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1up.com sold to UGO/Hearst; EGM shut down. Yes, the podcasts too.

korodullinkorodullin What.SCRegistered User regular
edited February 2009 in Games and Technology
According to Gamasutra, Ziff-Davis finally pretty much folded, and sold all of 1up.com and its affiliates (mycheats.com, gamevideos.com, et al) to UGO, which is owned by Hearst. As a result, the January 2009 edition of Electronic Gaming Monthly will be the end of the road for the 20-year-old rag.

Did anyone still read EGM? Did anyone actually use GameVideos, when Gametrailers is generally far and away superior? I'm saddened because this is likely going to spell the end of all of 1up's generally good podcasts, which I will indeed miss.
Team:

We are announcing today the sale of our 1UP digital business to UGO Entertainment, a dvision of Hearst Corporation.

Over the course of the last 4 years we have built the 1UP sites into a top tier gaming digital destination. While our growth has been sharp, it has become apparent that more scale is necessary to effectively compete in this market segment.

We made the decision that the best path to putting our award winning 1UP brand and content in a more competitive position was to combine it with the operations of another publisher. We received much interest from other parties.

After a comprehensive process, this morning we completed a deal with Hearst Interactive, the owner and operator of UGO Entertainment. 1UP.com, MyCheats.com, Gamevideos.com, and Gametab.com will now all be part of the UGO Entertainment business. Many of our employees will travel with this business and become part of the UGO team.

With this transaction happening, we have also made the decision to discontinue publication of EGM. The January 2009 issue will be the final issue of the publication. With demand for print continuing to decline amongst both advertisers and readers and the content being produced by 1UP no longer available for use in the publication, it simply did not make sense for us to move forward with this business any longer.

We will continue to operate the Filefront business as a part of the PCMag Digital Network. In the coming months we will determine the best ways to leverage the scale and functionality of this digital property to expand our business position.

The Ziff Davis position in the gaming market has been significant and important to our company and the market itself. While many of our assets in the PCMag Digital Network (including Filefront now) will continue to cover this market, it's important that we celebrate all that we have achieved over the last 25 years.

Our leadership in print for decades with titles like Computer Gaming World and EGM which in turn translated into the build out of one of the leading digital gaming media assets in 1UP are prime examples of the skill, passion, and expertise of our teams.and what they achieved.

It's incredible to compare the 1UP.com of today versus that of 12 months ago. I want to thank everybody in our Game Group for their important contributions over the years.

For Ziff Davis Media, our attention and focus now shifts squarely to the PC Mag Digital Network. The proceeds from this transaction will be used to pay down debt. One of the primary objectives of our business plan is ensuring that we have plenty of room to service our debt obligations into the future, and manage for growth in what will be a challenging year in the advertising market.

While the market will be tough, we are confident our position is well aligned to where the demand is most active. We move forward as a 100% digital business with tenured brand position, and powerful capabilities to drive results for our customers. I look forward to sharing more updates in the coming weeks.

JY.

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korodullin on
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    JubehJubeh Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    I used GameVideos to watch Broken Pixels.

    I think.

    Man all those sites look the same to me. ):

    Jubeh on
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    -SPI--SPI- Osaka, JapanRegistered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Noooooo. My podcasts! Broken Pixels! The 1up show I guess!

    Damn.

    -SPI- on
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    LewiePLewieP Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    -SPI- wrote: »
    Noooooo. Broken Pixels! The 1up show I guess!

    LewieP on
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    RenzoRenzo Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    The 1up websites are not necessarily going anywhere.
    1UP.com, MyCheats.com, Gamevideos.com, and Gametab.com will now all be part of the UGO Entertainment business. Many of our employees will travel with this business and become part of the UGO team.
    Or am I reading that wrong?

    Renzo on
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    The_ScarabThe_Scarab Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Karma bitches for closing down CGW. JUSTICE!

    The_Scarab on
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    ZeromusZeromus Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    EGM should have folded long, long ago.

