AOL to Shut Down Joystiq and Massively This Tuesday - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 February 2015 / 3,630 Views
There were reports earlier this week that AOL will be shutting down video game websites Joystiq and Massively. News content director Alexander Sliwinski confirmed the news on Twitter, as well as a post by Massively's editor-in-chief Bree Royce.
There have been 13 staff from Joystiq and seven from Massively that are being let go. Joystiq has posted a list of LinkedIn resumes for the staff laid off.
"This week, we learned our AOL overlords have decided that they no longer wish to be in the enthusiast blog business and are shutting all of them down," said Royce. "This mass-sunset includes decade-old gaming journalism icon Joystiq, and therefore, it includes us. February 3rd, 2015, will be the final day of operation for Massively-that-was."
"I would like to be able to tell you truthfully that this is an equitable and just decision that makes some sort of logical sense, but the reality is that our overlords' decisions have always been unfathomable. I know more of what I know about corporate from reading tech and finance news than through my own job. We all suspected this was coming eventually a year ago when a VP whose name I don't even know and who never read our site chose to reward our staggering, hard-won 40% year-over-year page view growth by... hacking our budget in half."
"There's nothing to do in the face of that kind of logic but throw your hands in the air. It's not about merit or lack thereof, and it's not about journalism or gaming being dead or anything grand like that, so there's no point in taking it personally."
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A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. Outside, in the real world, he has a passion for the outdoors which includes everything from hiking to having received his B.A. in Environmental Studies. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
