As we prepare to enter a state of holiday hibernation, we cannot help but reflect on the year that was. And for games media, it sure… was. Layoffs, shakeups, closures, ill-advised purchases, and mystifying revivals were in plentiful supply, but there were also a few bright spots. I’m serious! On this week’s Aftermath Hours, we salvage a few diamonds from a whole mess of rough.
As we’ll be celebrating with our families next week, this one’s technically our last show of the year. We discuss a little of everything: Our favorite Game Awards reveals (Onimusha, an orb game exemplar, is back, and so is Okami!) as well as some that have us less thrilled (more Neil Druckmann nihilism in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, Borderlands 4’s continuation of the series’ quiet identity crisis). Then we talk about SAG-AFTRA voice actors demonstrating outside the show and the potential impacts of a second Trump presidency on their future prospects.
After that, we briefly touch on cameras in games, which absolutely nobody has Opinions about, and then Chris fills us in on the love of his life: Slitterhead. Lastly, we hand out our own awards for the best and worst games media moments of the year. Oh, and we discuss Riley’s holiday gaming dilemmas, all of which would be solved if he just bought a Steam Deck.
You can find this week's episode below and on Spotify, Apple, or wherever else you prefer to listen to podcasts. If you like what you hear, make sure to leave a review so that we can create a future in which the worst games media moment of the year is, like, “So-and-so published a kind of silly piece” and not “Everything’s on fire, and the fire got exponentially bigger while we were handing it its award.”
Here’s an excerpt from our conversation (edited for length and clarity):
Nathan: I want to start with the best games media moment, and a moment that demonstrated the continued usefulness of the media even in its diminished state: Dr Disrespect. We had that outing from a former Twitch employee of what he probably did [to get banned from Twitch in 2020], and then both Ash Parrish and Cecilia D’Anastasio leaped into action and managed to verify it. That’s what took it from being this bit of hearsay to a story that had actual ramifications that brought down what was at the time the Dr Disrespect empire.
He unfortunately bounced back with a Rumble deal, but we kinda all saw that coming. I even wrote a piece about how that was probably gonna happen. But his credibility in the eyes of any sort of mainstream establishment was obliterated – and justifiably so. He had inappropriate interactions with a minor. You should not be able to come back from that – at least not in any way where you get accepted by major brands and platforms.
It was impressive reporting, and it was good to see both of those reporters get their dues in some ways – though I’m sure people also came after them and were shitty because that’s the nature of being a reporter in the year 2024. But they did the thing. They made it happen.
Riley: I’ve got a good one. Was the IGN union this year?
Nathan: Yes it was.
Chris: Yeah, that’s a good one.
Nathan: The IGN union has been really cool, with the caveat that clearly management has been combative in certain ways. They did those weird layoffs of a few union members.
Riley: I was just explaining last night to a friend who isn’t in journalism the whole IGN buying Gamer Network layoffs and buyouts situation, and they were like “What? How is that allowed that one company can own all the websites?” And I was like “Well, you see…” And as we’ve discussed a million times on this podcast, a union can’t do everything, but some folks are lucky to have that.
Nathan: And I will say, if you look at those buyouts [that management is offering to staff], the terms are pretty healthy. People are getting between four and six months of severance, as well as COBRA [insurance] coverage. It’s understandable why a lot of people are taking that buyout, and I would imagine the union – even just its existence, if nothing else – played a role in obtaining that buyout package. It’s not ideal, but it is something.
Riley: We’ve done a lot of writing this year about the crappy labor conditions at various websites, and those things might still exist even if those websites had unions, but unions can definitely fight them. As we go into 2025 – and as we were just talking about, who knows what the state of organized labor will be under Trump – but it’s definitely something.
Nathan: OK so, now it’s time for the bad moments. There are plenty to choose from! I think I’m gonna say it’s a tie between Game Informer getting shut down and kind of everything that’s happened to Kotaku, but especially when [editor-in-chief Jen Glennon] resigned over the editorial edict to produce exponentially more guides. I think that was kind of the flashpoint for pretty much everything that was to come.
With Game Informer, the immediate tragedy was obvious, and it had ripple effects in that, as I understand it, the Game Informer Vault – which contained a lot of material video game history – ended up becoming the plaything of one of these fucking GameStop execs.
Riley: I wrote a blog about that.
Nathan: He has a bunch of their stuff in his office and whatnot, which is awful. What a waste. And of course, tons of people out of work very suddenly. Another publication bites the dust – one that was relatively well funded. They did some work that verged on being in the realm of advertorial, but nonetheless, they also did some really good work, some really interesting stuff. Game Informer was foundational for me; I read it all the time growing up. I have crystal clear memories of where I was when I was reading particular issues. It’s that much of a thing. So its demise was super tragic.
Chris: The revival of former Vice properties is not great, but also it’s just kind of a bummer more than actively [bad for the world]. It’s embarrassing. Twenty percent of me was like “I get getting that paycheck, but that’s really bad writing.” Who is this for? Why are you doing this? What are you getting out of this? You’re just doing SEO manipulation at this point.
I kinda understand what would make someone think they could salvage an unsalvageable website, because it is such a brand that you were aware of. It’s not as bad as the Kotaku thing, because the Kotaku thing a) is personal, and b) is actively harming people now. Whereas I’ve heard the Remap folks talk about [Waypoint’s revival], and they’re kind of whatever about it. They got a good deal. They got to keep the feed. They got out.
It’s comical, more than anything. I’ve been looking at Shane Smith’s presence, because [Vice] brought him back. Again, who is that for? It’s like a more Gen X-y Bill Maher but with less of the appeal. The YouTube channel Vice had – which hundreds of people built; they sent people all over the world – is now just “Hot Ones” without [Sean Evans].
Riley: They’re still making videos! I just watched one about Axie Infinity. I was curious about what crypto games were doing about Trump being into crypto, and I found a Reddit post of the Axie Infinity people being really excited that search interest in Axie Infinity had spiked. I was trying to figure out why, and they had traced it back to a Vice YouTube from last month or something, and I was like “Vice still has a YouTube channel?”
Chris: Yeah, they do, and you should tune in if you’d like to see Shane Smith interview [noxious streaming personality] Destiny.