    Zeromus on
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    Mike DangerMike Danger "Diane..." a place both wonderful and strangeRegistered User regular
    edited January 2009
    My respect for ZiffDavis tanked after GMR died.

    Mike Danger on
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    korodullinkorodullin What. SCRegistered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Renzo wrote: »
    The 1up websites are not necessarily going anywhere.
    1UP.com, MyCheats.com, Gamevideos.com, and Gametab.com will now all be part of the UGO Entertainment business. Many of our employees will travel with this business and become part of the UGO team.
    Or am I reading that wrong?

    I highly doubt that many of 1up's employees will be kept around, seeing as UGO is based in New York, while 1up is in San Francisco. It may be UGO wants a West Coast office (for easier convention access maybe?), or it may be that they just want a few "high profile" 1up staffers to move up to NYC while they tell the rest of the crew "tough luck."

    korodullin on
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    MusanMusan Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Yea, 1up people are already getting laid off. All of the 1up Show/Gamevideos staff got laid off. Definitely a sad day.

    Musan on
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    SpoitSpoit *twitch twitch* Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    I wish I could say I was sad about this, but to be honest, I stopped caring about 1up after jeff and shawn left

    Spoit on
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    subediisubedii Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Spoit wrote: »
    I wish I could say I was sad about this, but to be honest, I stopped caring about 1up after jeff and shawn left

    Alas poor Brodeo, champion amongst podcasts.

    subedii on
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    SteevLSteevL What can I do for you? Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    FUCK

    :(

    I mean, sure, I've enjoyed things less as Jeff and Shawn left, but the podcasts have still been a good source of entertainment for me driving to work or on occasional my 4-hour car trips. 1up FM was a big improvement over EGM Live.

    SteevL on
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    maximumzeromaximumzero I...wait, what? New Orleans, LARegistered User regular
    edited January 2009
    I just signed up for a free year of EGM. :(

    maximumzero on
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    JCRooksJCRooks Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Yeah, the podcasts have really gone downhill over the past year, especially with Jeff and Shawn leaving. 1UP Yours, especially, has been difficult to listen to, especially with Garnett and Shane at the helm. God, sometimes it's hard to believe that they want to be taken seriously as journalists. Or I guess maybe that's a reason why EGM is now dead ... with a lot of the good folks gone, it left people in charge that probably had no business being that high up.

    The one podcast that I will truly miss ... 1UP FM. That show is far superior to the rest. I do hope Nick and Philip find a good place to go.

    JCRooks on
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    wasted pixelswasted pixels Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
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    This issue of EGM was the first magazine I ever read. I was five or six at the time, maybe.

    I want to be a little sad about this (end of an era and all), but even Dan Hsu got off that sinking ship. This has been a long time coming and everyone knows it.

    EDIT: Hell, I got interested in graphic design as a young pup because it seemed like a good way to get hired by a video game magazine. EGM influenced my entire career path because of that, and I still can't manage to be a little sad about this. :/

    wasted pixels on
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    CherrnCherrn Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    I still appreciate their podcast content, so I'll be sad to see that go. Assuming anything actually changes, that is.

    I don't really give a shit about EGM, and the site itself is terrible.

    Cherrn on
    All creature will die and all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai.
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    The_ScarabThe_Scarab Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Spoit wrote: »
    I wish I could say I was sad about this, but to be honest, I stopped caring about 1up after jeff and shawn left

    We were already coming down the mountain when Luke Smith joined Bungie. Man I remember the good old days of 1up Yours with him versus shane. After that the levels of accuracy, especially on sales, plummeted.


    Though I feel sad for James Mielke, that man is an editing machine.

    The_Scarab on
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    APZonerunnerAPZonerunner Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Yeah, according to Luke Smith who obviously was there before heading to Bungie, 30+ people are getting laid off. No more podcasts etc, they are 'gutting' the site and getting rid of that more 'personal' side of the content, sticking to reviews etc. Pretty much everyone at gamevideos is getting laid off as UGO already have a streaming video site..

