Announcements from 6/8/21 'Cast. O'Dwyer joining P/T. Collabs with Ryckert, Grubb, Gamespot peeps. Will hire more F/T.

@bisonhero: I'm right there with you feeling (very) grumpy about an information management strategy at GB that seems utterly amateurish. I cannot fathom the reasoning behind the repeated (to the point of clearly being intentional) perfect vacuum of official status communications from the business. SAY SOMETHING TO US! Geez, is it that hard? I have to click on the forums and scroll through the thread headlines looking for something, invariably written by some random user, that's acting as the proxy for stuff they should be proactively communicating to us, the customers, *directly*.

It's gobsmackingly confusing. This is a case study in how not to do business communications.

They already announced that Ryckert and Jeff B are gonna do a new series together soon. Knowing the love/hate relationship Jeff B has with him this could be hilarious!

the new announcements sound really hopeful honestly and i'm looking forward to seeing where it all goes. having dan back will be great cause imo while hes great on his own hes better With ppl. having danny actively around the site is great too and i', really looking forward to what stuff they pull out with these 'guests'

I've been beating this drum for what feels like 5+ years now and it just sucks. I shouldn't be finding out these things fourth-hand through subtweets from former forum members that I still follow on twitter. We get a thread every 2-4 months on the forums about how it seems like the enthusiasm is gone/the fire is dead/they don't care about the site or use it themselves anymore/they're just coasting/etc., and not even being bothered enough about major staff or site changes to throw up a few-paragraph article on the front page doesn't help quell that perception.

Rorie even posted in a thread a few days ago that they'd 'have some exciting news to share pretty soon,' and when another user replied asking to 'please post this in a writeup somewhere on the site rather than buried in a podcast or off on another site entirely,' he said that they would 'do their best' and be 'spreading this news far and wide.' We can speculate whether or not the NL launch from the day before pushed the GB announcement schedule forward, but not having something ready to post nearly 24 hours later now is pretty grim. I shouldn't be getting more info from Danny's vlog on his personal youtube channel that the twitter algorithm decided to show me this morning than from the site that the news is about itself.

Honestly, contract work seems like the right call.

Danny does some really important stuff with Noclip though, so I hope he gets contracted to do some more of that, but through GB. I'd like to see Noclip as a whole on here to be honest.

Glad to hear Dan Ryckert wanted to do some contract work for the site. I will now secretly hope for a show with Dan Ryckert and Xavier Woods.

It also makes me think about how weird it would be to contract these new upstarts "Nextlander" for some stuff. It sounds super awkward.

There's also so many honorary duders that would be great for this kind of stuff if they only could. Adam Boyes, Dave Lang, John Vignocchi... The list goes on.

This sounds promising and fun!

I listened to episode 0 of the Nextlander podcast, and it's clear those guys are interested in making a living doing what they've been doing for years. Meanwhile OG Jeff sounded the most excited when speculating about what the future of "Games Media" looks like. I assume he and RV are interested in experimenting with new stuff and with growth.

I think both approaches can be successful, so I'm excited to see how things play out this year.

@serryl: Yeah this feels like exactly it. If you want the classic feeling of GB, Nextlander is there for you. But it is clear that Jeff wanted to get back to the crazy, and this allows him to do that. It really seems like a win-win for everyone involved.

I agree that it would have been nice to have a text write-up. I don't listen to the Bombcast every week, and it's a pain to have to stop whatever I'm watching/listening to so I can listen to information it would be much faster to read. Very interested in the new shows though, and what they can bring to Giant Bomb. Hopefully we get people interacting in physical space again soon.

@retris: this is the best suggestion I've seen so far

Not that I think this helps EVERYONE but they did send out a newsletter this afternoon with a write-up. Not quite the same as a front page post, but they are putting it out there.

Glad there will be more Danny.

Aaaaand if someone didn't get the newsletter, where can it be read after the fact? Let me guess.... somewhere on reddit, where someone who isn't employed by GB dutifully copies them verbatim into some other venue.

