Vinny, Brad, and Alex have started a new Podcast and streaming project called Nextlander

This is great news. Totally stoked to be a part of their new platform!

@frytup: but from a labor standpoint, more control and less pressure for constant growth is good for Vinny, Brad and Alex. And without those, it is likely that they would have left the industry entirely. I was fully ready to accept that Vinny and Alex were moving to new, not front facing jobs.

This seems very early Giant Bomb-ish. A couple guys not interested in remaining part of a corporate structure who want to do their own thing, take all the risk and hopefully build an audience.

I'm willing to see what they have to offer.

Excited to listen to the podcasts, but there are just too many patreons out there, so the podcast and whatever else they put up for freeloaders on youtube/twitch will probably be the extent of what I'll keep up with.

I didn't really need another subscription thingie. I have to think about this. $5 tier gives basically nothing and $10 tier is too steep.

That's great! Looking forward to seeing what they can do.

I signed up to give them 5 bucks a month as soon as I heard the news, so I'm already committed.

It does leave me rather curious about what plans everyone has in store for Giant Bomb. Is something drastic on the horizon? And I wonder that because it seems odd to leave GB, if it does indeed remain largely the same, to go and do exactly what GB does elsewhere.

@bigsocrates: yeah, just got up to that part of the zero podcast. In a weird way it makes me happy to know it wasn't what they were doing that bothered them but how they were forced to do it.

@ultimaxe: but this route allows them to be their own bosses and set their own goals.

@plan6: Would they have? Tough to change careers in your 40s.

As I said, I think it's great that people have options for independence these days. But ultimately what matters to me as a person who is very much in their potential customer pool is what do I have time for? And how much money do I really want to spend on video game coverage? Unfortunately, the answer is probably not enough time and not this much money.

@frytup: Patreon is almost never a "good deal" in terms of content provided for most people. It's a way for hardcore fans to support the things they really care about by paying more. For most Bombcast listeners it won't be worth it, and even for most GB subscribers it may not, but assuming that they need to make about $25,000 a month for it to be sustainable (ballpark figure based on them having to spend some of that on overhead and Patreon's cut, but making some back via podcast ads and Twitch) that's fewer than 5,000 fans who want to shell out $5 a month or more for them. That doesn't seem unrealistic.

Everyone else can listen to the podcasts with ads, check out Twitch streams, use their Twitch Prime subscription if they don't use it for something else (that's a very easy way to support if you have Amazon Prime but don't use Twitch) or buy some merch when they have it.

This is not a Patreon only project. The vast majority of the stuff looks like it will be free.

@crashman06: When they left CBS there was a Hotspot where they all talked about how difficult it was for Giant Bomb to fit in there, and how the ad selling group didn't understand podcasts or their market, and how frustrating it all was. So this is not coming from nowhere. Heck, Jeff was more animated about that stuff than anyone!

Any person who has ever had to sit through a bunch of meetings that have nothing to do with their work, or present their work to someone who doesn't understand it but has to pretend they do, completely understands where they're coming from here.

Is it possible there was some big drama we don't know about? Of course. But I'm choosing to take what they say at face value. And it doesn't really matter anyway. Unless someone did something objectively horrible that nobody's talking about it doesn't matter whether there was a big fight or not.

@frytup eh, I’m 40 and not really seeing that at all.

Plus, Alex has done it twice, returning to games coverage after Harmonics. Brad could move over to tech coverage for any number of sites or do something else, given that he is a skilled writer. And Vinny could just be a video producer for any number of places, given his skill set.

Alex opens the first pod by saying he strongly considered not being in a public facing job. Given how shitty games fandom is, I was fully prepared for the guys to leave the industry all together due to burn out.

Very surprised, but happily so. Didn't see this coming.

We don't know if that's the case from where we are.

@bigsocrates: My big takeaway from listening to Vinny talk about leaving Giant Bomb in those final two podcasts is that CBSi built up a debt of neglect towards Giant Bomb as a property. Jeff clearly has ideas on some significant changes for this site, and the Nextlander guys wanted to do something else (this, it turns out). I chose to believe Vinny at the time he said being acquired by Red Ventures was a positive step for GB, and I still do after listening to this episode 0.

I’m happy that this trio is able to do the stuff they want outside direct corporate control. I hope they get the number of subs they need to keep making stuff as long as they want to, because I selfishly want to keep watching it. I also hope the quality of these streaming platforms doesn’t deteriorate more over time, because to me it already feels like it’s become a worse product over the last year. Makes me even more curious to see what Nu Bomb is going to look like.

Well that podcast intro song is pretty slick.

I'm excited for this.

