Abby is Leaving Giant Bomb at the end of November

Wow! 4 years at GB, the time really flies!

Good luck with your future endeavors!

Six Crazy Frights, Clue Crew, and 13 Deadly Sims are hands down some of my favorite content on the site.

Thanks for all you've done, Abby! Best of luck on the future endeavors!

Abby, loved your time here on the site - you were a breath of fresh air from the moment you started to the very end - and i hope you come back for cameos and podcasts and charity runs.

Was refreshing when you joined Abby and it's hard to believe it has been four years!

Hope whatever you go into next is what you're looking for and makes you happy!

When I told my nine year old son that you were leaving GB, he responded, “Noooooooo!!!” You taught him how to swear well, with charm and grace. He loves everything you do. Best of luck wherever you land and whatever you do. You’ve brought us countless hours of joy. Thank you!

I always hate losing great talent and Giantbomb is losing a great talent with Abby departing. I hope she shines bright on her own or whatever she does from here on out cause she deservses it. I am so sad right now but know it's the way of the game. You always have a spot in my heart, thanks for the memories and games, Abby.

Well shit. This is a huge bummer. I've been a big fan of the guys all the way back to the old Gamespot days. And i think Abby was, and is a fantastic addition to the site. I always like to hear her perspective, and there is always fun to be had when Abby is around. I'll be very sad to see her go.

Abby, I wish you all the best, wherever you go. Keep on keeping on. o7

Abby, best of luck at whatever comes next! Thank you for the entertainment. :)

Man, I've been away from GB for months while I got my shit together in my personal life. I just started returning and began watching Six Crazy Frights as a sort of introduction back. It's seriously one of the funniest and most enjoyable shows for me. I'm real happy that Abby was able to bring some much needed perspective to this awesome website about video games. I genuinely wish her all the best!

Best of luck Abby. While all of your content wasn't for me, I have enjoyed a lot of it and seeing games and perspectives I wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise. Hope you go on to bigger and better things.

2020 keeps bringing on the changes... damn. I had to look but Ryckert left at the beginning of January, Covid happened, EVERYTHING ELSE happened, and now Abby's leaving. Sad times. Best of luck to you Abby!

Hell-fire...Ryckert was January? This is all on me for my brain but anyone could have told me it was 2019 and I would have taken it. Trying to under-write currently so..."Timey Wimey" 2020.

Oh no! Sad to hear of Abby's departure, but I know she'll keep moving towards great things.

Her highlights for me include

• The Sims series, which opened my eyes to the challenges people set in their worlds.
• Burgle My Bananas, which was a chaotic mess.
• And Fortnite with St. Vincent. An exceptional ending with one of my favorite musical artists in the world. She blew my mind on the Digital Witness tour, so to see her just chilling was so endearing.

You'll be missed, Abby Dearest; best of luck!

Best wishes, Abby. I've been with this site for a very long time, and your personality, voice, and unique way of looking at not only gaming but the games industry was something I looked forward to each week. I love all the content that the crew puts out, but the content that you curated ended up being some of my favorite stuff to come out of this site since its inception. I don't think I've ever laughed harder than I did with 13 Deadly Sims and I'm really going to miss Clue Crew. Also, congrats on finally getting to play Fortnite with St. Vincent!

Thank you for all the laughs and great gaming memories over the years! Wherever you end will be lucky to have you.

Sad for myself because we won't be seeing you as often anymore but also excited for you, waiting to see what you'll do next!

Best of luck, lots of love.

2020 has been so nuts... All the best to Abby! You're a funny lady.

Apart from Abby in general, I’ll miss clue crew the most. Never thought I’d like that series as much as I do.

All the best Abby, and good luck with your future endeavours. My partner and my self will miss you in Clue Crew.

Gonna miss Abby! Very best of luck for the future!

Good luck with what you'll do next! Thank you for bringing so many horror games to Giant Bomb! Can't believe it's been so long, feels like you joined a year ago. We'll miss you!

Thank you very much for bringing so much good things to Giant Bomb. I loved 13 Deadly Sims and absolutely adored Fright or Shite every year. One of my favorite shows ever here in the site. Good luck with everything. You have a fan here in Portugal, no matter what you'll be doing next.

I want to wish Abby the best. She will land a sweet new gig for sure with her talent and upbeat personality.

However, it will leave a big hole in Giant Bomb. Abby was so great for me, showing me how not to be ashamed and be proud of a more feminine perspective in my love for gaming and in my job, which is mostly dominated by man.

