Mass Layoffs At Polygon, Major Gaming News Outlet

In what seems to be a recurring story these days, yet another gaming news outlet has hit rocky times. In 2023 iO9/Gizmodo shuttered its tabletop gaming coverage, and ComicBook.com follow suit last year, as did Dicebreaker. The latest in this list is Polygon, a site which--amongst many other things--covered a wide array of tabletop gaming news stories.

Polygon has been acquired by The Valnet Group, which owns outlets like Game Rant, Comic Book Resources, and others. Polygon founder Chris Plante posted on Bluesky -- "I'm no longer with Polygon. If you're hiring, please consider the many talented writers and editors now on the market. Every one of them deserves a spot on your staff. I won't be talking more about the sale because I wasn't involved. Going to hang out with my kid. Taking wins where I can."

Many Polygon staff members have publicly posted, saying that they have lost their jobs.

• “I’ll say more later, but I no longer have a job. I’m looking for work, as are so many of my amazing colleagues. I have lots of ideas and things I’d like to write. I’m really in shock.” - Nicole Carpenter, Senior Reporter.
• “I had a great time working at Polygon. Please let me know if you have any cool job openings!” - Michael McWherton, Senior Writer.

For those of us in the TTRPG industry, we'll be most familiar with the work of the senior editor for tabletop games, Charlie Hall, who said "I am no longer with Polygon, my home for nearly 13 years. I am proud of what my colleagues and I have accomplished over that period, and I am especially proud of the role the [Vox Media Union] and [Writer's Guild of America] played in it all. Organize. Now. I am immediately available for hire."

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Honestly, I think "big name" video game journalism died with EGM (1988-2009). Everyone else is just paid advertising.

I stick to small YouTubers and people I know on social media.

There's some great stuff out there still, although not nearly enough of it.

I'd argue that Quinn's Quest is more than just a small YouTuber, given that he's coming from the boardgame space, where he's an extremely big deal. He's also got probably the best RPG reviews I've ever seen. Even if I don't think I'd care about the game he's reviewing, his reviews are always compelling and have made me interested in stuff like Slugblaster, which I had previously scoffed at.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

There's some great stuff out there still, although not nearly enough of it.

I'd argue that Quinn's Quest is more than just a small YouTuber, given that he's coming from the boardgame space, where he's an extremely big deal. He's also got probably the best RPG reviews I've ever seen. Even if I don't think I'd care about the game he's reviewing, his reviews are always compelling and have made me interested in stuff like Slugblaster, which I had previously scoffed at.

I feel much the same about Seth Skorkowsky. He's still got surprisingly few subscribers considering the quality of his content.

 

[aramis erak]

I feel some sympathy for the staff losing their jobs in the current environment in the US, but have no positive memories of Polygon. Several "WTF?!?!?! What the «bleep» is the author on?" reactions. Especially when they branched into non-game reviews...

 

[Marc Radle]

I feel much the same about Seth Skorkowsky. He's still got surprisingly few subscribers considering the quality of his content.

Seth Skorkowsky is AWESOME!
I love his videos!

 

[grankless]

The gaming industry is absolutely cooked. 8 year dev cycles with violent, nightmarish crunch, where they lay off half the staff every year and then get bought by venture capital vultures are the norm. Journalism outlets got scammed by Facebook in to killing their already functional and stable workflows in the "pivot to video" and now most of those outlets are finally shuttering or getting bought out by aforementioned worthless venture capital firms. It's bad out there. No normal people have money and the industry does not want people to work in it.

Hopefully enough regional unions can be formed before it all goes kaput that at least some people can have the damage reduced. But it is going to happen.

-snip-

Way to read the room, buddy. I have no idea what you're rambling about here except claiming the staff here deserved to get their site killed.

 

[TiQuinn]

This is a news outlet?

Its just a gaming forum.

Do you just have the forum directly bookmarked or something? How do you miss the front page of the site?

 

[Von Ether]

The gaming industry is absolutely cooked. 8 year dev cycles with violent, nightmarish crunch, where they lay off half the staff every year and then get bought by venture capital vultures are the norm. Journalism outlets got scammed by Facebook in to killing their already functional and stable workflows in the "pivot to video" and now most of those outlets are finally shuttering or getting bought out by aforementioned worthless venture capital firms. It's bad out there. No normal people have money and the industry does not want people to work in it.

Dennis Detwiler said he came back to ttrpgs due to the bizarreness of the video game industry where a publisher company's owners were almost embarrassed to be owning a video game company but yet they kept churning and burning these businesses to make the easy money out of each company sale.

 

[Von Ether]

This is a news outlet?

Its just a gaming forum.

Thread 'Dicebreaker closing? Where to get your TTRPG news!'

Jun 12, 2024

With the news going around that another TTRPG news outlet is closing (Dicebreaker, this time, after iO9 closed its TTRPG coverage last year), I thought it would be helpful to talk about what sites you can get your TTRPG news from.

(No, not social media--I'll take that for granted--or actual publisher sites, but what news sites with articles etc?)

Here's some that I use.

TTRPG-specific

• EN World (that's here!)
• RPGnews.com

Tabletop Gaming in General

• Bell of Lost Souls
• ICv2
• Rascal
• Tabletop Gaming News...

• Morrus
• Replies: 34
• Forum: *TTRPGs General

• 

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Well, I got laid off from my job as a game designer at the beginning of the year. Several friends got laid off at the beginning of the previous year. Many of us have no jobs in that industry. I realized what was happening when I looked at the reports of thousands, if not tens of thousands in the technical fields, across the whole of the entertainment industry, were laying off.

And grabbed a job at Walmart as a night shift stocker. They never lay off those. Ever, as far as I can tell. I can cover the mortgage and basic bills, and maybe I can get a contract for side work… I have not yet, but I’ll keep swinging. I want to say that I can make ends meet, but… eh. Getting your paycheck cut to 1/5 is a bit harsh.

The point is, beyond my whining… it’s bad, and now this is the ripple outward. News sites like this depended on the game studios to exist. Those begin the cannabalize themselves, the rest fall like dominos.

It’s bad, and it started a couple of years back. It’s just gotten bad enough to spread.

I'm sorry to hear you lost your job.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Do you just have the forum directly bookmarked or something? How do you miss the front page of the site?

I just use the one sub-forum. But given the site is owned by a gaming company, its not so much a news outlet as a marketing site.