Seraphis Cain
bad gameplay lol
I first started to notice G4's decline when Icons stopped being about people in the video game industry and started being about people like Marc Ecko.
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G4 canceling X-Play/AOTS
- Thread starter VeryGooster
- Start date
I first started to notice G4's decline when Icons stopped being about people in the video game industry and started being about people like Marc Ecko.
A channel about tech/video games can work, you just need a lot of quality shows/programming. That wasn't true of G4 for the past what, 5-6 years?
I mean, when you look at cable, there are a ton of really niche channels that are doing fine. Why? They have/show good content. Video games are bigger/more popular than they ever were before. It can work.
Yeah I enjoyed many of the podcast shows. Bummer.
Sessler is one of the few gaming journalist types i have any respect for. Always enjoyed Sessler's Soapbox.
Ronabo
Member
Bu bu but the internet isn't on my comfy couch hosted by eye candy.
reddwarf42
Member
Haven't watched G4 in 5 years. I don't miss it at all. Twitch.tv and YouTube are my gaming channels.
Your display pic makes me happy with nostalgia.
Liquidsnake
Banned
This was such a good channel 6 years ago.
I sure do. I was going to post a pic of her here, but jesus everything images brings up is basically not safe for work.
Now I need to fap. Thanks GAF! :/
In all seriousness though while G4 being canned is something a lot of us don't care about and saw coming it is quite the shame they are axing it all. I would have MUCH preferred if they had rebooted it and tweaked it to not be a dudebro explosion of stupidity.
VeryGooster
Banned
Who will get the Doritos/Mountain Dew sponsorship first, Spike or NBC??
Most of those cable networks and shows are aimed at a more casual demographic though. I would describe gamers as a more "hardcore" geeky crowd that has embraced the internet. We get news instantly on Twitter and NeoGAF, we get podcasts delivered straight to us, same for YouTube subscriptions and Twitch live streams, etc.
Even with quality programming I don't think anybody would bother with a gaming channel.
I think a lot of people, including Kevin and Adam, knew the ship was sinking for a long time now. G4 hasn't been in a good shape for a while.
CrashPrime
Member
Not sure if being a dick, or obeying some sort of contractual gag order.
The channel was great during the first year or so in which it was called "G4TechTV". It all went downhill after that.
How is he being a dick? It was inevitable that he was going to be asked about it.
NaughtyCalibur
Member
How does one do a gaming channel these days, honestly? I'm really curious. There was another poster that pointed out that so many other niche channels exist, but they tend to cater to audiences who generally don't have symptoms typical of ADD/borderline ADHD like a lot of the gaming community seem to exhibit. And this isn't just a jab at gamers, but all of the "YouTube/Facebook Generation."
When everything and anything gaming is a click away and without commercial breaks, it's gotta be pretty hard to run a 24/7 video gaming network.
I don't agree. The large portion of male teens all the way up to male 30-somethings are into tech/games. There's definitely a big audience for it... at least enough for a cable channel.
Kevin currently hosts a syndicated game show called "Lets Ask America". It's pretty good.
And I think now:
so from cool bros to douche hipsters?
hipsters don't like Ninja Warrior so fuck them
Liquidsnake
Banned
That is around the time I started watching 12 hours a day.
I haven't watched G4 is a good three years or so. Despite it's misgivings, I really liked G4 when it was in its infancy. Even though they weren't the highest quality, it felt like the people at the network believed in what they were doing. I loved stuff like Icons, Cinematech, and G4TV.com along with lower tier stuff like Filter, Cheat, Blister, and even Portal. Sad to see it end like this.
Unspeakable Evil
Member
R.I.p G4
Now wtf u gonna show for modern male besides sports, beer , and girls.
Now wtf u gonna show for modern male besides sports, beer , and girls.
