Fandom sells gaming media brand Giant Bomb to long-term staff

about.fandom.com

214 points by minimaxir 3 days ago


kevingadd - 3 days ago

For those unfamiliar, Giant Bomb was one of the first video games press outlets to focus on premium video content. They offered monthly/yearly paid subscriptions for unlimited streaming/downloads: a mix of livestreams, review/criticism content, and Just Goofing Around pre-recorded content. They typically released a few hours worth of content a week at their peak, if I remember right, and the cost was something like $30-50 a year. This was before long form video was a big thing on YouTube; arguably sites like Giant Bomb were pioneers that showed a path forward (at least temporarily) for lots of creatives.

Their podcast has been running weekly for the entire time the site has operated alongside (intermittently) other podcasts, so they're approaching 890 episodes. Each episode was typically a few hours long as well.

When they were doing good they were a well-oiled content machine operating on a small budget with a small team. A lot of the stuff they put out was really special or unique in games press at the time - for example, one of their staff went to North Korea during a vacation so during one of their weekly live streams they devoted a time slot to him showing his photos and talking about his experiences there.

drumhead - 3 days ago

I dont know how popular Giant Bomb is as a site, but in general video game journalism online is pretty much in the doldrums. Most of the big players from the last 20 years seem to have either disappered or are cutting staff back to the bare minimum. They seem to have become click baity and but dont even get much interaction from viewers.Looking at the Titan of the industry, IGN, they barely get more that 20k views for videos they put out on Youtube, even though they have 19million subscribers. Their audience seems to have moved on from them to individual Youtubers or twitch.

As a business proposition, video gaming sites seem like a money pit with no guarentee of a return. They may have a chance at survival by serving a niche audience that wants a specific type of content, limiting their scope and ambitions. But at the moment I just dont see a comeback for them.

jaoane - 3 days ago

The best thing Fandom could do for the community is close forever. Talk about a cancerous website. People like to talk shit about Pinterest, but Fandom is tremendously worse, since its SEO efforts drown actually useful websites.

jpalawaga - 3 days ago

Whiskey Media was top tier back in the day. A group of folks producing really fun content, and having a great time doing it. The community was top notch too. I have no idea where the diaspora ended up, since the forums and wiki are comparatively dead these days.

Trasmatta - 3 days ago

Great news. Giant Bomb is in some ways one of the few remaining relics of the older / weirder internet. I thought it was done for after the past week.

punnerud - 3 days ago

In this context, the term “bomb” refers specifically to Giant Bomb, the gaming media brand that has now become independently owned and operated by its creators.

randall - 3 days ago

JEFF BAKALAR?!?!? THE 404 JEFF BAKALAR!!?!?!?!?

Insane. How times have changed.

dustbunny - 3 days ago

Anyone remember 1up.com before giant bomb? 1up was how I got into podcasts. The computer gaming magazine podcast was hilarious. I loved those guys. I should try to download the archive.

nubinetwork - 3 days ago

Glad to hear, fandom is a horrible website to use

bitwize - 3 days ago

I'm still waiting for a gaming site that could rival what TheGIA was back in the day. But unfortunately, the web that gave rise to TheGIA is long gone...

RistrettoMike - 3 days ago

YOOOOO! Still a threat!

stevage - 3 days ago

Boy that was a confusing headline. I did not realise that fandom or giant bomb were proper nouns.

pinkmuffinere - 3 days ago

What the hell, this new title is worse than the original, which was already quite confusing! Can I propose something like the following?

“Giant Bomb (video game media company) purchased by its staff”

“Giant Bomb (video game media company) splits off from parent company”

halalfatal - 3 days ago

[dead]

snickerbockers - 3 days ago

[flagged]

monster_truck - 3 days ago

[flagged]