Hopeful for the future of GB

Obviously a lot of crazy things are going on with Giant Bomb right now... hell it's been crazy for the past couple of years. After Vinny, Brad and Alex left I found myself on the site way less, even though I wanted to get back into things. I thought the addition of Jess was great and overall I enjoy the crew... but something wasn't clicking.

I'm an old-timer, been here since the very beginning. With Jeff G. leaving, I had a moment where I thought "Is there anything left for me here?". Along with thoughts of whether or not that was fair to the current crew; since I still enjoyed their interactions and I want them to carry the torch.

Then I saw the video they just put out... and I'm probably more excited than I've been for a while for what the future holds for this site. The return of Dan along with how amazingly dumb that video was and how solid (I think) the core crew is, makes me very optimistic. I hope we don't see the last of Jeff both on this site and others, he's the reason I got into GB and stuck around for years. Not hearing his hot takes on the Bombcast will be weird.

Look, change can be hard (or just plain suck) but nothing lasts forever. Whether that's staff moving on or even you interacting less, or not all, with the site. I'm hopeful that GB will find it's footing with this new crew and I hope they stay around for another 14 years.

Best of luck to the current GB staff and of course, the man, the legend, Jeff Gerstmann. I'll continue to show my support for GB and hope others do the same! If you don't, you'll have to answer to Big Jeffery.

-Ozzie (just another Duder)

The video they just posted confirms GB is still a threat. I was going to stick around anyway and definitely am now. Life changes so fast and so much that I can't be sad about Jeff leaving. End of another era for sure, but as you get older, you see a lot of eras. I'm used to this shit.

I am optimistic, and know I have 14 years of content to go back to, the NL crew, whatever Jeff does next, and whatever the new Giant Bomb will do!!

How can anyone be mad at that, there is just a buffet of content now that GB helped lead the way on.

I’ll be optimistic when something comes of it and we stop settling back into the office.

It was a fun video and I think their heart seems to be in the right place. "Wait and see" is kind of my mantra with GB right now but I'm sure hoping this is the move that draws me back in.

I'm kind of going with a wait and see approach. I feel like it was the same hype from a year ago when they were talking about their new shows. I mean Danny lasted all of 5 months.

It seems like a lot of people seem to think that being optimistic and excited about the future is mutually exclusive to distrust of the direction of things and severe criticism on how this has been handled. I know I feel both ways.

As a person who loved Giant Bomb, I did not like the content after Giant Bomb East dissolved. This line up is fantastic with some really great and varied voices. I can see this group of people making great stuff. This has always been a personality driven site and these are great personalities.

On the other hand, I think the way this was handled was bad and very corporate, which gives me concern. I’m not even talking about speculation here and trying to figure out “what really went down.” Rather, I think what many of the upset people are feeling is the cold business manipulation that gives me pause. I’ve been on the site for ten years and have seen a lot of site changes and staff departures, but this is the first time where said staff hasn’t been able to go out on their own terms in their own voice. Again, I’m not speculating, but I feel like we are being played by a large corporation (but then again, that is modern capitalism with any product). Plus, I found that announcement video to be super lame. Well produced, but also featuring the cringey and unfunny humor that I feel has hampered a lot of recent content.

So, it is possible to feel both ways. I just encourage people not to be mean to each other. I see a lot of mocking on both sides of the issue though more so people insulting others for feeling upset about the change. Remember, feelings are complex.

I get why so many people are upset, but it's hard for me not to look around and see three different but unique places to get video game stuff from.

Giant Bomb, Nextlander, and now the Jeff Gerstmann Show. Doesn't mean you have to give all your money to one and hate/ignore the other.

I think some people are inferring way too much and adding drama where there just isn't any. You can be sad and upset that something you loved has ended while feeling hopeful/cautious about where the future may lead.

@finaldasa: You forgot Waypoint! That site still has strong GB DNA even if Austin left.

i love all these people, i just want them to be where they're most excited to do the work.

the vibe i'm catching- with these changes- everyone might be happier for it, and i'm stoked for that! can't wait to see what all these goofs get up to!

