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[Edgelord79]

I'm going to miss this podcast. I've been listening to GB for what seems like forever.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

End of an era indeed. Interested to see what's next for everyone. I give their material a solid 8.8

 

[CitizenZ]

Man, the Whiskey Media days were the best. Still remember them doing a stream from Dave's house about them selling to CBSi, so surreal thinking back on it.

As smart as i think Jeff is, they never ever reached their potential probably because of him. Imagine Think about WM, they were the most talked about podcast, first to start doing video reviews and dumping written pieces and they also had Screened with a solid forum and web sites equal to the big $$$ channels. Sad.

Fck me i just remembered Norm and Will Smith were also part of WM with Tested, which is still alive and kicking.

I also believe their playthorugh of Persona 4 is considered one of the first times people started streaming VGs. May not be the first but was highly talked about for a long time.

 

[buenoblue]

Uh. There is an entire industry of retro gamers playing 8bit games from classic computers. Retro Asylum on Youtube, Kim Justice, Retro Gamer magazine, The 8bit Guy, Sprite Castle, 8bit Show and Tell.. frankly, there are people who are infinitely more knowledgeable out there producing extremely interesting stuff about the classic era. I'm roughly the same age, and I'm a classic 8bit collector, so I can tell you that if you're looking for that kind of stuff, there's a huge amount of it out there. If anything, Jeff Gerstman is one of the least interesting retro content creato rs.

I mean, look stuff like this:

Yeah plenty of great retro stuff out there I agree, but Jeff having been at every e3, in the games press at gamespot all those years ago, his connections and respect in the industry and growing up california while just covering games from the early days without actually being a game developer gave him a certain viewpoint that I totally gelled with and respected. He's just a normal guy who loves games.

And watching him play old games one minute, being on national news streaming from his shitty spare bedroom the next, to having a real honest chat to Phill spenser at E3, all while still being him and not putting on a front. That shits rare man.

 

[Optimus Lime]

Yeah plenty of great retro stuff out there I agree, but Jeff having been at every e3, in the games press at gamespot all those years ago, his connections and respect in the industry and growing up california while just covering games from the early days without actually being a game developer gave him a certain viewpoint that I totally gelled with and respected. He's just a normal guy who loves games.

And watching him play old games one minute, being on national news streaming from his shitty spare bedroom the next, to having a real honest chat to Phill spenser the at E3, all while still being him and not putting on a front. That shits rare man.

Sure, I'm not suggesting that Jeff was worthless, or never fun to watch or anything like that. I'm just saying that if what you're looking for is coverage of retro gaming, Jeff isn't the only one doing it, and there's a lot of people who actually do it a lot better, with deeper knowledge and more to say.

 

[buenoblue]

Just thinking of my favourite bombcast moment. I think it's the one where Dan said he'd never eaten salad or mayonnaise. Everyone was like WTF. I've never been so dumfounded but engrossed in a conversation as that.

 

[Noboru Wataya]

The best thing for them. Hopefully whatever they do in the future rejuvenates them and brings their passion and creativity back into their working lives. They rode the train for far, far too long after it came off the tracks.

 

[CitizenZ]

Just thinking of my favourite bombcast moment. I think it's the one where Dan said he'd never eaten salad or mayonnaise. Everyone was like WTF. I've never been so dumfounded but engrossed in a conversation as that.

So many good early times, hell just opening boxes of food from all the world was fun. And the Friday night get togethers with everyone from all the WM sites were always fun(Rory and Ryan holding hands is classic). I still revist old QL's time and again with Dave and Vinny playing EYE Divine Cybermancy and the one for Binary Domain guaranteed you cant stop laughing.

Also check out the classic Ryan and Jeff playing either Game room or Kinect games if you need a really good laugh.

 

[Bragr]

Cause he had other people covering it and think he thought it was a Kojima arse Kojima game (not in necessarily bad way) but if you think it's a badly edited game then you are probably less likely to play it for fun.

Yeah, but if you have an inch of interest in games and have the means to play a new Kojima game, you play it. I don't expect him to play everything, but of course, I expect that a top journalist keeps updated and plays new big games. There will always be some games that slip you by, but it's not just Death Stranding, it's multiple games, last year when I listened to some podcast he hadn't even bother to try The Last of Us 2.

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

You can see it in Jeff's eyes, he knows this is the end.

