It feels weird to try and muster my usual breed of rambling enthusiasm this morning. The sale of 1UP and the shuttering of EGM feels like the end of an era to me. Moment of silence then, I guess.
Adam Rosenberg, who's done freelance at UGO, extracted 1UP editorial director Sam Kennedy's post from the chaos at NeoGAF and put it on his blog -- it's nice to read what Sam has to say on the situation and what he hopes the future can still bring.
I actually only knew a few people over on the 1UP staff, so I don't claim to be especially close to the situation, but it's of course tough to hear that career peers of mine had to lose their jobs, and I wish everyone a quick and secure landing. This is tough news for everyone in our line of work and we'll be thinking of you guys.
Any thoughts/wishes readers want to share?
UPDATE: Another impactful perspective worth sharing from Jeff "Greenspeak" Green.
24 comments:
I'm almost moved to tears at the thought of not being able to listen to the retronauts crew anymore.
Damnation, those are my thoughts. Such a shame. I really hope all those staff members make do after this. I wish they would not have to take the blow of this; it is unfair. On the other hand, it is also inevitable. It could have been worse, I guess.
Terrible news. The end of an era? Truly. I will sincerely miss their 1up Show and podcasts.
I really hope that the many people, who lost their job, will land on their feet. Best of luck, to all of them.
It feels like the end of a film, where a group of friends go their separate ways after a long journey. You know it's going to end, but you don't want it to.
Thanks for the linkage, Leigh. Just a point of clarification; as much as I'd like to be a staffer there, I am and always have been just a lowly freelancer. I love that crew though, and would do anything to back them up.
I think I said all I really can say in my blog post. Yesterday brought some terrible losses and my best wishes go out to all those who were adversely affected. 1UP wasn't perfect in its previous life, but they were undoubtedly one of the Good Guys. I obviously don't think UGO's ownership is going to be as catastrophic as some commenters are "suggesting," but yesterday's change of hands marks the end of an era if nothing else.
Oh, thanks for letting me know, Adam! I updated :)
EGM was my favorite of all magazines. I don't know how my heart will go on without Seanbaby's The Rest of the Crap.
It doesn't seem to make sense. 1up was the major acquisition - EGM's death was on the cards for a long time now - but what made 1up work in the first place was the 1up Show (which UGO promptly cancelled) and the podcasts esp. 1up Yours (the bulk of the crews of which UGO promptly fired). They've essentially swept in and gutted the very 'crown jewel' that they wanted their acquisition for. It beggars belief.
I was horrified to see that list of cut staff grow.
Sorry if its bad form, but I wrote a post about it and rather than just re-iterate: http://dragonchasers.com/2009/01/06/egm-rest-in-peace/
I am also very saddened by this news. I have been an EGM subscriber for years and I frequently listened to 1Up's podcasts (particularly Retronauts). This really is the end of an era, and I hope it works out with everyone involved.
And so, the last (IMO) great gaming magazine in the US has folded. You're right: this truly is the end of an era.
I sort of expected the shuttering of EGM given the state of the print medium. Even so, I crossed my fingers hoping that EGM's status as an industry mainstay would keep the ship afloat. I kinda grew up reading EGM and to know that it's not going to be on newsstands is kind of surreal to me.
However, it's the changes to 1up.com itself that affected me the most. I credit 1up.com for bringing me back to reading gaming media - I feel the podcasts reintroduced me to the notion of gaming criticism and in my opinion were second to none in quality and execution. Ultimately what kept me coming back to 1up.com were the personalities of the folks who worked there and their contributions to the culture and development of the domain. The loss of 40 of those same personalities that made the site what it was is absolutely heartbreaking and still doesn't make sense to me.
I understand UGO/Hearst did what it had to do to make a transition and establish dominance (at least, from what I'm reading from the many bulletin boards/twitter feeds)...yet at the same time I think they're severely underestimating the draw of those personalities and how they are 1up.com, not the URL.
My thoughts go out to everyone who lost their jobs in the ordeal...and I hope they're able to hit the ground running.
I can recall my initial reaction being one of outrage and protest. This was fueled by my own personal affections for the 1UP Network and its various productions; the podcasts, the 1UP show, these things were great (EGM is an entirely different bag of emotions).
What I didn't realize at the time was how much I honestly enjoyed the personalities that brought that place to life,(there are still some really great people there who need the support) but we've truly lost something great.
My thoughts now wholeheartedly go out to the great people affected by this, wishing them the best during these tough times.
Very sad to see all these talented people let go and their creative endeavors mothballed. But as long as games journalism continues obsessing over pre-release "exclusives" and chasing NPD stats post-release, it will continue to miss gaming's important cultural impact.
I, too, will miss the 1Up Show and plethora of audio podcasts, mostly because their potential to foster insightful and worthwhile conversations remained largely untapped.
The kind of incisive and intelligent analysis gaming deserves---you know, the kind practiced here by Leigh---seems to still only be possible when the writer and/or publisher isn't beholden to the tyranny of the marketplace.
In other words: it just can't be all about the Benjamins, baby.