(the irony is that I actually used to get the newsletters, but then they just stopped showing up -- I never unsubscribed)

@owlnostic: Which is why I said both it won't help everyone and isn't the same as a front page post. Simply stating that they are talking about it, just not in the most accessible places.

Yup, and I'm not calling you out on this at all. It's just incredibly frustrating. And the fact that even the newsletters aren't just posted on the damn site somewhere is like crap-frosting on the dirt cake. What is this... the internet circa 1991? What AOL keyword do I type in to see GB announcements?

@bisonhero: The announcement is up!... on GameSpot and not GiantBomb, for some reason??

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/what-giant-bomb-is-evolving/1100-6492597/

Unless they have no control of their CMS, this is pathetic. It's as if the Sonic Team were helping ATLUS announce a new Persona game.

Now that you mention it, I really want this.

Guys we all know what happened here. A lot of us don't want to face it, but its time to see the pink elephant in the room. Jeff G went corporate and is taking GB in that direction. Jeff B from CNET being apart of it is proof of that. RV offered a ton of money to stir the GB ship and that is where this website is currently at. Alex, Vinny, and Brad didn't agree with this so they left and formed Nextlander. So it comes down to choice. I'm personally not bothered by either of it. But if you are, you at least have options to choose from.

👀 Woooooooo new bloooood

Okay, but what does 'going corporate' mean? Like they want to do profitable things? They want to get more people to sign up to premium and get more views on their videos? Sell more merch? Have ads on the podcast & site? How does this differ from what GB did up to this point? At CBSi, from my limited perspective, it seemed like they were generating an okay-ish profit without huge investments so CBSi didn't really feel the need to invest in GB down the line. Or in other words, decide against turning the small positive green numbers to red numbers in the hopes to get bigger green numbers in the future. A.K.A taking a risk. That's quite a corporate decision that has limited what GB could do.

Like i can see how contracting a wider amount of folk to make shows with GB helps to get more people in the know of GB and have these people's communities give it a try. But if you're not down with the core team and the core shows that have been at GB for years, you will probably go right back to that fav creators free twitch / youtube content instead. It's like when a non-top 10 twitch streamer plays a new game and suddenly has a huge boost in viewership. Once they revert back to their usual programming, it showcases how much of that new viewership was fleeting while the loyal viewers / customers stick around.

At the end of the day, being profitable means that they will have to continue making content that's appealing . Especially content that's appealing to their core audience, the people that are here already. The most dedicated customers are the ones with the highest customer lifetime value for a business. Retaining existing customers is very important for any business and way cheaper than going out to attract and acquire new customers. Which can be 5 to 25x as expensive depending on the industry.

Would it be less or more corporate if RV decided to also mitigate risks as CBSi did, by not increasing GB's resources and let it continue to post okay-ish positive numbers for them?

I’m excited. If we’re getting stuff even remotely close to NoClip then I’m a happy camper.

Looking forward to a more Dynamic Giant Bomb! I think given the very temporal nature of a lot of games media, rotating in more limited series with contractors seems to be the call.

I do agree, as someone who regulars the website - I wish there was a text post (and in general more TLC for website content beyond the forums) - not all of us are twitter/FB users

I actually don't disagree with nothing you said. In fact, I've said for well over a year now that GB would have to be more like the mainstream gaming sites in terms of having daily content and other activities going on, especially if they want to be a subscription based service. I think them having lots of guest, whether its a one time thing or a recurring thing is good. It keeps the site alive instead of the how it is now where we only get a bombcast and a UPF, with maybe something else thrown in if we're lucky during that week. Yes, RV seemed to have given them the money and permission to do this, unlike CBSi who clearly didn't care for GB. And no, I don't believe the break up between Jeff, and the other three OGs had any malice intent. As they said on their Nextlander debut stream, they didn't want to go corporate. What I personally think is happening, is that Jeff wants a lasting legacy with GB. I don't think he wants it to fade away in the internet fire pit like Screened did for example, or Whiskey Media itself. Jeff is pretty clever. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole Nextlander thing was partly his idea as something to fall back on, if RV starts to turn tyrannical. As some people have said, he might do just enough to make sure GB will last, and then move on himself.

