When many people hear the phrase “games journalism,” they think of three letters: I, G, and N. But while IGN might be one of the biggest entities still remaining in a rapidly shrinking field, it’s far from a singular voice, even within its own ranks. At times, hundreds of people have worked for the network, making it all the more odd when members of the online peanut gallery have positioned seemingly incongruous scores from different people’s reviews of games as some kind of “gotcha.” On the latest Aftermath Hours, two former IGN workers (who didn’t even write reviews) tell us what it was like.
This time around, on a very special Inside Baseball Week episode of the show, we’re joined by Max Scoville and Brian Altano, formerly of IGN until recent layoffs forced them to create their own independent network, X Button. It is not an understatement to say that Scoville and Altano knew IGN inside and out; both had been at the site for over a decade.
We discuss how a publication that, to many, is synonymous with games journalism grew and adapted as it went from being the biggest fish in a relatively small pond to just another voice on the algorithmically-driven, content-obsessed internet. They also tell us what it was like when people used IGN as a target for their many grievances with games journalism, which was basically every day, for a different reason each time.
Now, though, at X Button, they get to start over with a clean slate. A mere two weeks into the venture, they tell us what, ideally, that will look like. Lastly, we discuss a subject much nearer and dearer to our hearts than any of that: chicken nugget dipping sauces.
You can find this week's episode below and on Spotify, Apple, or wherever else you prefer to listen to podcasts. You can also watch it on YouTube. If you like what you hear, leave a review (or sub to our YouTube channel) so that Aftermath can someday grow large enough that nobody will understand what any of us do, either.
Here’s an excerpt from our conversation (edited for length and clarity):
Nathan: I think to a lot of people, IGN came to connote all their misgivings with games journalism. They’re like “IGN did this, IGN did that. Why did IGN give a seven to this but a ten to another game?” You guys, as you said, were over there making podcasts, doing videos—things that are maybe meant to be a little bit more fun. How did you contend with that element of people being like “IGN, huh?”
Brian: It was a constant headache. I think anybody will tell you that [it’s not fun] waking up and everybody is mad at everybody at the company for one thing that maybe they didn’t even do. Sometimes it’s as simple as, you know those review aggregator Twitter accounts or whatever, right? They put up ten scores in a row, and it’s like nine, nine, nine, eight, eight, nine, nine, six. And everyone’s like “Kill the guy with the six.” So that happens sometimes.
I didn’t distance myself from the reviews; I just didn’t do them. And it’s not for lack of trying. I reviewed a couple of games when I first started there, and I realized that I don’t really like the process of playing a game for 20 hours and then afterwards putting a number on it. Max didn’t either. Max didn’t do a single game review his entire time there.
The last review I did for IGN was the Super Mario Bros Bob Hoskins movie last year, or this year, actually. I gave it a five out of ten because I was like “We should revisit this,” and then I destroyed it.
Max: Yeah, well that’s why it tanked at the box office. That was your fault. You know that, right?
Brian: That made no money at the box office this year. You know what? They didn’t even put it in theaters. I fucked that shit up so bad that they put a different Mario movie in theaters.
Max: I heard your review was so bad that it echoed through time and space and caused production problems, and Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo were pounding shots in a van because they were so heartbroken that in the year 2026, someone didn’t like the movie they were making at that time.
Brian: But I mean, that was a big part of it, right? Like, the review went up for Days Gone, and it was a seven or something. For years, people were like “This didn’t get a sequel because of IGN’s review.” And I’m just kind of like “Walk me through this.”
But yeah, you wake up, and for all the access you get working in a place that big, you also get the negative connotations when the audience is really mad at people. And as we all know, a good moneymaker right now is to make a video about why you hate something or why something isn’t good. That’s lining the grounds of a bunch of above-ground pools all over the country, right? It’s helping a lot of dead pets get out of condominium walls.
It’s good money, and I get why people do it. We’re stupid for not doing it. I’d be fucking great at it. I was telling my wife this yesterday. Our house would be twice as big if I woke up every single day and told the internet why something fucking sucked. But that just wasn’t really our style. And so I think that people saw any review as a slight against their character because they’re invested in that product because they researched it, pre-ordered it, and they’ve been watching the trailers for it. And in reverse, anytime there’s a positive review for something that they have already decided is trash or woke or whatever, [they view that as an attack as well].
[An example is] Mixtape this year. I didn’t even play that game. Looked at the trailers and I was like “Cool, looks beautiful. Not really my type of thing.” IGN gave it a ten, and people were so mad at that. This was given by Simon Cardy, who’s a good friend of ours, and he reviewed a bunch of big sad dad third-person PlayStation games. He loves those games, too. So I think if he sat down with a lot of people who are mad at those reviews, he could just be like “We have way more similar taste than any YouTuber would tell you.”
So yeah, that was tough. It continues to be tough. Even now, people are like “You’re the guys from the shitty review website.” We’re like “We didn’t do those, you know?”
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Luke Plunkett
