At this point it seems most GB users know that Whiskey Media was sold. Screened, Tested & Anime Vice have gone to BermanBraun. If I'm honest though I very rarely visit those sites - I'm all about GB. Sadly I've seen a lot of people saying stuff along the lines of "giantbomb is dead" or "gb sold out". Those things couldn't be further than the truth and frankly its a little disappointing to me that the GB community would be so quick to complain without learning some facts. Then again, internet.

Now for some bullet points. This must mean these are facts, right?

• Jeff was fired by idiots. Corporate idiots who didn't really give a shit about honest opinions because they were too busy worrying about revenue.
• Those idiots are no longer at Gamespot. I wouldn't be surprised if 95% of the management team & corporate board they had back then has "moved on".
• GB is not becoming GS. This means that it will be the same site. You'll get the same content, same reviews, same personalities, same chilli recipes.
• All of Whiskey Media was sold. In this situation I think going to the people who own GS was the best thing to do. If not them then who, IGN? Gawker? Or perhaps another WM style startup? Or maybe they could have just given up. When you look at those options CBSI was the only way to go.

Another fact is that Jeff joined GS in 1996 when it was a small independent company. One could say that it wouldn't exist in its current form if it weren't for the likes of him. He put in a solid 11 years before being let go. That must have stung like a bitch. Especially since it wasn't really about his performance, at least not that I could see. When you get fired they always say something like "Sorry but you're not quite going in our direction". Sometimes that's code for "I personally don't like you and have the power to fire you so I am doing that". Not saying that happened but back then GS was the site I went to for reviews and for the most part they were high quality reviews so IMO he was doing his job well.

The bottom line is I trust that Jeff, Ryan, Vinny, Brad, Dave and the rest of the crew know what they're doing. Hell, look at what they accomplished with GB in the span of 3 and a bit years. They built this site and this community from the ground up. Now they're taking it on to bigger & better things.

Exactly, these are the same dudes. They are not going to change who they are. I'll admit, when it all went down at Gamespot in 2007, I worked with others to rally everyone on the site to cancel their subscriptions. I was so mad I wanted to tear down Gamespot. I wanted the site to die and after all this campaigning and ranting I left the site and never looked back. Seeing the heartfelt video they made for Jeff even though he was fired did not clue me in on the truth. The truth was the people left behind were good people and they were devastated about losing a great friend and boss. The things Ryan MacDonald had to say... The management were the bad ones. I feel bad for acting the way I did now that I saw Jeff being straight up about what happened and how he felt bad for the editors left at the site who just had their integrity stolen from them by management. Just the fact CBS was willing to let the truth out finally shows a lot. I'm looking forward to a brighter future for GB. I'm glad the management team responsible is no longer there and I hope the same is true at Eidos Interactive. Maybe when Square Enix bought them they lost their jobs too. We can only hope.

You're right, I'm just worried about what will happen to the other sites. I loved how much of a family they were and now everyone is moving on.

So. I'm a working man and haven't been able to follow most of this.  Here are the parts I'm getting:
Whiskey Media was bought by CBS. Got it.
Giant Bomb and Comic Vine are moving their offices to Gamespot.   

The big question: Do I still follow the Bombcast or Hotspot for my weekly Ryan, Jeff, Vinny, Brad fix?

Sounds like Giant Bomb, Comic Vine, and Tested are moving into a pretty great situation. Screened seems in more precarious situation. Not sure what's going on there exactly but Rorie is a cool dude and hope every thing works out for him.

Exactly, as long as these guys stay the same, and site only changes for the better, Im all for this merger. I could never see Jeff selling his soul to the man, he would have rather killed Giantbomb then have it become crap.

@JerK said:

Sounds like Giant Bomb, Comic Vine, and Tested are moving into a pretty great situation. Screened seems in more precarious situation. Not sure what's going on there exactly but Rorie is a cool dude and hope every thing works out for him.

yeah I'm super worried about rorie.

@Unchained said:

So. I'm a working man and haven't been able to follow most of this. Here are the parts I'm getting:Whiskey Media was bought by CBS. Got it. Giant Bomb and Comic Vine are moving their offices to Gamespot. The big question: Do I still follow the Bombcast or Hotspot for my weekly Ryan, Jeff, Vinny, Brad fix?

GiantBomb will still be Giantbomb. QL, ER, TNT, Bombcasts, Random PC... Everything will still be the same.

