GB GS Merger incoming?

So after all the Gamespot layoffs earlier in the year there was some talk again about a possibility GS GB merger. The general consensus at the time was it still probably wasn't going to happen.

However it seems that in the recent days/weeks some evidence has cropped up that might suggest it's going to happen. Firstly they started putting GB content on GS (I know that's been happening for a little while) Then the F1 video went up on both sites at the same time. I think that's the first thing that's been labelled as a collaboration between sites.

What really piqued my interest was two things that happened yesterday. Firstly Danny announced that the lobby is changing format to become more like UPF, longer less scripted ETC. That was followed up by this Tumblr post.

I love the (Un)professional Tuesdays comparison. Honestly, I started a livestream before UPF in London called Community Service which is my personal touchstone. We played one game is week but the chatty tone and community interaction is what I’m trying to get back to. We also got shit-faced each week - probably won’t do that though. When you consider the increased production value we have in the SF office - the UPF connection may be accurate.

But about that, because you’re a duder:

Clearly GB and GS have had a lot more collaboration this year. As a fan of both sites the difference is clear from only twelve months ago. When I arrived in November GameSpot hadn’t had a GB personality on a single video since the announcement video Jeff and JD did. Now we do cross over content and it doesn’t feel weird anymore. Yesterday we posted an F1 preview on both sites at the same time - the first time that’s ever been done.

I think we’re in a much better place to work more directly with each other now. What that ultimately becomes, neither of us know. But for sure we’ll be getting the duders on our couch more. Especially when review season hits! So….now!

I have underlined the interesting bit. This was followed by an off the cuff remark by Mary on GB unplugged. Right after she and Danny won there round of Avalon she jokingly said "The merger is over" (the timestamp is 1:13:27 if anyone wants a look)

Soo what do we think? Am i reading way too much into this or does this seem plausible. Personally I don't think a merger now would be nearly as scary a concept as it was a year or two ago, and if i'm honest probably makes business sense at this point.

Yes. If a merger happens then it'll happen. We won't know until it does. There is little point to talking about it much before that. We won't affect such decisions and we can't know anything of them before something is announced.

I'd be fine with it but judging from what little I've seen the community on GS HATES the GB guys.

As long as the GB forums and the GS forums stay two separate things everything will be good.

You are getting a little paranoid. Calm down a little buddy.

When thinking about a merger you have to consider what the benefit of that would be. I think both websites are doing fine as a separate thing and I don't see any problems that merging them would solve. I think the cross-over relationship is perfectly cool but a "merger" would be weird. Gamespot is more of a gaming news site, right? While Giant Bomb is largely the same, the focus is more on the personalities of the people running the site. Fusing those two together just doesn't make sense.

*piqued

I guess it makes sense, even though they did say they would always remain separate sites. I have to say, they've been doing a good job of making GB members feel better about GS. Only a couple of years ago the word "GameSpot" was almost taboo to talk about.

Not paranoid, that suggets i'm against the idea.

@beachthunder: Fixed, I knew that looked wrong.

I mean, I'm not totally against the idea, but things are great the way they are now. I love the Gamespot people, especially when they make appearances on Gb, but both sites cater to such different things that pulling them together would be a little weird. (and the few times I've seen the Gamespot community comment on us...well, it's not been too kind.)

I think I would be fine with it if both companies merged to become GameBomb. Wait a sec...

The question though is are people prepared to pay the subscription price if the sites do merge with each other. Giant Bombs primary income is from its subscriptions while Gamespots primary income comes from ads.

Are those 2 models really compatible witch each other?

I don't know, maybe it will happen at some point, but I highly doubt it's gonna be anytime soon.

I mean, yes, Gamespot had a bunch of layoffs, but in contrast to that GB finally expanded their roster again and even opened up another office, so I just don't see any reason for a merger.

Let me tell you a secret...

They've already merged.

Hmm, maybe. The on-screen people at Gamespot are pretty entertaining and given the GB format I think they could do even better. I don't care one way or the other but 5 years from now who knows.

GiantSpot.com vs GameBomb.ru

Why would they even bother with a merger?

