That video was weird

Let me get this straight.

They had time to plan, edit, write, film and produce an entire short scripted comedy video about the future of Giant Bomb but for some reason Jeff's leaves the site with zero fanfare or goodbye? Doesn't make sense.

Oh...its you that made this thread.

Yeah. That whole thing was pretty gross.

"We are ashamed of our words and deeds."

Seems pretty spot on.

I want to be excited, because Dan is great and I genuinely loved everything about that video...

But yes, the exit of Jeff still feels weird and swept under the rug. But, at this point, maybe that was Jeff's choice. Hopefully we'll get some clarity from him later today, but maybe not.

To be clear I'm not mad/angry/whatever at anyone on the site and I guess it's cool that Dan is back. It's just weird.

I absolutely loved that video, and excellent work by Jess and Jan and the whole gang. Dan coming back, full time content from tam and lucy and jeff grub, I think its fantastic.

I was about to be super bummed, and then Dan is coming back and i nearly jumped for joy

But yea, its really weird Jeff’s just gone and we get a robotic PR statement, hopefully we get some level of more clarity

The video is excellent and I'm not surprised in the slightest that Jeff left without any fanfare. That always seemed like his style.

It was a fun video. This is a website called Giantbomb. Maybe everything doesn't have to be super buttoned up and professional. Have a glass of water and relax.

I guess let's just see after everyone gets their time to speak on all this? Does Jeff even want that kind of announcement and or fanfare for his departure? He certainly does not seem like the kind of person who wants his departure to be a big deal.

That was the most Giant Bomb type video since there was studio content. It felt fun, had good production values, and brought a lot of energy. I'm excited to see where the site goes with the new staff members. Dan Rykert's return makes me optimistic about the future of the site. That single announcement gives me hope that Giant Bomb will be successful in this new era for the site.

Jeff G said he will be going live in a couple hours on Twitch. We may here more there about why and how he left.

Like they have the Bombcast tonight, I would not be surprised if they just wanted to let everyone know some good news before they get into it in more detail today.

The video was fun and well made and the news of the new crew and a return to games is exciting if ya ask me.

I think in terms of content that was great (although please don't give everything a horror vibe will get old quick) but the timing is just flat out odd and rushed out when it clearly was developed with time and intent so planned. I don't know what the right way round to do this was. I'm 100% sure GB got this out before Jeff's stream to control the narrative so to speak.

Listen, buddy. I have an account on a video game forum, and I have VERY important things to say about something that is a complete mystery to me. SOMETHING just occurred, and I just want to let you all know that it is an INJUSTICE. WHO will speak for a guy with a ridiculous number of twitter followers if WE don't post about it!? WHO will get to the bottom of a situation that is none of our business if WE don't ask the IMPORTANT questions about it!? WHO will hold THEM accountable for what is HAPPENING if WE don't investigate? STRANGE THINGS are afoot. I just want to know WHY JonTron left the GameGrumps!!!

Loved the video. Love the line up. Let's go guys.

Ps I love Jeff too but I'm not going to assume bad things.

Damn right it was weird, it was weird and that's what made it awesome. That's proper Giant Bomb right there.

I'm pretty glad they had something fun prepared. If Jeff just left on the podcast like Vinny/Alex/Brad did with nothing else to announce, that would've been pretty depressing! I don't think I would be spending too much more time here if that's all today was going to be.

In case people don't know, the "ashamed of our words and deeds" is from a famous and widely mocked Hideo Kojima quote. He was responding to criticism of Quiet's character design from MGSV and trying to imply she had a deep backstory that justified wearing only a bikini.

Jeff's sudden departure is certainly surprising, but there's literally zero reason to assume foul play -- especially with the other personalities involved. It's normal to wonder and speculate, but g'damn, one can at least wait a *little bit* before making a bunch of bad faith assumptions, right?

Taken on its face, I think it was a great video that shows the current staff is ready to have some fun and keep the project going. Obviously we'll miss Jeff, but he's leaving us with a strong-ass lineup. Jan, Jess, Bakalar, Tamoor, Lucy, Grubb, Jason, Rorie, and friggin' Dan Ryckert?! Dang! Frankly I'm *extremely* excited to see what they do!

