better than before (including the Nextlander folk!).

From what I understood Jeff was let go before he put in his “two weeks” which is a bit different, but the end result would have been the same either way. Who knows what the terms were but he might have benefited a bit more from being fired than if he had actually just quit. That said it sure is something that the guy who started this site because a bunch of suits decided to sack him from his previous job has now after a decade and change gotten once again sacked by a bunch of suits from his “own” site no less (Obviously Jeff hasn’t owned Giant Bomb for a long time now).

The only surprising thing for me here is that no one from the remaining cast was willing to stand up and say anything about it. Especially after that letter announcing a new era of transparency and how much Giant Bomb has over the years criticized shitty corporate behavior in the games industry, to then see a guy like Jeff get fired by a bunch of idiot suits from his own site and to have no one stand up and criticize it seems like a bad look. I can only hope that Jeff actually asked everyone not to mention it and just wanted a quiet exit.

Well with almost no context in your OP why not wildly speculate?

It's a shame for RV to catch wind that Jeff wanted to leave and fire him, real shitty but typical corporate move.

I think it's pretty apparent that as time goes on the grind of games coverage sucks. Fans suck, companies suck, and even when you do everything right someone from another publication with a pip-boy on their wrist implies you're elitist.

Jeff wants that pure coverage feel and I'm glad he's doing it and doing it well. Corporations, as always, fucking blow.

Honestly I can't believe this thread is disrespecting Weed3 like this.

@efesell: sorry but every member of staff gushing about weed and blunts and weed for 100 percent of the time they are on screen on this website is ruining my parasocial relationship with roma, jorf and don

Openly talking about doing drugs while not only at work, but while on camera where it is documented for everyone to see, is still crazy to me. I remember taking drug tests before being hired at multiple jobs, so I couldn't imagine being so open about it. This is another reason why the weed talk makes me a bit uncomfortable, but I am not telling anyone what they should do or talk about. I know plenty of people get fed up with the wrestling talk, so it makes sense people would get fed up other topics as well.

Whenever I see people talk about how much of a "weeder" they are, I always imagine the exact same statements but just replacing weed with, like, tobacco products.

"You guys have some cigarettes today? Helll Yeah bro! I had some chewing tobacco and let me tell you, wooo, I feel like a million bucks! My anxiety was gone!"

Most of you drink coffee

@williamhenry: It's kind of on the level of 30/40-somethings who loudely proclaim when and how they got drunk last night or whatever. Just feels immature and unprofessional whenever it happens.

Damn y'all need SOMETHING to help unwind.

@theonewhoplays:

exactly. gushing about weed is something I'd expect from a high-school student. Not a professional adult.

i dunno, this seems thoroughly uncontroversial to me. i've been coming to this site for over a decade, so i love the guy. but he defo was the most expensive employee, and simultaneously seemed the most checked-out/on autopilot near the end of his tenure. that kind of person can only survive so many changes in corporate ownership- whether by the company's hand or their own.

again, i think the change has been good for all parties, so unless you have a static view of what giant bomb is supposed to be- i'm kinda at a shoulder shrug and a whistle.

@lyndbako: how do you stand watching any content with these professional adults that you see as so pathetic and childish? it must be tough

i mean given the statement about his 'departure' and how quick it just happened i always assumed it was the case, the guys had a week of goodbye n he had zilch was a bit suspect honestly. what i listened to of that part of his show sounded like while he was planning to leave someone let it slip which is kinda shitty if it was on purpose cause he could have at least passed the torch if he wanted otherwise. that said alot of companies will just fire you if they know you plan to leave , i spoke up in a meeting at a job once n was shitcanned the next day when all they would've had to do to keep me was give me benefits ( i honestly liked that job but was tired of seeing everyone else have vacations n raises while i was a inhouse temp n full-timers left n they weren't hiring ppl like me). it sucks but it is what it is sometimes n thats business. i will say i think the site as a whole has been better since hes been gone . i'm sure it would've been better with him plus dan n grubb but at the end of the day he seems happy n the site has been having more games stuff again so i'm happy . it really is a shame tho.