That would be terrible. Besides Danny, Gamespot is super lame. All they would add to GB is a more corporate feel.

I could see wanting to use GS people at GB and GB at GS but a merger makes no sense considering that both sites offer a wide variety of completely different content. Giant Bomb, to me at least, is more about personality and having fun with video games with a dash of very well written and thought filled articles from guys like Patrick. It's a site where an hour of a video game podcast can be about wrestling and Gamespot is the furthest thing from that.

Has Gamespot even had a podcast in the last year? Most of the content that is on Gamespot i can get at IGN, it really has not personality in it's content and aside from The Point it doesn't really offer anything new, refreshing or entertaining. The Lobby had it's moments and i am glad they are going to make the show more like unprofessional fridays because unscripted Danny is the best thing about Gamespot. A merger wouldn't bother me if they let GB be GB but considering the amount of views they get on their live videos they would be complete fools for changing any of it because from what i see and from what Jeff see's i think their stuff does better then IGN and Gamespot.

No.

You're basically seeing collusion where there isn't any. Much like a crazy conspiracy theorist.

Gamespot is just trying to capture whatever the hell it is GiantBomb has that makes Giantbomb so popular and loved and bring it to Gamespot. Them changing the lobby formula seems in line with that concept. It makes sense considering they did a survey maybe a month ago asking about this stuff.

bring back the gb/gs wednesday night show!

Blimey you really read into that one a bit much eh?

It all makes sense now! Dan is a sleeper agent for GS who was sent in to become one of the GB crew, then integrate them to GS. MGS....GS ....SEE?!

This is all a bit of a stretch for me, I think you're reading a little too much into this. I'm not gonna say there's absolutely no circumstance in which this kind of merger would happen but another thing that makes this a little difficult to believe is that Giant Bomb runs on a strong sense of self-identity and people come to the site to see its personality and set-up and style. I just don't see what would be gained by us being swallowed up by a much bigger site.

I think the idea is that both sites take advantage of the pool of resources each site has, it's kind of insane to keep the two sets of staff apart. I think the relationship will become something like a mini-Whisky Media. Given that the two sites share engineers and presumably site architecture, I can't see any reason why combining the two sites makes business sense in anyway.

I don't think the personalities left on Gamespot are lame, though I'm not a big fan of Kevin VanOrd. The majority of Gamespot's content is so anonymous that I seriously have no idea what the people there do when they're not on Giantbomb (except for Danny, since he makes video content)

Bring Peter Brown, Danny and Mary over to Giant Bomb and be done with Gamespot.

That would be great I think.

If there ever was a merger it would just be the same content but you would see more crap on the front page. Also if I was a/the diabolical suit(s) in charge I would have premium but still have ads! double the money! *smokes cigar* Anyway, may as well rename GameSpot to DannySpot or SkyrimModsSpot.

I think a complete merger would be odd, and I think if that was their Corporate Overlords plan then they would have done it by now. I can definitely see more joint content in the future between the two sites and such, but I don't think a merger makes a lot of sense. At most, I'd say that some GS personalities (Danny, Mary, Giancarlo) come over to Giant Bomb and GS hires new people to replace them.

Also, considering how big Giant Bomb has grown over the last few years and the traffic they do, if anything I'd say we would see Gamespot get folded into Giant Bomb, and Giant Bomb proper keep doing what they are doing now. I think Gamespot as a website and a brand might be on their last legs these days.

I think there is something to consider with this rumor, If I'm CBS I would wonder why I have 2 products that are starting to deliver the same thing (or at least similar things). Would I like to see a total merger? Not really, especially if it means Giant Bomb becoming a "Mega" site. I would be all about GB absorbing some GS staff though.

That would be horrible. I don't find many of the people on that site that interesting. Besides chris waters, mr.brown and Danny. I go to Gs for fast reviews and this site... Well pretty much everything else.

I don't think that's possible. Not in the sense that you're talking about anyway.

GameSpot's audience wants something entirely different than GiantBomb's fans. We like Quick Looks that are anything but quick. GameSpot has a ton of <5 minute video's that people really enjoy.