We really just need to listen to Brad saying it's the first time he's able to promote the Techpod on another podcast to understand why they decided to make the move to Patreon. I don't think there's much more to say here.

Still a shame not to have Jeff pitch in. Feels like 1 missing

I'm not sure if the part about another $5 a month to Twitch to avoid ads is correct. I think channels are free to say if they want to have ads on or not. I watch a good amount of Twitch, I don't have any money subscriptions and the only channels I ever see ads on usually esport focused and those ads are baked into the stream anyway.

This is so exciting. Instantly subscribed to the Patreon. What a beautiful world where we can watch and listen to all our favorite Giant Bomb folks, both current and former, on the intewebs.

I dunno, this doesn't allow me to wildly speculate and fantasy-book the territories, something I've been repeatedly assured is healthy and helpful!

@frytup: Listen to their episode zero podcast. They provide a little hint of what is to come. They are using those sites right now but may not in the future. It sounds like they are treating the current phrase as the beginning of a larger project over time. They will be teaming up with Waypoint to cover E3. They aren’t leaving games media, from the sounds of it.

I hope this let's them do more full let's plays, because that's what I kept on wishing from Vinny and Alex. I want to see them play through those goofy British FMV games.

Not gonna lie, it's going to be a hard decision to choose between Giant Bomb or Nextlander/Waypoint talking over E3 press conferences live.

I was thinking this exact same thing.

@svengoolie: There are ENTIRE REAMS of TV and movies you could be watching that will stimulate that need for drama, you don't need to write it into real-life.

Starting your own business venture is a TON of work, but the upside is you don't have to answer to anyone. So when you call in and say "My kid's got the flu, I can't come in today," the answer you get is, "Oh shit, I hope your kid feels better!" and not "You know, second quarter projections are down, I don't think we can afford the time off."

@curseofthewise:I mean I get that, but do you really think that's how things are at Giant Bomb? I think things are pretty relaxed over there. They still haven't even gone back into the office, right? From what they've been saying too, Red Ventures is better than CBS.

@bigsocrates: 5000 subs is a lot. And if their product isn't appealing to GB subscribers, it seems like a bit of a problem since that's the vast majority of their potential customers. Obviously they're not stupid and I would hope they've done the math on this. Maybe their podcast and Twitch ad revenue will bring in more than I'm aware.

Who knows what's going to happen with GB. Maybe in six months this place will be dead and the ex-GB staffers' various projects will be the more appealing product. But as of now it's split into three different Twitch channels and three different crowd funded projects plus the regular GB sub. Even if I had the time, from an entertainment spending perspective it's a big "nope".

@crashman06: I agree with this sentiment completely. As someone working for a company that has swelled in size around me and left me feeling like a tiny insignificant speck with no control over my working life - I'd love nothing more than to do something for myself. Not saying it was like that for them, exactly, but I can definately understand the desire to build something small but yours.

I'm really happy to hear that Vinny, Alex and Brad will be around doing their own thing, and look forward to seeing what it becomes.

Well dang, wasn't honestly expecting to hear about their potential new plans for another few months at least and definitely wasn't expecting this. I'm not complaining though, I'm definitely going to consume their content, even if it is a little shame(?) that they're doing the same stuff now but elsewhere, without all the remaining Js. I also already got a handful of Patreons I'm backing, so not sure if I really want to slap another one there just yet at least...

@frytup: They are currently at ~4,000 after about 2 hours so it looks pretty good that they will hit that. I don't know how much everyone is paying (some may be pitching in less than 5, some may be paying more) but still. I'd be stoked if I were them.

I didn't say it wouldn't appeal to GB subscribers, I said it might not appeal to most GB subscribers. Vinny made it pretty clear on the podcast that they thought they could be sustainable while making significantly less money than GB pulls in. We don't know GB subscription numbers but it sounds like they only need a fraction of the audience.

You absolutely don't have to spend money on this, of course. You also don't have to listen/watch for free if you don't want. But my point is that they seem to have goals they are realistic about hitting.

And the majority of their content is going to be free, so people who are saying "I just don't want to spend more money on video game coverage so this isn't for me" aren't really talking about what this project is. Like if you don't have time for another podcast because you already filled the Beastcast hole, or you're not a fan of theirs, fine. But even if you're flat broke you can still be excited about a podcast and potential Twitch streams from these guys if you're interested in that.

LOL I guess our baseless hypothesizing turned out to be true.

Honestly, I’m just happy to have a podcast with Vinny on it once a week. It was a sad time when he wasn’t telling me about the best podcast in the world. That is worth the $10 bucks a month.

