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Giant Bomb News

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Phase Two Is Go

We're saying goodbye to Sausalito and moving back to the big city. Our time is now.


Maybe a bit too literal, but hey, whatever works. 
Maybe a bit too literal, but hey, whatever works. 
I'm coming to you live, from my house... in my underwear. Just felt I should get that out of the way up front, but the reason for all the partial nudity is that we're between offices right now. Wednesday was our last official day in the old offices, and we spent most of that day packing everything up, slapping labels onto it, and drinking. Actually, I was driving, so I mostly watched other people drink. And I'm extremely lazy, so I mostly watched other people pack, too.

It's a big move for us that comes at the exact right time. With the addition of Tested and Screened to the Whiskey Media posse, Sausalito is now officially too small to contain us. So our new office is a bigger spot that'll give us more studio space, a dedicated podcast room, and, weirdly enough, an entire room devoted to our own private whiskey bar. I believe in the business world they call that "walking the walk?" This also means that I'll be able to make vague threats directly to Alex every time a bad game shows up in the mail and constantly pester Will to help me figure out which laser mouse is right for me without having to walk upstairs.

We'll have more to show of the old office getting dismantled and new office in the near future. But there's more going on than just a new basement to call home.

 The Human Tape Measure goes to work.
 The Human Tape Measure goes to work.
The number one question we get around here goes something like "how the hell do you guys stay in business with no ads on the site?" We've sold a few T-shirts in the past, but to be honest, those happened because we thought they'd be cool, not because we ever expected to make a huge profit on them. Same deal with the iPhone app, which is rapidly losing value now that you can view those same videos using your phone's browser. For us, it's been all about building a regular audience and treating the people that choose to spend their time with us with the respect they deserve. The business dudes have done some ad deals in the past, and they've signed a deal with an external firm called Six Apart, which will be largely responsible with putting ads onto Giant Bomb and the other Whiskey Media sites.

It's funny, a lot of people wanted to guarantee us a whole lot of money up front for the ability to sell ads on our sites. For just about any other company I can think of, this would have been the "cha-ching" moment, where you start grabbing as much cash as possible. That's the easy way out. We've gone a different way with it, instead focusing on putting a system in place that should hopefully prevent the Internet's worst types of advertising from ever sullying our pages. We're doing what we can to make sure that the ads don't ruin your experience on our site. There will be site skins, but you definitely won't see one every day. There will be banner ads, but not for dick pills or "YOU PUNCH MONKEY 4 FREE IPODZ" or all of the other bullshit that makes a website start to stink. It's nice to be working with guys that understand the value of your experience with our sites. My guess is that there will be some bumps in the road this month as we get things going, but it feels pretty good to be shifting into "proper business" mode. That'll give us some more leeway to do all of the stupid things that no other game website would dare to even try and continue having fun while we do it.

This is the part where I should come to you, hat in hand, and tell you how ad blockers block the fun in the worst way possible, but I'm not going to tell you how to live your lives. If you absolutely can't stand any form of advertising ever yet you still want to support what we're doing down here, well, we might have some things for you in the fairly near future that'll let you handle that without the intense guilt that comes from knowing that Coonce won't be able to afford any more tracksuits if you're blocking all of the ads.

My understanding is that today is the first official day that Six Apart is beating down doors on our behalf, and our office doors will open once again on Tuesday. In the meantime, we'll be working on some review stuff (I have a lot of Singularity to play) and celebrating... our Independence Day! *cue cheers*
  
Jeff Gerstmann on Google+

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jeff

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Edited By jeff

Maybe a bit too literal, but hey, whatever works. 
Maybe a bit too literal, but hey, whatever works. 
I'm coming to you live, from my house... in my underwear. Just felt I should get that out of the way up front, but the reason for all the partial nudity is that we're between offices right now. Wednesday was our last official day in the old offices, and we spent most of that day packing everything up, slapping labels onto it, and drinking. Actually, I was driving, so I mostly watched other people drink. And I'm extremely lazy, so I mostly watched other people pack, too.

It's a big move for us that comes at the exact right time. With the addition of Tested and Screened to the Whiskey Media posse, Sausalito is now officially too small to contain us. So our new office is a bigger spot that'll give us more studio space, a dedicated podcast room, and, weirdly enough, an entire room devoted to our own private whiskey bar. I believe in the business world they call that "walking the walk?" This also means that I'll be able to make vague threats directly to Alex every time a bad game shows up in the mail and constantly pester Will to help me figure out which laser mouse is right for me without having to walk upstairs.

We'll have more to show of the old office getting dismantled and new office in the near future. But there's more going on than just a new basement to call home.

