What will happen when the original GB crew retire

Okay. I'm 22.

Therefore (apart from Patrick and maybe interns and Drew) I am younger than most of the Giantbomb crew. Therefore, when these fine gentlemen do decide to retire what will happen to the site. Patrick will remain, but will they hire new talent?

I'm just interested?

Cheers.

Depends. They could decide to shut down the site when (possibly before) they retire. If there's any new talent by then, I would imagine they would be left to carry the torch.

The day Jeff leaves, he'll take that whole building down with him. You think he'd let someone else run Giant Bomb?

The next ET will have come out and the industry as a whole will be dead by then. Don't worry.

Not sure, but excessive amounts of fire and alcohol will be involved.

Patrick's 27 dude and I'm sure Drew isn't too far off from there

I'm more interested in when they retire. I don't see them doing this past their mid forties, at least the reviewing aspect.

Cyborgs

Jeff has said many times that this is a personality driven site. If Vinny, Ryan, Drew, or Brad left, I'd probably get my game coverage from another site. By the way, its not a shot against Patrick, but he hasn't distinguished himself in any major way.

Do you guys really think the site will last that long? I mean, I hope it does, but it seems like the crew still has a good long while to go before they even think about retiring, and by that point, will this website even make sense anymore in its current form?

I would assume they would be stuffed and placed in the TNT studio where they would remain for all time.

I find this conversation uncomfortable. Mainly the fact that Patrick has been singled out from the start (not in a bad way, still singled out) that leaves it open for this thread to turn into a Bitch about Patrick thread. Something we have had enough of lately.

Secondly, GB is still young and small. I expect another 10 years if the site is still going that it will have pulled more cycles of people on board if they were ever going to grow bigger.

If not and GB continues to pride itself on being small while the fanbase isnt. (the more likely outcome) Then the GB crew will only retire when GB isnt popular any more and cant make a decent living from it..

Retire? That's like, 30-40 years from now.

I wouldn't be surprised if Giant Bomb goes on for another 5-10 years, though. If Jeff and company were going to go in game development or another industry altogether, it would've happened by now. Some accuse Jeff of being jaded, but he's in the extreme minority of people who have been in the gaming press for years and never jumped ship to be a community manager for 2K or whatever.

If they left, I'm following them. If they decide not to ever cover games again and retire, well, then I guess I'll just have to remember this period of my life fondly. GB won't and can't last forever - nothing ever does. With luck, they MIGHT find people to replace them, but I doubt it.

All good things must end eventually. Seems likely the site would be gone before anyone gets the chance to retire but if it did come to that I would think they would slowly start introducing a new bombcrew to take over for them.

They'd probably shut down the site once they're at the point of retirement.

If they were to retire and Giant Bomb still existed, we should be thankful for everything the crew has done to entertain us over the several decades of its existence.

I will turn off the internet i suppose.

CBS may try to keep the site going with new talent. It will probably fail. Or, it will succeed and speak to the people of that generation. 
Either way, it will be a different world by then. 
When these guys retire, i'll be retiring too (i'm about the same age as Ryan). That's a long ways away.

Start a new site.

Matt. Kessler.

We all will be ruled over by a horrible race of cyber cubes at that point anyways.

I'd like to think Ryan retires from his job at Giantbomb only to work a circuit as a mall Santa Claus. Who would then be arrested for public intoxication. So basically he would be living bad santa.

Well, what I really think is that they will find a way to clone themselves, and then we can have GB forever.

I'm sure some 500lb box of "museum quality" Atari Lynx games will fall on Jeff killing him.

@Demoskinos said:

I'd like to think Ryan retires from his job at Giantbomb only to work a circuit as a mall Santa Claus. Who would then be arrested for public intoxication. So basically he would be living bad santa.

I want a new Bad Santa movie staring Ryan Davis. Make that happen for next years GOTY.

Am I the only one that would be fine with Giant Bomb: The Next Generation? Same personality-driven site, same stupid memes, but a fresh new cast. Not that I'd prefer that over the current Bomb Squad, but I'd rather see them pass the torch to a new crew than let the site die.

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

@Demoskinos said:

I'd like to think Ryan retires from his job at Giantbomb only to work a circuit as a mall Santa Claus. Who would then be arrested for public intoxication. So basically he would be living bad santa.

I want a new Bad Santa movie staring Ryan Davis. Make that happen for next years GOTY.

I'm going to co-sign this idea.

Will the internet even be recognizable when that happens?

I hope we're not still coming home to devices to access networked content in ten years.

I'm just going to assume I'll be dead at that point.

@mlarrabee said:

Will the internet even be recognizable when that happens?

I hope we're not still coming home to devices to access networked content in ten years.

We will just have this relayed directly into our mind computers.

Knowing those guys, we've probably got a good 20 years left before they even think about retiring.

As long as there are games, they will always be Jeff, Ryan, Brad, Patrick and Vinny.

Edit: How could I forget Brad?? I'm a bad person.

I'm sure that won't happen for another good 10 years. I don't think that far ahead.

This thread will be made again.

@BestUsernameEver said:

Matt. Kessler.

