MULTI GameSpot Hit with lay-offs

[Ranger Taffles]

CBSi goes for staff cuts​

A GameSpot representative acknowledged the cuts, saying, "GameSpot did some shifting of internal resources as part of our long-term content and user engagement strategy. A few positions were impacted."

The full extent of the cuts is not clear yet, but they extended beyond the editorial team.

GameSpot is the flagship gaming brand at CBS Interactive, which also owns Giant Bomb, GameFAQs, and onGamers.

Editors/Producers confirmed to be laid-off:

Carolyn Petit
Tom Mc Shea
Justin Calvert (Former Editor-in-Chief and working since 99')
Maxwell McGee
Ryan Mac Donald (Been working with GS since 96')
Benito Gonzalez
Wernher Goff

All of the above are US based

GS Employees confirmed to stay-on:

Danny O'Dwyer
Justin Haywald
Chris Watters
Kevin VanOrd (Current Editor-in-Chief)
Shaun McInnis
Zorine Te (Australia based)
Jess McDonell (Australia based)

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I found the news while checking my twitter feed and finding Danny to be tweeting about still working at GS. Talk about crushing development for gaming journalism. Justin and Ryan have been there since the days of Jeff and crew. Literally grew up to some of their golden content (On the Spot, Hot Spot). I wish them the best for the future.

I do however think that GS will be seriously affected from from this. Their major writers are out of the picture now. Wonder where this leaves them for reviewing content.

EDIT:

Extremely depressing stuff for GS readers. They've been up and down since Jeff went with GB, and I'm not a regular GS reader but this seriously sucks. I'm glad Danny and Kevin are still there since they're the reason I've been going back to the site but didn't think GS would end up like this. Moreover, it's even more scary to think that Giantbomb has more editors now.

 

[CerebralTiger]

Personally, I'm not a fan of VanOrd. Things were better when Justin Calvert was at the helm of things. It's sad to see him get the shaft.

Danny O'Dwyer is doing some good stuff, though, and I hope he gets to stick around and bring a difference. His No Man's Sky feature was great, and they should definitely try and produce more content in that vein.

 

[Ranger Taffles]

Danny O'Dwyer is doing some good stuff, though, and I hope he gets to stick around land bring a difference. His No Man's Sky feature was great, and they should definitely try and produce more content in that vein.

This is the feature that really placed him in the spotlight: Video Games vs. Depression - GameSpot

It's sort of a wonderful documentary that brings out the theme of depression alongside gaming. He did this back when he was in UK and I hope GS sees the potential in doing mature topics for such features.

 

[faraany3k]

Professional review sites will go out of bussiness sooner or later because nobody need reviews anymore.

This is the age of twitch streams and youtube personalities doing lets play. Alphas amd betas provide glimpses of games to all. People usually watch and play them and decide to buy instead of reading a review with the number at the end which means nothing.


They are usually fanboy bragging rights ammo. Since games have become so generic, predictable and cliched, people already know how the game is going to be, and fight anyway.

 

[Gizmo]

^^Yeah, the industry has definitely changed but that doesn't mean it's the end of editorial sites like GS or GB. The idustry needs people with editorial chops around to scrutinize companies and developers otherwise we'rre in for a world of hurt. Let's plays are nice but most of the people producing them are novices and others lack editorial abilities or in some cases they lack the integrity necessarry to guide people properly. But I agree. Seeing a video of a game running is a much better way to judge than reading text on a screen, but like I said it has to be done right, the person producing the content has to make sure the viewer sees everything that matters and everything they ought to see in order to judge the game accurately.

This is something Giantbomb.com has been doing very well since it's formation and other sites and publications will have to adopt similar models if they wanna stay afloat.

 

[NaNoW]

Professional review sites will go out of bussiness sooner or later because nobody need reviews anymore.

I dont think these guys will ever go out, unless their quality is sh**. But I guess these sites need to have more originality in terms of review articles. Kinda like Top Gear is for cars, or Digital Rev Tv is for cameras..they cant just force the same old Gameplay 6/10, sound 5/10, etc thing down everyones neck.

But this is indeed bad news if it was done due to GS downsizing. If it was done to bring in new ppl, then that is a different story [MENTION=11904]Ranger Taffles[/MENTION] : any idea why this happened?

 

[Ranger Taffles]

But this is indeed bad news if it was done due to GS downsizing. If it was done to bring in new ppl, then that is a different story [MENTION=11904]Ranger Taffles[/MENTION] : any idea why this happened?

I guess GameSpot was suffering from bad revenue numbers, ranking, staff expenses and a declining editorial model. CBSi recently acquired Giantbomb and it has been outdoing GS in terms of subscriptions and original content. Moreover, I guess the core reason also lies with GS lacking personalities among the editors and producers. Aside from Danny O'Dwyer's content, there hasn't been much buzz from GS. This is the same website which was leading E3 coverage and news during mid-early 2000s. So in the end the decline did sort of caught up and lead unfortunate situation.