 The Human Tape Measure goes to work.
 The Human Tape Measure goes to work.
The number one question we get around here goes something like "how the hell do you guys stay in business with no ads on the site?" We've sold a few T-shirts in the past, but to be honest, those happened because we thought they'd be cool, not because we ever expected to make a huge profit on them. Same deal with the iPhone app, which is rapidly losing value now that you can view those same videos using your phone's browser. For us, it's been all about building a regular audience and treating the people that choose to spend their time with us with the respect they deserve. The business dudes have done some ad deals in the past, and they've signed a deal with an external firm called Six Apart, which will be largely responsible with putting ads onto Giant Bomb and the other Whiskey Media sites.

It's funny, a lot of people wanted to guarantee us a whole lot of money up front for the ability to sell ads on our sites. For just about any other company I can think of, this would have been the "cha-ching" moment, where you start grabbing as much cash as possible. That's the easy way out. We've gone a different way with it, instead focusing on putting a system in place that should hopefully prevent the Internet's worst types of advertising from ever sullying our pages. We're doing what we can to make sure that the ads don't ruin your experience on our site. There will be site skins, but you definitely won't see one every day. There will be banner ads, but not for dick pills or "YOU PUNCH MONKEY 4 FREE IPODZ" or all of the other bullshit that makes a website start to stink. It's nice to be working with guys that understand the value of your experience with our sites. My guess is that there will be some bumps in the road this month as we get things going, but it feels pretty good to be shifting into "proper business" mode. That'll give us some more leeway to do all of the stupid things that no other game website would dare to even try and continue having fun while we do it.

This is the part where I should come to you, hat in hand, and tell you how ad blockers block the fun in the worst way possible, but I'm not going to tell you how to live your lives. If you absolutely can't stand any form of advertising ever yet you still want to support what we're doing down here, well, we might have some things for you in the fairly near future that'll let you handle that without the intense guilt that comes from knowing that Coonce won't be able to afford any more tracksuits if you're blocking all of the ads.

My understanding is that today is the first official day that Six Apart is beating down doors on our behalf, and our office doors will open once again on Tuesday. In the meantime, we'll be working on some review stuff (I have a lot of Singularity to play) and celebrating... our Independence Day! *cue cheers*
  
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apertura

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Edited By apertura

LAST

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vaiz

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Edited By vaiz
@apertura said:
" LAST "
NOT ANYMORE.
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bretthancock

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Edited By bretthancock

Good for GB and all the Whiskey sites!  All your users appreciate the unique content and lack of annoying ads.

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apertura

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Edited By apertura
@punkxblaze said:
" @apertura said:
" LAST "
NOT ANYMORE. "
THE FUCK MAN
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V_Ben

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Edited By V_Ben

Cheers for sharing all this stuff with the community. It's nice to hear about how you want ads to affect the site, i.e. in a positive way, and not an obnoxious way that break the experience with the site. If there's one type of AD that i hate, it's one that i can pop my mouse over accidentally, and have a window expand to fill my screen. It's nice to know that the people who are going to be running these ads know what works, and what doesn't. 
 
Have fun moving! :P

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deactivated-594edfbbc45ca

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Why did my comment glitch? so I couldn't get first. 
 
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new office.

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FinalDasa

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Edited By FinalDasa

Not the tracksuits! Anything but the tracksuits! 
 
Cooooooooooooonce!!!

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rjayb89

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Edited By rjayb89

HOT

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Video_Game_King

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Edited By Video_Game_King

Suggestion for banners: DO NOT USE VERTICAL BANNERS. I hated having to adjust my blogs to look good for banners that phased in and out of reality. If you do use them, at least be consistent with it.

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jeffk38uk

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Edited By jeffk38uk

I only just realised that GB didnt have any ads plastered about the place. How odd. Given how GB is very community approachable I don't think we'd need to worry about bad ads heh.

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Edited By natetodamax

Does Chrome have ad blocker? I was wondering because I want to make sure such a thing is disabled. Would like to thank the Whiskey Media guys for understanding how to place ads on websites without it being completely retarded.

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rinkalicous

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Edited By rinkalicous

 This site sucks! I want free ipods for punching monkeys, dammit!    

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tmthomsen

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Edited By tmthomsen

Hope we'll see some video footage.

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cravins90

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Edited By cravins90

I was wondering that same thing. I thoroughly searched the site for some way to support you guys, and I'm glad I can now.

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apertura

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Edited By apertura
@Agent47CSim2 said:
" Why did my comment glitch? so I couldn't get first.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new office. "
I edited yours because I wanted to get it. Better luck next time.
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Kowalczyk

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Edited By Kowalczyk

Congrats on the move, really like the shot of the new space. Excited to see whats next.

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Edited By Vision

Sounds great, i have Giant Bomb approved on ad-block plus.

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numberThirtyOne

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Edited By numberThirtyOne

Thought this headline was about phase 2 of the SC2 beta.  FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUU

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Edited By Dedodido

I just disabled my ad blocker for giant bomb, because there's finally a game website that's honest about games, honest when they review a game that's been advertised on the site, and don't do what SOME websites do *cough*gamespot*cough and take down reviews that disappoint their sponsors.

