It’s never good to see a fellow gaming website close up shop, especially one that dominated the gaming journalism scene for a while with their ability to create captivating content and always had the best video coverage, well before Youtube and gaming became a thing. I loved their top 10s and video game vault segments, as well as the majority of their content. Hell, when there was a big news scope or new footage of an upcoming game, Gametrailers was typically the first place I went and pretty much grew up around that site.
Well, as of today, all that changes as they have announced that GameTrailers is closing its doors for good.
After 13 years, GameTrailers is closing down today.
When GameTrailers was founded in 2002, internet video was a revolutionary concept. YouTube wouldn’t be founded for another three years; consumer live streaming was nine years away. Back then, online game journalism was still dominated by text articles and static imagery. The most prestigious coverage still happened in print. If you wanted to watch a show about video games, you had to watch it on a special TV station that had 10 shows.
GameTrailers helped change all that. Today, game journalism is dominated by video: trailers, live gameplay, Let’s Plays, and news shows. Now there are millions of hours of content available at any time on your PC, your game console, your TV, and your phone.
We’re proud we helped bring this world into being. That is the legacy of GameTrailers. We’re grateful to all of our fans who helped make us successful. Thank you for your continued support over the years. It has been an adventure.
GameTrailers definitely has a lot of history behind it and it’s sad to see it go, even if the writing was on the wall for a while now. Sadly as most gamers know, the companies content and focus shifted after they were purchased by Defy Media and one could even say they were determined to put the final nail in the coffin, which is exactly what finally happened today.
Today is the last day of GameTrailers. I wish it wasn’t so. I love all of our fans like family. Thank you for letting me do this job.
— Brandon Jones (@GameTrailersVO) February 9, 2016
However what makes it worse is the amount of people that are being let go as well. It seems that per Ben Moore, former GameTrailer Associate Editor, that everyone is being let go and that this is as much as a surprise to them as it is to us. He posted his goodbye over at NeoGAF, earlier.
Hi everyone, Ben here. I just wanted to confirm that GameTrailers is shutting down officially today. Everyone is being let go. We all found out mere hours ago, so we’re still reeling a bit. Sincerely, thank you all for the tremendous support – Ben Moore.
First we lose 1UP, and now GameTrailers. Will no one save our gaming childhood? Hopefully the team can find a way to land on their feet and even get some sort of Crowdfunding going on and get right back into the fight. I mean, it worked for KindaFunny and Wowinsider.. er, Blizzardwatch.
“FUCK, there goes my damned Final Bosman” Damn it to all hell!
Here’s to hoping and if you do happen to do this, please make sure you do it similar to how GameTrailers was, you know.. before Defy Media stepped in.
