Latest news with #JeffGrubb
The Guardian
07-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
When video games journalism eats itself, we all lose out
Last week was a bad one for video games journalism. Two key contributors to the veteran site Giant Bomb, Jeff Grubb and Mike Minotti, have announced their departure after a recent podcast was taken down. The 888th episode of the Giant Bombcast reportedly featured a section lampooning new brand guidelines issued to staff and is no longer available online. Later this week, it was announced that major US site Polygon was being sold to Valnet, owner of the ScreenRant and GameRant brands, resulting in a swathe of job losses. This follows ReedPop's sale, in 2024, of four high-profile UK-based sites – Eurogamer, Rock Paper Shotgun and VG247 – to IGN Entertainment, owned by Ziff Davis, which also resulted in redundancies. It's sad how these long-standing sites, each with vast audiences and sturdy reputations, have been traded and chopped up like commodities. On selling Polygon, Vox CEO Jim Bankoff said in a statement: 'This transaction will enable us to focus our energies and investment resources in other priority areas of growth across our portfolio.' It felt gross, to be honest, to see this decade-old bastion of progressive video games writing being reduced to an asset ripe for off-loading. Of its purchase Valnet said: 'Polygon is poised to reach new editorial heights through focused investment and innovation.' Quite how it will do that with a significantly reduced staff is anyone's guess. This is, of course, the familiar robotic doublespeak of the corporate press release and industry observers have not held back in their anger and incredulity. Writing on Aftermath, journalist Nathan Grayson said: 'None of this was, strictly speaking, necessary, with Polygon an unqualified success in terms of traffic while Giant Bomb boasted a dedicated audience drawn to its unique mix of personalities. But of course, parasitic execs decided to suck the marrow from the bones of both, and now we're left wondering what comes next.' You do have to wonder if any of the CEOs involved in these sales have ever read a story or listened to a podcast in their lives that wasn't about maximising shareholder value. Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff at Code Conference in 2022. Photograph:for Vox Media Video game journalism has always walked a windswept tightrope between competing commercial interests. In the olden days of games magazines, much of the money came from adverts bought by the same companies whose products were being reviewed and often mauled by journalists. Several times during my career as a magazine editor I witnessed adverts pulled from publications I worked on following unfavourable reviews of the advertisers' products. To bow to those pressures would mean losing the faith of our readers, which was the most important asset we had. Publishers always came round in the end, but once you've lost the trust of your audience, you might has well call it quits. Later, those magazines transitioned into websites, where ad space remained a vital income. Nowadays it's much more complex, and the industry doesn't need dedicated gaming sites so much, thanks to the rise of influencers on platforms such as Twitch and YouTube. It seems the companies most interested in acquiring gaming sites see only brands, not the creative and experienced staff behind them; in March digital news site the Wrap ran an investigative feature in which Valnet was accused of turning acquired sites into content mills for 'mind-numbing SEO bait'. Valnet has since sued the publication. But the pay rates for journalism are stagnating, even falling, as the games themselves transform into live-service megaplexes inhabited by billions of paying customers. There is, it seems, a festering suspicion of human creativity in the modern tech corp landscape. Unquantifiable, expensive and resistant to spreadsheet analysis, it is an annoying barrier in the way of streamlined market penetration and exponential growth. Wouldn't it be so much easier if AI could write those long, in depth video game walkthroughs that get so many hits, but take so many weeks of work to produce? Wouldn't it make sense if news and analysis was generated and filed within seconds through some sort of automated content pipeline? There's just one problem. Writing a game walkthrough is a complex task, relying on skilled play, the ability to interpret and explain a moment of action and the foresight to know what players will be looking for. A review is a subjective human response to an experience; a podcast is a parasocial chat with pals. Vitally, good games journalism also holds the industry to account, investigating and highlighting issues that would otherwise be buried. The people who do this stuff and do it well have been playing, writing and questioning for years. They