The biggest change is that Giantbomb will have more money now and they will be able to do more things that they've wanted to do.

This is the natural evolution of Giantbomb. From a company ran by a couple of dudes in a basement, to something more legitimate like the Whiskey Media's office/bar. This is just another step they have to take to make everyone happier.

Anyone know whats happening with Coonce?

@Unchained said:

So. I'm a working man and haven't been able to follow most of this. Here are the parts I'm getting:Whiskey Media was bought by CBS. Got it. Giant Bomb and Comic Vine are moving their offices to Gamespot. The big question: Do I still follow the Bombcast or Hotspot for my weekly Ryan, Jeff, Vinny, Brad fix?

Whiskey Media wasn't acquired by CBSi. Giant Bomb and Comic Vine were acquired by CBSi. Tested, Screened, and Anime Vice are going to a separate company. If you haven't seen the news on Tested though (and care at all about Tested.com) I suggest you do it. They've got some huge things in store and possibly are the ones making out the best out of all of the sites. And you'll still follow the Bombcast.

@Deusx said:

You're right, I'm just worried about what will happen to the other sites. I loved how much of a family they were and now everyone is moving on.

this is the main thing i think. most thtink the individual sites should be fine (except screened) its just the end of whiskey media as a family that's sad.

@Animasta said:

@JerK said:

Sounds like Giant Bomb, Comic Vine, and Tested are moving into a pretty great situation. Screened seems in more precarious situation. Not sure what's going on there exactly but Rorie is a cool dude and hope every thing works out for him.

yeah I'm super worried about rorie.

Considering how Jeff stated that he wants Giant Bomb to expand, Rorie probably has a good back up plan.

But it's not really the crew that concerns me, of course they will be the same awesome guys who work their butts off. It's the fact that CBS owns them now and the crew will answer to them. There will be corporate hands all up in this cookie jar.

@yakov456: but then they can all leave and start up GiantBoat.com

So. I'm a working man and haven't been able to follow most of this.  Here are the parts I'm getting:Whiskey Media was bought by CBS. Got it. Giant Bomb and Comic Vine are moving their offices to Gamespot.    The big question: Do I still follow the Bombcast or Hotspot for my weekly Ryan, Jeff, Vinny, Brad fix?

@Turkish_Heavy said:

Anyone know whats happening with Coonce?

Coonce is staying with Tested/Anime Vive/Screened as an engineer :(

@Unchained said:

@Castermhief117: Thanks for the update. Good for the Giant Bomb crew. I bet they got a nice payout out of the deal. They earned that. I'm very happy for them.

No problem.

Moreover, I am excited at how this will be able to let Jeff and the crew actually make the content they wanted to. Jeff mentioned in the video this morning that they had certain limitations in what they were capable of but now would be fixed.

Also, you may or may not be interested, but the guys over at Tested are changing their site focus to more than just technology and are teaming up with the Mythbusters to create better online content.

@Castermhief117 said:

@Turkish_Heavy said:

Anyone know whats happening with Coonce?

Coonce is staying with Tested/Anime Vive/Screened as an engineer :(

Fear not, though. The GB crew has made it pretty clear that they plan to keep in touch as much as possible, and possibly get some of the Tested and Screened crew in for Bombcasts and other fun stuff. Still, it is sad that we won't get to see them all interacting on a daily basis. I just hope Will and Norm don't forget about the rest of us now that they're rubbing elbows with big-name stars like Jamie and Adam from Mythbusters.

@Deusx said:

You're right, I'm just worried about what will happen to the other sites. I loved how much of a family they were and now everyone is moving on.

Seems Tested got it good with the deal (Fucking Mythbusters, man!). AnimeVice will still be about anime. Screened's situation seems unclear, but I want Rorie to join the GB crew. ComicVine joined with Giantbomb, so I'm guessing they'll be the same too. I do, like you said, wish they all could be in the same office.

I didn't actually watch the Tested video before but wow - that's amazing news for those guys. I tend not to read tech news too much because I'm pretty happy with the gear that I have but I do love me some Mythbusters.

When I wrote this thing I wasn't even thinking about the money. That part is pretty damn rad. Already we've had a couple of pics of the GS video equipment and man, they have a setup and a half. If GB gets some equipment like theirs it'll be bananas, plus make the jobs of Vinny, Drew & whomever else works on video/audio easier. There'll be less to worry about when it comes to events too. Not that WM seemed too strapped for cash but hey - maybe this will mean more trips overseas and whatnot.

