After 13 years, GameTrailers is closing down today. Thank you for your continued support over the years. It has been an adventure.
— GameTrailers (@GameTrailers) February 9, 2016
According to messages from former GameTrailers staff members, everyone working on the site was laid off hours prior to the announcement.
“I just wanted to confirm that GameTrailers is shutting down officially today,” GameTrailers Associate Editor Ben Moore wrote on gaming forum NeoGAF. “Everyone is being let go. We all found out mere hours ago, so we’re still reeling a bit. Sincerely, thank you all for the tremendous support.”
When it opened in 2002, GameTrailers made its name as a very early purveyor of premium web video, including trailers, video previews and reviews. As Kotaku pointed out, the company suffered deeply from the rise of YouTube and livestreaming platforms, such as Twitch, as ubiquitous content distribution platforms. Still, the site might be best known for it’s attempts to push gaming culture to broader audience, such as the GameTrailers TV show on Spike, and live broadcasts of E3 keynote press conferences in the late 2000’s. Viacom sold the Gametrailers brand to digital media firm Defy Media, parent company of The Escapist and Gamefront, among others.
As a parting gift, or at least as a fun “last day goof,” Gametrailers released a “mandatory update” of its Bloodborne review Monday, making it the first and only game to recieve a perfect 10 from the site. According to Metacritic, GameCritics highest official score was 9.8 prior to the final “fix”, which had awarded to eight games over the site’s lifespan, including The Last of Us, Grand Theft Auto V, Halo III, and Super Mario Galaxy. Bloodborne received a 9.6 out of 10 from GameTrailers when the game was originally reviewed in 2015.
Jokes aside, it’s always sad to see gaming media outlets struggle and fail. We wish the former staff and fans of GameTrailers all the best.
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