I couldn't agree more. Its ridiculous that in order to know what is going on, we have to listen to any number of podcasts, or follow twitter, or find news on another site, etc. It shouldn't be this hard to convey information to the audience. Why is the news of the proposed changes on Gamespot but GB proper? Its baffling. I still can't believe they didn't do any sort of write up for game of the year either. I skip those podcasts but am still curious as to their choices, so I had to find out through users of the site who took it upon themselves to list everything out.

All that said, I think the new direction is promising. I had a feeling they would go with this approach where they are similar to a tv network that accepts pitches for shows and has seasons and whatnot. I am very interested to see what they come up with.

I am also confused as to the people who aren't into this direction and are claiming the site is changing. Other than the staff departures and the new people they are involving, what is really going to be all that different? They shifted to the shows approach years ago, so this isn't new. I get it if they are bummed about the departures, and I am too, but all this talk about the site going corporate or becoming something different make no sense to me.

Well I'm confused about which direction this new direction is. We still have no real idea what the changes actually are. Jeff himself has said he wants GB to turn into something different so that is driving some talk about the unknown changes in the works, all we have right now is some outlines of a future project that may change. As for going corporate, we have no idea how hands on/off RV will be in regards to content. Do you know if they are going to just hand money over to GB and say "go to it guys" or are they going to require a certain amount of crossover with other RV properties? Nobody knows at this point so you will have to pardon the glass half empty crowd who see big corp in everything.

Honestly pretty disappointed, was hoping that an influx of money would lead to more jobs for a younger crowd of new talent in a hard industry to get into. Throwing money at your friends who already have well-established jobs in the industry doesn't do much to create new and interesting content, just more of the same that is currently being done. Hoping this changes in the future but doesn't encourage me from reupping my membership.

@desperate actor: I mean, they literally JUST announced the idea on Tuesday...let's...maybe give them some time to actually put it into action? This, to me, feels like an early game test run to see how it goes with people either close to them or basically under the same big umbrella (Tamoor and Lucy) because they're easy enough to bring on right out of the gate. Like, I've seen multiple posts saying people are disappointed in this as if they made this announcement last year and over the course of the year the only people that they brought on were Dan, Danny, Jeff Grubb, Lucy and Tamoor.

Super glad that Danny is joining.

I know that a lot of things are changing, but y'all really need to chill on the rampant wild speculation and conspiracy theories. Give it some time, let the pieces fall where they may, and don't try so hard to theorycraft about what you think someone's personal motivations may be or what may be going on behind the scenes.

You do realize that you basically just quoted the origins of Giant Bomb as a reason to not support them anymore right?

There's still no formal announcement about what the hell is going on.

If I didn't follow them on Insta to see that 60 second video, I'd be CLUELESS

I've been moving house for the last few days. I caught it on the bombcast. Y'know, it's good to get more people involved. It means someone, somewhere has plans afoot. Let's see how this plays out.

@shindig: Wouldn't that someone somewhere be one Jeffrey Gerstmann in Petaluma, California?

Unless...

You don't think?

It couldn't be.

What if the reason that @chaser324 is trying to shut down "wild speculation" and "conspiracy" theories is that Jeffrey Gerstmann has been kidnapped by his former client Dr. Tracksuit, who has replaced him. Think about it. They look pretty similar if you compare them, and if Dr. Tracksuit used some Instagram filters he could pass for Jeff on various streams. Nobody we know of has seen Jeff in person for a long time, so if Dr. Tracksuit took control there would be nobody to out him.

Vinny, Brad, and Alex discovered the truth and that's why they left. Now Dr. Tracksuit has recruited the remaining Giant Bomb people and is bringing back old allies like Dan Ryckert to consolidate his control over Giant Bomb. Things are about to get weird alright. WEIRD IN THE WORST WAY POSSIBLE.

They locked the "is this the end of Giant Bomb" thread because they don't want us to know the truth. It is the end of Giant Bomb. It's the beginning of Dr. Tracksuit's reign of terror.

Why did any of us believe that notorious gaming packrat Jeffrey Gerstmann would actually CLEAN OUT HIS GARAGE? That makes no sense! The truth has been staring us in the face the whole time and we were too blind to see it!

