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CBS Interactive (GameSpot parent company) buys Giant Bomb

E

EternalGamer

Banned
From GIANT BOMB: Membership Questions said:
Hey, this has me worried. I've seen others sites get purchased and become

pretty crappy. What makes this different?

It's a valid concern. But if you've made it this far (let's be honest, some of you have been supportive of us for years) you know that beyond the logos on our sites are a group of people who have committed their lives to building a better Internet
Click to expand...

So even Giant Bomb admits that it is a valid concern. The problem I have is that their answer to this does not really alleviate my concern. Yes, you are a group of people who have committed to doing what you do. Only now you are now less in control than ever before over your site's destiny. Moreover neither CBS nor any other big media company is responsbile for "building a better Internet." Most of the time, they just come along and slurp up what good intentioned people already created.

All of you who know his opinions from podcasts over the years probably know very goddamn well that if John Davidson were on the outside looking in at this situition, he would probably be skeptical as well.
 
C

cameron

Member
sixghost said:
Jeff has too much class to really go hard on the people who fucked him, though. It's not going to be as interesting as people think, I believe.
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I have to agree. There will probably be some self-deprecating humor from Jeff and nothing really negative revealed about the old GS/CBSi.
 
B

BobTheFork

Member
CrazyDude said:
Well he did say awhile back that he was not fired because of the review.
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Well that dempends on how anyone views it.
They may not have said "for that review you are fired" but the timing is too suspect. That review is directly envolved in the chain of events that lead to his being fired.
 
L

Lunchbox

Banned
grandjedi6 said:
Every gaming site/publication that Patrick joins, shortly thereafter shuts down. Its not anything he does, just bad/odd luck. However its happened so often that when him joining Giantbomb was originally announced, I promptly saved this little image:

8RrLj.png
Click to expand...
Right before the year mark too

RIP Giantbomb
 
J

JABEE

Member
As part of this acquisition, BermanBraun will get three key sites of San Francisco-based Whiskey Media and acquire its content publishing platform. The three sites include the video entertainment-focused Screened, tech testing site Tested and Anime Vice, which covers anime and manga comics. The new Tested will become the Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage site and will go live later today (Hyneman and Savage are in a producing partnership with BermanBraun).
Click to expand...

WHAT??????????
 
B

boredJonathan

Member
CrazyDude said:
Well he did say awhile back that he was not fired because of the review.
Click to expand...

Totally waiting for the 'It was all one big misunderstanding!' speech. I'd love it if it played out with the kind of truth telling that we are expecting, but I don't see Jeff being a dick to his new bosses and I don't see John Davison wanting to drag the GameSpot name through the mud - even if it was under different caretakers then. There is just no way this plays out as anything other than some light hearted "Water under the bridge" thing.
 
N

Novid

Banned
Wow. GB wasnt my thing - but it was alright. But to CBS though?

Now for a little bit I did like AniVice when Gia and John was there. But Gia left, John became a school teacher, and the site sucked a hole it never really recovered.

So imagine my suprise they took three of the sites - three of the sites that dont get that much views... and they left GB to be bought by Moonves and his lackies? That doesnt smell right.
 
A

Ace Harding

Member
Giant Bomb (as it was prior to this acquisition) is (probably) not a sustainable business. There are two possible outcomes one could expect:

1) Giant Bomb ceases to exist completely.

2) Giant Bomb is bought by a company that thinks it can use GB's assets (including its human capital) to grow its own earnings. This may or may not mean that Giant Bomb as a website becomes "better" or "worse." Time will tell.

It seems like people are saying 1 = 2, before even seeing the results. You just don't want to give it a chance? Would it be better to simply call it a day and shut GB down, or would you rather see another owner have a go at it, with the GB staff and Davison telling us it's not going to really change the things we love about the site and the content they produce? Is it better to burn out than to fade away? Is it still better if there's a chance it could actually become MORE awesome?
 
T

TxdoHawk

Member
Rabbitwork said:
guys, game website buyouts and restructurings have been 100% awesome 100% of the time.

there's seriously like no precedent whatsoever to suggest this is a bad thing. not at all.
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Yeah, pretty much. The "guys, how can you be so cynical?!" crowd in this thread blow my mind. I'm not about to start making death knell predictions over here, but it's reasonable to worry that this buyout could have any number of unpleasant side effects down the road. We'll see, I guess.
 
