Jeff launched a solo show on Patreon

I thought this is worth mentioning since I somehow missed it personally because it wasn’t announced anywhere prominent on the site. Jeff has now launched his own solo podcast and show on Patreon. Here is a link to it:

https://www.patreon.com/jeffgerstmann

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I subbed immediately. I will always support Jeff in what he does. He put out a post on Patreon saying hes gonna be doing a lot of stuff, seeing games, summer games stuff. He is definitely just getting into the swing of things and I imagine its all gonna be very fly by the pants for the now, but I can't wait for more Gerstvibes.

And his podcast art is spectacular.

Seriously though, I know all this is very upsetting, but Jeff seems genuinely excited and the reception to his Patreon has been huge. I am so here for following old man Gerstmann on his video game puddle/cloud shouting journey.

I listened to the first episode and loved it. He sounds engaged and excited, I could not be more excited for the hall of fame episodes, and it sounds like he is going to be doing interviews and having guests on so that's exciting.

I said I would follow Jeff to any forward facing position and I'm thrilled that he's going to be providing so much content. I hope he is able to do some Giant Bomb crossover stuff eventually but even if not he seems happy, the GB people are excited, hopefully it works out for everyone.

I was interested, but 3+ hours seemed like too much. Was he just breaking down news?

@csl316: It was about half news and half answering email questions, with some of that stuff being about what he is going to do with his new channel and some sort of vague talk about how stressful things had been for him at Giant Bomb towards the end and how much he wanted to focus on talking about games and some other stuff like music and not on management and the like. Nothing groundbreaking and no big revelations. If you like hearing Jeff Gerstmann talk about video games, which I do, it was pretty enjoyable and there's some discussion of Mr. Do and whatever. It was pretty laid back and cozy, like one of those streams he used to do after everyone else had left the office for Thanksgiving break or whatever and he was just chatting sort of stream of consciousness. I always liked those.

@csl316: Mostly it was structured like a traditional bombcast but he did talk about himself and how the last couple weeks have been for him. Whether the 3 hour+ will be the norm from here on out will be a mystery until the next few episodes are released.

It was quite endearing at the end of his stream where you could see on his face how overcome with emotion he was, while still hiding most of it. He must have told everyone to have a great day/signing off about several times before he actually did lol. You could definitely feel it.

I look forward to seeing what this new found freedom brings.

The difference between the Jeff from last week and the Jeff yesterday was pretty stark. He sounds happier than he has at any point in about the last two years or so. I think he's excited to just do his thing without having to worry about managing anyone but himself.

Man, I gotta watch all the non-E3 shows like three times now to hear Giant Bomb's, Jeff's and Nextlander's thoughts on them.

I'm glad his Patreon's having a strong start. I pledged in the moment it became active, because of course I did.

I think him leaving Giant Bomb (no matter how it went down) was incredibly emotional for him. I also got the sense that he finally feels “free”. Free of the corporate BS. He can now just be himself and track his own course.

This is actually a big relief for me. Now I can finally stop going to giantbomb.com

Peace out, duders.

This is legitimately the best news.

I think I could see a world where he occupies a Marc Maron-like space for game podcasts. Sort of an elder statesman that can get interviews with just about anyone you can name in the industry. Going totally solo, perhaps even with somewhat similar circumstances, worked out alright for Maron anyway.

Jeff Gerstmann, Tim Rogers, John Linneman crossover when.

"I have dreams again"

Subbed immediately. I miss Garage Talk playing on the 2nd monitor when I'm doing tedious computer works so this is a welcome addition.

I wish him all the best. Hope the new Patreon will be a big success and that whatever led to this situation is going to turn out to be for the best for all involved.

@csl316: It's your old and beloved bombcast format. And man, it's a one man show podcast but still managed to keep me interested for the 3+ hours.

Signed up as well! I followed Jeff when he left GameSpot, signed up here at GB day 1, and signed up for his Patreon day 1. Jeff is a legend and I'm glad he will be continuing to talk about games publicly. I'm excited for the new direction at GB as well as to see what Jeff does.

Also, Jeff just crossed 6,000 Patrons this morning!

I am excited to see what he does, being solo if he wants to go do things be that conventions, visit devs/friends, old game shops/arcades, whatever he can just go do them and only have to worry about organising himself, i'm not expecting much of that but he's got that freedom now, sans the burden of bringing a camera.