I will miss her clue crew and sims series but also fighting for the games she believed in GOY discussions like Florence, and Bury Me, My Love which are games with a more personal story. Not a lot of people around the table had played.

However, this does not exclude also loving Call of Duty and destiny. This is part of what made Abby such a great addition. Not shying away from any type of game but being critical all the same.

Tell Me Why will probably not be talked about, come game of the year and the last Star Wars sims expansion was trash. Yes, you can go for the latest review of sims expansion to other sites but I never found a site and a team that fitted me as much. When Abby joint Giant bomb it felt complete.

Now for the time to come, it will not be and that is okay.

<3

Best of luck to Abby

I will miss Abby a lot on this site, she brought such great energy to every podcast and video she's been in here. Wishing you all the best in your future Abby and hoping you will find a new fulfilling job very soon!

Wishing her the best, but this is a sad loss for the site. She brought so much energy, and that's a void that won't easily be filled. Especially not if hiring is more-or-less on hold for a while here.

I don't think I have anything to add that other people haven't already said. I appreciate Abby's energy, even when sometimes it makes me feel like oh my god I am just trying to sit, can we bring it to a 7 heh. I appreciate it when someone can talk about how something makes them nervous and anxious and then goes through with it like a rock star. There is something badass to me about letting yourself being filmed while genuinely scared by a videogame. Doubly so about coming into a videogame place and being like, nah, you know where it IS at though? Nancy Drew.

I appreciate that someone brought some new nerd blood in here. Not everything is tech and anime and wrestling. There is improv, mysteries, and The Disney Channel too. Something for the theater kid aspects haha. I appreciate that she went to school for what she did, is obviously "into it" into it, and uses it to make vagina jokes.

Nancy Drew and the 13 Deadly Frights is now in the rotation of I need something to watch, guess I'll just watch this for the 50th time. See the above posts about Abby trying to show the smaller video games while also loving COD. I love that Abby did the same thing that everyone does when new to playing a RP tabletop. It starts out as making a sort of punch line character all butt jokes and hey can I just do a Vbomb down on top of this enemy and turns into well I'm RPing a warlock that has this backstory and I just really am into the character haha.

I don't know anything about Abby beyond things related to this site, but she seems to me like the type of person that could make a videogame, a bunch of shorts, have a comedy career where she makes some mind-blowing set one day about cancer, have a show where she acts as a teenager in high school even though she is in her 30's, or write/star/direct in a movie about pooping back and forth together forever or whatever the cool kids are into these days and it wouldn't surprise me. She seems like she could do all sorts of things is what I am saying.

Also, I mean no offense, and I know the ages aren't THAT disparate, but speaking as an old with displaced feelings of parenthood, there is something so monumentally sweet to me when the videos are say like Vinny or Brad and then Ben, Abby, and Jan are there being the new young ones. If I can be really sentimental, it was nice just knowing someone was vocally queer around here, in whatever form that takes. Haha, that actually made me tear up a little thinking about it just now. Ya'll haven't done that to me in a really long time. vidEOGAMES.COM!!!!

I hope Abby keeps doing the Youtubes someday, cause I love stuff like that. Besides, she is in a place that allows her to make whatever the f she wants, and I just hope it is in some format where I can see it too.

Also jeez. Play one game with St. Vincent and now she big leagues us all.

Thank you Abby you are awesome and I hope you know it.

Thanks Abby for bringing your energy and personality to the site all these years. I love what you brought to Giant Bomb.

Going to miss you yaaaaaaabbbbbbbbbyyyyyyyy

thank u broootherrrrrrr

I've loved Abby's work since she came to Giant Bomb, I really wish her all the best and Giant Bomb are going to lose a massive talent when she goes. Honestly I really worry about Giant Bomb in it's current state. Hopefully Jeff can clear things up at some point.

@machofantastico: Not sure if I'm misremembering something but not clear how Jeff comes into this without Vinny because again, unless I'm misremembering things, Jeff is not the boss of the East Coast office.

I had always strayed away from being a member of the GB community because it felt repetitive to me. I enjoyed the content when I stumbled upon it, from 2010-2016 or so, but never saw myself as being a devoted viewer because, to me, it seemed identical to other outlets of video game related discussion/review/entertainment. In 2017, when Abby joined, I started to regularly watch, and in 2019 became a premium member almost solely because of the content that Abby produced. Sure, it introduced me to enjoy the rest of the staff's work (which I love), but seeing a queer woman, like myself, within the discussion space motivated me to grow more and more invested in the work Giant Bomb does and why it is important.