    APZonerunner on
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    subediisubedii Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Yeah, according to Luke Smith who obviously was there before heading to Bungie, 30+ people are getting laid off. No more podcasts etc, they are 'gutting' the site and getting rid of that more 'personal' side of the content, sticking to reviews etc.

    Oh freaking fantastic. I was planning on downloading all the GFW podcasts and keeping those when I finally got my PC up and running again, but it looks like I won't get the chance now. :x

    It would have been awesome to have a radio station in GTA IV dedicated solely to the Brodeo.

    subedii on
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    JCRooksJCRooks Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    The flipside is that this will force me to find and listen to some new gaming podcasts. I've been meaning to go check out Gamers With Jobs for a while.

    Also, over a year or so ago, I signed up for a free year of GFW. When that was shuttered, it was replaced with EGM (and strangely, they kept sending me free mags). I wonder what magazine I'll get as a replacement now, if any?

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    ButtcleftButtcleft Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    i ahve a subscription to EGM

    It was a good magazine, altho like most made up about 60% ad pages :\

    Buttcleft on
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    Zilla360Zilla360 21st Century. |She/Her| Trans* Woman In Aviators Firing A Bazooka. ⚛️Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    No more 1up show? :(
    I really enjoyed the last season.

    Zilla360 on
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    APZonerunnerAPZonerunner Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Best place for updates for this is GAF. If you can weather the GAF member shaped storm Luke, Shaun and others are posting there about what's happened.

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    HozHoz Cool Cat Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    They're gutting gamevideos? The 1UP Show is like the most interesting thing about the site.

    Game fucking over, man.

    Hoz on
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    CherrnCherrn Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Yeah, according to Luke Smith who obviously was there before heading to Bungie, 30+ people are getting laid off. No more podcasts etc, they are 'gutting' the site and getting rid of that more 'personal' side of the content, sticking to reviews etc. Pretty much everyone at gamevideos is getting laid off as UGO already have a streaming video site..

    Fuuuuck. I still think 1up Yours is good, and Retronauts is my absolute favorite podcast. Even if the quality fluctuates, they're still on the forefront as far as game podcasts go.

    What a shitty way to end it.

    Cherrn on
    All creature will die and all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai.
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    Clint EastwoodClint Eastwood My baby's in there someplace She crawled right inRegistered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Ha ha!

    Fuck you EGM. I feel bad for Seanbaby but that's about it. Then again, was he even still part of the magazine any more? Hard to tell with all the fucking ads in that thing.

    Clint Eastwood on
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    CohsaeCohsae Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Cloudman wrote: »
    Ha ha!

    Fuck you EGM. I feel bad for Seanbaby but that's about it. Then again, was he even still part of the magazine any more? Hard to tell with all the fucking ads in that thing.

    Fuck you man dozens of people are losing their jobs because of this. I liked 1UP.

    Cohsae on
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    CouscousCouscous Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Yeah, according to Luke Smith who obviously was there before heading to Bungie, 30+ people are getting laid off. No more podcasts etc, they are 'gutting' the site and getting rid of that more 'personal' side of the content, sticking to reviews etc. Pretty much everyone at gamevideos is getting laid off as UGO already have a streaming video site..
    So how will it be different from the vast majority of other gaming websites then?

    Couscous on
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    Kuribo's ShoeKuribo's Shoe Kuribo's Stocking North PoleRegistered User regular
    edited January 2009
    egm is not as bad as some of you cynical fuckers would imply

    and even if it was, this sucks. I bought so many of these to read at school, and right around 1998 was the best time of the magazine, it was huge, all the previews were really solid, all that stuff

    I will buy the last issue, no questions asked.

    Kuribo's Shoe on
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    SaddlerSaddler Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Wow sad day, I'll be downloading every episode of Retronauts when I get home from work. EGM is kind of lame, but what in game journalism is much better? Especially print.

