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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Rumors were true: Joystiq is shut down [Updated with a full news story]

Burek on 30 January 2015

As per News Director's tweet

 

 

[UPDATE] Full news story:  http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-01-30-joystiq-closure-official

Joystiq and its MMO-focused sister-site Massively will cease publication on Tuesday. Earlier this week, multiple reports surfaced--one of them from Joystiq itself--claiming that parent company AOL was planning the site's imminent shutdown as part of a reshuffling for its content division. That was made official today by a tweet from Joystiq news content director Alexander Sliwinski and a post on Massively by the site's editor-in-chief, Bree Royce.

"I would like to be able to tell you truthfully that this is an equitable and just decision that makes some sort of logical sense, but the reality is that our overlords' decisions have always been unfathomable," Royce said, adding, "We all suspected this was coming eventually a year ago when a VP whose name I don't even know and who never read our site chose to reward our staggering, hard-won 40 percent year-over-year page view growth by... hacking our budget in half. There's nothing to do in the face of that kind of logic but throw your hands in the air. It's not about merit or lack thereof, and it's not about journalism or gaming being dead or anything grand like that, so there's no point in taking it personally."

Both sites are expected to continue publishing new content until Tuesday. The official Joystiq Twitter account has circulated a list of impacted employees' LinkedIn resumes in an effort to find them new opportunities. The list contains 13 Joystiq employees and another seven from Massively.



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alternine on 30 January 2015

Looks like these game review sites are starting to go down 1 by 1. IMO this is a good thing. Maybe people will start to think for themselves on whether to purchase a game or not instead of letting someone do it for them.



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sundin13 on 30 January 2015

While I don't have any particular problem with Joystiq, it is interesting to see the move away from standard Video Game coverage and into more independent avenues. I think people like Jim Sterling and TotalBiscuit cover the news better than anyone working for any of these larger sites and I'm glad that they are getting more popular while standard sites seem to be getting less popular.



Barozi on 30 January 2015
alternine said:
Looks like these game review sites are starting to go down 1 by 1. IMO this is a good thing. Maybe people will start to think for themselves on whether to purchase a game or not instead of letting someone do it for them.

Without demos, how?

So it's either watching muted gameplay videos or renting the game/playing it at a friend's, which can only be done a good bit after the game is released.



cpg716 on 30 January 2015

Joystiq is being moved to a "CHANNEL" on Endgadget.. so not totally being closed.



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Goodnightmoon on 30 January 2015
alternine said:
Looks like these game review sites are starting to go down 1 by 1. IMO this is a good thing. Maybe people will start to think for themselves on whether to purchase a game or not instead of letting someone do it for them.


Trailers are always way more reliable.....



Goodnightmoon on 30 January 2015

That´s for scoring Bayonetta 2 with a 7.5 because is "hypersexualized" or something...u don´t **** with bayo



pokoko on 30 January 2015

That's a shame, I liked joystiq more than most other gaming news websites and I liked Jess Conditt especially. The format was a lot better than most of the overloaded crap the bigger sites love.



TRAVIS!!! on 30 January 2015

That's what you get for abandoning review scores.

Just joking, I wish those people all the best.



the_real_dsister44 on 30 January 2015
alternine said:
Looks like these game review sites are starting to go down 1 by 1. IMO this is a good thing. Maybe people will start to think for themselves on whether to purchase a game or not instead of letting someone do it for them.


How is the average person supposed to buy games then? I don't want to do research on everything i buy. Which means I am literally buying games beause of the cover