Cops.
yankeehater
Member
Man this is sad news.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
I know that when the original announcement was made (and now, with this news) a lot of time is spent by people trying to specifically notate the moment the brain stopped functioning, and the body was kept alive via a series of machines and artificial means. But for me, I was less interested in pinpointing the time of death, and more interested in mourning what was, and what could have been. Basically - this announcement just puts the period on a sad sentence that very clearly outlines what a giant squandering of potential G4 was.
For some reason, I thought G4 was ceasing to exist but I forgot it was rebranding. Oh well, sad but true. Good luck to the casts.
I still remember religiously watching X-Play WAY back in 2004, and watching The Screensavers right as they changed to AOTS and the cast started leaving one by one except Douchey Pereira.
I still remember religiously watching X-Play WAY back in 2004, and watching The Screensavers right as they changed to AOTS and the cast started leaving one by one except Douchey Pereira.
NaughtyCalibur
Member
There's a big audience for just about anything from fly fishing to bird watching. This doesn't guarantee that bird watchers around the world are going to watch a channel dedicated to their favorite hobby. And even when half of the bird watching community decides it's a channel worth watching, that's still hardly enough to keep a network on the air (shit cost a lot of money, I assure you).
The simple fact that TechTV/G4 were almost constantly shifting their format should be more than enough to suggest that a purely gaming network isn't viable at this time. Remember when G4-TechTV was just started out and it had shows on cheat codes, Top 10 countdowns, review shows (<3 Judgement Day), documentaries on gaming companies and individual devs? 15-20 years ago I'm sure that would have been HUGELY successful, and every gamer with cable would have been watching.
But now when the same exact content is being released with just as nice (if not nicer) production value on various YouTube channels and sites like GameTrailers, it detracts from the viewerbase and subsequent market value of the network.
I still remember the Icons episode with Miyamoto. He drew Mario for them and tried to figure out how to say their slogan (watch what you play).
Memories.
Edit: I just remembered my limited copy of Doom 3 has an episode of icons on it. I think I'll go watch it for the nostalgia.
Memories.
Edit: I just remembered my limited copy of Doom 3 has an episode of icons on it. I think I'll go watch it for the nostalgia.
Well, the writing was literally on the office building folks:
Sing along folks!: "One of these things is not like the other...."
One of those things is (now) dead!
End of an era, but this is no surprise. I started watching X-Play when it was still GameSpot TV on ZDTV, then Extended Play on TechTV, and finally X-Play.
Adam Sessler is the man and I miss the old X-Play, but G4's dying viewership and financial troubles were the nail in the coffin.
Adam Sessler is the man and I miss the old X-Play, but G4's dying viewership and financial troubles were the nail in the coffin.
I would be interested a tech/gaming channel that followed the same model as ESPN. Quick news updates every so often combined shows that have solid formats.
A video game/tech news version of "Around the Horn" would be entertaining (at least to me). Heck, that's pretty much what G4TV.com was.
I think he was rather unhappy with the way the network had gone in recent years. He'd always crack jokes about G4's programming in his later days on AOTS. He and Sessler have a show together on Syfy now that's not gaming related.
RSLAEV
Member
There were enough good moments on G4 (Cinematech, some episodes of X-Play, Some episodes of Icons) to make you think that some of the staff at some point really tried to make the network live up to it's potential.
I cut the cable cord over a year ago though, so I guess I can't complain as I'm not really part of their target audience anymore.
I cut the cable cord over a year ago though, so I guess I can't complain as I'm not really part of their target audience anymore.
CrashPrime
Member
Throwing out a "no comment" instead of just well wishing the nice folks who lost their job I guess? I dunno, a no comment feels like he wanted to talk some shit about the networks short comings but couldn't for whatever reason.
Also, a hashtag doesn't seem to be the place to send blessings.
Maybe it's just me, but I felt like the 'ses did the classy thing by just being like "unfortunate news". KP just came off sarcasticy? I dunno, I got "dick" vibe from it. Prob just me.
Nemesis121
Member
Long Live Tech TV.... 