EGM/1UP are now owned by the Hearst Corporation, which is still largely stuck in an early 20th century mindset about controlling/commodifying information. The very fact they made this purchase should give us more than a bit of pause. And as dark a day as it is for us who care about the kind of writing that is done about games and gaming culture, we probably still need to ask the bigger question:
How does this change anything, if at all?
I guess this was all inevitable. It saddens me because it feels like the space for writing about games changed for the worse--less intelligent, less funny, less print, and just plain less.
I guess I kind of see why the regular newspaper people are freaking out--it's not just 1Up missing, it's like it signifies some kind of apocalypse where games writing and especially freelancing are becoming extinct.
Course, we'll still have you and the Gama gang, but man...it's crushing.
I just posted my final blog there last night.
The community is what made 1up and this is sadly going to cause a lot of it to dwindle. I'm using it soley as an excuse to change and find something new, possibly open another blog for myself elsewhere (the blogging interface has been troublesome for some time now). I may even open a blogspot for a while. People like Cody (Nintendotheory) have much more to lose than I do, as he put a good chunk of his soul into the site for the last 4 years. He's like the mascot of the 1up as far as I'm concerned. Even he is considering things right now and that's a bad sign in itself.
I've been around that long as well, but I'm...an aquired taste to say the least. Either way, the podcasts and personalities that are leaving are a hard blow indeed, but the community itself is going to suffer horribly because of this, which is the most important part of the site in my opinion.
I'm not so worried about staff, as I'm sure I'll be able to keep track of those that I liked. I'm sure they'll flourish in bigger and better things now. I'm concentrating on a collaborative effort from some 1up members to open a few new blog sites for ourselves.
~sLs~
This hit me pretty hard, as I've been reading EGM since I was 11 (that's over 14 years), not to mention the loss of their fantastic podcast series and the 1UP Show.
As it's been said previously, this is the end of an era.
Sad news,Leigh... I remember buying my first EGM in 1994, one of those big E3 editions. Big fan since and whenever possible (I live in Brazil) bought other issues. It is truly the end of an era. Best of luck to all who lost their jobs.
1up had the best collection of podcasts out there because they had a great set of personalities. Having all of that kind of talent in one place is something you just don't see often, and for a fan that sucks. I'd also been reading EGM for over half my life, and losing that really blows. But more than anything, I feel for the people who have to start a job search today.
Never read EGM, but 1UP was one of the few sites out there I could go to for an honest opinion on games. I remember being extremely happy when they changed to the "letter" rating system rather than the numbering system that had been used... now that most of the folks there are gone, the letters seem like they'll be pretty meaningless now.
I'm going to miss EGM. First video game magazine I ever read, and I was really starting to enjoy it again now that Milkman was running the show. It will be greatly missed.
As SnakeLinkSonic said, I've been with 1UP (in a community role, of course) for over four years now. I've gotten to know a few of the staff members pretty well and have even received a few job offers, though sadly circumstances wouldn't let the opportunities flourish.
People who just pop in once in a while to the site or who don't visit it at all really don't understand how hard this hits all of us. 1UP has one of the most loyal and solid fanbases of any site out there, and it's because they've always treated us like family. Nearly our entire family lost their jobs last night, their security.
My AIM and Twitter went crazy last night with all of the users reacting negatively, and I'm pretty sure that at least a moderate chunk of the people who visit the site won't be doing so for much longer. Due to the aforementioned loyalty - to the people more than the site itself - I think this could have a much larger impact than even the whole GameSpot fiasco did.
I'm just hoping the people who were fired land on their feet, and those who remain can keep 1UP the site it's always been.
I guess I'm selfish but my first thought was "Uh oh. If EGM went down, how long until I lose my sweet gig?"
But then I remembered that pact I made with Satan all those years ago and laughed fiendishly while burrowing ever deeper into my Scrooge McDuckian vault of golden coins.
(Seriously though, I am bummed that people lost their jobs and that such a long-running institution was shuttered, but had it not been for the recession EGM would simply have vanished within another year or so anyway due to the overwhelming shift toward online media.)
(Seriously Part 2: But, I do feel bad for the people I know in the 1up/EGM bullpen who are now sans job. San Francisco is a damn expensive city and its wicked hard to find work right now. Life, she is, a bitch.)
It's been years since I actually picked up a copy of EGM, but the magazine's demise is still somewhat sad for me. I used to read EGM all the time when I was a kid. It was a part of my childhood. I realize that there seems to be a gradual shift away from print media for some very legitimate reasons, but it is really difficult to see this giant that I grew up with fall. I have a profile on 1up, but never really spent a lot of time there. This reader wishes the best for everyone that is affected.
It really does suck, but it seems that had this not happened 1up would have gone under anyways.
Over at Destructoid, NIero posted an interesting look at the financial possibilities of the situation and how it made himnreevaluate dtoid to try and avoid similar fate and stay indie.
How far we've come from the days when I used to peruse magazine after magazine for cheats and demo discs.
Shocking news all round, its always sad to hear of such popular and long established sites/publications calling it a day (for various different reasons).
I sadly can't see this being the end of the bad news coming out of all things gaming, what with all the studio closures and such.
Wish all staff involved the best of luck in the future
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