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CBS Interactive (GameSpot parent company) buys Giant Bomb

rakhir

Member
Can someone explain the rorie situation?
Doesn't seem good:

Aka Trevion ‏ @Galen2005
@frailgesture Roughly every third message in gb chat right now is about your future...

Matthew Rorie ‏ @frailgesture
@Galen2005 Trust me, I wish I knew. Jesus.

That's sad, i loved screened and their reviews.
 

Loxley

Member
Can't help but feel people are overreacting to this. Watched the live stream and they all same happy which is good enough for me. I trust them not to mess up their own site. The only thing I'm sad about is them splitting up with tested.

Because they are. People are reading the headlines and jumping to post knee-jerk rage without doing any fact-checking.

People, Giant Bomb and Gamespot will remain two completely different sites. They're not merging or anything. Gamespot didn't buy Giant Bomb, CBS did. Now CBS owns both, and I'm willing to bet that in the agreement it was established that the two sites would remain separate and not be combined. Christ.
 

Speevy

Banned
I'm perhaps unique in that I have always loved gaming, and came to love using message boards about ten years ago, but I have never gotten into the love affair/soap opera some people find in these internet personalities.

When I listen to a podcast, read a review, or watch a video preview, I am no less interested in the game being discussed than anyone else.

And I wish these people all the best. I hope they keep their jobs doing what they love to do (it looks very fun). But I don't really care beyond that.

I kind of separate the lives of these people from my hobby.
 

chogidogs

Member
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As someone who couldn't care 2 hoots about Mythbusters (and only know it from bits said on the odd podcast or two), I feel a bit crappy about the Tested news, at the moment.

But, obviously I'll give it time and hopefully this will just increase the scale of Will and Norm's work. I just hope the podcast stays as the three of Gary, Will and norm for a long as is viable.
 

jediyoshi

Member
RIP Giantbomb & Bombcast. And I ain't even kidding.

Gamespot is a lame website, with possibly the worst gaming forums on the internet. Just horrible, horrible forums with PG-13 rules.

You realize.. where the Giant Bomb folks came from, right? And why people were actually angry with GameSpot?
 

sixghost

Member
As someone who couldn't care 2 hoots about Mythbusters (and only know it from bits said on the odd podcast or two), I feel a bit crappy about the Tested news, at the moment.

But, obviously I'll give it time and hopefully this will just increase the scale of Will and Norm's work. I just hope the podcast stays as the three of Gary, Will and norm for a long as is viable.

Even if you have no interest in Mythbusters, I think it's still a positive. At the very least it gives Norm and Will a more stable platform to continue doing what they do.
 

LosDaddie

Banned
go listen to that shit they had on GS for a podcast, thats the future of the bombcast

Yup. :(
Lame website, boring podcast, and horrible forums. Gamespot is just a pile of shit.



Giantbomb's forums suck too.

Still better than GS' PG-13 forums, but yeah, GAF is the only gaming forum worth a damn.



Stop being so fucking hysterical. At least watch their stream where they actually address these concerns. CBS bought them because they have a different approach than GameSpot, and they have subscription numbers to back up that their approach has fans.


Jeff talked about swearing during the livestream. How they made sure during the negotiations to ask if they were free to continue to say whatever they want. Basically: fuck yeah, they can. There will be no censorship or anything at all.

(And the forums, whatever. GiantBomb's forums will have the same moderators and the same people posting on it, with maybe some new guys. Not sure why things would suddenly drastically change.)

:lol The GB guys would/will say anything at this point to make people believe nothing will change at GB. I'd be shocked if GB is not a slightly edgier version of GS within a year.
 

Yuripaw

Banned
Yeah...what about all the alcohol drinking they've done on the job sometimes? Think CBSi will still be ok with them doing that? I don't think so..
 
Doesn't seem good:

Aka Trevion ‏ @Galen2005
@frailgesture Roughly every third message in gb chat right now is about your future...

Matthew Rorie ‏ @frailgesture
@Galen2005 Trust me, I wish I knew. Jesus.

That's sad, i loved screened and their reviews.

That's pretty ice fucking cold that these guys leave him in the dark.
 
Yeah...what about all the alcohol drinking they've done on the job sometimes? Think CBSi will still be ok with them doing that? I don't think so..

That's one of my larger concerns. Then again, without Rorie being there in-office drinking loses much of it's meaning.
 

LosDaddie

Banned
You realize.. where the Giant Bomb folks came from, right? And why people were actually angry with GameSpot?

Of course. NOt only was I around for when the bullshit that went down, I also posted on GS' horrible forums while I waited for my GAF account to get approved. The place is a shithole. I mean, the content is alright (nothing special, though), but everything else about the site sucks.

Some of us have has seen how CBSi operates, and are rightfully worried about GB's future. But hey, the guys on the stream appeared happy!
 

Will

Neo Member
I don't have faith that things won't eventually go sour, but I do have faith that if things go bad, Jeff will leave. Dude has always kept to his own set of ethics and has earned some trust there. Still, I would not want to see him forced to flee as everything he's built gets ruined.

I bet CBS will be hands off, at first. But what happens if Giant Bomb isn't raking in the money a year from now? Between GB offering premium memberships and the Justin TV video today mentioning that they had been entertaining buyers/partners for awhile now, I don't have a lot of faith that GB, as awesome as it is, can or ever will make a ton of money, even if CBSi pumps some extra resources into it. But then again, maybe they wouldn't exist in a year if they didn't.