Some months ago a guy on Twitter told Gerstman that he thinks he is sick of games and it shows on GiantBomb. Jeff and some others attacked it, but honestly, it's probably true, it's been easy to see if you compare how he was early on with GiantBomb/GameSpot and how he is now. He barely plays new games at all, he got nothing to say about the industry or games anymore cause he's barely follows it. I remember some of those game of the year shows, he had barely touched any of the games, and if he did, he only played it a little bit. You just can't be disconnected from the industry like that when you are supposed to be a journalist.

You can't be a games journalist if you don't like Souls games tbh

 

[CitizenZ]

YO!!!!!!! So that's the end of GiantBomb then. Jeff isn't enough to hold it together. I wonder what happened.

I recall a couple of months ago they were sold with some other properties to ? A month or so later some of the sites that were purchased in the deal were closed and now more closings/ lay offs.

 

[buenoblue]

Jeff Gerstmann is still a threat I see.

 

[Optimus Lime]

Jeff Gerstmann is still a threat I see.

Yeah, probably not.

 

[Rest]

What is Giant Bomb?

 

[Grechy34]

Not much left to discuss after today it seems.

Anyway, I will miss these guys. Truth be told it's all been downhill since RD passed. Dan brought it back to life for a bit but when he left it has all been pretty bad. I just hope Jeff lands on his feet.

I think Dans time there was some of the best there was.

This is really sad news for me. GB has been a main staple of my podcast listening for years now. I relate a lot of times in my life to listening to these guys. Life stops for nobody though and this was eventually going to happen. These guys are getting older too and the passion has definitely been degrading over the course of the last few years, and it was pretty evident in the way they spoke about games. I believe during periods like COVID it has probably given these guys a lot of time to think about what they want to be doing.

I still think their industry knowledge is the best in the business and I really hope we continue to hear from them in some form.

 

[Strider311]

It has been in a slow decline since Ryan Davis died, but there were still great moments after that. It started to nosedive around the time Klepik felt the need to display SJW cred. Ben sucked. Abby mostly sucked. The best of them, Vinnie, Brad and Alex, all slowly lost their personalities. I hit a point where I just couldn’t listen anymore.

 

[Barakov]

Seems like this could be the end of GB. I'm hoping Jeff and co. get somebody in there that can inject new life into the site. They've just been coasting for far too long. Although to be fair the COVID situation really didn't help.

I think Jeff really needs someone to bounce off of. After Ryan's passing they didn't really have that until Dan joined up and the site got some of that energy back. And they definitely don't need someone who panders to the woke crowd. That had that with Ben, Abby and the ones who are leaving. That kind of shit just sucks out all the energy out of everything.

 

[DeepEnigma]

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

Wow the Brad quitting meme is finally true...GB died when Ryan passed

 

[mckmas8808]

I recall a couple of months ago they were sold with some other properties to ? A month or so later some of the sites that were purchased in the deal were closed and now more closings/ lay offs.

Oh I see. They are jumping ship, before it sinks. I hate to hear businesses fail this way. The market took them down.

 

[O-N-E]

Haven't watched GB in years but that was the only game site I went to for the longest.

Weird that they're all leaving. I have faith in Jeff though, his judgement has been spot on and has been consistently ahead of the curve in regard to creating things that become the norm.

 

[Quasicat]

Sad day.

I absolutely loved Giant Bomb years ago, and the Bombcast helped me get through some of the toughest parts of my life.

Wish them well wherever they decide to go.

I was not a huge fan of Abby and Ben, but the rest of the crew have been really hitting their stride lately. I’m not even a wrestling fan, but I really enjoyed listening to people who are passionate about other subjects. I really hope Giant Bomb isn’t gone, especially with their conference commentaries.

 

[TexMex]

The site was on life support with Ryan's passing. When Dan left, it was over.

 

[Fox Mulder]

The Whiskey Media days were the best and they fell off under corporate CBS and poor hires. Dan Ryckert was great though and I haven’t been there since he left.

It’s sad, but felt like they were already just barely hanging on with the split coasts and still not pumping out much content.

 

[SpiceRacz]

Not surprised at all, honestly. GB has been a sinking ship for a while now. The quality of their content has dropped off and they missed the mark on the Ben and Abby hires. Also, doesn't help when you constantly alienate your fan base.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

I respect what they were able to do after the forefathers ventured from GameSpot to Giant Bomb.

Peace.

