I started watching Giant Bomb in 2008, a little before high school. Ryan Davis passed away a month before I began college. High school for me was video games and videos games were Giant Bomb. I was a premium member, I listened to the Giant Bombcast religiously, I bought games based on their recommendations, their Game of the Year deliberations were the highlight of winter breaks. I cried when I heard Ryan died, not just because I had spent about as much time listening to him as I had my real life friends, but because it felt like the definitive death of that part of my life. I enjoyed Dan Ryckert's dynamic with a group (his antics were fun when paired when a straight man and not when his inexplicable successes were paired next to my personal failures, which is not his fault) and Austin Walker is still one of my favorite voices in media commentary, but going into adulthood, it felt like the site was finding its way as I was. I enjoyed the roller coaster video, but even at the time I recognized that it was designed to go viral and get hits, which is the first time I really reckoned with them as a serious business with quotas and financial demands instead of scrappy underdogs, and that belied a sense of desperation that I had never noticed before. I laid in bed last night circling this video in my brain. The curious thing about generational nostalgia is a sense of closure. I, like many others, knew that the Giant Bomb crew were human beings with jobs, but I nevertheless saw them as characters. Its hard not to think of online media personalities as characters, because entertainment exists as their primary interaction with their userbase. But they keep going, past that point of emotional connection, because they are real. Older generations didn't have to watch a 31st season of The Brady Bunch or Gilligan's Island where the characters just ran out of steam and did their own thing away from the interest of the viewer, but that is the way of online celebrity. The Giant Bomb crew go grey and lose that spark and move on with their lives in the shadow of the site that meant so much to me at one of the most pivotal times in my life. That's not bad, its just that no external force has pulled some plug on the characters I watched, ending the show. I wish the enitre GB crew the very best, its just kind of heartbreaking to realize certain things, certain people, certain events, can only continue to exist in a very select pocket of time and place, buried deep within the human heart. Fantastic video, thank you for making it.
I started following them in 2005 on Gamespot when I got my first iPod and needed a podcast and found the Hotspot. When they started GB in 2008 I was in my early 20s and had depression. GB was a huge part of my life for years. Ryan’s death affected me more than any other except people in my close family. I have so much nostalgia for GB especially stuff like the Persona 4 Endurance Run. My gaming tastes changed and they changed and now I haven’t followed them in years but I was a huge fan from day one and a premium member. I miss those days.
Right there with you, timeline-wise. Moving into adulthood at the same time Ryan passed felt like that silence you hear after a gunshot. That summer between your last year of high school and your freshman year of college is such a meaningful time. You have listened to this content, engaged with this content, for years. And then not just a shakeup of the status quo but something with emotional weight of grief added to it. I think most people are smart enough to realize we didn't REALLY know those guys, of course, but there's no way to understate the dramatic shift in going from regularly hearing timely updates from someone and then knowing they have passed. Being a teenager sort of amplified it, you know? All that confusion and what FEELS like taking monumental steps in your life.
Its hard not to get emotional or sentimental while watching this... Thank you so much for producing this nostalgic commentary. The GB crew were the best friends I've never met ❤
Giant Bomb meant so much to me growing up lol. It's so weird thinking back how obsessed I was with the website in 2008-2011. The OG 4's chemistry on the podcast is seriously unmatched, I still relisten to those old episodes from time to time and the bits/jokes still hold up.
2013-2014 were the peak years for me, and Gerstmann leaving killed my interest in the podcast as, in retrospect, he was always the reason I was sticking around. Everyone involved was always great in their own respect, but Jeff and his sense of humor were (at least for me) the foundation it was all built upon from an entertainment perspective. The fact that I still listen to old episodes from years ago is a testament to the near timeless quality of the Bombcast.
Jeff without Ryan was always a bit meloncholic, they bounced off each other so well and whilst the pod did not get worse (others stepped up) it did lose something
After Ryan Died was the “Peak years”?? Dan was and is a goofball. The guys were usually laughing AT him. Not With him. Ben was just OK. Drew was Ok. The best years were from ‘08-‘12
You are not alone in your feelings. This is a bit before that era but I still pull out this playlist and the australian beef saga when I need a pick me up because I just cant not laugh by the end of it or these nintendo eshop releases read by Jeff. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-O4krJrG7oto.html&ab_channel=JackChe
Ive never cared more about a group of people ive never met more than the San Fran Giant Bomb crew. Thanks for taking us back through the timeline. I still miss Ryan.
I have been waiting for someone for YEARS to finally tell this piece of internet history. Love the idea, thank you for doing this! Giant Bomb has been a staple in the gaming world for so long, they deserve they due
@@megasizeit hey we all gotta go out, we usually just don’t know when the golden years have ended and the twilight has begun. But it doesn’t undo the work that he did prior to GB, or the work GB did together. Jeff Gerstmann is still a threat.
For me personally, the splitting of giant bomb to the east and west coasts was its inevitable downfall. Dan injected his brand of weird bubbly energy but once he went to the east office, I drifted away from Giant Bomb. I think in retrospect, I liked Giant Bomb circa 2008-2013 because the crew were older than me and had experienced the gaming industry that was either gone or dying out. They also had a much more interesting life experience than the newer higher hires, who while my age, I didn’t find as compelling; their millennial humour also didn’t hit the mark for me either. I still miss old giant bomb but life moves on. Great video man.