I liked the video, and am also sad that we didn't get a farewell for Gerstmann.

Don't read into every single word and action. You can be sad that Gertsmann is leaving and excited/curious to see what's next.

Weird that people have all of a sudden forgotten about the way Jeff was treated in that crappy pr piece.

The piece where the writer waxed poetic about Gerstmann and the past crew's role in influencing the course of video games coverage forever?

Currently baffled anyone can think Jeff G not only didn't sign off on this video, the post yesterday, and/or these changes, but that this didn't go the way he wanted.

This has to be at least a month if not months of planning to figure out three people restructuring their jobs in the company (Tamoor, Lucy, Jeff B), two new hires, and the boss of a company leaving. For all that to coincide is ridiculous

If I'm wrong, we'll figure out in an hour with the final Jeff Jar Time. But Occam's Razer hasn't lost its edge yet.

I wish people would stop speaking for Jeff, it's getting really creepy. Did it ever occur to you that he signed off on with how his departure was handled and especially this super dumb video? When mods say "Don't speculate wildly" I really don't think they mean "I wonder if Jeff will go into dev or streaming or go to Nextlander" I think they TRULY mean shit like "Jeff is mad and that's why he's leaving you can tell from this message!!!!"

Welp, that's that. It's been a hell of a run, Jeffy G.

I'll withhold my overall judgement on what is happening until I got some clear answers. We are supposed to get these answers soon, both from "The Giant Bomb Staff" and Jeff, himself, during a Twitch stream. After I hear both sides, I'll give my overall two cents.

I feel like "withholding judgment" runs completely counter to how a lot of people engage with news and the internet right now. "I think a dramatic thing happened" immediately becomes "a dramatic thing happened, and I MUST speak the truth about it!"

@devoureroftime: this. At this point I’m thinking this was more a retirement then anything dramatic. I’m writing this before Jeff’s stream, but really, this isn’t something he wouldn’t have been aware of and likely helped facilitate, especially with someone like Dan coming back and Grubb becoming a permanent hire.

Parasocial relationships are wild.

Just wait for the MinnMax episode to get vague insights into this vagueness.

i dunno, i found the video kinda rad. best of luck to everyone, i'll be checkin in on them all!

Everyone who has left the site before has gone on record that fan speculation is terrible and made things worse. I'm more inclined to side with them on this than my own desire to find out what's going on.

@alistercat: @budgietheii: I can't help but agree entirely with both of y'all.

Ditto...I've said it in a couple of threads now, but parasocial relationships are bad, and this is like some of the weirdest over-stepping and it always fucking happens under this supposed guise of "constructive criticism" when in reality it's all just variations of dealing with the grief the person is feeling about a big change.

In one of the other threads there is a diatribe about how RV took a father of two and threw him into the streets and the remaining people on the site are responsible and disgusting. Like, seriously...here's some true constructive criticism for a lot of fans people posting right now: get a fucking grip.

@sethmode: Yup. As someone who has been on both side of that relationship it can get real weird. I wouldn't say it's necessarily bad, there can be a whole lot of uplifting from either following someone on the internet, or having fans of your personality. But at the end of the day, when it becomes obsessive and people forget that the person does not know you, the fan, is when it kind of goes into the frankly creepy territory.

They have a whole bombcast today. Probably just putting out the announcement so it's not news dropping in the middle of the bombcast.

Jeff IS Giantbomb. They way he was removed from the site - no goodbye, no last podcast, no appreciation video - is just bad form and reflects poorly on everyone involved. I'm just very disappointed in the way it was handled.

As far as I'm concerned this site should change the name. It was not really GB since Nextlander crew left, but now it seems Giantbomb brand just means nothing.

