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."

 

[Longspeak]

I googled and that means nothing to me. Ah well. The gods of screwing up smilies win this day.

 

[BovineofWar]

The plain BBcode works :)

[plain]emote[/plain]

I hate to say it, but I don't even really notice a difference at Polygon these days, for better or worse. The best round up on everything I saw was from their former sister site, the Verge:

Polygon’s new owner says it will ‘do what’s right for Polygon’

Valnet wants to ensure that Polygon has the “deepest” coverage of the gaming space.

www.theverge.com

Seems pretty PR speak but the links and context on Valnet show how upset the Verge staff were about this