Well, [Joystiq] just died.

cloudeagle

The rumors had been swirling for a while, but many tweets from staffers indicate it's true: Joystiq is dead. Well, soon-to-be dead, as they'll publish until Tuesday.

But after that, Joystiq is gone, "to be folded into Engadget," whatever that means. (Everyone, or nearly everyone, is laid off, according to the various tweets.) Which is a huge blow, as they seemed to be the biggest gaming site with the least amount of bullshit.

By the way, the new comic? It actually happened that way.

Edit: Fixed the link for where Joystiq employees had to interview themselves.

Viskod

I'm going to miss it.

This also means the end of WoW Insider as well.

Sterica

And apparently one of their writers died in an accident just this week.

Rough shit.

3cl1ps3

Will definitely be sorely missed. I always liked Joystiq's reporting.

Magic Pink

Joystiq really is the best news site for gaming out there. They were a little slow but had almost zero bullshit fluff. This just absolutely blows so much for everyone concerned and AOL is a hug pile of assholes for doing it.

cloudeagle

So, who's really left that comprehensively covers all the big news?

Kotaku's gotten better, but there's still a lot of crap and they've made a lot of noise about how they'll do a lot more coverage about games that were released months ago.

IGN largely sticks to ye olde "copy the press release and give glowing previews to games that will suck later" formula.

Polygon has cool stuff, but they also have weirdly inflammatory editorials and a bunch of non-gaming stuff.

I like Giant Bomb, but I don't have time to watch all the videos.

Gamespot.... eeeeehhhh.

Cilla Black

I hated some of their puns but there really was no better side to go to for just straight up gaming news. Nothing even close. This is a major major bummer. I hope all those people find jobs soon.

Dirtyboy

Too bad Joystiq and Massively are gone, visited them both daily.

If you want just straight gaming news, Blue's News is still chugging along: http://www.bluesnews.com/

Archsorcerer

cloudeagle wrote: »

So, who's really left that comprehensively covers all the big news?

Kotaku's gotten better, but there's still a lot of crap and they've made a lot of noise about how they'll do a lot more coverage about games that were released months ago.

IGN largely sticks to ye olde "copy the press release and give glowing previews to games that will suck later" formula.

Polygon has cool stuff, but they also have weirdly inflammatory editorials and a bunch of non-gaming stuff.

I like Giant Bomb, but I don't have time to watch all the videos.

Gamespot.... eeeeehhhh.

Siliconera and Metro's Gamecentral satisfy me.

Handgimp

Dirtyboy wrote: »

Too bad Joystiq and Massively are gone, visited them both daily.

If you want just straight gaming news, Blue's News is still chugging along: http://www.bluesnews.com/

God, I followed blue's news in college over a decade ago.

akajaybay

Joystiq was definitely my go to site for just wanting a rundown of the latest news without a bunch of other junk mixed in.
Sad news.

PLA

Siliconera covers a lot of weird minor projects.

Buttcleft

Well this sucks, Joystiq was the only gaming news site I ever used for news, because the other ones always had to much bullshit/shady shit.

Shadowfire

Man, fuck the AOL suits. Fuck your "rightsizing" manager speak. And fuck you for announcing this on Friday, the worst day of the week for doing it.

Seriously, fuck those geese right in their stupid beaks.

anoffday

Viskod wrote: »

I'm going to miss it.

This also means the end of WoW Insider as well.

I haven't played WoW in awhile, and I would still check out WoW Insider every now and then.

I used to go to Joystiq everyday until I ended up just getting my news from reddit.

Hope they all find new jobs elsewhere.

TOGSolid

My biggest surprise from this is that AOL still shambles across the Earth, unable to die like some sort of infernal lych that exists only to waste space and annoy people.

Best hidden phylactery ever.

McFlynn

TOGSolid wrote: »

My biggest surprise from this is that AOL still shambles across the Earth, unable to die like some sort of infernal lych that exists only to waste space and annoy people.

Best hidden phylactery ever.

The first time I read that it was AOL's fault, I had to sit and think what AOL was.

Raiden333

TOGSolid wrote: »

My biggest surprise from this is that AOL still shambles across the Earth, unable to die like some sort of infernal lych that exists only to waste space and annoy people.

Best hidden phylactery ever.

Those AOL CDs mailed once a year to everyone? Horcruxes.

Shadowfire

TOGSolid wrote: »

My biggest surprise from this is that AOL still shambles across the Earth, unable to die like some sort of infernal lych that exists only to waste space and annoy people.

Best hidden phylactery ever.

That people still pay AOL for dial-up is a fucking travesty.

Descendant X

Shadowfire wrote: »

TOGSolid wrote: »

My biggest surprise from this is that AOL still shambles across the Earth, unable to die like some sort of infernal lych that exists only to waste space and annoy people.

Best hidden phylactery ever.

That people still pay AOL for dial-up is a fucking travesty.

Wut?

That still happens?

Shadowfire

Yes.

I have no idea if they actually use it, or if they just can't figure out how to unsubscribe, and the $10/month is actually a small price to pay for not dealing with the descent into madness that is calling AOL reps.