@svengoolie: Can't agree with you here. Even Jeff is on record saying that there's a LOT of B.S. behind the scenes that they have to deal with, and that the costs imposed by the platform and site that they built isn't necessarily competitive anymore in an era of low-overhead streamers. Vinny, Alex, and Brad aren't going into business to start over and develop (points around) all of this.

3994 patrons in a couple of hours, not bad at all

Oh hell yes.

Holy shit their Patreon is popping off and it's only Monday afternoon two hours after they launched the thing.

edit: I refreshed 5 minutes later and now there's an additional 500 more Patrons. Holy moly.

Good news everyone!

It's fun to see that patron count shoot up like crazy. I knew these guys were popular here, but i still underestimated it i guess!

Take my $

@undeadpool: Uhhh okay....Vinny didn't want to drop the belt to Dan, so he teamed with Alex and Brad to form the NLO (NextLander Order). Now the three of them intend to run rough shot over the universe.

I'm not really interested in streams, unless it's a upf style shorter stream where they're checking out games and having a good time, but Twitch really isn't the place for vods so finding that would be a pain.
Could check out the podcast, hopefully it's not too long.

@cikame: Sounds like they plan to archive on YouTube as well.

The best corporation is still worse than being your own successful boss, working as hard or not as you'd like. I'm in my mid40s, and have never worked anywhere as long as those guys did at GB. Corporations like CBS, and even a smaller ones like RV are still a pile of people you've never met and red tape that drain the joy from any job, and business school dickheads who think they know better.

I'm glad they have freedom to do whatever they want now.

@ultimaxe: Oh yes, there's going to be drastic change for GB for sure. They got acquired by Red Ventures. They are taking pitches from creators on how they can contribute to do something on GB. Bakalar is basically the guy reaching out to these creators to figure out cool content ideas with them.

Jeff has said on stream that RV wants to be experimental with GB and do something different than what's out there right now. They are looking to solve some long-standing issues GB has with how their content is split across various platforms which makes it hard for them to get noticed on bigger platforms like youtube. Especially compared to outlets that are fully committed to a platform and have all the good stuff in the same place.

Yeah for sure. I guess the thing to emphasize is that the Bombcast and Beastcast have been at or near the top of the weekly popularity charts for games-related podcasts on Apple podcasts for years now (I'm not sure about elsewhere but I imagine it's similar on those services too). For all of the people who have watched GB videos or followed the site closely for years, there's also likely a huge chunk of people who only followed the podcasts and know these guys well solely from the podcasts so their audience is probably a lot bigger than any of us realize.

Nothing but happy to see these three still working together and wish them the best of luck with the venture.. Literally the only bummer is realizing that all the cool duders from GB going off and doing so many awesome things means the sea of content is exceptionally large to keep up with. But backlogs exist to be picked at, and I'm looking forward to keeping up with Nextlander as much as I can.

man, it would be cool if all these wonderful people were under one roof where all of their podcasts, videos, and other content could live on a nicely designed website for one yearly price for the premium bits of it. Oh well!

I may just sub to this, the $10 seems like the sweet spot but I'll have to manage all my subs from around the internet beforehand.

Signed up for Patreon to support this. Will continue my GB sub as well. I really like the current Gianbombcast crew and looking forward to what it may become.

Having now listened to their Patreon monthly planning podcast (which is really neat for people who have always wanted to hear behind the scenes stuff from these guys but otherwise maybe a bit dry compared to the free podcast, which is full of energy) Vinny mentions a couple times being kicked out of the studio for people to do stand ups, and it seems pretty clear that he was very frustrated during his time at CBS. I'm glad they're doing their own thing.

I was very much in the "We shouldn't be too upset that Vinny, Alex, and Brad are leaving because they'll pop up places from time to time and we'll be able to follow them" camp but I didn't expect it to be this straightforward.

If Giant Bomb really does switch to a contributor model we might even see them joining in on Giant Bomb stuff in the future, which would be rad.

I am at a point in my life right now where I'm really craving some soothing familiarity so I'm very excited for this project.

It sounds like their podcast will drop on Thursdays so it's going to be very Beastcasty. It'll almost be like Bakalar got traded for Brad between the Bombcast and the Beastcast.

Also considering how much Vinny and Abby have been streaming together I would be pretty surprised if Abby (and Austin) don't pop up on the Nextlandercast from time to time, which would be great.

I honestly didn't think I'd be this excited.

Vinny appeared on a Waypoint stream and one of Abby's streams last week and mentioned he would be starting streaming again the following week (i.e. this week). He was also weird about specifying people not to follow his Twitch account but to check Twitter for details on where he would be streaming - so I was expecting some announcement of creating some brand. I wasn't expecting both Alex and Brad to also be part of it though, so that's a nice surprise.

I just don't know what to think anymore. I will think of Jeff.