know what we think about when we think about games. I suppose this is the same argument playing out right now everywhere in the arts, from movies to music. The tech bros want portfolios of brands to swap between each other, expecting the wordless masses to follow behind, consuming whatever slop they're fed. But it's not endless dead-eyed content we're coming for, it's ideas and craft. What a relief it is that independent sites are springing up at a growing rate. We have the UK games news site VGC and, in the US, there's Aftermath – both have blossoming audiences. Fandoms can only be fooled for so long. I harbour high hopes that when it becomes clear understaffed machines of digital content can only spew out secondhand ideas, the pathetic ghost burps of dead fandom, authenticity will become the only game in town. What to play Scarily good … The Horror at Highrook. Photograph: Nullpointer Games Every month sees a dozen new indie video games using the mechanics of collectible card battlers such as Magic the Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh to interesting but increasingly familiar effect. But don't let that stop you trying The Horror at Highrook a heady occult mystery in which a group of explorers raid a haunted mansion in order to discover the truth about a missing aristocratic family. The game world is like a highly complex Cluedo board and mysteries are uncovered and solved by combining relevant item and skill cards, while upgrading the abilities of your party. Clearly inspired by the twin forces of Poe and Lovecraft it's a beautifully constructed challenge, filled with ideas and little arcane treats for fans of both cosmic and gothic horror. Available on: PC Estimated playtime: 10-plus hours What to read Lucia Caminos, co-protagonist of Grand Theft Auto VI. Photograph: Rockstar Games Cheating is as old as video games, but it is ruining the experience of many who like online multiplayer shooters. This feature looks at how Riot is taking on cheaters in A League of Legends and Valorant and it's a great primer on the Red Queen-esque battle between developers and hackers. Most great video games were, at some stage in their development, a fraction of a millimetre away from some disastrous design choice. The highlight of this long interview is how the former Sony president Shuhei Yoshida saved Gran Turismo by suggesting that the team make it actually playable by non-racing drivers. I love that video games, though products of modern technology, still inspire their own legends and folklore. A feature on the BBC site analyses a wonderful example, Ben Drowned – the tale of a haunted N64 cart, a creepypasta that infected games forums in 2010. If you're done with reading, Rockstar just released a new Grand Theft Auto VI trailer and speedboatload of screenshots and info about protagonists Jason and Lucia (above), days after announcing the game's delay until May 2026. Go have a look, it's wild. What to click skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Pushing Buttons Keza MacDonald's weekly look at the world of gaming Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion Question Block Virtually non-existent … games have struggled to break through on VR devices like the Meta Quest. Photograph: Meta Connect/AFP/Getty Images This week's question comes from Guy Bailey who messaged me on blue BlueSky with the following: 'I love sim racing in VR and my son is addicted to VRChat and the camaraderie of the various worlds. Half Life Alyx is incredible, and most people who try VR love it – so why hasn't it had its gaming mainstream breakthrough yet? Will it ever?' This question has haunted the VR industry since the arrival of the Oculus Quest in 2019, which was supposed to rejuvenate the whole concept of VR for the modern era. And while more than 20m Quest headsets have now been sold, alongside 5m PlayStation VR sets and many other contenders, we're not all spending vast swathes of time in virtual worlds. There are many, many reasons. Motion sickness is one: a percentage of people (and it is more common in women for reasons that no one can agree on) will feel nauseous after a few minutes of use. No one wants to feel sick, no matter how fun the software is. There's also the neurological and physiological disparity of being enclosed in a visual environment which does not align with what our bodies and our senses are expecting. We've all seen the funny videos of people getting carried away in a VR game and running straight into walls. VR also makes us feel vulnerable and silly. It is weird to be so cut off from external 'reality' and it is weird to wear a massive helmet in your living room. These elements are perhaps part of why Apple has been betting big on augmented rather than virtual reality, via is Vision pro headset, which is comparatively inconspicuous and keeps us in touch with our surroundings – but even that has