"UGO did what they could to, what I consider, 'save' 1UP. Obviously, all of us would have wanted to see things go differently - most of all me, considering I just lost many of my closest friends as coworkers and employees today ... If any company out there would have been willing to support us as we were, they certainly didn't step up. The only company that really did was UGO, and they did their very best to continue 1UP."
No matter what the intentions were, the layoffs were crap.
if you look at who was cut it was mainly video staff, and after you can the entire video department I dont really see a need for video editors... 2nd they cut new hires, including kefarkien (or whatever his name was), and 3rd they cut overpaid employees that didnt justify there cost to the company ie. James Mielkie and Shane Bettenhausen. To be honest most of the cuts made logical sense to me considering the direction they are taking 1up.
I am not trying to say its good to have layoffs, but it wasnt illogical what UGO did.
Except the people that were dropped were the reason I even visited the site or listened to the podcasts. I'm not alone.
Without those personalities, the site now has as much draw to me as UGO does. None.
Right. UGO has never seemed (to me anyway) a really active outlet for the gaming world. 1Up actually made itself a presence and created a public face of an online organization. Does anyone here really know the folks that work at UGO?
Maybe their biggest strength was their podcast lineup, but it helped project them outwards.
Right. UGO has never seemed (to me anyway) a really active outlet for the gaming world. 1Up actually made itself a presence and created a public face of an online organization. Does anyone here really know the folks that work at UGO?
Maybe their biggest strength was their podcast lineup, but it helped project them outwards.
Blame has to be laid at the feet of ZD for their terrible handling of the brand.
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Gamertag: Phelan Kell
PSN: Flatpicker
Right. UGO has never seemed (to me anyway) a really active outlet for the gaming world. 1Up actually made itself a presence and created a public face of an online organization. Does anyone here really know the folks that work at UGO?
Maybe their biggest strength was their podcast lineup, but it helped project them outwards.
Could be just me, but I have NEVER visited ugo.com in my 10 + years of checking the internet for game news/info. Never recall seeing a link to their site regarding a breaking story either. If this is what they would like 1up.com to mimic, might as well cross them off my list as well. Will give them a chance though.
Yeah, I don't think that UGO is necessarily to "blame" for anything, but I really question their decision to buy a company like 1up whose biggest asset by far are their personalities and the content those personalities produce and then completely gut out everything that made that site successful. That seems like an awful lot of money to spend on what amounts to a domain name.
Or maybe the blame lies with the content producers within 1up that consistently put a worthless product on the market?
EGM in particular was a mess. I've been a subscriber (free sub) for a few years, and I've always been shocked at how badly they would treat their subscribers who dared to write a letter to the editor. They would verbally rip those people to shreds. That had lessened of late, thankfully, but the magazine was a mess.
Yeah, I don't think that UGO is necessarily to "blame" for anything, but I really question their decision to buy a company like 1up whose biggest asset by far are their personalities and the content those personalities produce and then completely gut out everything that made that site successful. That seems like an awful lot of money to spend on what amounts to a domain name.
Actually, Their biggest assets are probably the brands and the advertising revenue they can generate.
1UP and EGM as a name can be used in connection with UGO or can replace the UGO brand.
Remember also, by doing this they have cut their competition down there fore advertisers have less options as to where to spend their money.
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Gamertag: Phelan Kell
PSN: Flatpicker
Thank you... as I assumed, this is a case of media giant with an amazingly poor market segment representation (UGO) attempting to buy themselves a better one. If UGO didn't have Hearst cash, it would have ceased to be long ago. I haven't visited the site in years, and when I did today based on this news, I couldn't close my browser tab fast enough!
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Gamertag/PSN/Zune: ElektroDragon
PAX & Video Games Live attendee. ECA Founding Member
Thank you... as I assumed, this is a case of media giant with an amazingly poor market segment representation (UGO) attempting to buy themselves a better one. If UGO didn't have Hearst cash, it would have ceased to be long ago. I haven't visited the site in years, and when I did today based on this news, I couldn't close my browser tab fast enough!
You got it.
I wouldn't be surprised to see the UGO branding go away to be replaced by 1up.
The content doesn't change, but the names will. This never was about the "talent" on the 1up side of the fence.
The sad thing is that we really are losing the gaming journalism genre.
1up is gone.
Gamespot sells their reviews.
GiantBomb is underfunded.
The Escapist is not American, so releases are not the same schedule.
GamesRadar seems to be slow to update.
Joystiq is low quality.
GamesIndustry is not consumer focused.
Xplay had potential, but G4 ruins it.
The rest are just blogs or message boards like EVAV. We aggregate info but don't have the clout to get it 1st person.
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Gamertag: Phelan Kell
PSN: Flatpicker
Could be just me, but I have NEVER visited ugo.com in my 10 + years of checking the internet for game news/info. Never recall seeing a link to their site regarding a breaking story either. If this is what they would like 1up.com to mimic, might as well cross them off my list as well. Will give them a chance though.
Me too. Still today I never visited this site.
I remember that I started reading gaming sites with the old HappyPuppy.com. A looooong time ago.
We aggregate info but don't have the clout to get it 1st person.
I wonder what it is about this particular industry (gaming) that makes it so hard to maintain a viable business-plan around journalism/reporting? I have my suspicions as to the reasons (none of which are directed particularly at 1UP or EGM):
* Access to content online is quite often free/ad-supported, and the economy right now is struggling mightily, with ad revenue down tremendously.
* the average age of the typical gamer is 35, but the content of many gaming sites and/or magazines is, frankly, incredibly adolescent/immature, poorly written, and badly sourced.
* Print is struggling/dying across the country.