I don't know, I feel like it was still going strong. For me it was the pandemic that killed it. When I saw that even totally remote the content was dying off I knew something bad was on the horizon. The pandemic and even post-pandemic showed me that the thing that made Giant Bomb special was people being in the same room with each other riffing and having fun.
i really liked Giant Bomb East, but for me it was the fact that they were shedding people like Austin, Dan and Ben. if you can't even entice people who love cake to eat cake for money, there's something horrible going on on the corporate end
@@Fro9bone Dan wouldn't pass up WWE for anything. That was literally his dream job. I hated to see him go but I totally understood why he did. Now, him coming BACK is something I don't get but I suppose you take the opportunities you have. I never really grokked with Austin but he was immediately offered a pretty high up job and it sounded like there was just no way to match that kind of offer.
while i love the early days, the split was the only thing that kept me coming back to gb after ryan passed. the east coast was the rejuvenation the site needed and after they ended it, i couldn’t seem to love gb the same anymore.
I can still remember being 22 years old, in my apartment with no power because I was young and dumb about money, and discovering the Giantbomb app on my Palm Pre because it was one of the only gaming apps the store had. I quickly became a die hard fan and followed the website religiously until Brad, Vinny, and Alex left. Great video. Thanks for creating it.
Really appreciate you making this video. Watching this really showed what made Giant bomb great and why I stuck around for so many years. Ever since the first podcast episode I listened to where they talked about the ending to the Conduit 2 till the 2022 game of the year discussions. I'll always have a fondness for Giant bomb and how they played a part in me growing as a person. I wish nothing but the best for everyone involved in Giant bomb, I just don't pay attention to it anymore. And that's ok I think. Nothing lasts forever but we can appreciate our time with it.
Oh man I'm about to get sad about the last few years of giant bomb again. Its a little like reminiscing about the time you spent in an old relationship. You will forever have had these beautiful moments together, but the fact that the stars aligned for a moment in a world where things must necessarily end and change are what makes them so special. 💎
After stumbling across a Jeff gertsman video about his departure from Giant Bomb and it made me reminisce about the many hours I used to poured into giant bomb over the years and was thinking, man someone should really make a deep dive into this, pleasant surprise to see this. I loved OG giant bomb it felt so raw and different from other games coverage it felt like a group of friends getting into shenanigans and it was super fun to watch. Felt like a rebellion against he corporatized sterile games journalism, they can say what they want when they want and how they want to say it. Even seeing big bosses like Shawn layden or Phil Spencer on the e3 couch felt like a completely different side of them that felt human. I don’t think we will ever see anything like that again.
I was one of the lucky few to have gotten involved on the ground floor and it’s wild to look back on the legacy Ryan and Jeff left behind them and how far ahead of the curve they were. I can’t imagine what the landscape would look like now without them.
I was not a child but a university student. It affected me a lot as well. I still have my Whiskey Media T shirts including my “member since 2010” shirt. It still holds up pretty well despite using it as a regular shirt every other week or so for over a decade. They even wrote an article about me. That was surreal to be interviewed and read about myself. I was anonymous and no one knows the article was about me but it didn’t matter. I knew. When I met my now wife I watched GB religiously. A while ago she asked why I don’t watch them anymore. She knew all of them by voice since I was constantly having them on blasting through our small apartment all day long. Even though I wasn’t a child it still affected my life to an extent that no RU-vidr today does.
OG Giant Bomb was my safe place for a very difficult time in my life. Ryan, Jeff, Vinny, Brad and Alex felt like my best friends i had just never met in real life. It's hard not to get emotional when watching this as for so many years this "website about video games" was so important to me for so many reasons that genuinely had nothing to do about video games. The community, the crew everything felt like a family that just lived far away from each other but we always got online to make sure we were all doing okay. It seems crazy to be this attached to a group of people i'd never met in my life but they were my family when i had none, they were my friends when i needed someone to game with, and outside of that made great entertaining content. R.I.P. Ryan it's always tuesday in heaven..
My relationship with these guys goes back to the late 90s and Gamespot. These guys were so ahead of their time. Thank you for putting this together and reminding us of the best times on the internet in the late 00's and early teens.
The days of downloading then loading up my MP3 player with 1Up and IGN and Giant Bomb podcasts for my long drives between home and college breaks. The early days of podcasts were my dream! Recorded radio shows about my favorite hobbies.
Nextlander's problem isn't their stream lengths or whatever. It's that they're missing a hype man. Alex is chill and negatively charged. Brad is chill and I'd say neutrally charged. Vinnie has chilled considerably. He's now chill and positively charged for the most part. They need someone to push and motivate. They honestly need someone to come in and "wrangle" them. Get all three of them playing longform games, get the blood flowing. I get that they're tired and have had a long career, but we're all tired and I know they still love doing what they do. I think they just need to remember why they love games so much.
Man, what a beautiful website. I only got in around 2015, but those few years were fuckin outstanding. There was such a vitality and creative spirit surrounding everything going on there.
