IGN immediately lays off every non-UK person at their newly bought sites, including some key members like deputy editor Alice Bell ( aftermath.site )

Welp, this didn't take long.

It's especially interesting that they laid off a lot of people who were the only ones in their particular job, leaving entire jobs uncovered. I suspect this comes right before shutting them entirely or doing it all "with AI" 🤮.

Sad in particular about Alice Bell. She was fantastic, and it always felt like she kept the site going through all the shit of recent years. Plus being the driving force behind their podcast (the Electronic Wireless Show) of course also spells doom for that one though I hope that like Indiescovery they go rogue and run it independent of the site.

Bleak times. Fuck IGN.

Damage ,

Can't wait to start following the new sites (blogs at first, probably) these people create.

_sideffect ,

As soon as ign bought humble bundle it turned to shit

linkinkampf19 ,
@linkinkampf19@lemmy.world avatar

While I still "subscribe" to Humble, I don't recall the last time I actually unpaused a month. Maybe this is the push I needed. Their offerings have been mostly subpar after they bought Humble. Not knocking the indie devs, I think my gaming tastes have changes over the years. Also, I don't need coupons for DLC, please and thank you.

atoro ,

I had been a Humble Monthly subscriber since they first started it. 6 months ago my husband and I both canceled our subscriptions. Used to be some really good bundles, but now it's just shovelware and DLC coupons.

iliketurtles ,

Oooh that's why it's been ass for a while now 🤦‍♂️

Railcar8095 ,

My thoughts exactly. I'm not going to boycott them, but good will is lost.

MotoAsh ,

If you're not going to boycott them, your lack of good will is literally meaningless.

Railcar8095 ,

Dully noted

fuckwit_mcbumcrumble ,

Has there been any good bundles in the last 10 years? According to my email history the last time I bought something from them was at the end of 2014, and even before then I'd been complaining about it's quality.

goferking0 ,

Only one I've gotten lately have been battletech ones. But that's more to actually get digital versions of their fiction.

Probably should have just said screw it once I realized you had to give 30ish % to ign

Facebones ,

I've had choice since it was monthly, I'll probably end it this year (I pay yearly) cause eh so much filler. I'd say I get my moneys worth but 🤷‍♂️ I'm getting old anyway haha

makingStuffForFun ,
@makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml avatar

That pretty much exactly matches my timeline of my last purchase. I had no idea they were purchased and they did turn to shit and now I can see why.

BeardedGingerWonder ,

That I did not know!

N_Crow ,
@N_Crow@leminal.space avatar

You guys are still reading IGN?

woelkchen ,
@woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

You guys are still reading IGN?

No, that's why they buy other sites.

mPony ,

to add their technological and cultural distinctiveness to their own

kinsnik ,

RPS already has an article “celebrating Alices in games” as a sneaky attack on this.

Railcar8095 ,

At RPS we like Alices. When somebody comes along with the name "Alice" you don't just say "oh hi" like some insolent rube. You nod with solemn respect and you say, "Alice". An Alice is someone you should not take lightly, nor take for granted, nor leave unmonitored. For they will destroy worlds and build better ones while you are not looking. This is dangerous and exciting. Alices are a force to be reckoned with. To treat an Alice poorly is to invite shame, dishonour, and contempt. Here are some of the best Alices in video games!

But that's it, readers. That's literally ALL the Alices we can possibly think of.
What about you? Can you think of any Alices who deserve to be celebrated?

Guys job will probably fall off a window after this, but God he probably felt awesome when publishing

I_Miss_Daniel ,

Going rogue is how the TWiT network started I think - when Leo and co used to have a show called The Screensavers but it ended.

sirico ,
@sirico@feddit.uk avatar

We also got Digg out of it, while it ended up poo reddit and lemmy wouldn't be quite the same without it.

Diplomjodler3 ,

,,,,,,,,,

Here are a few commas, in case you'll ever need any.

thefartographer ,

Thanks! I'll use, them liberally and, with reckless abandon! Look, earrings!

,😁,

TexasDrunk ,

I remember the TechTV days before G4 took over. AotS was fun but never really replaced Screen Savers. Then G4 did whatever the fuck it did (mostly airing ghost hunters from what I remember) and went off air so we lost that too. Then there was the terrible attempt at revival a few years ago that failed spectacularly.

TWiT is still going though. Maybe something cool will come out of this.

kat_angstrom ,

I hate how this is phrased as "redundancies". IGN literally JUST bought these outlets, they haven't had time to dig into and examine the organizations they acquired; it's just straight into the Corpo playbook of "lay people off and let the dust settle where it may".

These are people, not "redundancies". They contributed in the old organization, and they could contribute in the new, but they never even got the chance.

Carighan OP ,
@Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

Especially because from what was said, the employees were told the sites will be bought "as is", so everyone gets to keep their jobs.

It's in situations such as these where C-suites being required to also apply to them what they apply to others would be nice:

  • CFO or CEO at IGN has to quit. Won't hurt them much, but eh.
  • CEO at Reedpop has to sell themselves (into slavery I suppose, plus it fits what they do to their workers).
simple ,
@simple@lemm.ee avatar

Oh they're redundancies to IGN alright, they literally bought their competitors and got to kill competition with zero resistance

TwilightVulpine ,

There used to be laws against this shit.

mPony ,

people also used to vote in their own interests

MrScottyTay ,

Redundancy means that they get paid for being made to leave the company. That terminology is used because it's different from being fired.

Copernican ,

It's basically just British terminology for layoffs with a severance package.

deweydecibel , (edited )

It amounts to the same thing, though. Whether you got a few months pay to carry you through or not you still lost your income, and there's no guarantee you'll ever find a job that matches it in pay, benefits, etc.

MrScottyTay ,

Read the guys comment again though. They say their issue is with calling them "redundancies" in a language sense. But it's not sugar coating it or anything, that's the legitimate term for what happened.

ColeSloth ,

You generally don't buy a business and then figure all of that out. You figure it all out and then buy the business. IGN already would have 100% known the managerial setup at these companies.

xkforce ,

What should happen is not always what does happen. There are tons of examples of brain dead companies and rich people buying companies they dont understand and then ruining them because of that.

lud ,

Is there anything pointing to that in this case?

xkforce ,

Did you not read the title at least? How does firing all these people indicate they know what theyre doing?

deweydecibel ,

There never was a chance.

Generally when companies like this are bought it isn't to acquire the talent. That's legitimately what needs to be taken into account when it comes to things like antitrust. You want to buy out this company, are you buying it because you want their talent to join with yours to make something better? Cool. We'll let you do that provided you do it today fair and competitive manner.

Any other reason for wanting to buy this company is going to need to be pretty heavily scrutinized.

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