    Saddler on
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    CouscousCouscous Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Saddler wrote: »
    Wow sad day, I'll be downloading every episode of Retronauts when I get home from work. EGM is kind of lame, but what in game journalism is much better? Especially print.

    Print media is dead. Long live the internet!

    Couscous on
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    JCRooksJCRooks Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    First of all, condolences to all of those who've lost their jobs. That's never a good thing.

    Anyway, looking at NeoGAF (I know, it makes my eyes bleed) and the 1UP.com forums, it's a bit amusing to see how highly some gamers view 1UP/EGM. They see it as a "mature site for gamers", better than everything else. Really? Really?

    Maybe in comparison to IGN or UGO or other gaming sites that I don't frequent, maybe 1UP and EGM were "better" or "more mature", but it's certainly not like the Wall Street Journal of game journalism, by any means. I guess what made it stand-out is that its podcasts were quite popular and personalized the news, previews, reviews, etc. a lot more than other venues. Hearing what certain folks thought about games and various gaming trends, is what I'll miss. Thankfully, though, there are plenty of other venues to go to (and likely 1UP/Ziff-Davis folk may be joining plenty of those podcasts).

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    JJJJ DailyStormer Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    I liked EGM. And 1up used to be just fucking incredible but it was sad to see Mark, Luke, Sean, and Jeff and whoever else leave.

    JJ on
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    Bryse EayoBryse Eayo Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    JCRooks wrote: »
    First of all, condolences to all of those who've lost their jobs. That's never a good thing.

    Anyway, looking at NeoGAF (I know, it makes my eyes bleed) and the 1UP.com forums, it's a bit amusing to see how highly some gamers view 1UP/EGM. They see it as a "mature site for gamers", better than everything else. Really? Really?

    Maybe in comparison to IGN or UGO or other gaming sites that I don't frequent, maybe 1UP and EGM were "better" or "more mature", but it's certainly not like the Wall Street Journal of game journalism, by any means. I guess what made it stand-out is that its podcasts were quite popular and personalized the news, previews, reviews, etc. a lot more than other venues. Hearing what certain folks thought about games and various gaming trends, is what I'll miss. Thankfully, though, there are plenty of other venues to go to (and likely 1UP/Ziff-Davis folk may be joining plenty of those podcasts).

    Well they didn't rely on the previews, reviews, interviews AND HEY HERE ARE SOME TITS formula that a lot of game sites rely on. They've also been able to stand up to some publishers bullshit.

    I'll give them credit for that. As someone who seems to want to get into the whole writing about video games thing, I think they're one of the groups who got things right.

    Bryse Eayo on
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    The_ScarabThe_Scarab Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    JJ wrote: »
    I liked EGM. And 1up used to be just fucking incredible but it was sad to see Mark, Luke, Sean, and Jeff and whoever else leave.

    You're forgetting SHAWWWWNNNNN

    The_Scarab on
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    scootchscootch Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    well this sucks..

    scootch on
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    Dr.FunkensteinDr.Funkenstein Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Now if only IGN could get shut down...

    Dr.Funkenstein on
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    JJJJ DailyStormer Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    The_Scarab wrote: »
    JJ wrote: »
    I liked EGM. And 1up used to be just fucking incredible but it was sad to see Mark, Luke, Sean, and Jeff and whoever else leave.

    You're forgetting SHAWWWWNNNNN

    Ah right, I spelled it wrong, but Sean Malloy is gone too. Brodeo was so good. Now the person who only ever said like two sentences in a whole podcast, Ryan, is now hosting it. Kind of a funny switch.

    JJ on
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    CohsaeCohsae Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Also a lot of the reason behind the 1UP fandom was their communication with the community, and podcasts, which gave the writers a personality, as opposed to just a name. That and Shawn Elliott.

    Cohsae on
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    Dr. JeebusDr. Jeebus Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    EGM was pretty much shit anyway. I'm surprised so many people are upset about that.

    Dr. Jeebus on
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