I've been wanting a video like this for years. Seeing a lot of this happened in real time was a really important part of my internet life. Thank you so much for the incredible video
You nailed this video so much on how I feel about Giantbomb now. I know it’s not for me anymore but I have this hope it will go back to “the good old days” but that’s just not going to happen with nostalgia playing a big part of it & me sticking with Giantbomb since I was 19(currently 34)I need to just let it go & move on. I only hope the best for the current staff at Giantbomb & the future for them! 💣❤
Your content is really incredible and I hope your channel grows and succeeds. One of the few content creators I've found that are just criminally underappreciated.
I saw the length of this video and thought “goddamnit I’m about to watch this whole thing aren’t I”. Left me feeling strange, kinda sad and old… but thanks. I definitely appreciated the history lesson towards the beginning and very relatable conclusion.
Thank you for this. I felt my life flashing before my eyes as I watched. I was in from Gamespot on with Gerstmann and especially that Persona 4 endurance run solidified my fandom. Thanks for making this! …in a side note, the TalkRadar saga could also fill a significant amount of time, the people that went in and out of there is a great example of how to spin off success from corporate overlords, but it’s also a snapshot of what working in the Bay Area was like for years.
These guys and RLM are the pioneers of group of grown men talking about certain topics and kinda similar (these guys video games, RLM movies) with a ounces and ounces of alcohol
I started the journey with Jeff and Ryan and Arrow Pointing Down, and had been a Giant Bomb Premium member until earlier this year. I have the utmost respect and thanks for everyone involved with Giant Bomb, past and present, but I just couldn't do it anymore. I mean absolutely no disrespect in saying this, but current Giant Bomb just feels... fake? Like there's an underlying but noticeable fear that everything could fall apart at any minute. Like they're drafting in the wake of what was, just waiting for the inertia carrying them forward to fade. When it inevitably happens, I hope for nothing but the best for everyone involved. Especially Jan. Jan is the glue that has held that site together for years. All in all, though, it was fun. The site and its various personalities have given me many, many hours of entertainment and memorable moments, and I thank them all immensely. It was my favorite website about video games that ever was a website about video games. Love Ryan Davis.
If anyone has any other videos like this on giant bomb and early gamestop years, please feel free to share. Finding this video is amazing as it was exactly what i was looking for.
I am so happy this video exists. Giant Bomb has been a very important site to me for so long, even though I don’t really follow it at all anymore. Those golden years up until Brad, Alex and Vinny left still give me so much joy and comfort during dark times.
Hey there! I am actually a co-host of Interactive Distractions along with Jason Oestreicher and came across this video while going down a rabbit hole of 1up content for nostalgia. Very well done!
Thanks, my dude! I hope you guys are doing well. I know it's a pretty mutual effort between you guys, but it's great to see Jason have a place on the internet.
@@NthReview yeah we’re good. We do it as a hobby in our spare time. Jason, Chris and myself were the founding members of the podcast back in 2008 and we stopped for a few years back in 2018 and then started up again last year. Appreciate it!
For me after Ryan Davis passed it just wasn't the same. It felt like someone was missing, his chemistry with Jeff was on another level. I search for skits where they both play off each other pure comedy gold.
Seeing Jeff try to hold down the fort on his own in the post Ryan livestreams, Ryan’s other old roles etc, honestly, difficult to watch but I hugely respect him for trying to find something to hold onto when that chemistry was gone. That would have been so difficult for Jeff to do but as usual, Jeff just sucked it up and ran at it.
He was the only one who could put Jeff in his place and importantly allowed Jeff to be the wacky one. Once Ryan was gone a lot of the energy went with him since Jeff had to now lead the podcasts and the others just weren't up to do the crazy. And then Vinny went out East and the Bombcast was a shell of itself. Though some of that is almost certainly getting older and starting families and stuff.
@at300Its true. Jeff was one of the boys before and then he become the authority whether he wanted to or not. Ryan was just objectively amazing at wrangling a podcast/goty/everything in a way that kept things moving and fun, but he was also willing to put his foot down. I'm looking at you Brad trying to get Minerva's den over Shadow Broker. I actually think Jeff is way more tangent inclined again now that he is doing his own thing. Took me a minute to adjust to his solo podcast even though I used to love the Jar Times. But, he's got a lot more life than he did the last few years on the Bombcast.
I appreciate this a lot. I started listening to the podcast when I was 12 and was a loyal listener/subscriber all the way up until Jeff’s departure. I’m 26 now. I wish he’d go over to Nextlander or at least do some content with those guys.
Love that you brought up 1up. Always they were my main site i went too before they closed and i switched to gb. I always felt they complemented each other. Like the end of 1up set up what giant bomb would do.
1Up Yours was such a big deal to me in the late 00s. I actually got to chat with David Ellis a few times and meet him at E3 briefly, in 2009 and 2013. Interesting to see the arc of his career. I met Garnett and Shane there too. It was sooo weird. There was also a show they did at the G4 stage in 2009 and I don't know if it can be found now, but no one in-person could hear the show.
