The sad fact is that dedicated video game websites, especially those that are primarily personality driven, have been dying for a decade. I'm sure the pandemic exacerbated it, but the writing was on the wall years ago. All of them knew it was inevitable. Jeff has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to internet media. He and Ryan virtually invented the idea of dumb internet videos when he was at Gamespot. Every single function sites like giant bomb and game spot used to serve are now the domain of YouTube channels, Twitch streams, podcasts, and even fucking Twitter. It's a billion times more content seamlessly delivered by ubiquitous, platform agnostic tech backed by multi-billion dollar corporations. It was never NOT going to happen. Video games fit neatly into the current corporate tech hellscape because they've always been about tech and money.
I guess this is my eulogy for Giant Bomb then. I'm a few years younger than Jeff, so for me, he's always been that cool loner upperclassman that skipped school to do cool nerd shit. I followed his career at least as long as his first few years at GameSpot. When they shit canned Jeff for being brutally honest about Kane & Lynch, I thought "wow, this guy actually has integrity." Never mind that he and Ryan were doing internet video in the late '90s when nobody knew what the fuck that was. I was thrilled to learn that Brad and the others left Game Spot to go join what would eventually become Giant Bomb. Up until Ryan's death, I don't think anyone else produced better content about video games than that site. Their podcast was a weekly event I never missed.
And then Ryan died. It was fucking terrible. They moved on, but I'm sorry, it wasn't the same. their content got more serious. Political correctness stopped them from doing edgy humor altogether. And as you get older, you still love video games, but you can't convince yourself anymore that you aren't wasting time playing them. Priorities do change. You're more emotionally numb, your expectations are lower, and even good video games have less value and relevance in your life.
So economics, the proliferation of social media, age, and an internet no longer willing to tolerate dick and fart jokes did them in. I could go on and on about who they hired, but it's water under the bridge. During the past 3 years, it became increasingly obvious Jeff and Brad were mailing it in. The pandemic just let them get away with it for a year longer than they should have.
I can't imagine being entertained by a better thing in the 2000s or early teens. But all of us that enjoyed giant bomb now have gray hair everywhere, teenage kids, and managerial responsibilities at work. We grew up and now they have to as well.
