News - Mass firings at 1UP after sale to UGO
Posted by
Brandon Carlson
at 11:16:46 PM EST on 1.6.2009.
Well, now it looks like the Ziff Davis/Hearst deal isn't going as smoothly as ZD would like everyone to believe. News coming in from NeoGAF posts, twitter posts and more, it looks like most of the more popular/experienced writers from the 1UP Network are being let go.
30 staff members were let go today, including Skip Pfister, Ryan O'Donnell, Philip Kollar, Jay Fresh, Cesar Quintero, Nick Suttner, Anthony Gallegos, Matt Chandronait, Shane Bettenhausen and former EIC James Mielke. Most of the team at Gamevideos and producers of The 1UP Show have also been let go.
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pixy misao 1.10.2009 at 03:04:31 AM
I'm running out of places to hear about video game news that doesn't have corporate douchebags running the whole thing. Maybe I should stick with GAF & Kotaku.
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solar_blitz 1.8.2009 at 12:43:54 AM
"If only GAF were pro and I could offer some of the laid off folks a place to go to."
I was about to say, we could do another hiring call...
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sirsniffy 1.7.2009 at 10:59:36 PM
SHANE BETTENHAUSEN!!! I loved his work so much! He is the one guy I would ever go gay for, that is how much I admired that dude! Damn! And even Milky has been let go?! That's some Bull@#$!
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terpfen 1.7.2009 at 09:04:48 PM
"Actually, the real loss is EGM no longer being around. No podcasts on the 1up network. Oh, and 30 people out of a job... that's kind of a loss too."
The 1up podcasts were horrible (and why were there ten million of them in the first place?) No loss there. 30 people out of a job? Drop in the bucket right now. Besides, they stand a very good chance of being re-hired by outfits like IGN, Game Informer, Gamespot, etc. If not other gaming publications, then they have plenty of contacts among game publishers and developers and could get hired as project managers or PR agents. They'll be fine.
Like I said, Mielke is the only real loss here, because he's the only guy involved with 1up who bothered to take things seriously. 1up's gimmick was that they hated all games equally. Good riddance.
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sean 1.7.2009 at 03:14:57 PM
Any word on what happened to Paul Gale 1up.com?!
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polster 1.7.2009 at 10:49:34 AM
Does this mean the show, "Broken PIX3LS" is gone?
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drumlord 1.7.2009 at 08:34:14 AM
The best thing about 1up was the set of podcasts. Killing them and losing (through layoffs and people quitting because of the whole situation) some great staff members has killed 1up. It'll be a rotting zombie of a website for a while, but it can never be what it was. Normally, you'd think I'd love to see competition get ruined like that, but 1up is one of the few sites, particularly for the podcasts, I paid attention to. This pisses me off. If only GAF were pro and I could offer some of the laid off folks a place to go to.
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daetrin 1.7.2009 at 05:32:28 AM
@#$%^!!
That probably means the other podcasts that i like to listen to are probably dead now too, or at the very least are totally crippled now due to the loss of talent =/
I was so happy to find the 1UP Yours and HotSpot podcasts after the "with a whimper" demise of EndGameRadio. The podcasts had even gotten me to start actually reading the 1UP and GameSpot websites again after a long lapse.
I wish there was some way they could have set the podcasts up as a subscription model, but i know that wouldn't have worked. I'd be willing to pay for more episodes now, but i never would have started listening in the first place if they hadn't been free =/
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drk 1.7.2009 at 03:32:02 AM
Well, specifically the 1Up Yours podcast, which I've grown very fond of listening to while at work. Then EGM is a magazine I've read since, s***, 1991-2? Christ I'm old.
Sorry for the double-comments, but god damn.
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drk 1.7.2009 at 03:18:33 AM
Actually, the real loss is EGM no longer being around. No podcasts on the 1up network. Oh, and 30 people out of a job... that's kind of a loss too.
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terpfen 1.7.2009 at 02:56:47 AM
Mielke is the only real loss here.
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drk 1.7.2009 at 02:22:30 AM
This is awful news. I didn't know this was happening, and now I'm upset. Err...
afk.
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solar_blitz 1.7.2009 at 01:39:28 AM
Shane?
Mielke?
NOOOOOOO!
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thehawk 1.7.2009 at 01:13:51 AM
I've never heard of any of those guys. I guess I'm just not a 1up regular. But if it's true, good luck to those people in finding new employment.
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