I like Giant Bomb because it very intentionally looks at games through not only a journalistic perspective, but also an art historical. Jeff started Giant Bomb to veer away from more market-focused efforts of video game journalism, and instead curating a space where video games were discussed in their current contexts, how they feel, and what makes them interesting at a particular moment in time. I believe that the Giant Bomb database will be an important reference point in games discussions decades in the future, as we have thousands of hours of footage of unique personalities playing games at a cultural moment and talking about how they make them feel.

GB documents cultural perspective on games through the lens of the staff's unique takes, so seeing a queer woman contributing to this process of documentation excited me! It was incredibly validating hearing someone who shared my feelings and thoughts on games and contributing to an archive that I believe is incredibly important. It not only reinvigorated my personal investment into the industry as a consumer, but steered my professional trajectory to where now I manage development of VR educational games. It might be an exaggeration to say that Abby alone made me a VR dev, but I can say that the work that GB does is provoking and makes me proud to be in this industry.

I am incredibly sad that Abby is departing. I will certainly be following her work wherever she goes, but I suppose I want to thank her for the fantastic and important content that she has produced for Giant Bomb. I wish her luck on her professional endeavors. I truly hope that she continues to work in the games ecosystem, her presence has certainly had a positive impact. If she chooses not to I'm sure that she will enlighten whichever space that might be with the positivity and humor that only Abby Russel can bring.

I hope this wasn't too over-sentimental.

Claire

It's always sad to see a member of the team go :(

Abby has been nothing but a joy to listen to/watch. Hoping she goes onto bigger and better things, which I'm sure she will seeing as she's in ROLLING STONE!

Giantbomb just seems to be hit hard with the pandemic.

As much of a bummer as this is, if it's what Abby chose than its whats best for her. Although i will really miss Frights and Clue Crew :[. I'm sure where ever she lands she's gonna kill it. I wish her the best in all her endeavors.

Thank you for all the content clue crew was Saturday morning cartoons since my work week starts on a Sunday. Best of wishes and best of luck on all your future endeavors!

Thank you, Abby!

You killed it here, and I know wherever you go you're going to kill it there, too!

Abby, during your time with Giant Bomb, you’ve made me and my wife laugh so hard we’ve cried, and brought so much joy to our lives. I look forward to more of those moments thru November.

May your future adventures bring all that joy and more to you. Looking forward to seeing what those adventures are.

Will greatly miss Abby's personality, humor, and perspectives on this site. Best wishes going forward

Abby, Thank you for one of my favorite intros to any GB series and for all the laughs! Hope your next adventure in life brings you joy and hope to see you again from time to time!!

As sad as it is to see her go, it makes sense for Abby. I honestly did not realize this was her first job out of college and it was already 4 years. That's nuts! She has destinations elsewhere, and we knew it. She made and was part in some of the most timeless GB content, and I'm also proud of her being the first lady in the crew. Best of luck.

Ben, on the other hand, is destined to be a lifer, because he should be. He is my generation's JG and I have no reasoning to back it.

That sinking feeling when you listen to the Beastcast and someone says that they have some "professional and personal" news... wish her all the best for her future endeavours, I can understand that the uncertainty of a merger is more difficult than leaving on your own terms - you're better prepared to handle a planned departure, instead of the cruel US tradition of being able to fire you on the spot and being wholly unprepared for that.

Abby your humor, intelligence, and voice will be missed. You're awesome and will no doubt go on to great success. Good luck!

Going to miss Clue Crew! Abby's content was some of the best content on GB. Going to be a big whole to fill. Good luck Abby with your future endeavors!

OH man. Best of luck to Abby. Some of the content she's made is just incredible.

Pour one out for real one, Abby keep it orange

Good luck with your new adventures, Abby! Your voice was a refreshing addition to Giant Bomb and will be missed!

100% agree!

I will miss her and hope her next job will be amazing!

Being the first and/or only anything always adds difficulty to the job, but you handled it incredibly well, Abby. You really lived up to my joking performance evaluation/prediction about taking your time and never missing with your thought-out original content. You were also a really good sport and a team-player under... less than ideal circumstances. Giant Bomb is definitely going to feel different without you around, which means you literally made a difference.

It would be pretty awesome if all you free agents somehow formed into a media supergroup, but that's selfish and wishful thinking. Now more than ever, you do you.

Selfishly sad to see her go, but enjoyed her voice and content on the site. Best wishes to the next chapter in her career!