For those of you who haven't heard the news yet, 1UP.com has been purchased by UGO, and have seen half their staff slashed and their podcasts terminated. Electronic Gaming Monthly, the publication out of which 1UP.com grew, was not part of the purchase, and will publish its last magazine this month.
I'm not one who is easily perturbed by things like company closings, mergers, and hostile takeovers. When electronic retailing titans Radio Shack and Sharper Image, and more recently CompUSA, disappeared from malls and shopping districts, I barely batted an eye. The absence of the massive and bustling CompUSA at 42nd Street seemed jarring at first, but the shock (if it could even be called that) dissipated over the course of two days, and I can no longer even point to where the store once stood. Even the closing of Lehman Brothers, and the bloody bankruptcy of Iceland, did not seem to startle me any more than the constant stream of negative headlines flooding the media during the early weeks of the current economic crisis. From my perspective, life is proceeding as usual, and so I've had little cause for true alarm.
However, I am in a genuine state of shock over the sale of 1UP and the termination of EGM, to the point where I can barely think of what to type in response to this news. 1UP has always stood out as one of the pillars of video game journalism, offering well-respected opinions on recent and upcoming releases and the industry as a whole, and enjoying a rapport much on par with international gaming network IGN. While I've never been a follower of EGM, I vividly remember my friends excitedly referencing their articles and features as far back as grade school. That a publishing house with such a long history of successful coverage of the video game industry could be bought up and downsized so quickly is, quite frankly, jarring at the least.
What strikes me the hardest, however, is the knowledge that I may never spend an afternoon's commute listening to the banter of 1UP's editors and writers. While the closing of a print magazine as old as EGM is a somber thought, only so much can be conveyed through articles and the written word. An article does not convey the individual behind the writing as well as the mediums of audio and video, and while one can get a good sense of the author's preferences and tastes through editorials and features, one never comes to know the author. Admittedly, I've never met Shane Bettenhausen or Garnet Lee or any of the 1UP staff. I can no more claim to know them than claim to know Obama. Yet, the 1UP Yours and The 1UP Show podcasts at least allowed me to sit in on their rants and to revel in their enthusiastic arguments on everything gaming related. It was an opportunity to see why they loved gaming, what they loved about gaming, and why each of them chose to enter and pursue a career in games journalism. It was their unfettered enjoyment of games and the industry that inspired me to start this blog with Matt, and to at least dream of being a games journalist. While I will still be able to listen to the hysterical antics of the IGN staff or the opinions of some great independent podcasters on the Gamers With Jobs Conference Call and Cheap Ass Gamer, I find the absence of their voices a weighty quiet. The announcement of the purchase of 1UP and EGM on UncleGamer Radio resounded like a death knell in my earbuds during my commute home today, Parris' loss of words to comment on the event an unofficial and disquieting moment of silence.
I wish the best of luck to the staff of 1UP and EGM, both those who must now seek new employment in a turbulent and inhospitable economic climate and those who must deal with the loss of much beloved colleagues.
--Mike
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