The longest running gaming publication in the US has been shut down by GameStop, with many staff members learning about it through social media.
GameStop’s commitment to terrible business practices should be studied. As physical gaming has dropped off, the company has struggled over the last several years. From reports of their Circle of Life policy (among other employee horror stories) to a leadership shake-up that saw Ryan Cohen, the “king of meme stocks,” appointed as the new CEO.
Cohen sent out a letter to all GameStop staff when he came on board which mentioned, “Extreme frugality is required. Every expense at the company must be scrutinized under a microscope and all waste eliminated.”
Game Informer has been operating successfully for 33 years, beating out all competitors (even in the heyday of gaming magazines) and is still considered influential by pretty much every gaming studio around. I guess that’s counts as “waste” to the man who’s spent the last several days shit-posting on Twitter about Trump. More so, just this week, Cohen was hit with a $47 Million lawsuit from Bed, Bath and Beyond for inside trading…So, clearly this guy knows how to screw people over.
It especially sucks as the company JUST got back to selling physical copies of the magazine, a sign many took as a show of how well it’s been doing. What’s worse than unceremoniously shutting down the iconic magazine, however, is the fact the entire team were given no heads up (with at least one staff member currently out on a work trip for the magazine when they found out). The Game Informer Twitter account made a sappy post about “saying goodbye”…but no one from the actual GI team wrote it. In fact, this post was sent out before many of the staff members were even made aware of what was happening.
It’s an ignominious and infuriating end for one of the best gaming publications to have ever done it. Myself—along with a number of peers—wouldn’t be writing about games now if it weren’t for the influence of that magazine and the impressive journalism they provided on both games and the industry at large.
Our hearts go out to the amazing writers who’ve been affected by this sudden closure and all the work they’ve done to make GameInformer such a staple for decades.