@retris: I knew I was forgetting something lol

I'm way more excited than I thought I'd be about the future of GB last night. Crew is solid and I'm excited to see them start putting out content.

I guess I'm confused by why the Nextlander folks and Jeff felt they couldn't do what they're doing now while staying at GB, but I trust them to make the right choices for themselves and wish them the best.

Now how am I going to find the time for ANOTHER source of video game content?

I've enjoyed the direction this year, and this seems like a boost. And Jeff gets to do his own thing (the Patreon's already a success an hour later).

Honestly, this seems best for everyone. Good news on both sides today.

IMO the site was already on a good trajectory. Jess has been a great addition to the site, been loving Lucy & Tamoor's contributions, way into Jan's new management of the Voice Mail Dumptruck, and the energy level in general has been improving on the Bombcast. Locking in Tamoor, Lucy, Grubb, and then adding Dan on top of it all? I'm excited!

Absolutely gonna miss Jeff Gerstmann on the site, but he's left it in fine shape. Thrilled to see where Giant Bomb goes from here, as well as how Jeff's new thing shapes up!

Yeah, the fact is, it's proven to be a net gain when people have moved on to pursue new projects. Giant Bomb lives on, and there's more wonderful spin-offs than you can shake a stick at. The only downside to me is that it's nigh impossible to keep up with them all, lol.

The Sonic Cycle but for Giant Bomb fans

Dan Ryckert's home streams (an acquired taste for some) have been wall to wall insane energy and random nonsense, and while he may have gone a little overboard at times, he has learned a SHIT TON about on the fly video production, presentation, and just in general how to get even fuckier with video games and other nonsense. His Seaman streams are wildly entertaining if you have not seen them.

I am super hyped for him to bring that energy back to GB and see what comes of it. We will also have Dan + Jan, Dan + Jess, the return of Dan + Jason + Bakalar and now new interactions hopefully with Lucy and Tam, the Grubbster in the mix of it all... The future is bright.

We'll have to see what happens but I'm pretty happy about the outcome of everything. Nextlander is great and I love that they decided to keep doing what they do. Jeff Gerstmann is off on his own making podcasts and whatever else and I'm more than happy to continue listening to him talk about video games. And then there's Giant Bomb, who seems to have a solid group of people on board again.

I think that people need to relax and stop being all doom and gloom from the jump.

I'm going to need a little more convincing, but I will say that Dan's Twitch streams were uncannily good. To an almost shocking degree.

If anyone can turn this ship around, its him.

What in the fuck is going on here?

I'm so confused.

I cancelled my sub a few weeks ago after being a member since 2011. I was right to do so.

Alright, so let's get the obvious thing out of the way first: Something about this rubs me the wrong way. No real send-off for Jeff, him mentioning that everything happened pretty quickly... it's pretty clear to me that something happened behind the scenes that probably wasn't pretty - but speculation is going to get us nowhere.

So here's my take on this: Whatever happened, it's pretty likely that the new crew (or at least most of the new crew) didn't have anything to do with it, because this will have been decided by higher-ups. Which is why I feel it would be highly unfair to not give some of the new (or not quite new, but also not really old) faces their fair chance. I for one don't quite know how well the chaos of Dan is going to work without a Jeff Gerstmann being constantly annoyed by it (or at least playing this role very convincingly), but some of the plans that were just mentioned on the Bombcast sound pretty intriguing, not gonna lie.

So the way I see it is: I'm going to stay hopeful for the future. We'll see what comes out of it. Best possible scenario would be that in the future I'm going to have Gerstmann's portfolio and GiantBomb's portfolio to waste my precious time on. And by the way: Jan is a pretty great podcast host. Who knew? (I didn't)

I don't think it's so hard to read between the lines with what happened. As in, there's absolutely no bad blood on a personal level. Being a solo soldier versus being responsible for a semi-big site means you have more say about your own time and less time spent in bureaucracy (managing multiple people and a site takes time!). Giant Bomb was born in a pre-Twitch pre-Patreon world, and these things now exist. Maybe it was just a time and place thing to jump out in the world again.