Sometimes money is evil yes, but in situations like this more money means great things are coming.

@yakov456 said:

But it's not really the crew that concerns me, of course they will be the same awesome guys who work their butts off. It's the fact that CBS owns them now and the crew will answer to them. There will be corporate hands all up in this cookie jar.

Bingo. You can paint as rosy a picture as you want but the fact of the matter is that the same corporation that fired Jeff for costing them ad revenue is the same corporation that they're going back to work for now. The novelty of Giant Bomb was that they answered to no one, there was no one at the top trying to influence things. I'm sure at the start everything will be all rainbows and puppy dogs, but what happens two years from now when CBSi looks to start making budget cuts? Do they fire staff? Do they question why they have two websites covering the exact same thing? In the past, none of this mattered because Giant Bomb and Whiskey Media were in control of these decisions. Now the decision goes to the corporate overlord who doesn't care how funny Brad or Vinny are, they're looking at numbers in a spreadsheet and want to cut payroll, therefore they get the ax.

If the duders are happy, then I'm happy for them. I'm sure they all got nice pay raises and as was mentioned above they definitely earned it. But I think it's a little naive to say "nothing's changing! Everything's staying the same, except only better." These guys got burned working for the man before, it's the whole reason this site exists to begin with. It's within the realm of possibility to say that it could happen again.

Fake edit: I sound like a goddamn Occupy Wall Street hippy.

Real edit: typos and such.

Real edit #2: This has come up several time, so let me clarify this here. I'm not talking from an editorial side, where a shadowy hand comes down and says "You must give this game this score to appease our advertisers" (although they did it once so who knows if it can happen again). I'm talking from a pure business perspective, where a shadowy hand comes in and says "We're making budget cuts and letting go of x, y, and z. Also, we're cutting bandwidth costs, so cut back on the video content. Oh, and we're also plastering your site with a shit ton of ads to raise revenue. Oh, and you're going to start making lists where every item is on a separate page to increase page hits and ad counts." Stuff that the Giant Bomb staff might not necessarily have a say in.

@Grimluck343 said:

@yakov456 said:

But it's not really the crew that concerns me, of course they will be the same awesome guys who work their butts off. It's the fact that CBS owns them now and the crew will answer to them. There will be corporate hands all up in this cookie jar.

Bingo. You can paint as rosy a picture as you want but the fact of the matter is that the same corporation that fired Jeff for costing them ad revenue is the same corporation that they're going back to work for now. The novelty of Giant Bomb was that they answered to no one, there was no one at the top trying to influence things. I'm sure at the start everything will be all rainbows and puppy dogs, but what happens two years from now when CBSi looks to start making budget cuts? Do they fire staff? Do they question why they have two websites covering the exact same thing? In past, none of this mattered because Giant Bomb and Whiskey Media were in control of these decisions. Now the decision goes to the corporate overlord who doesn't care how funny Brad or Vinny are, they're looking at numbers in a spreadsheet and want to cut payroll, therefore they get the ax.

If the duders are happy, then I'm happy for them. I'm sure they all got nice pay raises and as was mentioned above they definitely earned it. But I think it's a little naive to say "nothing's changing! Everything's staying the same, except only better." These guys got burned working for the man before, it's the whole reason this site exists to begin with. It's within the realm of possibility to say that it could happen again.

Fake edit: I sound like a goddamn Occupy Wall Street hippy.

Give this man a raise! Hit the nail on the head!

@Grimluck343: Do you really think that Jeff would compromise his editorial integrity in this move? Jeff worked for Gamespot for over a decade. He knows exactly what he is going back to and knows enough about the games industry and game journalism to make the smartest move for his company and for his readers. People like you who immediately think that this move is GB "selling out to the man" are insane - not every corporation is a fucking EA or Activision. You seem to think that when CBSi "inevitably" has cuts, someone is just going to throw a fucking dart at a board of names, which is preposterous.

@Grimluck343 said:

@yakov456 said:

But it's not really the crew that concerns me, of course they will be the same awesome guys who work their butts off. It's the fact that CBS owns them now and the crew will answer to them. There will be corporate hands all up in this cookie jar.