 

[bender]

I'm not really talking about the current moment, I can understand he got a lot on his plate right now, but more during the last few years. He was great back in the days, but he seems to spend his days playing retro games from the 1920s and I rarely ever do I hear him talking about current games beyond the odd comment here and there. I remember they talked about Death Stranding and he didn't bother trying it, and thinking man, if you are a journalist aren't you sort of obligated to at least try it? to stay informed? there are tons of games like that where he doesn't give a shit. It seems like he stopped having an interest beyond casual years ago, and it's reflected on the site. You can visit GiantBomb without really knowing it's a game site, it's really strange, no wonder they struggle to get a new audience.

Sorry if I came of accusatory.

As smart as i think Jeff is, they never ever reached their potential probably because of him. Imagine Think about WM, they were the most talked about podcast, first to start doing video reviews and dumping written pieces and they also had Screened with a solid forum and web sites equal to the big $$$ channels. Sad.

Fck me i just remembered Norm and Will Smith were also part of WM with Tested, which is still alive and kicking.

I'm not sure if Jeff held them back, I just think the rise of influencers on Youtube quickly caught up to and surpassed what GiantBomb offered. You can put some of the blame on Jeff for not upholding higher production quality standards for sure and most of the post-Austin hires, save for Dan, really did a number on the chemistry of the personalities of the site.

 

[fart town usa]

Just thinking of my favourite bombcast moment. I think it's the one where Dan said he'd never eaten salad or mayonnaise. Everyone was like WTF. I've never been so dumfounded but engrossed in a conversation as that.

There was one moment where they read a member question, "If you could only eat 5 things for the rest of your life..."

It seemed like before the question was fully read Dan just jumped right into it with a super detailed answer, "Stoffer's Mac-n-Cheese..." Dan said he thinks about those kinds of things all the time, lol.

 

[SoggyBiscuit]

Crazy to think that I've been following these people for some 20 odd years for all my video game coverage. Truly the end of an era. Best of luck to all of them.

Brad really nailed it for me when he spoke about how long he had been at GB alone, they started when he was 28 and he is now 42! Fucking crazy.

I do hope we continue to hear from them all. At least Brad has his tech pod with Will Smith.

 

[YodaBB]

I doubt this news will be much surpise to any of the posters from the old GB thread. The writing has been on the wall for some time. Even recently the Returnal QL, arguably the biggest game release this year, was just Jeff streaming the game in his bedroom, noone else could even be bothered connecting in - absolutely lowest effort shit. You would be better off watching literally any other YT video.
Quite what Brads been doing for the last year other than joining the podcast every week, I have no idea. Same with Alex, just hitting plastic drums week in, week out and appearing on the podcast to say he hasn't had time to play any games.
I wonder if back when Jeff sold GB, he ever thought he would be shilling Viagra pills (Bluechew) by shouting about "raging erections". The podcasts have been getting shorter and shorter and filled with more ridiculous ads such as:

• bidets (Hellotushy)
• payday loans (I forget the name)
• sportswear (fabletics)
• dodgy vitamin supplements (ritual)
• therapy sessions (betterhelp)

I hope Vinny lands on his feet because he seems to still care (judging by how embarrased he was reading out ads for the above). The other 2.....eh.

 

[HotPocket69]

Good listen. Only 20 min and Hoeg is a corporate lawyer

 

[Umbasaborne]

Crazy to think that I've been following these people for some 20 odd years for all my video game coverage. Truly the end of an era. Best of luck to all of them.

Brad really nailed it for me when he spoke about how long he had been at GB alone, they started when he was 28 and he is now 42! Fucking crazy.

I do hope we continue to hear from them all. At least Brad has his tech pod with Will Smith.

Fuck i didn’t even think of that. I will never forget watching their coverage of the ps3 and xbox 360 launches during their gamespot days. Fuck, this really stings

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

I used to listen all the time, but the gradual decline everyone is describing is quite real. I think in the last 3 years I've listened to 1 GotY deliberations podcast and that's it.

Memorable moments:

• Ryan making fun of a guy who can't pronounce "executable"

• Ryan unintentionally becoming a narc by mentioning the smell of weed at a motel in a tweet

• GB awarding X-COM: Enemy Unknown Game of the Year leading to me deciding to check it out and absolutely loving it

• Dan calmly explaining his insane life decisions to people

• Brad discussing the trauma a guy went through after treading in human shit (this was before I knew about the extremism/decline of major coastal cities in the US so this story of human shit being everywhere in SF was really shocking to me)

 

[Umbasaborne]

Is it a coincidence that not only did kingdom hearts kill the superbestfriends and their podcast, but its now done the same to giant bomb? Why is kingdom hearts killing every video game based conglomerate that i enjoy?

