More Bad News For Woke Gaming Journalism: More Layoffs And IGN Shuts Down Dicebreaker
by Jack Dunn
In March, Fandom Pulse reported that Jen Glennon, who took on the role of editor-in-chief in October of the previous year, submitted her resignation at Kotaku, the video game news and strategy website. Glennon stated in her resignation letter that the management's recent decision to prioritise guides over news led to her decision to step down. Glennon follows Patricia Hernandez, dismissed in August 2023, as the second editor-in-chief of Kotaku since Stephen Totilo's departure in 2021. Then, on March 7 Levi Winslow disclosed on X that he and three more staff members were laid off from Kotaku. But it is not only the video games industry and video games journalism that is being hit hard with layoffs, tabletop games journalism industry has been shook hard this past week with news of layoffs and speculation about the shutdown of Dicebreaker, the board games, RPGs and tabletop games website.
On May 21, IGN Entertainment acquired the Gamer Network family of digital brands leading to some redundancies within the UK-based organization. Gamer Network's portfolio includes GamesIndustry.biz, Eurogamer, Rock Paper Shotgun, VG247, and Dicebreaker. The company also has stakes in Outside Xbox, Digital Foundry, and Hookshot, which manages Nintendolife, PushSquare, PureXbox, and Time Extension. IGN Entertainment, a division of Ziff Davis that encompasses IGN, MapGenie, HowLongToBeat, and Humble Bundle, acquired these websites from ReedPop, the organizer of PAX and New York Comic-Con, which had originally purchased the Gamer Network business in 2018.
Now it appears that IGN has shut down alphabet letter cesspool Dicebreaker. Editor-in-chief of Dicebreaker, Matt Jarvis, broke the news that he was laid off last by IGN: "Hello! Unfortunately, I am being made redundant following the recent Gamer Network/IGN buyout and will no longer be EIC of @joindicebreaker after this week."
Shortly after, Alex Meehan, senior staff writer for Dicebreaker, announced that she had been laid off too: "As @liquidmatt has already spilled the beans, I am being made redundant from my role as senior staff writer for @joindicebreaker as of this week. It's devastatingly sad to say goodbye to the best stage of my life yet, but that's the way the cookie crumbles."
As did Michael Wheelan, Head of Video at Dicebreaker: "Cat's out of the bag now so might as well announce that I've also been made redundant. No idea what IGN will do with the brand in the future, but if you haven't already been able to tell from the multiple layoffs and no posts, the Dicebreaker as you knew it is no more."
Although there has been no formal announcement from either IGN or Dicebreaker, Michael Wheelan's post appears to confirm that Dicebreaker has been shut down completely. It is also noted that the last time Dicebreaker posted on X was on May 21, when it announced the IGN takeover.
Woke games journalism is dying, one outlet at a time. It is up to us to fill the void. What do you think about this? Leave a comment and let us know.
I remember the era of thick magazines like Computer Games Strategy Plus, Computer Gaming World, and the 700+ pages of the monthly PC Gamer. In the past, it was the hardware and software nerds writing articles. They cared about the games as games, development, and the companies, both small and large. Things started shifting in the early 2000s, the "geek culture" became mainstream, and mainstream people who couldn't get press jobs elsewhere took over the industry. Quality collapsed. And now we are seeing the sad deaths of the once great giants.
I’m not on Twitter but I see that Matt Jarvis has pronouns in his bio and that tells me all I need to know.