Bingo. You can paint as rosy a picture as you want but the fact of the matter is that the same corporation that fired Jeff for costing them ad revenue is the same corporation that they're going back to work for now. The novelty of Giant Bomb was that they answered to no one, there was no one at the top trying to influence things. I'm sure at the start everything will be all rainbows and puppy dogs, but what happens two years from now when CBSi looks to start making budget cuts? Do they fire staff? Do they question why they have two websites covering the exact same thing? In the past, none of this mattered because Giant Bomb and Whiskey Media were in control of these decisions. Now the decision goes to the corporate overlord who doesn't care how funny Brad or Vinny are, they're looking at numbers in a spreadsheet and want to cut payroll, therefore they get the ax.

If the duders are happy, then I'm happy for them. I'm sure they all got nice pay raises and as was mentioned above they definitely earned it. But I think it's a little naive to say "nothing's changing! Everything's staying the same, except only better." These guys got burned working for the man before, it's the whole reason this site exists to begin with. It's within the realm of possibility to say that it could happen again.

Fake edit: I sound like a goddamn Occupy Wall Street hippy.

Real edit: typos and such.

Exactly, this is what I've been thinking since the news yesterday. It doesn't make business sense to have two websites owned by one company competing with each other in todays economy. It might not happen for awhile but, one day the CEOs are going to make some budget cuts.

If it prevents their paycheques from bouncing, good for them.

@Brewmaster_Andy said:

@Grimluck343: Do you really think that Jeff would compromise his editorial integrity in this move? Jeff worked for Gamespot for over a decade. He knows exactly what he is going back to and knows enough about the games industry and game journalism to make the smartest move for his company and for his readers. People like you who immediately think that this move is GB "selling out to the man" are insane - not every corporation is a fucking EA or Activision. You seem to think that when CBSi "inevitably" has cuts, someone is just going to throw a fucking dart at a board of names, which is preposterous.

I never questioned the integrity of anyone on the staff, nor do I think they "sold out" to anyone. I think there are serious repercussions to moving back to being owned by a corporation, and it isn't all peachy.

I think when CBSi "inevitably" makes cuts, the Giant Bomb guys aren't going to be the ones making the decisions, it's going to be the suits in the office suites.

@powicewobots: It is much, much more naive to assume that this move is going to spell eventual death for Giant Bomb as we know it. Not every corporate move heralds the End of Days.

@Grimluck343: Did you question their integrity directly? No - but you certainly implied that there are consequences that Giant Bomb did not think about. Again, do you think that Jeff, Ryan, and everyone else ignored the possible consequences of this move? Of course they didn't - they have probably thought well beyond any of your assumptions, and would never have signed off on a deal that would compromise their site's integrity, whether that compromise is immediate or in the future.

@Grimluck343 said:

@yakov456 said:

But it's not really the crew that concerns me, of course they will be the same awesome guys who work their butts off. It's the fact that CBS owns them now and the crew will answer to them. There will be corporate hands all up in this cookie jar.

Bingo. You can paint as rosy a picture as you want but the fact of the matter is that the same corporation that fired Jeff for costing them ad revenue is the same corporation that they're going back to work for now. The novelty of Giant Bomb was that they answered to no one, there was no one at the top trying to influence things. I'm sure at the start everything will be all rainbows and puppy dogs, but what happens two years from now when CBSi looks to start making budget cuts? Do they fire staff? Do they question why they have two websites covering the exact same thing? In the past, none of this mattered because Giant Bomb and Whiskey Media were in control of these decisions. Now the decision goes to the corporate overlord who doesn't care how funny Brad or Vinny are, they're looking at numbers in a spreadsheet and want to cut payroll, therefore they get the ax.

If the duders are happy, then I'm happy for them. I'm sure they all got nice pay raises and as was mentioned above they definitely earned it. But I think it's a little naive to say "nothing's changing! Everything's staying the same, except only better." These guys got burned working for the man before, it's the whole reason this site exists to begin with. It's within the realm of possibility to say that it could happen again.

Fake edit: I sound like a goddamn Occupy Wall Street hippy.

Real edit: typos and such.

Exactly, this is what I've been thinking since the news yesterday. It doesn't make business sense to have two websites owned by one company competing with each other in todays economy. It might not happen for awhile but, one day the CEOs are going to make some budget cuts.

My two favourite sites have just gotten better. I couldn't be happier for you guys.

I'm pretty excited what GB will be able to come up with next, give the larger resources over at Gamespot. Namely, bigger splosions'.