 

[CitizenZ]

Fuck i didn’t even think of that. I will never forget watching their coverage of the ps3 and xbox 360 launches during their gamespot days. Fuck, this really stings

How about when the, dont know what they were called, Japanese Nintendo girls delivered the new 3Ds to them in the basement? Good times and memories when things were fun.

 

[godhandiscen]

I will always hold Jeff dear for slapping an 8.8 review on Wii’s Zelda and unleashing the biggest meltdown I’ve ever witnessed.

 

[burst]

It had to happen. You had tired Gen Xers who wouldn’t pull in new viewers. They probably wanted out before they are too old and jeff had to do something to change direction to save the site.

 

[Sidesalad]

After a rough Monday, this was the last thing I wanted to see.

I got back into video games after a 10 year hiatus in 2018 and quickly found Giantbomb. I was working from home for most of those three years and would regularly watch 5+ hours of their content a day.

Unprofessional Fridays, Mario Party Party, Persona 4 Endurance Run are all some of the most enjoyable content I've ever watched on the internet. Of course I've never met these people, but it still hurts the same way that suddenly losing touch with close friends after graduation does.

I don't care whether it's a toe nail clipper review show, it would be nice to see a group of Giantbomb alumni get together to work on something again in the future. They had a group dynamic that just can't be replicated by solo streamers, and that will be sorely missed. Until then, they've still got a giant back catalogue of content to enjoy.

 

[MayauMiao]

I saw one of their E3 coverage some time ago. They all look really miserable, unenthusiastic, and just tired with video games in general.

This shouldn't be a shock.

 

[BigMadAndy]

Their premium content was so great back in the day, Random PC game, FMV, Metal gear scanlon, Mario party, Flight club. There was always such a friendly, welcoming while also witty style to their content, also in metal gear scanlon for example you would get 1 or 2 interesting dan stories per video. Certainly echo what others have said that the death of Ryan Davis began the slow descent, although Dan was great. While GB did become pretty awful I'll always respect it for all of their early golden content, it was just so consistently funny and interesting. I might have to archive some of that stuff just in case it dissapears because of a restructure or closure

 

[Optimus Lime]

I am just listening to the final Bombcast with Brad, Vinny and Alex, and even though I've outlined a bunch of quibbles that I have with Giant Bomb over the past few years, if you care about gaming at all, you owe it to yourself to listen to it. It's only an hour and a half, but it's a really emotional and sweet swan song for Giant Bomb, but also for anyone who grew up in and around the tech sector, as a worker or a hobbyist. And, Vinny's final goodbye to Ryan in the closing moments was extremely classy, kind, and impactful.

We all know how they ended up, but this week's episode is a really great reminder of how amazing Giant Bomb was all those years ago, and how much has changed (and we've lost) since then.

 

[ThatOneGrunt]

I loved it when they played the Matrix Online before they shut down the servers. The Mortal Kombat Scrub League was great. The video where they're playing Skyrim and a giant launches a tiger or something into outerspace. A lot of great moments.

 

[Portugeezer]

Giant Bomb has been on a slow decline for a while now. I have a hard time imagining where Brad could go from here, I wish them the best. As for GB... I guess they still have Jeff, the OG but I don't know if he can carry the site...

I enjoyed their launch extravaganzas for the respective consoles. Always good marathons and they always (used to, at least) tell it like it is.

When Kyle Bosman left EZA it was the same thing, just not interesting anymore.

EZA podcast definitely took a dive. Frame Trap still good though.

 

[LQX]

I love the GiantBomb and BeastCast but the writing was on the wall and I would be shocked if they were that clueless, though for the past few years they have come off clueless. These dudes should have went back to doing their own thing and moved to YouTube years ago. That's said I will follow these dudes wherever they go and hopefully they stick together and stay in gaming or at least podcasting.

Also, hopefully they stole as much shit at they could while they were at CBS.

 

[Animagic]

It was over for me when Drew left

 

[hemo memo]

Wooooow. What IS Giant Bomb anymore?

 

[Bo_Hazem]

Don't know who are they, but they can all continue their succession independently.

 

[TheMan]

So what's a good alternative

 

[Blond]

It died a long time ago.
Not even talking about the woke shit. They just didn't gave a fuck anymore and it showed.
Nothing wrong with that. Just do something you like in life.

I stopped watching when they had the nerve to to merge with the company that fired him. Same with Joe Rogan and Spotify, the moment it was announced I tuned out

 

[Grechy34]

I stopped watching when they had the nerve to to merge with the company that fired him. Same with Joe Rogan and Spotify, the moment it was announced I tuned out

Business is business at the end of the day.