Jess and Jason have been laid off (Updated)

Nothing but respect for Jess and Jason. Both of them have produced amazing content throughout the years and I am absolutely certain they will move on to bigger and better things. But this does suck big ol floppy donkey dick.

Fuck you very much, Fandom.

yeah, I'm sad we won't get to see Jess' turn on blight club or future horror games with Jan, and I was looking forward to hopefully seeing Jason on demo derby since that was set to return. they were both fun and funny, fingers crossed they will find something better soon.

Worst news ever. Fandom can go fuck themselves, seriously.

Will there even be a GB in 1-2 years?

I am gutted, all the best to Jess and Jason for future....much love. Really put a dampener here for me. :(

@cat-elemental: We will never see what her playing Earthworm Jim 3d with Dan and Grub would have been :(

This feels awful. I mean, not that Alex, Brad, Vinny and Jeff didn't, but there was already the sense in the air that they were tired and wanted to move on. This though? Right after building a new team that I still contend was really beginning to gel and that this coming year was going to be a great step forward for the site... it feels worse.

Nothing, but love to Jess and Jason. Jason for the years of science and anime game defense when there was none. Jess for bringing the energy and shining a light on the independents and especially on the horror genre that was largely ignored for the majority of this sites existence outside of Patrick and occasionally Brad. I will absolutely keep an eye out for what is next for you both.

I still want to support those that are left but it does legitimately feel bad continuing to give money to Fandom. My sub renewed not too long ago because I saw brighter things ahead for this crew and I wanted to support them. Not the site ad hoc, not fandom, but them. This... this just sucks.

Get fucked Fandom.

Edit: Sub cancelled.

Edit 2: Yes I will probably re-sub in a few months out of support for Jason, Jeff, Jeff, Dan, and Rorie.

Sucks. I'd imagine that it's hard to produce new content when there's constant changes going on. I hope the best for everyone. Now there's only 1 video editor, right?

I wish all the best for Jason and Jess in the future. Two extremely talented people who should be golden hires for any organization.

As for the future of Giant Bomb, <>.

It's a bloodbath out there for the tech industry. You can't run a business that isn't making money and I don't think the people at Fandom are exactly popping champagne bottles over this decision either. I for one will keep subbing for as long as there is even one personality in here that I like. There is still no doubt a lot of talent remaining at the site, even if people will be asking questions about how much longer. Maybe a deeper consolidation with Gamespot wouldn't be a bad idea at this point.

Best of luck to Jason and Jess and thanks for the memories. Well, not just the memories since the videos are still out there, but you know what I mean.

so is the plan to slowly and somehow simultaneously abrublty sabotage giantbomb out of existence? What is the play here? I don't see any silver lining or "bright future" for this site with those in charge of firing people off doing what they're doing. In fact, I may just rip the final band-aid off myself instead of waiting for a sudden 404. Talk about the worst ending.

Yet another reminder that digital media of all kinds is totally dependent on the whims of whatever group of fucknuts happens to own the site that week. You finally got GB back up to something like a full staff? That's nice, here's some layoffs.

Fuck Fandom. I'll be taking my subscription money and spending it on Jeff or Nextlander or both.

It was a goddamn privilege to know you Jason, take care of your fam. o7

The change in direction when Alex, Brad, and Vinny left was rough for me to take. Gerstmann's firing was nearly the last straw, but I still liked everyone that was here. Now though, as much as I love everyone left it sure seems clear to me that GB is just going to keep being squeezed to try cutting costs and especially considering how little content from here I consume it just does not make any sense to continue my subscription. I've been a subscriber for literally 10 years, it's truly a sad day for me.

This is horse shit, GB just keeps getting its legs knocked out from under it. It's impossible to regrow the site when it keeps taking body blows like this. I hope Jess and Jason land on their feet, I especially feel bad for Jason after so many years of great work.

I have feelings about this. I wont share them here.

I wished the whole team would rise up and protest the decisions. I know its unlikely and could be too risky but they cant just let it happen.

@knoxt: The plan is to cut staff in order to try to balance the books. The problem is that every Giant Bomb employee is forward facing and the site is leanly staffed to begin with so every cut will be felt by the audience acutely and will impact the product. Not that layoffs are ever good or that people who work in larger companies don't matter, but when a department of 400 loses 50 people the remaining 350 may be able to make it up at least for awhile. Very different in a smaller team, especially when every employee has fans.

My guess is that every department was told to cut a certain dollar amount or percentage of payroll and these cuts are just what fit those parameters. This was part of Fandom's strategic plan overall, not specifically tailored for Giant Bomb.

Jess, Jason, I'm really sorry. You both contributed so much to the site and didn't deserve such horrible news.

I wish you all the best in the future. With your superb talents, I know you'll both find amazing opportunities.

I was watching some old Game Informer Replay videos that Jason hosted just a few days ago. He has been a longstanding presence in the gaming content that I have watched for so many years, he will be so sorely missed. Whether through editing / producing / hosting, his work has been just an incredibly welcome addition to the last ten or so years of my life.

I didn't know about Jess's content until after she was hired, but she really was a perfect fit for the site. I love weird little horror games but I hate seeing them through monolithic YouTubers like Markiplier, so I really appreciated whenever Jess brought something like Choo-Choo Charles to the table. I was also really looking forward to more hot takeouts (Horizon IS Ugly Jess! Thank you!) and Blight Club has been amazing so far.