Edit - As long as both sites remain separate identities, (it would actually make no sense for them not to) I am absolutely for the move.

@Turkish_Heavy said:

Anyone know whats happening with Coonce?

Coonce sounds like a derogatory term for vagina.

@Brewmaster_Andy I don't understand why you're stuck on this. I'm not talking about the integrity of anyone on the staff either directly or indirectly. Now if you want to try and make the argument that Jeff and Ryan have predicted every conceivable outcome of this deal from every angle and they haven't envisioned a single way in which things could not turn out for the absolute best, well, that's exactly the argument I'm calling naive. But I'm not calling anyone a liar.

@dibdab It's two websites that cover video games. The exact same games in many cases. How would they not compete with each other? Sure they cover games in completely different ways, but at the end of the day they're still covering the same stuff.

You're 100% correct, but as long as there is a shadow of a doubt that things can go wrong, I'll still remain cautiously optimistic.

@Grimluck343 said:

I think when CBSi "inevitably" makes cuts, the Giant Bomb guys aren't going to be the ones making the decisions, it's going to be the suits in the office suites.

While it's certainly possible, I think the biggest difference between that potential/inevitable future and what happened 5 or 6 years ago is that the GB folks now know that they have the skills, talent, etc. to go somewhere else and start again if they need to.

@sarahsdad said:

@Grimluck343 said:

I think when CBSi "inevitably" makes cuts, the Giant Bomb guys aren't going to be the ones making the decisions, it's going to be the suits in the office suites.

While it's certainly possible, I think the biggest difference between that potential/inevitable future and what happened 5 or 6 years ago is that the GB folks now know that they have the skills, talent, etc. to go somewhere else and start again if they need to.

This is definitely true, but then the question becomes what was the point? Now you're completely back to square one and starting over from scratch again.

@Grimluck343: I understand that you aren't specifically calling out any of the guys for being naive, etc. All I'm saying is that the original argument that you presented about the possibility of job cuts down the road is a very basic idea that I am SURE they thought about before making this move. Your original argument makes it sound like you think they didn't really think through the implications of the move, which I'm sure they did. The basic "problems" with corporate ownership that you address in the original post I responded to are fairly common assumptions about the corporate realm that Jeff, Ryan, Dave and the rest are in a much better position than us to anticipate and consider. I know they didn't think through EVERY possible outcome, because you're right, thinking that would be naive. However, they most assuredly thought through those bigger possible consequences before signing anything.

Someone in another thread just suggested looking at the 7/19/11 podcast and cutting to 1:39:00
 
Ryan: PopCap is wholly owned by Electronic Arts.
Jeff: Ah, and they have said the secret is that we're not going to mess them up. We're just going to let them do what they do.
Ryan:  Uh huh..Sure..for now.
Jeff: Not at all a common phrase when someone is buying something else.
Ryan: Yeah, nobody ever says we are going to come in and dismantle this whole fucking organization. 
..........
Jeff: It's great until it's not.
 
How eery that 9 months later we would see Jeff and Ryan using these same arguments to talk up their return to the Gamespot office.  There is no way that 2 game content sites maintain independence sitting in the same office.

@Grimluck343 said:

@Brewmaster_Andy said:

@Grimluck343: Do you really think that Jeff would compromise his editorial integrity in this move? Jeff worked for Gamespot for over a decade. He knows exactly what he is going back to and knows enough about the games industry and game journalism to make the smartest move for his company and for his readers. People like you who immediately think that this move is GB "selling out to the man" are insane - not every corporation is a fucking EA or Activision. You seem to think that when CBSi "inevitably" has cuts, someone is just going to throw a fucking dart at a board of names, which is preposterous.

I never questioned the integrity of anyone on the staff, nor do I think they "sold out" to anyone. I think there are serious repercussions to moving back to being owned by a corporation, and it isn't all peachy.

I think when CBSi "inevitably" makes cuts, the Giant Bomb guys aren't going to be the ones making the decisions, it's going to be the suits in the office suites.

@goatmilk said:

At this point it seems most GB users know that Whiskey Media was sold. Screened, Tested & Anime Vice have gone to BermanBraun. If I'm honest though I very rarely visit those sites - I'm all about GB. Sadly I've seen a lot of people saying stuff along the lines of "giantbomb is dead" or "gb sold out". Those things couldn't be further than the truth and frankly its a little disappointing to me that the GB community would be so quick to complain without learning some facts. Then again, internet.