@@thevamp25 I don't. I'm not quite sure how broad the appeal would be, but I'm also not sure how much of their content still exists, if it's even enough to produce a video.
This was really well done man, really professional. Always felt like I was the only one that never missed GB content but I knew we were all out there. I feel like GB is really fun again this year with this crew. Im legit excited to watch every video again and hear every cast. The chemistry is great and fun again. But it definitely is a new era/new crew. Will always keep 2012-2020 as "my" years. Great work and great historical doc.
As the dude what was designing all the shirts for a long time from the first - the last thing I designed was the hockey jersey, I think? - I was obviously deeply into the whole Giant Bomb experience. I'd been there from its 2008 inception, which made its fall from stardom a pretty hard thing to get over for a while. While I've (mostly) made peace with it now, there were a good couple of years where I felt pangs of guilt and sadness (and even a little confusion) that GB just didn't seem to be my jam anymore. I still miss the time where Giant Bomb was a beautiful nonsense machine that was firing on all cylinders (that I was lucky enough to be on the creative fringe of) but where I'm at now in my life I'm pretty fine with letting go of what could have been in another timeline. Plus, as a relatively new dad, Jeff's output is very much my speed at the moment. Anyway, thanks for the video, mate. A nice package of history and memories that was obviously made with care.
I’d love to see if your work is posted somewhere! I was actually searching for shirt art and that and struggled a bit outside of the BLLSLs. I think it would be a nostalgic trip for so many of those were in one place
Much respect sir! Hope you're doing well, I'm a new dad as well, it's a he'll of a ride and it mos Def puts things into perspective about priorities. I can totally understand the mood of the crew trying to be adults in a 20 something industry. It's crazy to me that they lasted as long as they did and I cherish the fact I was able to grow up into an adult with their brand of irreverent authenticity as a guiding light. I do have fond memories of the forums as well. It's wild how small the internet seems now even though it's so vast.
I was hoping someone would make a video like this of such a special community and time in games media. it's mind-boggling how much has changed over the years, from industry conditions to deaths to layoffs. There was a time I could not fathom the original members doing anything else. That time feels like a long forgotten dream now.
Someone finally made it, you glorious madman! Thank-you! Sadly, Giantbomb died with Ryan “Taswell” Davies in 2013. Not to take anything from the rest of the amazing cast of chuckleheads but he was the active ingredient that made it all work together and the one that brought it all together. Truely the North Star of a great period of time for the brand of performance & content we all loved from them. I might have followed Jeff Gerstmann to Giantbomb but Ryan is why I stayed…even until over a half-decade after his untimely & unfair passing. I say this truely; he was honestly too good, smart and well-humoured for this plane of existence. I honestly still think about him every few weeks, even if just to smirk at one of his bad jokes still and I’m not a parasocial basket case. He just impacted me that much. Rest in peace Ryan & GB.
What a ride of nostalgia. Warm feelings, joy and disappointment. I was a Gamespot fan who followed over into Giant Bomb and watching this was like reliving it all over again. Thanks for that 😊
As someone who's been following Gerstmann and crew since about 2004 from the On the Spot days, much of what you deliniate here lines up almost exactly with my own experiences. These things were lost to memory as my relationship with the site began to wane in the year or so leading up to the pandemic. The site going completely remote in 2020 was pretty much where it ended for me. This video feels like a nice bit of closure on a thing I spent a large chunk of my life being absorbed by. Outstanding work.
Thank you for this. I've been following them from the very start, even met Jeff and Ryan. These guys were (and are) the one place I always go back to, like brothers and sisters. Ryan, we miss you so fucking much, my duder.
I git into Giant Bomb in 2010 neck deep in my Uni years. I am still nostalgic for that era. When Austin Walker it joined it was amazing coz finally a weeb and a black dude prominently facing the camera at a gaming website. Great stuff...
i think a lot of your criticisms are absolutely valid, as a previously avid giant bomber (sorry, fbi), but i think your own video proves that they were either trapped in the situation they were handed from corporate overlords and/or they just couldn't see the future -- which is completely valid. The wiki, in retrospect, was a huge waste of resources and should've been excised early (because, e.g., hosting costs); instead shifting into content and features, specifically, almost entirely. they've all had a hard time adapting to the rapid pace of written to video (do-it-yourself no less) to youtube/social to mobile to streaming to the pandemic. but it's also a big ship to move. i've never seen a million dollars, have you? and, even when they seemingly had it good, i think there was always a damocles sword over their heads, and i can get that. jeff still seemingly wants a wiki: bad idea. nextlander as you said are formulaic: bad idea. but there's still something there. i'm not giving up on a reunion. i think both jeff and vinny need it at this point. i'm not saying they all give up what they're doing individually (maybe take it down a little bit for life balance), but they're *undoubtedly* better together than apart -- even one apart. i hope they see this in time.
One of the most enjoyable long form videos Ive heard in a long time. A really well done documentary that Giant Bomb deserved. Looking forward to what's next from your channel.
The early days of Giant Bomb were so incredibly enjoyable. There was a time where I believed the banter between Vinny and Jeff was the funniest stuff happening on the entire internet. It's so sad what became of the site.