I'm not interested in news compilation video's, they are not interested in watching someone play Shadow of Mordor for an hour while he tries to explain what the game is. If they would merge in the traditional sense, that would be awful for at least one of the audiences involved with no benefit that I can think of. They could work together more of course. GS guys could show up more often in Quick Looks perhaps. Jeff could be an expert in one of GS' video's. Maybe cross-posted reviews. We already saw some links on GS before that linked to the Wiki on GB.

I think you'll see more of that stuff rather than a traditional merger.

Might happen in the future but probably not for a while.

More collaboration doesn't necessitate a merger. Danny obviously wasn't hinting at anything there, because it says right in what you underscored that he doesn't know what it'll mean. For now, they're just doing more with each other, and that's pretty cool. It's Whiskey-esque. Maybe it'll become something else one day, but there doesn't seem to be any more to it at present.

Nope. More crossover maybe, but merger? No.

Follow the money.

The Crossover that is starting to happen seems like that would be the extent of a "Merger." It makes too much sense that, two websites devoting to video games, video games reviews, AND who have offices on the same floor would be in each others content. More Variety and chances for new content from both ends. I wholly support more crossover content.

Gamespot + Giant Bomb = Game Bomb

what? why would they need to merge when they're both owned by the same parent company and work in the same space?

i mean, i guess the obvious answer is: BECAUSE BUSINESS.

but wouldn't that risk destroying both brands? why sell PEPSICOKE when you can foster brand loyalty in two discrete entities?

HAHA, Collusion?

...I think I used that word correctly.

GB is and always has been a personality driven site, i.e. the site is Jeff, Dan, Drew, Vinny, Alex, Patrick, Rorie and Brad (also Jason to a smaller extend). Merging with GS would essentially nullify what GB is, and I'm not sure (actually, I'm pretty fucking sure) Jeff would be down with that.

There are some cool dudes over at GS (O'Dwyer, Giancarlo, Kevin, guy-with-glasses-that-hosted-UPF-once, Chris), so seeing more crossover content would be fine by me.

@sharkethic: Peter Brown and Mary Kish!

I think it's just a sign that more crossover content is going to happen which isn't too surprising. Especially considering that Giantbomb ended up as the home for a lot of the GS veterans after the Kane & Lynch incident. Gamespot need a little help getting back on their feet and by sharing content/ideas with Giantbomb i'm guessing they're hoping to get there?

Isn't Gamespot so dried out now that this would be more of an absorption than a merger?

They're two different sites with different audiences.

With how often Danny O'Dwyer is in Giant Bomb content, I don't think a merger would change the status quo for how Giant Bomb operates or presents content.

A merger makes little sense financially. Both sites pull in good chunks of advertising revenue. Why merge them and cut one of them out. The cross over is better for both sites. Its exposes the other base to the other site. And increases traffic flow, in turn more ad views. Which equals more money. Merging is not a something I think CBSi would do, because you would eventually cut down to one site and lose out on ad views.

In a lot of ways "the merger" has already happened. It doesn't really make any sense to me why they would physically combine the two sites. CBS has an excellent one-two punch goin'.

There are thing I go to GS for and things I come here to GB for. It would be interesting to see the teams of both sites crossover into their respective productions. Video reviews from the GB guys perhaps since GS still does those. I would love to see those come back. More games would get reviewed. Poor Kevin VanOrd seems like he's reviewing everything over on GS these days. More of a rotating podcast crew. Possibly more podcasts. IGN has several.

It could be a really cool thing. I've seen some of the issues posted about the conflicting forum communities, but really if we get better and more frequent content who cares. I guess you could keep the forums separate like some have said.

I'd echo people who noted business reasons for an actual merger not making financial sense. As far as crossovers and collaborations go, I'm totally fine with it as long as it's done in a natural, unforced way. Sorta the way Will Smith and other Whiskey Media people became beloved guests on GB content because they were in the same office and natural fits with the crew. Danny and Mary Kish are the two most "Giant Bomb" personalities GameSpot has at the moment and as a result I think they've been very good on recent content.