Now for some bullet points. This must mean these are facts, right?

• Jeff was fired by idiots. Corporate idiots who didn't really give a shit about honest opinions because they were too busy worrying about revenue.
• Those idiots are no longer at Gamespot. I wouldn't be surprised if 95% of the management team & corporate board they had back then has "moved on".
• GB is not becoming GS. This means that it will be the same site. You'll get the same content, same reviews, same personalities, same chilli recipes.
• All of Whiskey Media was sold. In this situation I think going to the people who own GS was the best thing to do. If not them then who, IGN? Gawker? Or perhaps another WM style startup? Or maybe they could have just given up. When you look at those options CBSI was the only way to go.

Another fact is that Jeff joined GS in 1996 when it was a small independent company. One could say that it wouldn't exist in its current form if it weren't for the likes of him. He put in a solid 11 years before being let go. That must have stung like a bitch. Especially since it wasn't really about his performance, at least not that I could see. When you get fired they always say something like "Sorry but you're not quite going in our direction". Sometimes that's code for "I personally don't like you and have the power to fire you so I am doing that". Not saying that happened but back then GS was the site I went to for reviews and for the most part they were high quality reviews so IMO he was doing his job well.

The bottom line is I trust that Jeff, Ryan, Vinny, Brad, Dave and the rest of the crew know what they're doing. Hell, look at what they accomplished with GB in the span of 3 and a bit years. They built this site and this community from the ground up. Now they're taking it on to bigger & better things.

You sir, are far too level headed for the internet... You may need to leave.

On a side note, I agree with everything you said, but I will add that Tested and Screened are great sites that I'll continue to visit. Also, that John Davison is really awesome and has been for a long time, I trust him and Jeff with this situation.

@Brewmaster_Andy Just because they thought of the possible scenarios doesn't mean that they suddenly go away. And maybe I was being too specific in my example of cutting payroll, because the changes that can come from upstairs can be a lot more subtle in ways that can negatively affect the site. And I'm not talking about "journalistic integrity" where a suit says "Hey, massage this paragraph to make it not sound so negative about the game," I'm talking about things like "Bandwidth costs are killing us, tell those duders to cut down on the Quick Looks and Endurance Runs," that sort of thing (to use another overgeneralized example to replace another).

And you're right. The guys obviously weighed out the scenarios and the pros overcame the cons. But that doesn't mean the cons don't still exist, and they are still worrisome.

I don't really have any issue with any of the guys on the editorial side at GameSpot. I think those guys are working for their visitor's best interests. It's the people outside of their editorial staff that obviously don't give two shits about anyone who goes to their site. All you need to do to realize that is to go to their homepage and look at all of the ads that it make it a fucking terrible user experience. Those same people making those decisions are now the people that Giant Bomb are going to be answering to, and that makes me worry.

Someone in another thread just suggested looking at the 7/19/11 podcast and cutting to 1:39:00   

Ryan: PopCap is wholly owned by Electronic Arts. 
Jeff: Ah, and they have said the secret is that we're not going to mess them up. We're just going to let them do what they do. 
Ryan:  Uh huh..Sure..for now. 
Jeff: Not at all a common phrase when someone is buying something else. 
Ryan: Yeah, nobody ever says we are going to come in and dismantle this whole fucking organization.  .......... 
 
Jeff: It's great until it's not. 
 
How eery that 9 months later we would see Jeff and Ryan using these same arguments to talk up their return to the Gamespot office.  There is no way that 2 game content sites maintain independence sitting in the same office.

@Grimluck343 said:

@yakov456 said:

But it's not really the crew that concerns me, of course they will be the same awesome guys who work their butts off. It's the fact that CBS owns them now and the crew will answer to them. There will be corporate hands all up in this cookie jar.

Bingo. You can paint as rosy a picture as you want but the fact of the matter is that the same corporation that fired Jeff for costing them ad revenue is the same corporation that they're going back to work for now. The novelty of Giant Bomb was that they answered to no one, there was no one at the top trying to influence things. I'm sure at the start everything will be all rainbows and puppy dogs, but what happens two years from now when CBSi looks to start making budget cuts? Do they fire staff? Do they question why they have two websites covering the exact same thing? In the past, none of this mattered because Giant Bomb and Whiskey Media were in control of these decisions. Now the decision goes to the corporate overlord who doesn't care how funny Brad or Vinny are, they're looking at numbers in a spreadsheet and want to cut payroll, therefore they get the ax.