McFlynn

You go 5 miles east of my place and your only internet choice is extremely expensive, data capped satellite or dial up.

And if I had to choose between dial up and Comcast... Well, I wouldn't be happy with either.

maximumzero

Funny, I always saw Kotaku going belly-up first.

TOGSolid

maximumzero wrote: »

Funny, I always saw Kotaku going belly-up first.

Eh, they're trashy enough that they'll be one of the last ones to go unless they change tack pretty hard. I was kinda expecting PC Gamer to eat it before Joystiq. PCG is a sad, hollow husk of what it used to be.

Steel Angel

maximumzero wrote: »

Funny, I always saw Kotaku going belly-up first.

Kotaku has a lot of stupid stuff and questionable quality, but there's a lot of stupid people and people with questionable tastes out there. They post enough content that even if 3/4 of it is crap or a respost of something from reddit there's still probably one interesting thing every few hours not on another gaming site.

A shame about Joystiq going. I switched from Kotaku to Joystiq in my mobile newsreader feed because I wanted less junk if I was doing a quick read on my phone during one of the periods where the whole Kinja network was having one of their freakouts about a subject they knew nothing about. I enjoy a lot of Engadget articles but this is a lot of load for them to have to shoulder suddenly.

TOGSolid

It also puts them more in direct competition with Ars Technica who have had an already established gaming section for some time now.

PMAvers

TOGSolid wrote: »

My biggest surprise from this is that AOL still shambles across the Earth, unable to die like some sort of infernal lych that exists only to waste space and annoy people.

Best hidden phylactery ever.

Hell, NetZero is still around.

Only reason I checked was that we still have a ton of those CD's sitting around at work and I decided to check to see if we could throw them out.

Monger

Joystiq was the only tolerable general-purpose gaming newsfeed. I'm sad.

lionheart_m

Viskod wrote: »

I'm going to miss it.

This also means the end of WoW Insider as well.

WHAT?! Massively too?!

DarkPrimus

Massively was a sister site of Joystiq, so their fates were inexorably linked.

Senno

I didn't use Joystiq that much, but I have been using WoW Insider for years, and have enjoyed the round-ups for Massively. They seemed to be a competent and perfectly good website, and as far as I can tell, had a decent audience. I can't see why they're being given the shove, and I'm sorry for the people who have put in a great deal of effort. I will miss it.

Astale

Senno wrote: »

I didn't use Joystiq that much, but I have been using WoW Insider for years, and have enjoyed the round-ups for Massively. They seemed to be a competent and perfectly good website, and as far as I can tell, had a decent audience. I can't see why they're being given the shove, and I'm sorry for the people who have put in a great deal of effort. I will miss it.

Sometimes success doesn't actually mean that much, it's more about what the parent company wants to do. Case in point: The Penny Arcade Report and the LRR shows. They want to do stuff like Pinny Arcade instead, it's not like they had anything personally against them.

Is it something I like? No. But I can see, from a business standpoint, it just wasn't worth their time. To AOL, this was the same way.


So I can't hate AOL for *this*. I'll continue hating them for all the shitty things they've done over the last decade. And as a Massively reader, I'm going to be super pissed if I have to rely on sites like The Escapist for MMO news now.

BlueBlue

Hoping there's just gonna be a games.engadget

cooljammer00

Dammit, they went with a TNG theme for the last WRUP feature

Arteen

I visited Joystiq multiple times a day. What a bummer.

Are there any other good gaming news sites that aren't bloated with crap like Kotaku?

Archsorcerer

I recommended two sites. Gamecentral and Siliconera.

There is another one named Gematsu.

Krathoon

The problem with video games is that there really is not allot to talk about. Also, companies like to keep their gimmicks and novelties secret.

The older I get, the more I realize this stuff is not really that substantial. That is sort of the problem with art. You make a statement and that is about it.

Still, the world would be a pretty dull place if we just focused on science.

Shady3011

Krathoon wrote: »

The problem with video games is that there really is not allot to talk about. Also, companies like to keep their gimmicks and novelties secret.

The older I get, the more I realize this stuff is not really that substantial. That is sort of the problem with art. You make a statement and that is about it.

Still, the world would be a pretty dull place if we just focused on science.

I'll give you that, but do we need a weekly article about what Japan's weekly fetish is (does Brian Ashcraft still write shit like that)?

Zxerol

Ashcroft's still kicking in his gig as maximum weeaboo.

anoffday

Shadowfire wrote: »

TOGSolid wrote: »

My biggest surprise from this is that AOL still shambles across the Earth, unable to die like some sort of infernal lych that exists only to waste space and annoy people.

Best hidden phylactery ever.

That people still pay AOL for dial-up is a fucking travesty.

I was surprised to find out the other day that AIM is still a thing. Apparently nobody uses it, but it's still around.

Cokomon

I'll miss Joystiq mostly for the Joystiq Podcast. I always loved the dynamic between Ludwig Kietzmann, Chris Grant and Justin McElroy. I kind of started losing interest when the podcast became super serious and then Chris and Justin left the site. Still, it's sad to see that it's gone.

I'm hoping Luddy and the other displaced editors get snapped up quickly by the other gaming news outlets.