I think that it had already gone pretty downhill by the time the split took place. Klepek was the beginning of the end. He was always negative, and had a terrible attitude and personality, then Austin and Abby really put the nails in the Giant Bomb coffin.@@AntonytjKnowlesJr
Amazing video! Giant Bomb and early Gamespot days were a special time in gaming. It fueled the love gaming that I have today. I still religiously follow Jeff Gerstmann and Danny Odwyer in their gaming endeavors today.
I remember discovering GB due to a thread about the P4 ER on Gamefaqs back in like 2009 or so. I had no idea that they’d take me on such a wild ride, and I couldn’t be more grateful.
This is fantastic. When GB first formed, I was getting all of my gaming community stuff through Kotaku. One day, an article ran about Jeff Gerstmann starting up this new venture after the Gamespot incident. I barely knew who the guy was, but I immediately appreciated his integrity. So I moseyed on over to check out this Large Explosive thing. I was IMMEDIATELY hooked. These guys just hanging out in a basement, not only sharing great insider knowledge and the like, but doing this insane chaotic video content that nobody else was doing. It was like nothing else on the internet. The community, the staff, it was a home away from home for me. Zoom all the way to now, and I'm a much more casual fan who watches the occasional stream/feature and listens to the Dump Truck, but somehow despite everything, the magic isn't quite dead. I love the current crew, and I truly believe that if it weren't for the remote thing, they'd be doing it up like the OGs. As it is, they're doing a fantastic job and I hope Jeff digs what they're up to. Viva la bomba gigante!
this is such a comprehensive retrospective of the GB saga. thanks a bunch for putting it together. I really enjoyed all the deep cuts and footage that I've never seen before.
I remember frequenting Gamespot circa. 2007, and was there in the forums when everything went haywire during "Gerstmanngate". Thing is, I did not frequent the site for Gerstmann and co. At that time, Gamespot had a really lively community, including sub-forums you could make of your own (they were called "Unions"). Even at that time, the technical quirks of the site made it hard work to post on though, it needed alot of improvement. I think, for many of the frequenters of the site, that was the final straw. The advent of watching Giant Bomb explode (so to speak) made me appreciate those guys much more and there was a time where I would listen in to the Bombcast, or watch the Quick Looks, because I liked the chemistry of those involved. Jeff definitely was the reason I enjoyed the content, with no disrespect to Brad, Vinny, Alex, Ryan (RIP), you could tell he had a persona that would still be ripe for the streaming era of gaming content. He often straddled a line between someone who had hot-takes on gaming, but interesting ones at that, while also being ignorant of what didn't appeal to him. The aftermath of Gamergate was where I dipped since, as much as the guys made a point of not reviewing games by their friends (e.g. Greg Kasavin), there was something uncomfortable in writers like Patrick being too familiar with people like Zoe Quinn and trying to virtue signal from that. It seems that the site diluted their ranks quite dramatically from that point too, which hurt the identity of it. I am glad to see Giant Bomb still exists in 2024, and it seemingly has a community as well, although part of me wonders if it is comprised of the same people who visited Giant Bomb back in 2008. Probably not.
Interestingly, Nathan never reviewed Zoe Quinn’s game, which was pretty much the lynchpin of the whole Gamergate thing. Not that they were fighting a battle over facts or things that were actually happening, but instead justifying their harassment of people.
@@NthReviewYeah, in retrospect, that part of it was definitely blown out of proportion. My impression at the time, maybe obviously, was that the content many journalists put out didn't seem at all motivated by the games they were supposed to be writing about, Giant Bomb included. Ofcourse, conversely, it didn't stop the usual assortment of grifters co-opting the subject of Gamergate and journalistic integrity into something else entirely (e.g. Anti-Feminism).
@@NthReview That's incorrect, nobody was claiming that Nathan actually reviewed Zoe Quinn's game. It's a complete misrepresentation of the problem. The problem was about the incestuous relationship between certain indie devs and games media people, and how those relationships were hidden from the public in coverage. This was exemplified by the reveal that games media people were using a private group chat to set agendas with regards to how they were going to cover specific topics like Zoe Quinn's abuse of her ex boyfriend, casting the backlash as 'harassment' and blaming the victim for speaking up. It's amazing how history gets rewritten. Gamergate is absolutely when GB started to die.
I've shared this with my wife to show her exactly why giant bomb meant so much to me in my twenties & why I continue to hold out hope that they'll reconnect some day.
I was wondering if some one would ever make a video like this but wasn't sure if there was anybody dedicated enough to giant bomb and had the film making skills to do it. You seems to be one of the few people who noticed that Gerstmann "checked out" of GB before the Red Ventures purchase. You also seem to be the only people (other than myself) who doesn't really think their GB wiki is that significant. I thought I was going crazy when I saw so many fans saying "Fandom bought GB so they could steal their wiki." Like nobody uses the GB wiki except old GB fans. Thank you for having a reasonable viewpoint on all of this.
