The games journalism industry is suffering one of its worst weeks in recent memory. Two venerable, decade-plus gaming resources, Giant Bomb, and Polygon, have been all but shut down. The reasons are different, but both situations can be summarized as corporate interference.
Yesterday, The Valnet Gaming Group announced they had acquired gaming publication Polygon from Vox Media.
Valnet is well-known as a content mill overseer, churning out clickbait articles, listicles, and opinion pieces, and maximizing SEO, with little pay for freelancers and contract writers. Valnet sites include GameRant, ScreenRant, and CBR (Comic Book Resources).
The acquisition doesn’t exactly inspire confidence for the future of Polygon. The publication has been a bastion of insightful, premiere gaming journalism, with an incredibly talented roster of writers. Many Polygon writers have been laid off as a result of the acquisition.
The Giant Bomb news is even more frustrating. Giant Bomb has been owned by Fandom since 2022, which also owns GameSpot. In March of this year, the two gaming sites launched a new daily streaming schedule called Power Block.
In April, Fandom imposed new guideline rules and content restrictions on Giant Bomb, which the personality-driven site has never had to deal with before. In episode #888 of the incredibly prolific Giant Bombcast, which dropped April 30, the hosts openly mocked and derided these “brand safety” restrictions.
As a result, the episode was removed entirely by Fandom. Long-time show-runners Dan Ryckert and Jeff Grubb then departed from the website.
We understand your frustration and appreciate your patience — we’re actively exploring creative directions for the future of GB and look forward to sharing more with you soon.
— Giant Bomb (@giantbomb.bsky.social) May 1, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Giant Bomb was one of the longest-running gaming publications (2008!), and one of the first to focus on personalities, podcasts, and video live streaming.
Losing Giant Bomb and Polygon, and within the same week, is a horrifying blow to an already tumultuous industry. Hopefully new publications will rise from the ashes. In the case of Game Informer, which was shut down last August, the website fully returned with all original staff in March, with a new owner.
