Fri, Mar 16, 2012 | 18:02 GMT

Layoffs confirmed at IGN and 1UP, IGN Responds

It’s always sad to see our fellow members of the press leave their respective outlets, and today is no exception.

Hot on the heels of the news of GiantBomb being bought by CBS, sources have confirmed that at least four members of the IGN staff are no longer with the company. Staffers include Matt Leone, Jack Devries, Ryan Winterhalter and Thierry “Scooter” Nguyen.

IGN’s VP of Games Content, Tal Blevins, has issueed VG247 this statement:

“Our mission is to help make games media mainstream, and our gaming properties – IGN.com, 1UP.com, GameSpy.com – continue to play a huge part in achieving that goal. The restructuring that took place today was done in order to keep our core business as efficient as possible, and we believe in 1UP’s growth potential in the future. 1UP still has a strong, unique voice, and we will continue to evolve the site over time to make it stand out from the pack.

“We see professionally-created and user-generated content in both written and video form as essential to our future business. The dotcom destination is still important, though our media strategy also includes actively growing our properties and brands on YouTube, through social channels, syndication deals and anywhere else people are seeking content. The Internet is becoming less destination-specific, and our goal is to reach people with our content wherever they may be.

“Out of respect for my colleagues I won’t list their names publicly, but everyone in editorial who was affected has expressed so on Twitter. As you can imagine, going through an event such as this is never easy, and we wish them the best of luck. This is a relatively small industry, and we will likely be working with them in some capacity in the future.”

16 comments

Se_7_eN
15/03/12, 7:01 pm

THE RISE OF VG247 IS COMING!!!!

El_MUERkO
15/03/12, 7:03 pm

I think the big media companies seem incapable of running gaming websites, too much overhead. Does VG247 even have an office? I think everyone works from home and EG handles the advertising.

Patrick Garratt
15/03/12, 7:04 pm

We have no office, no. Everyone works from home.

chriswhaaat
15/03/12, 7:12 pm

Scooter is gone? Well 1up has officially gone down the shitter. Taking it off my RSS feed now

KAP
15/03/12, 7:37 pm

Greg miller must be shitting himself HAHA!!!
Cocky little shit!

Dragon246
15/03/12, 7:46 pm

@KAP, If you are better than him then why dont you start your own site where you can shit yourself?

loki
15/03/12, 7:53 pm

IGN suck the last 3-4 years

DSB
15/03/12, 7:53 pm

@6 You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

YoungZer0
15/03/12, 7:54 pm

@6: Great logic! I don’t need to be a director just to know that the ‘The Room’ sucks.

#10

Johnny Cullen
15/03/12, 8:02 pm

@2 We work from home in Correze, Derry, Kentucky and Sydney. That said, me and Pat did work out of Eurogamer for a few hours last year when we were in Brighton/London for the GMAs.

#11

Edo
15/03/12, 8:09 pm

@6 Greggy is that you?

#12

Se_7_eN
15/03/12, 8:41 pm

Kentucky!? Do they even have electricity?

#13

Johnny Cullen
15/03/12, 9:05 pm

You’d need to ask Steph that. I think she has her pets power her electricity somehow by running on treadmills (I’m joking Steph, don’t kill me).

#14

Coheno
15/03/12, 9:30 pm

Ohh man no Latt Meone or Scooter… They have been there for ages!