CBS might try to keep the Bomb going, but it wouldn't be giant anymore.

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

@Demoskinos said:

I'd like to think Ryan retires from his job at Giantbomb only to work a circuit as a mall Santa Claus. Who would then be arrested for public intoxication. So basically he would be living bad santa.

I want a new Bad Santa movie staring Ryan Davis. Make that happen for next years GOTY.

What's wrong with this year's GOTYs? I don't want to wait till 2014 to see a bad Santa Ryan!

@Pr1mus said:

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

@Demoskinos said:

I'd like to think Ryan retires from his job at Giantbomb only to work a circuit as a mall Santa Claus. Who would then be arrested for public intoxication. So basically he would be living bad santa.

I want a new Bad Santa movie staring Ryan Davis. Make that happen for next years GOTY.

What's wrong with this year's GOTYs? I don't want to wait till 2014 to see a bad Santa Ryan!

I meant 2013. Still getting used to it being that year.

@TheSouthernDandy said:

The day Jeff leaves, he'll take that whole building down with him. You think he'd let someone else run Giant Bomb?

Ryan will take fully over. I suspect he does a lot of the day by day right now. But these guys will completely call it quits as GB, or go through personel changes, hard to say. I do agree Jeff is the consummate pro, but he isn't the only one running the show. And of course the idea behind GB is that staff members bring their own abilities to the table.

I actually wonder about this myself, fearing Brad may actually leave someday. He really contributes in his own unique way and provides a balance in personality. Or that Vinny will get a better offer somewhere, or say Drew. Drew shows talent and may want a shot at something bigger.

So it goes, but it hasn't happened yet. Very Good Gaming Site to be sure, through the ups and downs.

I fear that the moment the main crew (or even just Jeff) leaves, memberships will drop and CBSi will decide "fuck it" and just merge the site with gamespot.

@TheSouthernDandy said:

The day Jeff leaves, he'll take that whole building down with him. You think he'd let someone else run Giant Bomb?

For some reason this comment makes me think will start dressing like Hideo Kojima one day.

I've thought about this as well. If someone was ever to leave Giant Bomb, it just wouldn't be the same. I think they'll just keep covering video games for Giant Bomb for the rest of their careers, and in the end they'll decide togheter when it's time to call it a day.

I'm willing to bet that by the time the GB crew retires, most of us won't be all that interested in games anyway.

@wjb said:

Retire? That's like, 30-40 years from now.

I wouldn't be surprised if Giant Bomb goes on for another 5-10 years, though. If Jeff and company were going to go in game development or another industry altogether, it would've happened by now. Some accuse Jeff of being jaded, but he's in the extreme minority of people who have been in the gaming press for years and never jumped ship to be a community manager for 2K or whatever.

Jeff would never leave Giant Bomb. Not until he has footage of every single game at least. Lately, he's been super interested in the preservation of games, and that's his mission going forward.

@BabyChooChoo said:

Depends. They could decide to shut down the site when (possibly before) they retire. If there's any new talent by then, I would imagine they would be left to carry the torch.

I'm pretty sure that would be up to CBS; not the dudes.

By that time, Vinny and Daves' kids will be old enough to work there. The second generation is starting to take shape.

I'm less worried about what happens when the boys start to think about hanging up the trunks than I am whether or not an idea like Giant Bomb will be sustainable up until that time. I don't know that we're in a place where we can really say what would be a thing that people can do in ten years, so maybe the landscape is so different by the time the boys are done that they're already doing their third or fourth thing since the giant bomb. Im' drunk and I guess I'm thinking about wrestling a lot, so I keep saying the boys. Worked shoot.

I've been wondering this for the past couple weeks, too. Being in my mid (ugh, almost late) 30s -- the same age as most of the dudes -- I've wondered what will happen to game journalism and coverage over the next few years to couple of decades. At 40, 45, 50 or older, will Jeff and the rest of the gang (and other reviewers and journalists) still be doing this? Will their content and viewpoints still be relevant? Will younger people be coming to a person who is way over the ill to hear their thoughts about the latest shooter or other games? Will the context they can provide with a history of games back to the 80s remain relevant to people and reviews? Or will a new generation take over?

I mean, my guess is that I wont' be able to play competitive shooters after the next five years. I'll be too old. If I'm too old to be able to play a game with much skill at all, can I offer much in the way of a meaningful review of it?

Will the older generation of game journalists all move on to editor positions? (Does that even exist anymore? It seems like EVERY author on a site is now an EDITOR OF SOMETHING OR OTHER and there is no traditional EIC that does actual EIC oversight). As my age group advances, this is really the first time this shift has occurred in this field. Is there room for us? If so, are they niches? Will it only be catering to other aging players?

I would sincerely appreciate knowing @Jeff 's and @Ryan 's and the others' thoughts on this in the overall context; not just in respect to "what will happen to GB".

@notdavid said:

Am I the only one that would be fine with Giant Bomb: The Next Generation? Same personality-driven site, same stupid memes, but a fresh new cast. Not that I'd prefer that over the current Bomb Squad, but I'd rather see them pass the torch to a new crew than let the site die.

No, because I'm old and fuck young people.