Poll What’s your favorite Giant Bomb era? (653 votes)
With everything that has happened with the site in the last few months and it really moving on to something new, I started looking back at Giant Bombs history and all the different incarnations the site has gone through.
I ended up with what I would call 9 different eras in Giant Bomb history and there really is a lot of gold in each period, so I was wondering which one are people's favorite? I could honestly see a good argument for most of them.
I didn't include the newest era as an option, as I didn't feel it's possible to properly judge it yet. And I should be clear that this is not an attempt to shit on the new direction (which I actually like quite a bit) and say that everthing was better back in the old days. Just a fun way to look back at all the awesome things GB has produced.
And to make it easier to understand what actually happened in each era of the poll, here's a short breakdown of each period.
Original era. July 2008-September 2010.
Prominent members of the site: Jeff, Ryan, Brad, Vinny.
The original Giant Bomb from its full launch in july 2008 to the launch of premium in september 2010. A real vibe of 4 dudes just having fun and doing what they feel like and the site was ahead of the curve in a lot of ways compared to other video game sites. Many of the stables of the site started here.
Notable videos/podcasts:
- Endurance Run: Persona 4 + Deadly Premonition
- The beginning of Quick Looks (with all-time greats like Rogue Warrior, Nobi Nobi Boy and Dragon Ball Evolution)
- Lots of video reviews
- TANG
- The Bombcast
Whiskey Media Premium Era. September 2010-March 2012
Prominent members of the site: Jeff, Ryan, Brad, Vinny, Patrick, Dave Snider.
Giant Bomb launches its premium subscription model in september 2010, once again being ahead of the curve compared to other sites. The subscription isn't only to GB though, but also other sites in the Whiskey Media family inkl. Screened, Tested and Comic Vine. From their new basement offices Giant Bomb does a lot of collaboration with the other Whiskey Media sites. Patrick Klepek joins the site in april 2011 and Dave Snider, who had previously just been behind the scenes, starts appearing in more content.
Notable videos/podcasts:
- Whiskey Media Happy Hour
- Thursday Night Throwdown
- Random PC Game
- E3 after hours interviews (the first of these is actually in 2010, but the format with a couch and constantly rotating guest starts in 2011)
- Building the Bastion
Early CBS era. March 2012-July 2013
Prominent members of the site: Jeff, Ryan, Brad, Vinny, Patrick, Drew, Alex, Dave.
In march 2012 Giant Bomb along with Comic Vine gets bought by CBS. Alex Navarro leaves Screened as a consequence of the sale and joins Giant Bomb. The site moves its office to the CBS-building and the webpage has a complete redesign in february 2013. Video editor Drew Scanlon starts to appear more frequently in front of the camera in this as well. In april 2013 Dave Snider announces he is leaving Giant Bomb, at the same time Matthew Rorie joins the site.
Notable videos/podcasts:
- Flight Club
- Breaking Brad: Doom 2 on ultraviolent
- Halo 24 hour maraton
- Backflips N' Bioforge
- The GOTY videos that were all TV-show spoofs aka the best GOTY videos GB has ever done.
Passing of Ryan and the aftermath. July 2013-July 2014.
Prominent members of the site: Jeff, Vinny, Brad, Alex, Patrick, Rorie, Drew
In July 2013 it is revealed that Ryan Davis has tragically passed away. R.I.P Taswell. Obviously a huge blow to the site, but the members and especially Jeff honor his memory and power through. It is also a weird period since Patrick moved to Chicago in June 2013, just weeks before Ryan passed away and is the first person to not work permanently in the office.
Notable videos/podcasts:
- Bombing in the AM with Scoops and the Wolf
- Unprofessional Fridays begins being a permanent feature.
- Breaking Brad: Demon's Soul's
- Load our last Soul's
- 2014 is also the first year the crew decides to just starts to talk over E3 press conferences instead of attending them, something they have done ever since.
Ryckert Era, Gbeast is formed. July 2014-Maj 2015.
Prominent members of the site: Jeff, Vinny, Brad, Alex, Dan, Jason, Drew, Rorie, Patrick.
Dan Ryckert and Jason Oestreicher join the site in july 2014 and a slew of new content follows. It seems like Dan is behind most of the new things the site tries out in this period. At the same time Vinny and Alex move to New York to create the East Coast office aka GBeast. In december 2014 Patrick leaves the site to work for Kotaku.
Notable videos/podcasts:
- Metal Gear Scanlon
- Mario Party Party
- Demo Derby
- Vinnyvania
- And the best quick look if all time: Velvet Sundown
GBeast finds its groove. May 2015-June 2016.
Prominent members of the site: Jeff, Vinny, Brad, Alex, Jason, Dan, Rorie, Austin, Drew, Jeff Bakalar.
In May 2015 Austin Walker joins GBeast. The East Coast office starts to produce a lot more content and really begins to feel like a fully fledged part of GB. One of the new additions is the Beastcast which has Jeff Bakalar as a fourth permanent member.
Notable videos/podcasts:
- GBE playdates with full playthroughs of Contradiction, Until Dawn and Life is Strange, among others.
- Project BEAST
- Game Tapes
- Giant Bomb Makes Mario
- Giant Beastcast
Dan joins GBeast era. June 2016-Maj 2017.
Prominent members of the site: Jeff, Vinny, Brad, Alex, Dan, Jason, Drew, Rorie, Jeff Bakalar.
In June 2016 Austin leaves to create Waypoint. Dan doesn't officially join GBeast before January 2017, but he spends a long time in the New York before that and records a bunch of videos with Vinny and Alex including the Shenmue Endurance Run. In March 2017 Drew leaves to create Cloth Map.
Notable videos/podcasts:
- Endurance Run: Shenmue
- VRodeo
- Brad and Dan Hitman videos + Hitsmas
- This is the Run: Contra + Soul Calibur
- Beast in the East
Young blood era. May 2017-January 2020.
Prominent members of the site: Jeff, Vinny, Alex, Brad, Abby, Ben, Rorie, Jan, Jeff Bakalar.
In May 2017 Abby Russel and Ben Pack join the East and West coast offices respectively. Jan Ochoa joins West in November 2017. All three are young people that bring some new voices to GB. This is a very long era with a lot of great content, especially in GBeast where Dan also pretty much just gets to run wild.
Notable videos/podcasts:
- 13 Deadly Sims
- Burgle my Bananas
- Crime Crew
- Murder Island
- All Systems Goku
Covid, departures og sale to Red Ventures era. January 2020-Maj 2021.
Prominent members of the site: Jeff, Vinny, Brad, Alex, Jason, Abby, Ben, Jan, Rorie, Jeff Bakalar.
In January 2020 Dan leaves the site to go work for WWE. A few months later Covid hits and forces everyone to work from home, drastically changing content. In September 2020 CBS sells Giant Bomb and Gamespot to Red Ventures. Abby leaves in November 2020 and Ben leaves in January 2021. Finally Vinny, Alex and Brad leave in May 2021 and form Nextlander.
Notable videos/podcasts:
- Let's Minecraft Together
- Astronering with Brad and Vinny
- Sea Beasts
- Going Rogue
- The Hotspot
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