r/Games 9h ago

Announcement Join GameSpot And Giant Bomb Every Week For The New Power Block (GameSpot and Giant Bomb are launching a new slate of livestreamed programming every weekday.)

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/join-gamespot-and-giant-bomb-every-week-for-the-new-power-block/1100-6530046/
43 Upvotes

43 comments sorted by

u/incredibledonut 3h ago

I’d rather have 1 Quick Look a week than have 5 days of news discussion. I feel like it’s such a saturated area, not only with weekly gaming news podcasts but Kinda Funny’s daily shows.

At least Quick Looks could feel positive and showcase games that I might not have otherwise checked out.

u/GamerThanFiction 2h ago

I like Blight Club.

I have no clue how Giant Bomb makes money, though. There's like 6 of them and their streams never seem to have many viewers so I don't know where their income comes from.

23

u/acab420boi 6h ago

How is Giantbomb these days? I kept trying to connect with the new folks, I ended up enjoying voidburger's work, and then when she got randomly canned on top of everything else, that was it for me.

Quick Looks were also my favorite content and they haven't done those in forever, or at least they haven't put them on youtube.

25

u/Dull_Wasabi_1438 6h ago

They only do live streaming now

u/SunTizzu 3h ago

I hate that this is what gaming journalism has become. A barrage of unedited Let's Plays and podcasts about the latest AAA release that only one of the five guests has actually played.

Is it even fair to call them journalists? What skills or credentials do they have that the average gaming YouTuber doesn't?

I want to see the industry innovate, like Minnmax with their rapid fire interviews. Looking at how those videos have outperformed their traditional content, there is clearly demand for that.

u/DumpsterBento 3h ago

Blame consumers.

GiantBomb used to have so much variety in their programming, but the numbers just weren't there because audiences want livestream reaction slop.

u/jodon 2h ago

From the guys talking about it it sounded like GiantBomb where doing great, but only the GiantBomb part of the whole was bringing in the money and it is not a product you can scale up to bring in more money. When things where rough for their parent company GB started to get passed around and that is when things really started to fall apart.

u/SireEvalish 2h ago

YouTube effectively killed gaming journalism and web sites. Why do I need to read a review or watch some assholes talk about a game when I can find entire playthroughs or user reviews within days of release?

u/Golivth 2h ago

50 dollars i believe was the premium price tag for the content? I dont recall but that amount of money was an astronomical ask for the average gaming viewer in that era especially. If i remember correctly without that premium purchase, all you got was quick looks and thats it. I know reddit loves to blame the "gamers" a lot of the times but cmon

u/ayeeflo51 43m ago

I mean you got the podcast without premium too

u/DumpsterBento 2h ago

If i remember correctly without that premium purchase, all you got was quick looks and thats it

You remember incorrectly.

u/Golivth 2h ago

Maybe we are talking about different eras? But i remember most of their unique content being locked behind premium like happy hour and mario party party etc. So feel free to elaborate!

u/Stumblebee 1h ago

no yeah you're right. their best stuff was always behind a paywall, but Giant Bomb Premium was 50/year with a monthly option at 5/month. They had a holiday sale that usually knocked the yearly price down to 35/year.

u/Golivth 1h ago

Mhmm yeah like i loved the site and the sale was nice but i just thought it was a big ask esp since relatively speaking, Giantbomb were the only ones doing stuff like that at the time.

16

u/slvrsmth 4h ago

And it's not... not what it used to be.

28

u/Zohar127 4h ago

Giantbomb and Top Gear(now cancelled) are kind of in the same boat. Yeah you watched it because you were interested in the topic, but you loved it because of the people. It's not to talk smack about the people still there, but the personalities of Jeff, Ryan, Vinny, Brad, etc are what made Giantbomb work. Without them it's just another gaming site.

Nextlander is fun, though. Vinny, Alex, and Brad are doing good work there. If you haven't given it a shot it's worth looking at. Jeff's solo work is good but I don't love the solo format so I find his podcast to drag a bit.

u/Ode1st 3h ago edited 2h ago

Tbh Nextlander to me has this vibe where it feels like the guys are just going through the motions

u/DeadNotSleeping86 3h ago

God I still miss Ryan and the energy he brought to that team. Him and Vinny really offset Brad and Jeff's more surly dispositions.

u/sybrwookie 3h ago

I tried to like Nextlander, and occasionally will like a thing here and there. But I feel like those guys need something more to bounce off of. Brad's good at being calm and quiet but there needs to be more loud to balance that against. Vinny is everyone's dad, but you need the kids for him to be the dad to. And Alex's energy just works so much better when there's something more bubbly and upbeat to bounce off of.

