Additionally, this continual movement towards freelancer work is great for expanding the type of content that GB creates (for good or bad) but remember that the real reason Red Ventures is doing this is because they can pay freelancers far less money and not have to concern themselves with things like insurance or benefits, and that's just gross.
This was a heartbreaking direction that I saw happen a lot, especially with GameSpot.
A few years ago, GameSpot laid off most of their long-term production staff and editors. GameSpot used to have a variety of different live stream shows, such as FPS Fridays (where they tried out new shooters), Big in Asia (hosted by GameSpot Asia that showed off popular games in that region), House of Horrors (hosted by GameSpot AU who played horror games), GameSpot AU also had a stream debuting new indie games, and GameSpot UK had a stream where they tried out Skyrim mods.
Even when they were trying new ideas, they still kept their core talent so the audience would still follow them.
All of those shows got canned, and most of the people who worked on them were let go.
Ever since then, a lot of the new GameSpot editors keep joining and leaving the site after 6-18 months. In associate positions. I stopped watching GameSpot content because it's been a revolving door of personalities joining and leaving. It felt soulless.
I'm guessing that the higher ups didn't want to pay more to keep the senior staff around, and it's cheaper to grab eager, fresh-faced video game editors from the massive pool of new people who want to work with video games, than it is to promote and keep the people who are still around.
The concept of paying new people less money aside, the reason why a lot of people follow Giant Bomb over the myriad of other video game websites are the personalities attached to the site. Having a rotating door or new people coming and going isn't what I came to Giant Bomb for. Sure, I can follow them outside of Giant Bomb if I like their work, but I don't have as much time or energy to dedicate to that like I used to. I came to Giant Bomb because I know regardless of the content, I will still enjoy the company of the GB staff. It takes the effort out of trying to find and stick with personalities I like.
@yalbit: GB has also hosted podcasts and shows about:
Formula 1 Racing
Professional Wrestling
Dragon Ball Z
Life/Relationship Advice
North Korean Tourism
Among other things. I'm sure there will still be plenty of video game content.
All of those shows were done by Giant Bomb staff. One of the major reasons why a lot of the GB audience came from the early GameSpot days, to Whiskey Media, to CBSi, and to RedVentures, was to follow the personalities that went through all of those companies.
Hell, the Bombcast started out with energy drink reviews, and over the years, widely varied to non-video game topics. But it maintained a core audience because people enjoyed the GB personalities that were creating that content.
This new show doesn't involve those 2 things: Giant Bomb staff, or video games. It tries to follow the essence of "hey, GB folks will probably get a kick out of this non-video game thing" without realizing that also having GB personalities in them was the major draw.
GrubbSnax landed well because a lot of GB audience enjoys digging down into the nitty-gritty of video game development and stories that come from that.
The two shows involving Danny O'Dwyer heavily feature video games, and approach them in unique viewpoints. Danny is also heavily involved in those shows.
I'm keeping an open mind about this new direction, and I'm willing to sincerely give this show a try. But this just reminds me of when GameSpot started branching into "entertainment" coverage, and when CNET started doing non-tech coverage, because the revenue from the core content wasn't satisfying the executives.
Glad to see this gets the lambasting it deserves. Blizzard makes mediocre games now. For whatever reason, they just don't hold themselves to the quality and polish that they used to.
Blizzard isn't the only company doing this but sure is the only one getting vilified for it.
That's false.
Bethesda has been recently vilified for Fallout 76. BioWare has been vilified for Mass Effect: Andromeda. Ubisoft has been vilified for Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. Yes people were disappointed in Wildlands, but a lot of people enjoyed it, including Jeff. Most of those people ended up hating Breakpoint.
Kojima Productions got a lot of flak from fans due to Death Stranding. And Valve got some backlash for Artifact.
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