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."

 

[Morrus]

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.

Have you just decided it's 'international be a jerk day'? It's not 'international be a jerk day'. Knock it off.

 

[Cergorach]

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

To be fair, all the news items on the front page are just forum threads that have a 'special' status and get listed on the front page. The line between 'news site' and forum are very... Blurred? And I wouldn't call ENworld a major news outlet. But I've been coming here for 25+ years and get most of my D&D and 'D20' news from here. Heck, before it was a forum, it was a news site on D&D 3rd edition. I seem to recall there was no forum at that point (before D&D3e was even released), just Eric Noah compiling all the news/rumours of 3e. We started playing 3e before the PHB was even released due to Eric Noah.

 

[Morrus]

And I wouldn't call ENworld a major news outlet.

Oh god no, we’re tiny.

But I've been coming here for 25+ years and get most of my D&D and 'D20' news from here.

But that might be why we’ve been able to do this.

 

[TiQuinn]

To be fair, all the news items on the front page are just forum threads that have a 'special' status and get listed on the front page. The line between 'news site' and forum are very... Blurred? And I wouldn't call ENworld a major news outlet. But I've been coming here for 25+ years and get most of my D&D and 'D20' news from here. Heck, before it was a forum, it was a news site on D&D 3rd edition. I seem to recall there was no forum at that point (before D&D3e was even released), just Eric Noah compiling all the news/rumours of 3e. We started playing 3e before the PHB was even released due to Eric Noah.

It's both, but it's also never been unclear to me what is functioning as an article versus what is functioning as a garden variety forum post. The net effect is not much different than a writer publishing an article on Polygon, and then people would comment on it, with the exception that Polygon never, ever felt like any sort of a community.

 

[dbm]

I’m just a user like most everyone else on this site, however it is probably my most-visited site on the internet and definitely my major source of role-playing news, which I personally find very valuable.

In a world where good online spaces (of any kind) are becoming rarer, if you value ENWorld and can afford to contribute a little directly then I would encourage you to do that. I did after the last round of closing web sites and a realisation what a great site I personally find ENWorld to be.

 

[dragoner]

I like here more, because with some reviews, people review a game without even reading it? I mean, what? How does that work?

 

[Gradine]

 

[Von Ether]

Oh god no, we’re tiny.

But that might be why we’ve been able to do this.

I think that's probably more true that most people know. It seems that the only real businesses at this point are private ones, not because of the lack of SEC oversight but because they stay under the radar as the sharks trying to dismantle every publicly owned business they can take over thanks to taking out loans they can saddle the company with once they own it.

 

[Jahydin]

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.

Oh, I know him. He got me to buy Lancer, haha.

 

[Umbran]

Yeah. So?

Its a forum, complete with moderation and allowed/banned topics. its the electronic equivalent of bar talk; sure, you can hear news sitting at a bar, but that's neither the purpose nor the venue.

I'm so sorry, but you have it backwards.

EN World was established as a news site back when 3e was the news. To this day, the news pages get far more traffic than the forums.

So, this is a news site, complete with writers and editors, that happens to have a place to talk tagged onto the side of it.