In an unexpected turn of events earlier this evening, video game media website GameTrailers announced on Twitter that they will be shutting down after 13 years of operation.
Founder Brandon Jones expressed his solemn farewell alongside the original tweet:
As can be seen on Twitter, gamers of all kinds are distraught at the news. For many, GameTrailers’ departure brings the closure of other beloved gaming media websites – like Gamespy and Joystiq – to mind. The move is especially shocking to fans, since the company seemed to have been taking measures to push the site in new directions only last December.
In 2014, GameTrailers’ previous owner, Viacom, sold the site to Defy Media. Just days after, GameTrailers was hit with slew of layoffs.
GameTrailers’ Associate Editor, Ben Moore, announced on NeoGAF that the rest team had been laid off today.
No official word from Defy Media has yet been given for GameTrailers’ closure.
GameTrailers arrived on the Internet scene in 2002, just as video game companies began using video trailers to market their games over the then-standard video game magazine outlets. In addition to hosting preview trailers for upcoming games, the site was home to countless popular blogs, podcasts, and web series such as Invisible Walls, GameTrailers TV, and Pop-Fiction, which discussed game reviews and events within the larger gaming world. In particular, GameTrailers was renowned for providing in-depth coverage of E3. Several popular gaming personalities, like James Rolfe (The Angry Video Game Nerd) and Monty Oum (Red vs. Blue, Haloid, RWBY) also launched their careers from GameTrailers.
For years, GameTrailers was unique in its services, though it prompted many others – like Doug Walker and his YouTube series Nostalgia Critic, which eventually moved to its own site as That Guy With the Glasses – to model their own content-sharing websites on the GameTrailers model.
As they years bore on, however, easily-accessible alternatives to producing gaming-related media began to surface. YouTube and Twitch.tv in particular provided gamers with accessible venues for producing their own gaming reviews and talk shows. A recent post on GameTrailers’ official Facebook page acknowledges the rise of these outlets as accessible alternatives to game broadcasting:
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 announced that they will be conducting one final Twitch.tv stream tonight at 6:00 PM PST, which can be viewed here. Expect updates to this story as more news surfaces on the closure.