I remember you asking for feedback on the Giantbomb subreddit. Forgot to check up on the release of the video and I just wanted to say that this was a brilliant piece of work, felt almost cathartic to watch. GB meant so much to me from the late 2000s to the late 2010s, it was a moment in time that just cannot be replicated like you said. I'm not currently subscribed to any of the GB related Patreons but I would 100% throw 10 bucks a month towards a Nextlander + Gerstmann thing without even hesitating. Doesn't seem like it'll happen as Jeff is just so absolutely awful at reaching out (and maybe has some hangups with them, who knows) and the Nextlander crew seems content just sleeping their way towards retirement.
As someone who got into Giantbomb kind of late, I want to say 2014, this has been a fascinating watch. I came in just after Ryans passing, quickly went back and watched a ton of material he was a part of, continued with the new crew additions and was hooked. I share the same sentiment with many other commenters here, I followed the site up until the big departures and then I quickly fell off. However, I don't dislike the current crew they still have their moments and content I'll check out, but the magic is gone. I'm glad to see it carry on in the form of Nextlander and TJGS but it's an absolute crime that they don't interact with each other. Here's hoping that changes sometime soon as we'd all love to see a reunion
I'm so glad this popped up on my recommended. Giant Bomb was magical for most of its run - the death of Ryan Davis was shocking and so sad. Nothing will ever be like original GB 2008-2013, but it's also incredible that after a very rough 2013-2014, the site actually recovered and became great in a new way with Austin Walker, Rykert, and the GBeast crew. I began drifting away before the final breakup, especially once Waypoint started (before THAT fell away from its original vision), but will always have nostalgia for those incredible years.
This was a great video, I could probably listen to a ten hour or longer version of this lol. Been watching GB since 2011. For me the hardest thing was seeing the cycle of the site and crew experiencing a setback, then adapting and gaining momentum, only to get knocked down again. Despite that, seeing every iteration and combination of personalities make some amazing content through all of the highs and lows kept me coming back. I'm glad to say I still follow GB's content and find enjoyment and a much needed laugh to take my mind off of the craziness of real life. In that way they've always delivered in some form or another.
I came across Giant Bomb a lot later than everyone else, maybe 2014-2016, during the post Ryan Davis years. I don't know what got me into it, it might have been a random Quick Look or something, but I remember instantly liking Jeff and Drew's manner. I kept watching more videos more regularly and soon started heading to the site. I became a premium member for a few years and really enjoyed my time. I loved watching the Mario Party Parties, Demo Derby, listening to the Bombcast, and playing some of the games they recommended. I liked all the hosts, I didn't always agree with every take or opinion, but I enjoyed the variety of voices, opinions and thoughts. Particularly great were the deep dives into gaming journalism history with Jeff, Brad, Vinny and Drew, especially as they had years of knowledge about the industry that wasn't, and still hasn't, properly been told. I didn't consume it all, I never listened to the Game of the Year stuff but I always enjoyed their E3 livestreams and their reactions to the conferences, and the discussions were always great to hear. Over time, I ended up drifting away from Giant Bomb due to a combination of factors - I worked a job where I had to transcribe audio, and the last thing I wanted to hear at the end of the day were voices yet again. Similarly, I wanted to spend more time playing games than watching people play games and the last part was it felt like there were so many different video series that I just couldn't keep up. Endurance Run, Unprofessional Fridays, Mailbags, Murder Island, etc. There were three to four different podcasts about different things, and two different Giant Bomb offices, one on each coast, with radically different host dynamics and tastes. I didn't have time to consume every bit of content they made and they made so so much stuff. By the time I clocked out, I'd realised I was just rewatching older videos which meant something about the current dynamic hadn't been clicking for me. A few thoughts: Video game journalism has totally changed in the wake of industry changes like algorithm, click/view based advertising, streamer-based and reaction-based videos and RU-vid/social media creators. The old guard of video game journalism havecompletely changed as they had to find ways to compete and stay relevant with these disruptors. Places like Gamespot, IGN and Eurogamer have shifted from video previews, reviews and interviews to reactionary content, discussion prompts or opinion pieces. They still do reviews and previews, but the trappings around that have changed. Some of it has changed from reporting to creating a discussion, and fostering engagement with the story itself, and it's become a type of dialogue. The type of journalism that Giant Bomb was created in reaction to is largely gone and it could be argued that the medium and content that Giant Bomb pioneered - long form videos, let's plays, stream hangouts with chat asking questions, etc. - has changed so much as to make them now fight for relevance in the way the traditional organisations had to as well. Long form video content still exists but it's now video essays, documentaries, deep dives, etc, on a variety of topics. We see a glut of reaction videos, and even streaming with chat has become more parasocial than it ever was with Unprofessional Fridays, with many people following streamers for reactions, personalities and drama. The RU-vid ecosystem changed, with traditional content like Let's Plays, video game reviews and other creators changing. Videos got longer, more professional, access to software and equipment creating a different playing field for creators. Copyright issues, algorithm gaming and advertising revenue changed RU-vid into a full-time job for some. Platforms like Twitch and Discord changed forums and steaming, and in general, the scale of social media adoption in the late 2000s/early 2010s has changed the behavior of audiences. An audience in 2008 is totally different to one in 2018, and engages with content differently. I t I think Giant Bomb pioneered a space but due to corporate control, increasing scope, age, responsibilities, quotas, financial demands, etc, maybe couldn't innovate again like it once did. Things can sometimes be of their time, and that's all right too. Times change, people change but the show, the people and the games were there for me at a time in my life when I really needed it most. It felt good to hear people talk when I didn't have another voice to hear for days, it gave me laughs when I needed them and made me think more critically about the games coverage I saw. I wish everyone at at Giant Bomb the best, and thank them so so much - you made someone very happy.