failed so far – at least as a consumer platform. Mostly though, I don't think the content is compelling enough for a non-tech audience. It's a cliche, but there's no killer app. I have an unused PlayStation VR headset and my sons only occasionally play with their Meta Quest 3. The games they like can only be experienced in 20-minute bursts, and I don't think they grip the heart, soul and intellect the way a traditional screen-based immersive game can. For most of us, VR will need to find a way to give us touch, taste, smell and presence, or at least give us a compelling enough reason to leave the sensual world behind for hours on end. If you've got a question for Question Block – or anything else to say about the newsletter – email us on pushingbuttons@
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Fandom Blows Up Giant Bomb
Giant Bomb's future is uncertain following a showdown with parent company Fandom, which also owns GameSpot, over editorial interference. Creative director Dan Ryckert announced on a recent livestream that he would no longer be appearing on the Giant Bombcast and co-host Jeff Grubb confirmed on social media on Thursday that he's no longer with the company. Giant Bomb content is currently on hold while Fandom engages in a 'strategic reset and realignment of our media brands,' it confirmed to Kotaku. 'Well, that was a dream come true. Knew it wouldn't last, though,' Grubb, who joined Giant Bomb in 2022 after a reshuffle that saw the departure of longtime host and cofounder Jeff Gerstman, wrote on Bluesky. 'Out of a job at the moment. But I'll always be doing Game Mess,' he added, referring to a podcast he cohosts with Games Beat reviews editor and Giant Bomb contributor Mike Minotti. 'Needless to say I will no longer be contributing to Giant Bomb,' Minotti wrote in a separate post. 'Nothing but love to all the wonderful people from there and GameSpot. Jeff was a workhorse and a hero for the way he shouldered so much responsibility there, and I am furious with the way execs treated him.' The news follows an ominous 'pause' on Giant Bomb streams at the end of April and the takedown of an episode of the Giant Bombcast from YouTube this week after the hosts mocked apparent 'brand safety' concerns recently foisted upon them by management at Fandom. Then in a livestream on April 30, Ryckert, a member of Giant Bomb between 2014 and 2020 who returned in 2022, announced he would no longer be appearing on the show and had no interest in Fandom's vision for Giant Bomb's future. 'As you know, we've temporarily paused Giant Bomb live streaming and that content is currently available on demand for our audience,' a spokesperson for Fandom told Kotaku in an email. 'We understand this programming pause isn't ideal for our audience, but it's part of a strategic reset and realignment of our media brands. We have some creative ideas for the future of Giant Bomb that we're actively working on that we'll be able to communicate more about soon.' The wiki company, whose business model of monetizing free contributor pages with auto-play video ads and other intrusive website practices has led many communities to depart its network, purchased Giant Bomb and GameSpot in 2022. Less than a year later it instituted cuts to both sites. Fandom's ad business faced scrutiny following a 2024 analytics report that questioned the brand safety of some of the content the company was running ads against across its user-generated wiki pages. The rest of the latest incarnation of Giant Bomb currently includes senior producer Jan Ochoa, general manager Jeff Bakalar, and editors Tamoor Hussain and Lucy James. It's unclear how many will remain amid the current fallout or what the future of the website, which hosts a long-running forum and annual Game of the Year lists from personalities across the gaming industry, will be. . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Star Wars: Jedi Studio Doesn't Mention Layoffs In Announcement About Laying Developers Off
Between Apex Legends, the Star Wars: Jedi series, and other projects, Respawn Entertainment has a lot on its plate, so it's a little shocking to hear that EA is laying off even more members of the studio this year. It raises ongoing questions about what's going on inside the team that's seemingly working on everything butTitanfall 3. Respawn announced on Tuesday that it had recently stepped away from two unannounced incubation projects. The statement mentioned 'difficult changes,' 'targeted team adjustments,' and providing 'meaningful support to those impacted,' but didn't explicitly say there were layoffs or how many were affected. 