RIP Waypoint

[estragon]

Waypoint is gone, as part of broader layoffs at Vice.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1651698622688292871

At its height, I think Waypoint was up there as one of the greats in games writing and podcasting. The era of Austin Walker/Gita Jackson/Rob Zacny as regulars on their podcast was a particular favorite of mine, and it was the first time since Idle Thumbs that I'd listened to a general gaming news podcast regardless of the topic. It hasn't been quite the same since Austin Walker shifted to just doing podcasts due to burnout and then left for game development, and with all the instability at Vice specifically and the online media landscape in general it's seemed like a matter of "when" rather than "if" the site would shutdown. The staff had been speculating about it pretty openly on their most recent podcasts. But it's still disappointing nonetheless. Hope as many people as possible can land on their feet.

 

[Falselogic]

Yeah, this sucks.

 

[WildcatJF]

Fuck

 

[Juno]

That sucks man. Was always good podcasting, even when it was about stuff I wasn’t too into personally.

Game journalism is just in a bad place right now. Feels like everyone who’s worth reading is on the edge of getting laid off, or already freelancing and in an unstable position.

 

[JBear]

Waypoint Radio is basically the only podcast that I still listen to religiously and this is a huge bummer. I haven't been this bummed about a site closure since 1Up.

 

[Fyonn]

RIP Waypoint. The realest ones left. Not having access to Renata Price and Rob Zacny's enthusiasms will effectively erase several genres worth of video game knowledge I have on hand.

 

[Adrenaline]

Not good

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Yeah, this is super shitty, especially considering that they actually provided Vice with an independent revenue stream to offset the cost of running Waypoint. I'm sure the hosts have something in the works, and I'm going to have my wallet ready for whenever they announce a followup Patreon or what have you.

 

[JBear]

I'm sure the hosts have something in the works

I mean, that's sure not what it looks like from where I'm sitting. Based on what they've said on Twitter, Ren & Patrick are actively looking for work, possibly in a different industry altogether. (In Patrick's case, something with more stable employment.)

ETA: Which is saying a lot, given that he's been in video games journalism since like age 16 and still loves it.

 

[estragon]

Waypoint Radio is basically the only podcast that I still listen to religiously and this is a huge bummer. I haven't been this bummed about a site closure since 1Up.

Yeah. The scale is much different, because the staff at Waypoint is so much smaller, but it represents something similar and is arguably even more depressing as a general trend toward an end to any real infrastructure for interesting games writing. It reminds me of this essay by Samantha Greer from a few days ago and the discourse around it.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1650580730005561348

 

[Juno]

Seems incredibly on the nose that this happened literally the day after Patrick wrote about how weird the experience of reviewing games is nowadays. https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkapyz/star-wars-jedi-survivor-review

 

[karzac]

I hadn't listened to the show much since Austin left, but yeah, this is a huge bummer. I hope they all end up with companies that appreciate them more.

 

[WildcatJF]

Based on this podcast, I don't think any of them plan on continuing in games media:

 

[R.R. Bigman]

Some people do fairly interesting game culture stuff on YouTube, but dedicated game news sites backed by corporations or scummy venture capitalists are probably obsolete. Even Giant Bomb is basically dead at this point. The fact that E3 and other major trade shows are gone or greatly diminished hasn’t helped site traffic, I bet.

 

[Balrog]

This sucks. I hope everyone lands on their feet.

 

[Fyonn]

Based on this podcast, I don't think any of them plan on continuing in games media:

That's not quite the read I got. I think the problem is there aren't any meaningful jobs in the games media space as anything other than independents.

 

[JBear]

Just in case anyone who cares might have missed the news:

The Waypoint Radio people I believe are reconstituting themselves as Remap Radio!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1664446845672628224

(Also, the final farewell stream on the Waypoint twitch channel had some good inside baseball stories and also Patrick paid for the old bald guy from I Think You Should Leave to eulogize the site on CAMEO.)

 

[WildcatJF]