Amazing video, glad to see their history laid out and it's personal effects on you and all of games media. I started watching in 2011 starting with the Persona 4 Endurance Run and the Skyrim-Saints Row 3 debate and I was hooked for a decade. I spent so many hours there and don't regret it, but Giant Bomb splintering led to me branching out and checking out so many new passionate creators. From experimental vtubers to thoughtful video essayists like yourself, it's crazy how much stuff is out there exploring the space Giant Bomb helped pioneer. WayneradioTV and Radio TV Solutions in particular feels like it has so much early Giant Bomb influence: their creative production and skits hearkening back to the old green screen bits and Tricaster shenanigans. Sometimes you gotta take a step out and move on to see just how much impact something had.
@@NthReview no really, you’re calling on off hand remarks from 2008 era podcasts, random ass uploads & far flung interviews. That doesn’t come from content trawling the net, it comes from paying attention for an unholy amount of time. Bravo ❤️
That was a lovely trip down memory lane. It's sad to see things we love change, but I am always thankful of the literal decade of entertainment I got from these guys. None of their new content is for me anymore (other than Waypoint/Remap), because a lot of them do feel a bit stuck in their ways, but it's hard to fault anyone sticking with what they know in this industry if it pays the bills. Appreciate the amount of work you put into this, that was a great video!
Thank you for making this. Giant Bomb has been such a huge part of my life for well over a decade, and although I've disconnected with it over the last year or so this is a great, albeit bittersweet, document of its history (so far).
I feel you brother. I can't believe the day came where I subscribed to the GB show. I never thought it would happen. Truly a legendary and important piece of gaming history.
Thank you for making this. I was there for Arrow Pointing Down, hell, I was there for Jeff being on a Gaming Gurus podcast not long after his firing. I knew him a bit from Gamespot video reviews, including the controversial 8.8 review, and found the circumstances of his firing captivating, leading me to a rabbit hole where I became fond of him and decided to follow his journey. The early basement days had a really special vibe, as the making of content gave the sense that you were also a part of it. Sadly, I would miss the Whiskey Media days, as I had entered into a toxic relationship at that time which lasted years, and the only time I went back on the site was when Ryan passed to pay my respects, since the site had meant so much to me at one time. But once that relationship ended, and I was trying to piece my life back together, I found my way back around GOTY 2014, and it became a huge source of comfort to me after that, and got me back in tune with who I was before so much had changed me. I will always be ever thankful of the crew for that. I fell off again around the time Drew left, only going to the site occasionally, but the Nextlander exodus was still a punch in the gut, and then again once Jeff left. It really is hard to accept that nothing is forever, but while we had it, we had it so good.
Alright, finally finished the video. Great work, really loved the analysis of internet video game journalism and websites. I got to learn a lot more about some of these names I've heard but knew nothing about. Giant Bomb really was emblematic of how people make video game content on the web and how it has changed over time. A couple things I want to talk about. From what I gathered Giant Bomb started with a bunch of outsiders in their 20s, hungry to make a name for themselves, who met in person all the time and were friends. That's an extremely different vibe from a group of 30 and 40 somethings who have experience being game writers, who have families, and who have rarely if ever met in person. It sounds like they kept replacing people who left with people who were like them, instead of getting younger people who wanted to break in and make a name for themselves. Also, when I think of the main audience for unedited and livestreamed video game playing/let's plays, I think of 13-25 year olds. And that group generally wants to watch young dynamic people, not cynical journalists. It seems crazy for them to abandon scripted content for livestreams and podcasts. Watching people play video games online isn't novel anymore, it's low effort and there's tons of competition.
Should have known that this would just make me depressed 😅 It always surprised me that there wasn't more content about Giantbomb, even their own 10 year anniversary felt like the energy to celebrate themselves wasn't there.
I was a big fan of GB before the east/west split, think I started around one of the Endurance Runs (Persona or DP) and premium'd for a bit. I definitely hated all the firings in the later years, but it wasn't even Jeff's departure that killed it for me. My assumption from the outside looking in, was that those four guys were all probably commanding large paychecks, and there was no doubt that a new owner would cut some of that loose. I was actually interested in a lot of the content that was still coming out around this time like the Jojo cast, and even a part of some of that content (as one of the admins of Arcade Pit.) My assumption was that the site would go along this route of cutting the senior staff and turning some of that money into new, younger talent, and potentially picking up smaller content creators to do little side projects while bulking up their content pile. While it wasn't the same crew of course, I appreciated that there were new voices that were looking for their chances to have a platform, albeit one that'd seen far better days. Initially I bought into the idea that Jeff/Vinny/Brad/Alex stepping away was a sort of win-win, they wanted to step away from what was essentially 'content farming', move on to do new things (or, as Jeff mentioned, old things that they hadn't been able to as of late, getting more adjacent to the games industry directly.) It would free up money to go into new hires, new content opportunities from outside the regular crew at large. The thing that killed it for me was just how quickly Jess and Jason were gone shortly afterwards. Like there clearly wasn't any plan to try and develop or revitalize the site, and instead, the 'new Giant Bomb' was just a number in a margin line, and when that number needed to go down, the first thing to go was that thin commitment to the site itself. Of course, I already kind of suspected that was going to be the outcome, considering just how many hands GB had changed hands between to this point, but it wasn't even a year. And while I still like things like the Blight Club, and I still enjoy Grubb, Jan, and even the occasional Dan sighting, I have so little reason to go to the website, especially with the older content still tucked away behind the premium paywall.
