Gaming site Polygon has been sold to Valnet, Kotaku first reported Thursday morning. Valnet has retained a handful of staff, with the majority of Polygon workers losing their jobs.
Valnet confirmed the sale in a press release, writing that "The acquisition, an asset deal, closed today." Valnet writes that "Polygon will now integrate Valnet’s Gaming Portfolio."
In a statement in the press release by Jim Bankoff, CEO of Polygon's former owner Vox, Bankoff says, "This transaction will enable us to focus our energies and investment resources in other priority areas of growth across our portfolio of iconic digital publications and audio/video programming, while enabling Valnet to grow their leadership and authority in the gaming information category.”
The majority of Polygon staff members have lost their jobs due to the sale, with many confirming the information on social media. A former employee tells us they believe at least 25 people have been let go. They note that many of those let go were union members; a statement from the Writers Guild of America East, of which Polygon was a part through the Vox Media Union, claims that "the bargaining unit at the site" has been let go. The Vox Media Union is currently in contract bargaining.
Workers from Polygon tell us a small number of staff have received offers to stay on. One tells us that eight editors have received this offer, though they don't know how those people were selected over others who lost their jobs. They said, "I am incandescently angry that Vox Media did this to us. I personally believe that, in the immediate, Vox should be the target of blame for this decision."
The Vox Media Union has started a GoFundMe for laid-off workers here.
The sale appears to have largely been handled above the site level. Former editor-in-chief Chris Plante referenced the sale on Bluesky on Thursday, writing in part, "I won't be talking more about the sale because I wasn't involved." Group Publisher and Polygon co-founder Chris Grant wrote later that day that Valnet refused to meet with him or answer his questions about the sale, claiming that Valnet "were wildly incurious about how a gaming publication even becomes 'premium,'" a reference to Valnet calling Polygon a "premium gaming publication" in its press release.
In a conversation with The Verge published on May 3, Valnet head of mergers and acquisitions Rony Arzoumanian said that around 10 of Polygon's workers have been retained and that the site is currently being led by executive editor Matt Patches. Arzoumanian said that Valnet initiated the sale and dealt mostly with Bankoff.
The Verge writes
Valnet is also “rebuilding” the team, investing in its operations, and making sure it builds Polygon “for the next five to ten years,” according to Arzoumanian.
Valnet wants to recruit “triple-A” writers and editors for Polygon, Arzoumanian said. When I asked about what the balance might be of full-time hires and contractors, Arzoumanian deferred on specifics, but said “we will do it right.”
Valnet sites, like many in games media, are largely staffed by contractors. Polygon, in contrast, worked with freelancers and published their work, but was primarily staffed by salaried, unionized employees. Many of those freelancers took to social media following the sale news to praise their experience working with Polygon's former staff. (I have occasionally edited freelancers and staffers for Polygon.)
Arzoumanian told The Verge that Valnet plans to retain Polygon's archives, and did not say whether the site would hire another editor-in-chief.
According to a Bluesky post by the New York Magazine Union, another site owned by Vox, their site "also had members impacted by layoffs at Vox today." The WGAE's statement continued,
Polygon has long been a must-read destination for gaming and geek culture news, and its talented, award-winning journalists were an essential part of what has made Vox Media a profitable and top-tier online media company...
Vox Media touts its progressive values and its "responsibility to build a better media industry" by amplifying historically excluded voices, but the only thing clear at the moment is that Vox Media and its CEO Jim Bankoff have taken extreme actions to weaken the bargaining unit. The union will not be intimidated by management’s short-sighted choice to fire workers, their self-defeating decision to gut Polygon or their refusal to take these negotiations seriously.
Valnet owns multiple gaming sites, including GameRant, Dualshockers, The Gamer, and review score site Open Critic. Recently, Valnet sued The Wrap over a March story regarding allegations about labor conditions at the company.
Polygon was founded in 2012 and has been one of the biggest sites in gaming, boasting a team of talented editors, writers, reporters, video producers, and more. The site has been at the forefront of labor and culture reporting, as well as innovative guides content. It's full of people we at Aftermath know and love, and who didn't deserve to lose their jobs. In reference to Arzoumanian's use of the phrase "Triple A," those are words used to describe video games, not people, so it is unclear who precisely Valnet aims to recruit and why Polygon's previous roster of experienced, dedicated staff didn't fit the bill.
This is a developing story and has been updated.