K

kai3345

Banned
grandjedi6 said:
Every gaming site/publication that Patrick joins, shortly thereafter shuts down. Its not anything he does, just bad/odd luck. However its happened so often that when him joining Giantbomb was originally announced, I promptly saved this little image:

8RrLj.png
Click to expand...

Yeah I saw that too lol
 
B

bananas

Banned
GiantBomb.com Membership FAQ said:
Will premium content still continue?

Yes, All the Giant Bomb premium shows you've gotten used to over the last few years will continue in their regular format. Give us a week to get used to our new digs, but we'll have new content coming your way within a week.

Are Giant Bomb memberships being rolled into Total Access at GameSpot?

No. The programs are separate. The GameSpot account is an added bonus that is optional. We're committed to building our premium member base and will always look to add more value to our users.
Click to expand...

This might alleviate a few concerns people are having.
 
H

Hero_of_the_Day

Member
sixghost said:
I don't think the other guy was any part of it. I imagine Jeff is going to be doing most of the talking about the incident. Then the other guy will reinforce why it won't happen again.

Jeff has too much class to really go in hard on the people who fucked him, though. It's not going to be as interesting as people think, I believe.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. Would it be a safe bet to expect him to just say some ass hole didn't like him, used the K&L review as a (terrible) excuse to fire him, ass hole is now gone, things will be great from here on out?
 
L

LosDaddie

Banned
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.

CBS/Gamespot is going to sanitize GB/Bombcast like no other. Oh well. Hopefully Weekend Confirmed can stay the same.
 
S

shadyspace

Banned
LosDaddie said:
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.

CBS/Gamespot is going to sanitize GB/Bombcast like no other. Oh well. Hopefully Weekend Confirmed can stay the same.
Click to expand...

Giantbomb's forums suck too.
 
K

kanugo

Member
ashbash159 said:
Well since their clocks went back last weekend it properly confused me about what time is over there. So far they are 7 hours behind up. It's usually 8, and will be again this Sunday.

So it's at 11PM.
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Awesome. Thanks. I'll keep an eye on Jeff's Twitter.
 
N

nomis

Member
LosDaddie said:
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.

CBS/Gamespot is going to sanitize GB/Bombcast like no other. Oh well.
Click to expand...

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.

Hopefully Weekend Confirmed can stay the same.
Click to expand...

wat
 
R

RotBot

Member
Novid said:
So imagine my suprise they took three of the sites - three of the sites that dont get that much views... and they left GB to be bought by Moonves and his lackies? That doesnt smell right.
Click to expand...

But the major reason for the acquisition is that BermanBraun — which also makes popular sites for large portals such as Microsoft’s MSN (the Wonderwall celebrity site and Glo, aimed at the women’s lifestyle arena) and AOL (upcoming sites on weather, men and pets) — needs to be able to scale its online content production. The Whiskey platform should be able to allow it to more easily grown and create new sites more quickly, as well as mine data across them.
Click to expand...

CBS wanted the high-traffic sites, but not the platform. BermanBraun wanted the platform, and got the sites CBS didn't want.
 
T

Thomper

Member
LosDaddie said:
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.

CBS/Gamespot is going to sanitize GB/Bombcast like no other. Oh well. Hopefully Weekend Confirmed can stay the same.
Click to expand...

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.)
 
B

Brobzoid

how do I slip unnoticed out of a gloryhole booth?
pretty excited for the comments section for the next AAA game review from CBS Interactive's giantbomb.com!
 
A

AngryMoth

Member
Can't help but feel people are overreacting to this. Watched the live stream and they all seem 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.
 
D

DOBERMAN INC

Member
AngryMoth said:
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.
Click to expand...

Anger, pessimism and doubt are staples of today's youth.
 
S

sixghost

Member
Thomper said:
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.)
Click to expand...
Talk is cheap. The guys were saying that GB/Whiskey was doing "just fine, don't worry about it" last year after they initially took subscriptions.

We'll see.
 
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