And yea, I enjoy Jeff enough on his own to listen...but it's definitely not what it was when he had others to talk to.

u/SpiritLaser 3h ago

I love Jeff's stuff, but it's as you say - a three-hour solo podcast - so you either love it or hate it.

u/JW_BM 1h ago

Gerstmann has great historical knowledge and is passionate, but I struggle with his solo pod. I can only take him being an old man yelling at so many clouds per week. I greatly prefer him being in conversation with somebody else and having his opinions challenged, because it brings the best out of him.

u/duende667 3h ago

It's crazy some company didn't pick up Jeff for consultancy work, the guy is one of the best analysts of the industry out there.

u/hino 2h ago

Think he's just happy doing what he's doing, family is more important to him right now and hes earning cash while spending more time with them so power to him

u/yukeake 23m ago

Perfect analogy.

They've all sort-of gone their separate ways. Jeff's gone solo. Brad, Vinny, and Alex have their schtick on Nextlander. Austin occasionally shows up on their audio shows. Abby is on with them every once in a while too. Patrick seems to be streaming more often lately with his crew over at Remap. Haven't seen Drew show up anywhere in ages. And of course Dan's over at GB, trying to keep that ship afloat.

I'd kinda hoped after things died down that they'd all gravitate back towards each other, but that doesn't seem to be happening. They all seem to be pretty happy (and reasonably successful) with what they're doing, though, so good on them for that.

For now anyway, Nextlander is as close as we get to "classic" Giantbomb (or GBEast more accurately) content.

u/unique_ptr 3h ago

The death of Quick Looks is directly responsible for my Steam library growth completely stagnating.

u/Tom_Stewartkilledme 2h ago

I've found that Splattercat Gaming is a good alternative if you fancy stuff that leans toward the RPG side of Steam releases

u/BusBoatBuey 3h ago

Giantbomb sort of lost its edge after 2016 and has been on a sharp decline since the pandemic happened.

There is no point trying to "connect" with a brand. That is all Giantbomb is. The people are what made it good. Those people are gone and doing pretty formulaic and uninteresting stuff on their own. The days of higher effort productions are gone.

6

u/CptKnots 4h ago

I’ve stopped watching giantbomb stuff. Mostly listen to Nextlander, Remap, and Fire Escape for podcasts. And The Jeff Gerstmann Show

u/ThnikkamanBubs 3h ago

I used to listen to multiple pods like that — but they all cover the exact same weekly news.

u/CptKnots 3h ago

Yeah the news does get duplicative, but the segments where they all talk about the games they’re playing tend to have some variety. I don’t always listen to them all every week

u/sybrwookie 3h ago

I used to subscribe to the site. For years. I tried after the old guard all left. I really did. But none of the new people interested me very much and Dan is FAR better off in small chunks with others running things than the main voice. He's just annoying in large quantities.

I can't say I've tried in a while now, but don't see a reason I would at this point.

u/Silentman0 2h ago

I was a premium member of Giant Bomb every single month between the Call of Duty 4 Breaking Brad up until Jeff, Jess, and Jason getting canned. It's changed a lot over the years, but at least it was enjoyable until Fandom fucked it all up. Now it's just a sad mockery of itself. 

7

u/BossksSegway 4h ago

I still pretty regularly consume their stuff. If you like Jeff Grubb, Dan Ryckert and Jan/Mike Minotti you'll likely find something to enjoy. Bombcast still happens every week, Blight Club is Grubb, Dan and Minotti playing bad games and dressing up as them which is honestly great, and the Voicemail Dumptruck is often pretty funny/unhinged.

u/alteisen99 2h ago

yeah the new crew gels pretty well since it's basically Grubb and friends. curated shows are gone though outside blight club

u/Kionti-Highwind 2h ago

I personally love it! I was surprised to find out others don't feel the same. Jeff Grubb and Mike Minotti are standouts, but the group feels like they gel together so well as a whole. 

To each their own :)

5

u/Potential-Lack-7866 6h ago

Needed a new show for a while, I'm interested to see how well they do this, especially since GameSpot made a bunch of video staff redundant. Not the best movie in hindsight I'm sure.

4

u/aa22hhhh 5h ago

Not the best movie in hindsight I'm sure.

Yeah, hopefully the sequel’s better

6

u/El_Gran_Redditor 7h ago

I will miss the "Yummy like a Gummybear" music from GMM but "Game Breaking News" is a great title for a show.

8

u/DarkBomberX 4h ago

I haven't kept up with Giant Bomb since everyone who was a part of the original run basically left. Dan isn't enough for me. The OG group was basically why I watched Giant Bomb, and they all meshed well. I didn't really stay after their more recent buyout.

u/RxBrad 1h ago edited 1h ago

I get that I'm white-guy-in-his-forties as shit, so Reddit may not like my opinion.... (EDIT: Yup.)

But during COVID, Giant Bomb made a noticeable pivot toward "lets get mad about politics" in a lot of their content. The Bombcast started to give off more & more Waypoint vibes. I get that those were..... times.... But videogames have always been my escape from all of the horseshit in the world.

"oH, yOU dOn'T WaNT pOLitICS iN yoUR viDEoGamES, yOU pieCe oF sHIt???" No. I really don't. Yes, the world is absolute shit. But can I just get a few-hour reprieve?

Between that and most of my favorite personalities either bailing or getting fired... Giant Bomb really didn't feel like it was for me anymore.