I was so stressed this morning with this announcement existing but the full context to come. I suppose it's the parasocial relationship's I gotta shake off.. but at this point, I'm convinced that Giant Bomb is a reasonably good place. I'm excited to see where stuff heads.

..but please, all those shows on the show page that clearly are over? Please put them in the archived section, for my sake.. thank you

With Dan as the creative director you can pretty much guarantee, hit or miss, things will be entertaining.

I know some people are expecting some very verbose answers, but this simply cannot be done because you'll alienate someone regardless. Also some people will never be happy and you'll end up having to expose everybody's private life by trying to address every single doubt in the process.

Jeff has stated on his stream today that he wanted to be more direct and in his own words 'fuck shit up', with some serious remarks about the state of the industry. You probably don't want to do that on Giant Bomb when other staff will be affected by this anyway.

Just when Alex, Brad and Vinny left, this hits hard... but if you truly respect these people and crew give them a chance and most importantly their space.

I recently renewed my premium and was feeling a bit skeptical about GB once I heard Jeff was leaving, but seeing that they're bringing back Dan and adding Lucy and Tamoor has 100% restored my faith in GB's future.

I have only subscribed to premium once before but the announcement of the new members drove me to re-up I am keen to see how the new content goes.

I obviously would have preferred for Jeff to stay on board, but if that wasn't in the cards for whatever reason, I think this is about the best possible outcome. I'm excited to see what Jeff does on his own and I can't wait to see what this crew does.

Lucy and Tamoor still being at Gamespot is a bit odd to me....how the hell will they juggle everything...for me feels more like its the rest are core group with them contributing content, how much only time will tell but Tamoor is Managing Editor over at Gamespot thats gotta be an intense job.

This is like the best possible thing that could happen to GB right now. I love Jeff but he obviously was just not vibing anymore. Dan was the most important person in the history of the site. I really do believe that. Things were dire after Ryan's passing and the site barely hummed along, although some great times were had (love the Volgar the Viking playthrough), and Dan's presence instantly changed everything overnight. I'm a little skeptical how much he's really going to commit, given he recently stopped his film podcast due to burnout and said how much more free he felt after leaving GB. But it's nice to have him, all the same. I've been here since year one but barely watched any content since Dan left but now think I'll watch quite a bit. Awesome stuff!

@lonelyspacepanda: Dan Rykert the most important thing to happen to this site?

Bah. BAH I say.

But then, Hell yeah I guess, welcome back Dan! And the Creative Director you-all say! Well, Take down the sails, this boat won't need them to travel.

And my best to the future of G.B. and the staff here who I feel are doing their best to make things work.

@ozzie you nailed my sentiments exactly.

As a fellow long timer who has fallen increasingly out of step with the site (especially in the last year), I was ready to be done completely hearing the news yesterday - Jeff G _is_ Giantbomb...or was, until it became increasingly apparent how unsatisfied he had become with the site's evolution.

But the pickups they've made here, combined with what Jeff G already has cooking up on Patreon makes me think this may be best for everyone. Maybe it'll be more like the old days with Dan returning, maybe it'll continue to be the Jiantbomb of the last year where folks like Jan, Jess and Jeff B guide the content. But I think it will ultimately be for the best.

They handled it as best as they can, Jan kept the energy going, whoever is in charge of business for them besides red ventures folks (armchair speculation is bakalar and Rorie) moved BRILLIANTLY of bringing in Dan and Grubb into the fold properly and RIGHT AWAY

And of course, having those 2 as mains now on here, Dan and Jeff Grub, really goes a long way

So yea, gigantic whiplash, but hopeful for the sites future.

Giving my money to GB, Nextlander, Jeff G and I feel okay with it. Can't wait to see much more from all

It's an incredible lineup. The podcast today was genuinely exciting - this is a great group.

I will not recklessly speculate on whatever may or may not have gone down behind the scenes, but also it's impossible for me to ignore the incredible energy and excitement of the entire crew in talking of their plans moving forward.

I'm optimistic - I do hope the forums, wiki and API will be included in this new direction