I agree with much of this. I love much of what Jeff does but he was struggling to keep up any energy beyond the first 30 seconds of a podcast. He wasn't a part of any of the new shows at all, just Bombcast and Dump Truck for the entirety of the revamp after the Nextlander crew left and even with that he wasn't able to bring much energy. Always talking about being tired, dealing with baby sleep schedules and working from home stuff. It's actually been a growing problem since around the time he had his first child. All Systems Goku is the last hurrah of younger Jeff. Listen to that now and it's almost a night and day difference between how he is now. Full of energy, jokes and insight. I'm glad he seems to be doing better now that he's solo, though. Best wishes to him.

This is not shocking. The guy implied this on several occasions if you read between the lines after he left. If you noticed, before he left GB, Jeff was doing and saying things even more reckless than usual like he didn't care anymore. His energy was very low and many people pointed this out. He was also way more cynical than usual.

Compare that to how he is now with his own show on Twitch and it becomes even more obvious. Jeff also was never a corporate head, so I know deep down he never liked the RVs deal, but stuck it out because of his growing family and him moving into a bigger house because of that situation. Looks like he was planning to leave as soon as that situation was settled, but RV beat him to it because someone snitched, possibly.

They used to have a literal bar in their office and a beer fridge on set in one of their more recent studios. This weird discussion of "omg they talked about weed on stream" when they used to frequently drink and talk about drinking on stream is certainly bizarre.

They used to talk about all of the weird drinks people would send them. Talking about the various edibles they're trying now is no different other than being a different medium.

This. I probably watch/listen to 95% of the stuff they put out and feel like weed really doesn't come up that often, especially not in a "Oh my god bro I got soooooo high the other day let me tell you about it" way some posts here are suggesting.

It's fucking hysterical that this is the direction this whole thread has gone.

For the record I apologize if the weed talk ever comes across as sophomoric or edgy; I joke about it a bunch but THC has honestly had a super positive impact on my life in the last five years since I started exploring it as a sleep aid. I slept like 6 hours a night for most of my life and tried every sleep aid on the market but my THC gummies and vapes have added a couple of hours of sleep to my life every night and I highly recommend you explore it if it's legal where you live and have similar issues!

I am not a spam bot.

@rorie: I refuse to believe you earn 650$$ aday selling THCCannaboidInfusion from www.boobpurse.thc

All im getting from this thread is some people really need to chill out and relax. You guys ever think about smoking some weed?

It's hard to imagine some of you have ever even met a person who used marijuana, let alone know people that do regularly. Some of the descriptions of weed people sound like something from a 2000s movie. Everyone I know that ever talk about weed are friends and family and it's only ever stuff like "it's crazy, my anxiety is so much better" or "I'm actually sleeping!"

I did not expect this thread to take this turn but I am here for it.

All I know is that Jeff would have been all in on Friday night forking which is clearly about abstinence and very anti-weed (the narrative continuity has not said otherwise) so I guess him getting fired for attacking big pharma (aka wEEedCorp) so clearly etc

Rorie is such a poser doesn't even have the yellow circle around his profile pic.

Spiritual sequel. Same energy.

https://www.nme.com/news/music/tom-morello-twitter-respond-to-people-only-just-realising-rage-against-the-machine-are-political-2685353

I'm a total square when it comes to recreational substances. I don't even drink coffee, much less drugs and alcohol. Personally, I don't feel the need to alter or enhance my mood that way. But I have no issue with other people partaking. As long as they are being safe and responsible, go for it.

@sethmode:

Every person I have ever met who has gotten super into marijuana has become absolutely insufferable about it ranging from trying to push it on everyone they know as some kind of miracle drug, to their use and appreciation of it becoming a replacement for having a personality.

I'm sure it has helped people, and that's fine. I'm literally invested in cannabis stocks in the stock market (my worst performers). The sooner its legalized the better. But Weed enthusiasts are equally as obnoxious as Vape enthusiasts.

@splodge:

I'm sure Jeff would have said '*** yeah, weed!" as well. But it doesn't make it any less annoying to people who just aren't into it.

@theodoricfriede: *shrug* I'm not saying those people don't exist, I'm just saying I've never met anyone like that outside of a small window of time when I was in college in the early 2000's. And especially not as a late 30's adult whose friends and family are using it for anything from insomnia to arthritis. I guess to me it just seems crazy that anyone in real life would talk like that...it feels much more like an online thing. But hey, like all personal experiences, it's anecdotal. I guess more than anything I feel bad for those of you with such insufferable people in your lives, because it seems like taking your fucking medicine is a really weird thing to brag about.