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Edited By Jayzilla

stinkin great read. besides the obvious part about the rad staff, there is the way you guys handle your biz which is top-notch. congrats on the move and keep on doin what you do best duders. also, if coonce wants another sf4 beat down any time soon, he needs to get on xbox live again. if he doesn't, then i have no need to care about his tony soprano clothing fetish.

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Edited By FluxWaveZ

I really liked how the Halo 3: ODST banner looked on the website when it was there before.  I wouldn't mind more page skin ads like that at all.

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Edited By Tesla

Real recognize real, and Giant Bomb is looking familiar.

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Edited By DanielJW
@natetodamax: Not built in, no. 
 
Also I kind of want to punch a monkey for an iPod, but I guess I can always go to IGN for that. Thanks for being so up front about all the behind the scenes stuff, it's part of the reason I love this site so much. I never feel like I'm getting fucked over because I know why everything's happening.  
 
Wish you guys luck with the new office and the ad stuff. I'll definitely continue to visit the site as often as I do. If not more. :)
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Edited By Aarny91

That place looks pretty cool.

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Edited By randiolo

i love giant bomb.

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altdimension

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Edited By altdimension

Alright, GiantBomb Complete membership!

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Edited By Steve_C

I'm pretty sure quite a few dudes already have their ad blockers disabled for this site.
 
Appreciate you being up front about this stuff as per usual. I'll guess you'll be hearing about it pretty quickly if the ads start getting annoying.

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Edited By KowalskiManDown

Good luck with the move guys! See you on the other side!

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Edited By dvorak
@natetodamax said:
" Does Chrome have ad blocker? I was wondering because I want to make sure such a thing is disabled. Would like to thank the Whiskey Media guys for understanding how to place ads on websites without it being completely retarded. "
Only with extensions does chrome block ads.
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Edited By count_zero

I really don't have any problems with banner ads and site skins, just so long as we don't have those really annoying ads that turn text of articles (and forum posts) into little pop-up ads when you mouse over text that sort of looks like a link. That stuff is evil incarnate. So long as that stuff doesn't show up, then my ad-block stays off. If it does show up, ad block comes on.

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Edited By matthew

All I saw was 'whiskey bar room.'

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Edited By dystonym

As long as there isn't an ad that when you mouse over it goes "OHMIGAD NO WAYYYY!" then I'm content with any form of advertising on the site. And to be honest, I like skins. They give the site a bit of variation.

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Edited By gravatix

As long as Dave gets to make crazy ass Photoshopped ads for stuff still... I'll never block an ad on this site ever!

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Edited By Traegan

Jeff in his underwear talking about making money.  Awesome.

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Edited By Drebin_893

Cheers Jeff,  the transparency in this site is a huge contributing factor to why people love and respect the site and staff.

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Edited By Vorbis

Good to see the site expanding and hope this will mean more cross over content between whiskey media.
 
Also we demand an invite to the Whiskey bar, failing that a video would do.

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Edited By daycru

GB is one of the few sites I disable ABP for.  I love you guys and the incredible work you do. 

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deactivated-58c3985c661d1

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Congratulations on the move guys. The site is growing naturally and you guys are doing great. Bring on the ads, I am sure they will be tasteful :)

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Edited By adoggz

                                                                    /\
                                                                  /    \
                                                                /        \
                                                              /            \
                                                            /                \
                                                            \                /
                                                              \            /
                                                                \        /
                                                                  \    /
                                                                    \/

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BruceLeet

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Edited By BruceLeet

All right, I'll do it for you Giant bomb. All my filters are off and JavaScripts are allowed.

No Caption Provided
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Xeiphyer

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Edited By Xeiphyer

Glad to see that Giantbomb is getting more legit, Strangely looking forward to seeing ads on the site.

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Godlovesugly

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Edited By Godlovesugly

I don't know why you'd have ad block enabled on giantbomb for all the reasons Jeff gave should be pretty apparent to most. There's no punch a monkey bullshit or pop ups.
 
LONG LIVE GIANT BOMB

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Edited By A_Dog

Cool. 
 
Now you can get a real  Shaq poster!

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Cwaff

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I'm strangely looking forward to seeing the new office and where Giantbomb will go from here.

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Edited By jagenheim

I love my ad-blocker. But don't worry; giantbomb will be whitelisted. :) 

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Edited By DukeTogo

Ugh, now you're all in the same space without floors to divide you?  I imagine we'll be hearing one Will Smith loud-talking in every video now.

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SaturdayNightSpecials

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Allow me to pay you on an annual basis. 
 
Just make my user name all glowy or something, that's all I really need.
 
Also, I miss the basement already.

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Edited By icyroy05

Giant Bomb is one of only a hand full of sites that gets me to disable Ad Block and NoScript.
 
Keep up the amazing work.