Also a little weird to hear Jeff go from years of saying he liked the limited, focused, "We can't cover everything" scope of his site, to saying today that Giant Bomb needs to get bigger. Then again, maybe they got tired of Vinny only being able to produce a couple videos at a time.
 

DirtRiver

Member
That's pretty ice fucking cold that these guys leave him in the dark.

He definitively knew what was going on and he has said that he has an announcement to make but I think it will most likely be him leaving Screened as it is probably too much work for a man alone.

Which is a shame because Screened was where I went to watch my trailers, to know what was being released in the month and to read movie reviews. If Screened ends that will be the only bad news for me on this deal.

The other things, Giantbomb and Tested I think will end up fine.
 

sixghost

Member
I don't have faith that things won't eventually go sour, but I do have faith that if things go bad, Jeff will leave. Dude has always kept to his own set of ethics and has earned some trust there. Still, I would not want to see him forced to flee as everything he's built gets ruined.

I bet CBS will be hands off, at first. But what happens if Giant Bomb isn't raking in the money a year from now? Between GB offering premium memberships and the Justin TV video today mentioning that they had been entertaining buyers/partners for awhile now, I don't have a lot of faith that GB, as awesome as it is, can or ever will make a ton of money, even if CBSi pumps some extra resources into it. But then again, maybe they wouldn't exist in a year if they didn't.

Also a little weird to hear Jeff go from years of saying he liked the limited, focused, "We can't cover everything" scope of his site, to saying today that Giant Bomb needs to get bigger. Then again, maybe they got tired of Vinny only being able to produce a couple videos at a time.
Luckily, it's a bit easier to get lost in the shuffle at big ass corporations like CBS. It's easier for big companies to right off an unprofitable segment if they view it as "improving their brand" or some shit. Jeff is a huge fucking name in games journalism.
 

Special J

Banned
Some of us have has seen how CBSi operates, and are rightfully worried about GB's future. But hey, the guys on the stream appeared happy!

i think its making the best of their situation. smiled seemed forced to keep the mood up.

I cant even imagine what jeff was going through past week, situation with giantbomb merger, his father is in the hospital, he himself was sick, GDC, and working (reviews for me3 and probably sfxt)
 

Yuripaw

Banned
I just don't understand this direction. It's another example of Jeff and crew not really paying attention to what their audience wants, and just going after what they think is best for the site. Everytime they do something like that though, it always looks bad for us. They said expanding GB would allow for them to dish out more content, yet I feel like we've seen less content. They kept saying the reason to get the bigger office, and hire more people was so "we can do more of the stuff that you guys want to see" Yet when I look at the stuff available, it still seems like the best content was made during those first 2 years when they were in that small basement...

I could tell by the direction that whiskey media was going, that they wanted another gamespot style organization it seemed like. I was never thrilled with this, it seemed like they did their best work when they were a small website working out of a basement. I can understand wanting a bigger place of operations, but I think they wanted to make giantbomb too big. If they had just kept their eyes sent on being a small indie site, and be content with that, it would've been for the best.

Now here we are, back where they all started working for the SAME big ass cooperation which in the end will rip out the soul of what made GB great. Cooperations NEVER do deals like this out of charity; they did it cuz they saw the hits that GB was getting, were hits that gamespot was not getting.
 

solarus

Member
Because they are. People are reading the headlines and jumping to post knee-jerk rage without doing any fact-checking.

People, Giant Bomb and Gamespot will remain two completely different sites. They're not merging or anything. Gamespot didn't buy Giant Bomb, CBS did. Now CBS owns both, and I'm willing to bet that in the agreement it was established that the two sites would remain separate and not be combined. Christ.

That still doesn't change the fact that tested and giantbomb won't be together anymore, i loved the content that had will and norm over :(
 

jediyoshi

Member

LosDaddie

Banned
Hope for the best, expect the worst.

That's my take from all this. I only visted GB for reviews I was interested, but I listened to the Bombcast every week during my work-outs.


Logic so broken, you could throw a brick through it.

:lol huh? GS was never the same after the old crew left. Hotspot became a boring listen.


Now here we are, back where they all started working for the SAME big ass cooperation which in the end will rip out the soul of what made GB great. Cooperations NEVER do deals like this out of charity; they did it cuz they saw the hits that GB was getting, were hits that gamespot was not getting.

No, dude. You don't know how businesses work, at all.

:p
 

renitou

Member
f they had just kept their eyes sent on being a small indie site, and be content with that, it would've been for the best.
Meanwhile, you would of course being working in a job where you make actual money, and nuts to them! Indie gaming sites don't offer a real living for these people, not if they ever want to grow out of their early 20s and ramen diets. Vinny lives in the burbs now. Grown ass men need grown ass income at some point.
 

Lothars

Member
I just don't understand this direction. It's another example of Jeff and crew not really paying attention to what their audience wants, and just going after what they think is best for the site.
I disagree I think this is what they needed to do to save the site. If they keep up the content which I feel they have than I don't have an issue with it.

If it kills the site or makes it worst than that's really shitty. I am more optimistic than not for this though.
 
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