Good luck Jason and Jess! I hope to see you both around soon in some capacity. Wherever it is you end up, you'll both make it a better place.

They both brought really interesting tastes/povs to the bombcast. I haven't been happy with the site in years but this is beyond the pale. Pure speculation of course but I have to imagine all the remaining crew are looking for an exit plan right now.

Welp. Time to seriously start archiving my favorite videos from over the years because it is only a matter of time before we wake up one day and its all been scrubbed.

This sucks, just hope this isn't the tip of the iceberg...or have we already crashed?

I am really sorry for Jason and Jess. This sucks. I am afraid this is not all yet. Jess came on board when I was already not following the site closely anymore so I have not spent so much with here content. This is mich different for Jason which I loved from the moment he joined with Dan. Thank you for all the hours of entertainment @unastrike

I cancelled my subscription already when Jeff G was unceremoniously let go but as I was a hardcore GB fan before during the glory days I used almost every sale to extend my membership to support the site. My sub is running to somewhere in 2024 when I am afraid all what is left of this site is a banner ridden mess with ‘content’ created by bots.

I wouldnt want to be in the rest of the staff shoes right now. Imagine having to be on and making content after this.

No sense. It makes no sense. Jess was a perfect fit and Jason was a stalwart old hand. Why them instead of some useless middle manager at actual Fandom? You just bought the site, did you do it just to kill it?

Man, I feel so bad for them both.

Fuck off Fandom.

Good luck to Jess and Jason.

o7

What a bummer. I hope everyone lands on their feet. Jason's been a favorite part of my daily internet video game consumption for over a decade. Him coming here is how I found this site.

It's been a long road...

What a shitshow.

Fucking wack.

Is it me or they just removed today Voicemail Dump Truck from the schedule?

Just cancelled my subscription that's been active since 2014. I wish Jason, Jess and the remaining staff nothing but the best. The gals and guys working for this site now and in the past have helped me through some rough times, and while there were ups and downs as well as staff members that were more to my linking than other, the chemistry was there more often than not and things always seemed to work out okay in the long run. Doesn't seem that way anymore...

I might come back in the future, but for now I'm out as a paid subscriber.

All love to Jess and Jason, two of the most important members of this site. Fuck Fandom.

holy hell this is shitty , as it this place couldn't have used More staff not less. it seemed like things were finally getting better around here too. jess only being here a yr n being in a strong majority of the content makes this kinda worrisome. n poor jason he'd been here the longest at this point ( excluding rorie of course) talk about some garbage :(

Sure feels like a decision someone made purely looking at margins and not a single set of eyes on the actual product and what this will do to it.

This is a huge bummer. Jason and Jess I've enjoyed your stuff so much over the years, this is a real freakin shame.

RV and Fandom had no idea the unique talent they accidentally acquired and didn't know what to do with it once they owned it.

Love to Jess, Jason, Jeff G, Vinny, Brad, Alex, Abby and everyone else who made this site what it was.

Corporate has done it again. Two treasures were lost again 😩

My sub runs till 2025 but I had to cancel immediately just to vent. Until then I'll probably know if I want to support the site again. This sucks so much, gb has been really important to me in the past and it feels like it's been dying over and over for the last couple years.

They should just all leave and start something new together.

@superslidetail said:

The site's been tearing a hole in its hull since at least 2020.

Jess and Jason deserve way better than this and I hope both of them land on their feet because they're both amazing people who have done fantastic work in their time here. To be fair, Jan, Rorie, Dan, and all of the other front-facing staff deserve better too. They all do great work but keep getting kneecapped by corporations that don't understand the site. It's so frustrating to see CBS, Red Ventures, and now Fandom have layer after layer of corporate management but within all three, none had a single manager that bothered to take the 10 minutes it requires to understand what Giant Bomb even is so they could support the site properly. Gerstmann and Vinny have both said that back in the CBS days, GB more than paid for itself with premium but still constantly had to fight with management just to get budget for new staff and equipment. It seems like this got worse at Red Ventures, and now we have Fandom firing two big personalities from a personality-based website.

The Nextlander/Linus Tech Tips model of "the companies that own most of the media in this space are useless and aren't sustainable so we're gonna do this on our own in a way that is actually sustainable" makes more and more sense as time goes on.

Dusting off the ol' account to say: Fuuuuck this. I'm starting to think Blight Club actually is cursed. I knew the Fandom buy would end poorly, but come the hell on, man.

They tweeted that they are cancelling today's shows in light of this sudden event. Forking is still taking place though.

This is officially it for me. An original GB forum member, an original premium member. It's been a hell of a run, and I held out hope through all of the turnover, but this is the last straw.

And I'm so pissed off that I let my premium renew for another year earlier this month - I will definitely be cancelling the auto-renew. I will comb the archives for videos I desperately want saved on my HDD (already have loads), and then it's gone from the bookmarks bar, gone from the YT subscription box, gone gone for good.

Look forward to catching Jess on YT and live streaming, and hoping Jason does alright with his health and much love to Lisa and the kids.

Fuck late-stage corporate capitalism.

I just hope they unlock the premium shows for download so they can be properly archived before its all scrapped.

@alistercat: Forking has been delayed until next week now.