'Wait idk what this means,' one person responded on X. To know what was actually going on, you'd have had to read a new report by IGN that was posted at the exact same moment. The fresh layoffs, which reportedly follow on the back of an earlier round in March, included 'a mix of developers, publishing, and QA workers on Apex Legends, as well as smaller groups of individuals on the Jedi team and on the incubation projects.' IGN reports that up to 100 employees could be fired as part of todays changes. At least one of the cancelled incubation projects was reportedly a multiplayer first-person shooter, though little is known beyond that. Rumors of a new Titanfall game spring eternal, but had been circulating with greater intensity than usual lately as dueling leakers argued over whether any Titanfall-related projects remained active within Respawn and how close to seeing the light of day they were. It certainly doesn't sound like there is anyone at the studio with the bandwidth to even be dreaming of a new entry in the sci-fi military mech franchise at this point. Giant Bomb's Jeff Grubb says a new project from Titanfall 2 game director Steve Fukuda was one of the things cancelled. EA CEO Andrew Wilson recently promised shareholders that Apex Legends, following a year of player burnout and downward trends, would get something of a '2.0" update in the future, suggesting a significant evolution of the battle royale is still in the pipeline. Respawn is also busy with the next Star Wars: Jedi game and is helping Bit Reactor with its recently revealed XCOM-style Star Wars game called Zero Company. IGN reports that some developers previously at the studio were also moved to help EA Motive with its Iron Man game. Respawn seems like the last place a publisher that prints money through FIFA and Madden loot boxes would look to cut, but the latest restructuring at Respawn comes after EA reported poorer-than-expected financial results last quarter due in part to Dragon Age: The Veilguard failing to meet the company's sales expectations. The publisher thus also recently scaled back BioWare, which is now solely focused on the next Mass Effect. . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Forbes
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remake' Images Leak Ahead Of Imminent Release
Oblivion It's unclear why Microsoft and Bethesda have decided to keep this a poorly kept secret ahead of its release, but a load of reputable sources are now reporting that they are about to drop the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion remake quite literally a week from now, the one beginning April 21. This has been said for a while by insiders like NatetheHate and VGC, and now the reliable Jeff Grubb has come out to say the same thing. It's next week. 'Other people have said but I've got separate confirmation that's going to be the case," Grubb said. We are also now seeing leaks about what the game will look like in Unreal Engine 5, as this is not simply a bit of polish and a remaster, this is a full remake for Virtuous, that developer's specialty. These images were unfortunately leaked by Virtuous itself in a now-private page on its own website. But of course it's too late now. It looks really good! This may be a pretty big deal of a launch this year, shadow drop or not. The Oblivion remake leaked back in 2023 when Microsoft documents were released as part of its court case for the purchase of Activision. Back then it was supposed to be in FY2022, but clearly that did not happen. Since then, it has not been officially announced, hence the coming 'shadow drop.' Then, a former Virtuous employee detailed coming changes that have been made to 'update' the game for modern audiences, ones we've now known since March of this year. This is when it was being reported the remake would be released 'by June,' and then VGC said next month. It is now next month, and yes, it's happening. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Here are the reworked gameplay systems based on what we've heard: I would probably question the decision to debut this with literally zero marketing, as I get that shadow drops are sometimes cool (Hi-Fi Rush!) but something this significant feels like it deserved more of a spotlight. Plus it's already leaked as being in development for the last few years, and this shadow drop idea leaked months ago. But hey, clear your calendars. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Bluesky Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sony 夏季 PS5 遊戲發表會恐縮水？外媒爆內部考慮改「State of Play」節目
Sony 在上週 State of Play 上，公開了《魔物獵人 荒野》、《鬼武者 Way of the Sword》、《失落之魂》等多款新作資訊。而近日外媒 Giant Bomb 記者 Jeff Grubb 爆料，提到 SIE（索尼互動娛樂）內部正在討論，考慮原定今年夏季舉辦的 PS5 大型發表會，是否要以更小型的「State of Play」形式舉辦。 根據 Jeff Grubb 指出，Sony 若選擇舉辦 State of Play，還是可以帶來像是《漫威金鋼狼》等預計在 2026 年登場的重點作品掀起玩家期待，但內部對是否保留完整的發表會還在討論中。而 State of Play 通常聚焦第三方合作遊戲與中小型作品，相較過往動輒公開 3A 大作的 Showcase 發表會，更偏向保守一點。 目前 Sony 旗下第一方遊戲，預計在今年推出的仍然有《羊蹄戰鬼》和《死亡擱淺 2：冥灘之上》等大作受到矚目，甚至是第三方被認為很有可能會在 Sony 發表會上登場的《GTA6》，都是屬於今年內尚未確定發售日期的作品。 緊貼最新科技資訊、網購優惠，追隨 Yahoo Tech 各大社交平台！ 🎉📱 Tech Facebook： 🎉📱 Tech Instagram： 🎉📱 Tech WhatsApp 社群： 🎉📱 Tech WhatsApp 頻道： 🎉📱 Tech Telegram 頻道：
