The news spread around the Gaming Press like wildfire earlier today, the Ziff Davis Game Group (consisting of 1UP.com, Gamevideos.com, Gametab.com and Mycheats.com) was purchased today by publishing juggernaut Hearst Media (owners of UGO.com) and big changes have come one of the top faces in the Videogame industry.
From Eat. Sleep. Game.
The internet hummed quietly this morning on inauspicious word that the rumored buyout of 1UP.com and Ziff-Davis game group by Hearst Media (owners of the high-traffic but surprisingly low profile UGO gaming portal) had gone through this week. Originally, word was seen on news portal PaidContent.org, and though the story was quickly pulled down this morning, it remained indexed in Google’s cache and RSS feeds. However, it was thought that this would likely mean a few layoffs while UGO attempted to fit 1UP.com within their content stable.
From Joystiq
Based on Twitter and forum posts by (now former) 1UP staff, it appears all but certain that the 1UP Show video podcast and 1UP Yours audio podcast are no more.
Speaking to MTV Multiplayer, 1UP editorial director Sam Kennedy could not confirm changes to its products / programming. “Will we have as many shows as we have in the past? Probably not, but we have – we’ve had – a lot of ideas for future shows and we’re pretty excited about what we’ll do in the future,” Kennedy told MTV. “Right now, we’re going to go through the process of really figuring out what kind of shows and products we want to keep going in the future. Our intention is to keep as many going as we can.”
1UP staff affected:
At present, the following 1UP staff have indicated — either in tweets, forum posts, or directly to us — that they have been let go: Andrew “Skip” Pfister, Matt Chandronait, Ryan O’Donnell, Jay Fresh, Cesar Quintero, Philip Kollar, Nick Suttner, Anthony Gallegos, Shane Bettenhausen, James “Milkman” Mielke.
Add to this the audacity that UGO.com had when they posted this right before laying off 40 1UP.com/EGM employees and gutting the entirety of the network:
UGO acquired 1UP today. That’s one hell of a way to kick off the New Year.
First of all, let me come out and say that there is no other gaming site like 1UP. Unlike some of the lumbering, impersonal behemoths out there, 1UP is all about its personalities, and its fans are awesome, passionate and willing to fight to the death over whether Final Fantasy X2 was an abomination or a triumph. It’s an honor to bring that passion into the UGO fold. We are like-minded in our love of video games and I plan on welcoming them to the family by kicking their collective asses in Street Fighter IV.
Speaking specifically of the team over there, Sam Kennedy and his crew at 1UP are the most hardcore of hardcore gamers. Cut them and they bleed pixels. There isn’t a better site out there to help UGO realize our vision of being the definitive voice in gaming.
Sam and I are already talking about all the cool things we can do together between epic Dhalsim v. Zangief matches. I can tell you that we’re going to own E3 this year. Our shared goal, our sole mission, is to make your head explode over and over again as we bring you the best video game coverage on the web. At the heart of all this madness is a desire to help 1UP do what they do best…”owning the conversation†when it comes to video games.
Uh, yeah, sure. If that isn’t a dagger in the back I don’t know what is. It’s one thing to take over a company and incorporate it (and most of its employees) into your own. That’s worth celebrating. Gutting it and leaving dozens of good, skilled journalists without jobs? Excuse me while I boo.
In a matter of hours many of the aspects that separated 1UP from their competitors – the 1UP Yours podcast, the 1UP Show, a slicky produced weekly video podcast, and EGM magazine – were thrown aside like so much rubbish. One has to wonder what UGO’s motives are when they fire the majority of the well known personalities, shutter the three things that defined 1UP’s success and more or less turn the community of hardcore gamers against them in the matter of hours.
Truly this is a sad day for Videogames journalism. Best of luck to those who lost their jobs today.