Your opinion on GB after Jeff G. is yours and thus has value, but this part is just nonsense especially because all of the people involved already weighed in. It's entirely safe to assume that Jeff just wanted it this way. At the very least, it's just as easy to assume that as it is to paint some weird mind picture of Jeff being tossed out on his ass with zero love and just complete disdain, but I guess no matter how hard people try people are just always going to push the nonexistent relationship that they have with Jeff too far.

@sethmode: I think part of the problem is we've seen this before. We had our run of rampant speculation about corporate meddling being involved in a Jeff departure over a decade ago, and you know what?

It was all fucking correct.

So I think a lot of people are seeing mirrors to that here and taking it as they will. It's hard not to feel kind of cynical and deja-vu-y about it.

More than likely the Departure was abrupt and unexpected for everyone involved. Haven't been a regular viewer in a while but as far as I know Jeff was still everyone's boss so they have nothing to do with any of this so it's between him and corporate. Whether he left on his own or not, don't blame the rest of the crew.

Kinda crazy, Dans back and Jeffs gone. I think the programming will be fine though, as Dan is a great Idea man and full of entertaining stuff.

@vaiz: I don't think that is a fair comparison for a lot of reasons, but the biggest is that times are just completely different. Maybe Jeff WAS super unhappy at RV, maybe he wasn't, maybe he was but he had a good package to stay as long as he did, maybe he wanted to be unceremonious about this BECAUSE he started it and he didn't want to deal more with the sadness of leaving than he already has to? The fact of the matter is, this reaction was going to happen NO MATTER WHAT and that's what irritates me because people will just choose whatever narrative they want to justify their weird parasocial conspiracies when the stranger involved did not solicit them, ask for people to "defend him", give people any reason to attack GB as it stands, hell, he didn't even give people a reason to be mad at RV.

It's why people just need to get a grip and move on with their actual lives rather than spend all this time endeavoring in conspiracy theories or, just as bad if not worse, weird amounts of supposedly righteous outrage...on Jeff's behalf I guess?

If you aren't happy with what they wrote about Jeff, write a blog of your own with what you wish it said. Put it on the site. Put it on your site. Send it to Jeff. Send it to the current staff. Any of those things are more productive than just sitting here pretend we *know* Jeff or speculating that there is some bad blood or a force out or something when so far there is no indication or statement or even MURMURING (to make it different than the K&L thing) that that was the case. Maybe that will change, maybe it won't. Conspiracy theories and outrage or misplaced grief or whatever is going on with a lot of these REALLY reactive posts aren't going to have any impact on anything other than annoying all of the people involved Jeff included (this kind of behavior being something HE HIMSELF SAID HE HATES multiple times).

@vaiz: Being right once over a decade ago and then being wrong dozens upon dozens of times is not a good track record, though.

@retris: @sethmode: I agree, with both of you. While I'm still kind of skeeved by the farewell post feeling super icky and corporate, Dan is as good a new captain as we could possibly get. I don't agree with the rampant speculations at this point, I just kind of understand why some people are going there. They shouldn't, and any one of a million things could have happened. But it's the internet so everyone is having their die hard 2 moment of 'what are the odds the same shit happens to the same guy twice', I guess.

Even casual viewers could have seen this coming since at least a year ago, then again maybe the hardcore fans had their blinders on. Jeff himself has more or less been hinting at it multiple times, maybe he didn't know the details but he knew it was happening at some point. Everyone acting like this is the home-office version of being escorted out of the office by guards is just looking for drama where there is none, and I think the biggest proof of that is that not a single crew member has walked out with him.

While I can never be accused of much optimism in regards to New Bomb I have to say that this notion of Giant Bomb IS Jeff and can't be without him is super weird.

I loved it, but it's understandable to think today was a weird day. I feel a little guilty about pushing back against the doomers in chat, even. Everyone's feelings on this are valid, voices important, etc. I think the future is brighter for everyone, but change is always complicated.

@peterab: it’s hard to believe he had it all planned, considering that he said during today‘s stream that he had set up the email for the questions late last night ( past midnight, he said) and that he actually created his YouTube channel during the twitch stream. Doesn’t look very pre-planned to me, but who knows.