Great video! While definitely not a legacy fan as most, this was such a nostalgia trip from when I started listening in the 2014/15 era. The end of the Beastcast was probably the biggest blow for me personally as it was the one podcast I never missed, and ended at a time where a lot of change was happening in my personal life as well. Never would I have thought the end of a podcast would make me cry 🥲
Incredible video, thank you for doing this. I remember the day I heard Brad, Vinny and Alex were leaving, and I don't think I'll soon forget the moment. I was on a lunch break at work, I read the post and my stomach completely sunk. It is weird, but the feeling could be approximated to hearing a friend of yours has died. Going into this video I thought there could be nothing new I could learn from it, but I was mistaken. The info about the formation of Whiskey was something I didn't completely know. And I have to agree with the group that says the 2014-2017 is the golden era. Whenever I see the front page of GB these days, and you see the "On this day" category that serves up videos that were uploaded on the same date just a random previous year.....it's always something incredibly better than anything they can produce today. Not to speculate a lot, but it doesn't seem that the old crew were keen on working with Gerstmann after GB, and it seems like his attitude was one of the main reasons people wanted to separate in general. I'm with Nextlander since their formation, and have continued listening to Vinny's comforting voice on my commutes to work, still trying to grasp on to my mid 20's like they were yesterday. I think I am a "stronger" person having faced something like the "downfall" of GB right in front of my eyes, maybe sounds cringy, but I think I am ready for life to throw a wrench into anything since then, also to appreciate things that were good and are no longer around, and be thankful that I had the experience at all.
Thank you for doing this - always wondered why no one had created a video like for for a site like Giant Bomb. I was there from the very beginning and it's been a rollercoaster of emotions; I think knowing the GB crew as personalities through their content made it feel so much more affecting to me when I read the post by Matt Rorie regarding Ryan's death... I thought for a second it was a goof then it dawned on me it was very real and I got pretty emotional about it. I also remember the pancake stream with the CBS announcement and realising that things would be different down the line now large corporations were getting involved. These days the site is a different beast and I still enjoy the content, though the classic GB stuff - which still exists and can be watched - seems to be miles ahead; lightning in a bottle kind of stuff. Cheers for the nostalgic trip down memory lane!
The same happened to Home of the Underdogs. It was the first abandonware site and died in the 00s. It's been replaced now, but the original is now a skeleton of its former self, kept for posterity. The memory is still there. And that's OK.
as to your not so subtle implication that maybe there was some animosity between jeff and dan, I always felt like it was overall good natured but if you go back and watch the last mario party party before dan left the site, I swear it felt like dan was letting out some latent resentment or animosity towards jeff at a couple different points there
My timeline with Giant Bomb is the same as yours, and it feels weird to have feelings about how a site has changed, I guess I'm just grateful for Giant Bomb ever being what it was even though that's long gone now. Great job on the video.
Fantastic essay on the life of Giant Bomb. I feel like much of my 20s was spent consuming everything they put out, so this was an opportunity to both look back with a sense of nostalgia and a little of a reality check. Jeff Gerstmann remains and will always be my favorite video game man. Also Dan's only worth while contribution to Giant Bomb was the story about cooking egg whites, then being dismayed at how long it was taking for the egg whites to melt despite breaking them up into small bits. After a phone call to his mother she informed him that the egg white was the liquid around the yolk, not the shell.
I started following them at Gamespot around 2004 when I was 13. I was along for the entire ride up until 2018. I fell out of love with GB around 2015 after Ryan passing and it sank in that they'd never get a host as good as Ryan again and the video content was just going to be a lot of "live" shows, not the edited stuff I loved. I only stuck around as long as I did because i had nowhere else to go, but I'm glad I moved on when I did. Seeing the crew break up back when I was a massive fan would have sucked.
Gamespot then Giant Bomb was a huge part of my late teens to 20's life, the crew to me really felt like the hollywood stars of the internet, the internet of course shot off into a different direction with individuals becoming millionaires on RU-vid and Twitch but i still had GB in my little safe secluded corner of the internet, where we talk about video games and how old we are. Giant Bomb is in my vocabulary, their jokes are always on my mind making me smile, shenanigans like trying to flush a cake down the toilet, walking backwards in Bioforge, Brad's epic Mile High Club achievement, China Don't Mind, i'll never forget the memories i made watching the site.