If the duders are happy, then I'm happy for them. I'm sure they all got nice pay raises and as was mentioned above they definitely earned it. But I think it's a little naive to say "nothing's changing! Everything's staying the same, except only better." These guys got burned working for the man before, it's the whole reason this site exists to begin with. It's within the realm of possibility to say that it could happen again.

Whiskey Media is/was owned by Shelby Bonnie, one of the co-founders of CNET. The corporation that fired Jeff from GS. Sure, Shelby had the previous year but still. Giantbomb was owned by WM which, while not a large corporation, was still a company that they had to answer to. From all accounts it was a very different beast to CNET/CBSi but still, they had to answer to someone at the end of the day whether it be Shelby or whoever it was that canned Jeff from CNET.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think GB will be around in its current form forever but I don't see how they'll become doomed in the immediate future. They firmly stated in the pancake video that they're retaining full creative control which is a pretty big win for them.

Yeah, I saw at least one other person said this, my only problem with the new situation is that everybody's not together any more. Sad to have the WM family spreading away from each other, but I trust they'll all keep making quality content, so everything should be okay.

@Grimluck343: The biggest thing is that according to Jeff, the current staff at GB is going to maintain full editorial control of their site. I'm sure that those sorts of things are outlined in legal documents signed by both parties. Will there be unintended consequences? Sure! But I don't think it will be as drastic as everyone seems to make it out to be. Sorry if I jumped down your throat, but I've been frustrated with the negativity and you got to be my scapegoat. Come to PAX East and I'll give you one of this year's beers :)

@Grimluck343: Exactly.

Corporate media organisations do often change their content focus and management structure to either increase profit or chase industry trends. So while the current management might be suitable for Giantbomb what happens if that changes in a year or two? Was it not a change of management and the conflicts that arose following that led to the creation of Giantbomb?

Oh well. if they think this was the best option then will have to hope it turns out for the best. I do love this site and the community that has grown around it.

Also I am going to miss Coonce

@Brewmaster_Andy said:

@Grimluck343: The biggest thing is that according to Jeff, the current staff at GB is going to maintain full editorial control of their site. I'm sure that those sorts of things are outlined in legal documents signed by both parties. Will there be unintended consequences? Sure! But I don't think it will be as drastic as everyone seems to make it out to be. Sorry if I jumped down your throat, but I've been frustrated with the negativity and you got to be my scapegoat. Come to PAX East and I'll give you one of this year's beers :)

God I wish I could go to PAX this year (or any year!) I'd take you up on that :D

Emotions are running high and God knows I want this to work out for everyone involved. I remember the first time I came to this site was to watch the Persona 4 Endurance Run. I finished it in two days and then immediately bought a membership, I was just so enamored by what the guys were doing here. I was pretty devastated at the news yesterday and have pretty much just been posting concerns ever since I watched all of the videos and saw the kind of weird "everything's just peachy" optimism.

@goatmilk said:

Whiskey Media is/was owned by Shelby Bonnie, one of the co-founders of CNET. The corporation that fired Jeff from GS. Sure, Shelby had the previous year but still. Giantbomb was owned by WM which, while not a large corporation, was still a company that they had to answer to. From all accounts it was a very different beast to CNET/CBSi but still, they had to answer to someone at the end of the day whether it be Shelby or whoever it was that canned Jeff from CNET.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think GB will be around in its current form forever but I don't see how they'll become doomed in the immediate future. They firmly stated in the pancake video that they're retaining full creative control which is a pretty big win for them.

There's a difference between your boss being the guy you basically founded the company with and your boss being a board room of suits.

And for the record, I don't think they are doomed in the immediate future. The most cynical side of me thinks that it will be a slow, painful death. The optimistic side of me thinks that Giant Bomb will slowly absorb GameSpot and change company culture to the point we won't care if they become the same entity because it's being run the same way the site is now.

Also, in general (not aiming this at you goatmilk), I'm not at all bitter or resentful at the guys for making this move. I'm a little put off by the insane positive spin they've put on what is essentially the end of Whiskey Media, but as long as these guys are covering video games I'll follow them where ever they go.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think GB will be around in its current form forever but I don't see how they'll become doomed in the immediate future. They firmly stated in the pancake video that they're retaining full creative control which is a pretty big win for them.