They posted the clip on Twitter, Youtube, and Instagram. And the podcast is on the site right now.

I understand the annoyance there is with the lack of easily accessible information. Especially after half of the content dried up as Alex, Brad & Vinny left. If you missed a bombcast, you might straight up not know what happened to those guys and the beastcast. But at the same time the new phase of GB just doesn't seem ready yet, and very much in flux on the important details that we'd want to know. People have been speculating about the new phase of GB ever since they got acquired by RV,. When Vinny, Brad & Alex left, that speculation understandably reached a new high. All the while, Jeff was still in the early stages of taking people's pitches and nowhere close to showing what this new phase was all about.

So what happened is them giving us casual breadcrumps on a garage stream here or a bombcast snippet there, while they were right in the middle of figuring out who to work with on what shows. The hunger for information about GB's new phase is big, so people are relaying these breadcrumps as if it's supposed to be the 'big' announcement that they refuse to spotlight adequately, when all we know is that they will contract people to make shows. Latest development is that we figured out a handful of names.

There's probably no clear sign of what a regular week would look like in a month, and i bet there are still conversations happening about who they can get, what kind of shows these people actually want to create, what the makeup of the crew should be, what kind of cooperation between the contractors and the core team makes sense for each show etc. It's probably just not time yet to have that ribbon cutting ceromony moment where GB introduces it's new phase, and has content to showcase what this new phase will sort of look like.

Look at Nextlander for their big start. They picked a date, launched the thing, reached a lot of people with it, and had content ready to go for people to figure out if they want to be a part of this thing. GB just isn't at that point where they can do that.

@bigsocrates: This makes so much sense and explains mostly everything that has happened! One of my problems with all the wild speculation and conspiracy theories about the changes have been that they have all just uninspired melodrama. Not one has mentioned mind controlling lizards and haven’t even begun to address how the Greys are involved. Maybe one or all of them were replaced by robots which were all designed by Dan Ryckert? What about the phases of the moon? GIANT BOMB DOESN’T BURN THAT HOT!

If anything, I am hoping that RV gets Cnet back to focusing on tech. Reminds of when fast food restaurants add menu items to try to account for every single individual taste, diluting their core strength.

Internet archive shows that CNet has been a place for Disney & Marvel shows , Coronavirus, Disney & stimulus news, and Corona, Batwoman, Halloween movies & voting news before Red Ventures. If you wonder whether something changed, it helps to be able to look back in time to see if the gutfeeling corresponds with reality. Sorry if this comes across as agitated, and it's not meant to be taken personal, but it just makes me a bit tired when something that can quickly be checked is just slung out on the internet to make others believe that the site will get fucked up by new owners because they supposedly made another site worse already.

I don't believe there is any grand conspiracy, but people are going to speculate when there is lack of information and when decisions are being made that don't make sense, for example having a big announcement of GB's plans on Gamespot, but no article of any kind on the main website site as many have pointed out. It is human nature. And people attacking and making fun of other people because they want more information and are rightfully asking questions is not cool Duders. Just be kind and tell them that more information will become available in time or something. At the end of day, this is just a video game website, nothing more.

Or maybe just keep it to yourselves. There's a difference between "this info hasn't been present properly" and "which means some shit went down"

Im still amazed i have to find this kind of news just scrolling out of boredom through to the forums days later, instead of finding it on the frontpage on the day it was announced. Amazing.

Other then that, im really curious how this is going to work out and happy to see GB is still alive. Really, Danny talking about it for 10 minutes on his vlog has taking my interest to this new adventure to a new level. Lets just wait and see how it turns out.

Dan Ryckert was one of the most toxic influences on Giant Bomb and I can't believe they're leading with bringing him back in any fashion. I celebrated when he left and I'm mourning today having learned he'll be back.

I'll never watch a video with Dan Ryckert in it. Period.

@powercosmic: What led you to believe anyone cares how you feel about staff/guests?

I'm far from Dan's biggest fan but find it difficult to comprehend how you can accuse another of toxicity given your own sentiments.