I'll follow for now, 3 hours is long but hopefully that's just because there's a lot to talk about.

On his podcast, Jeff seemed genuinely super pumped about everything and was visibly excited and happy in a way he hasn't been for a long time so I can't help but be happy for him. It seems that this move is good for his health and sanity, which is the most important thing. Having been in the position of dealing with infuriating corporate management and policy before, I totally get it. At a certain point it begins to feel like that don't want you to actually do your job anymore.

I think the length of the podcast may have partly been due to him catching up and covering multiple weeks of news at once combined with there being a lot of news right now due to the time of year. I would suspect for less busy times of the year, he won't be spending over an hour and a half on news alone.

Also subbed. It is great to hear his insightful takes on topics within the industry. How poorly his exit was handled in 3 minutes on the bombcast (only acknowledging his influence on the industry without any personal words then moving on like it is the biggest party ever) still feels insensitive to me but I am happy there is an immediate way to get content from Jeff mitigates this.

I wish the GB crew the best. I am sure they will find their audience.

Edit: happy for him that people are following along…

5200 viewers for him on Twitch, with 3800 total for GB on twitch and YT combined

I got about an hour and a half into the podcast and had to stop. He’s great at what he does, but unless he has a guest on every episode or the episodes get shorter, I don’t think I can bring myself to listen to one guy talk for hours. Its an art to be able to talk that much and he’s great at it. Mentally I started checking out 90 min in and I don’t have any desire to go back.

I've always loved Jeff's solo streams, especially when he plays retro games.

Jeff kinda felt checked out of GB over the last year or so and was mostly doing solo stuff during the pandemic anyways. This new era really doesn't seem that different. Best of both worlds. GB is still awesome and regular Jeff streams. What's not to like?

Some of the best content GB had over the last couple of years was Jeff's streaming from his house, whether it was his Garage Talk stream or his Retro Gaming stream. He claims he is going to continue to do these things as well as the podcast. I think he will do just fine. He also plans to talk to a lot of guest on his show.

Jeff Solo Content has never been my thing but I'm glad he seems excited about things going forward and I'll probably keep a weather eye on things for when he brings on interesting guests.

i didn't even know he was sick

I think it's a giant bummer that everything is splintered into its own little paid Patreon now. As an audience member, that's just not sustainable. Hell, I can barely afford to pay for Premium, let alone do that three different ways, with different and more expensive tiers. It really sucks shit.

That said, I will watch whatever Jeff puts on YouTube forever. Good for him to get out and do what he's truly passionate about. We should all be so lucky. That first show was great.

@joshakazam:

@efesell:For me it's that I'm incredibly interested in Jeff's possible proper oral history that he mentioned he might be doing, but otherwise Jeff's solo content isn't for me.

@daavpuke: It's the streaming service effect, everyone tries to get a bigger part of the pie so it just ends up with the audience paying more for less. On the other hand, we get more free content too, so that's a plus.

So, a day ago someone posts this; today I go to the Patreon and he has 6,500+ patrons. He can do whatever he wants at this point in his life, because the dude can spin straw into gold - the Rumpelstiltskin of video game podcasts.

@monkeyking1969: 6,500+ patrons at a minimum contribution of $5 a head is a lot of change even if they only contributed the minimum, even after taxes and the Patreon cut. I'm glad he landed on his feet. He should have the resources to run a site on that income if he wants to.

@daavpuke: It's the most inevitable of all the options really, the GB format of funding a studio with ads (+memberships) is old fashioned, everyone split off into formats that are more readily monetised like streaming, and in Jeff's case Patreon was probably the only option because of his family.

Ad revenue from Youtube vids wouldn't be enough by itself and Twitch benefits most from long streams and regular schedules, which is fine for young, single, enthusiastic go getters but Jeff's got diapers to change, by his own admission the schedule could change and he needs to find the time to edit the Patreon exclusive vids.

Patreon has given him stability, and with its current success he could even hire an editor which i'm noticing is a common thing for streamers these days, even less popular ones, now all the options are available to him let's see what he does with it :P.

@cikame: He's going to team up with Noclip for a 150 part series on the making of Mr. Do followed by an even longer series about that Commodore 64 Bruce Lee game he inexplicably loves.

@bigsocrates: I am VERY excited for his upcoming in-depth breakdown of Syndicate (no, the other one!), never played that game but I do own it and it seems it might finally be time to dig in.

Happy for Jeff!