Culture A Deleted Game Informer Is Now Redirecting To GameStop’s Closure Statement

GameStop suddenly closed one of the most venerated outlets in video game journalism yesterday, laying off its entire staff with many being informed by a statement that appears to be written by AI.

While it is bad enough to lose your job, what the past and present writers found shortly after is that Game Informer is not just closed, but the entire website has been wiped from the internet. Not just the homepage, but every single historical link to any Game Informer story in decades now redirects to the AI “Goodbye” message.

As a writer, it’s hard to understand how devastating this is, as it’s one thing to lose your job, but to be unable to point to your past work as you try to move on elsewhere is horrible. Not to mention just the loss of thousands and thousands of great features over the years from a hugely important industry outlet. The only reason this makes sense is that GameStop is trying to cut…hosting costs for the URL? It’s a move that’s being describe by many as “evil.”



This affects not just the recently laid off employees, where the site and magazine had already been cut to the bone from layoffs before this. But now anyone who has ever written for Game Informer has seen those articles lost. There is likely no recourse for this through GameStop as they technically own that content and are unlikely to simply turn the lights back on out of the goodness of their hearts.



So, there is a movement underway to preserve what can be saved through internet archives and such, though it would be a massive project that would take ages to complete, given the volume of what we’re talking about here.

GameStop has still not issued a statement on Game Informer’s closure directly, again, only publishing a “goodbye” message with no rationale. I was able to easily recreate passages of this message in ChatGPT with a few uses of the prompt: “Write a sad goodbye message about the closure of video game magazine Game Informer after 33 years.”

• The Statement: “After 33 thrilling years of bringing you the latest news, reviews, and insights from the ever-evolving world of gaming, it is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of Game Informer.”
• ChatGPT: “With a heavy heart, we announce the closure of Game Informer after 33 remarkable years.”
• The Statement: “From the early days of pixelated adventures to today’s immersive virtual realms, we’ve been honored to share this incredible journey with you, our loyal readers.”
• ChatGPT: “Throughout the years, we have witnessed the evolution of the gaming industry, from the early days of 16-bit graphics to the stunning, immersive worlds of today.”
• The Statement: “While our presses may stop, the passion for gaming that we've cultivated together will continue to live on.”
• ChatGPT: “While Game Informer may be closing its doors, the memories and connections we have built will endure.”

If you keep telling it to modify it changes the words around but all the structure is the same. Gross. Running it through multiple AI detection sites, they also all conclude it’s AI generated.

The closure of Game Informer is bad enough but destroying 30+ years of history with the press of a single button is unconscionable, and redirecting to an apparently AI-generated statement is a metaphor for the state of the entire industry. I hope someone is held to account for this, but at this point, I just don’t see how.

I’ve reached out to GameStop and will update if I hear back.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulta...edirecting-to-gamestops-ai-written-statement/ (Archive)

 

[Sweeter and Savoury]

I don't get it

Are these retards upset yet another money eating games journalism site was shut down
or
Are the mad that the layoff's were announced by AI?

Either way...who gives a fuck? When was the last time anyone even thought about Games Informer? It hasn't been relevant since the days of demo disks freebie when you bought the shitty mag. Most people would just steal the demo disk and walk away.

Oh noes! More high quality Games Journalist have to find new ways to tell me I'm a bad person for being white male gamer.

Get fucked journoslimes. The AI layoff's is just the icing on the cake.

 

[Breadbassket]

Using two different article URL links, here is an example of this action:

 

[LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV]]

Corporations are not your family or friends, they will kike out on you at any point in time for any reason they seem fit and its weird soys spend so much time whining about capitalism yet act surprised when this basic fact of life comes through for them

 

[TheDarknessGrows]

GameStop suddenly closed one of the most venerated outlets in video game journalism

No.

GameInformer was never respected. Fuck this revisionist marketing. And for what it is worth, ML generated articles and guides are complete shit and easy to spot.

If you can't compete with that, you really suck.

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

I haven't read GameInformer since the early 2000's, and even then it was treated like a joke.

Like...gaming publications in general were just funny shit and advertisements, but they were FUN. The push to "legitimize" gaming in the mid to late 2000's was a fucking mistake and completely at odds with how the shit worked.

 

[Clyde Cash's Left Teste]

How much of this was archived?

 

[augment]

I don't think anyone here remembers the tongue-in-cheek days of gaming mags. Just the serious business approach the journo press took during the early 2000s.

 

[Flaming Dumpster]

How much of this was archived?

Archive.org seems to have been crawling the site so most of it would be archived.

Game Informer was complete shit and this isn't exactly the gaming equivalent of the Library of Alexandria burning but how hard is it to just convert it to a static website and keep the links active? The Google ads would basically pay for the hosting and static pages require no maintenance.

Just sad the management cares so little that they'd rather redirect decades of articles to a badly written goodbye message than do the bare minimum to keep it accessible. People would volunteer to keep it up. They could export this shit and give it to Archive.org to make a proper collection, but they literally give zero fucks.

 

[Bland Crumbs]

Archive.org seems to have been crawling the site so most of it would be archived.

Game Informer was complete shit and this isn't exactly the gaming equivalent of the Library of Alexandria burning but how hard is it to just convert it to a static website and keep the links active? The Google ads would basically pay for the hosting and static pages require no maintenance.

Just sad the management cares so little that they'd rather redirect decades of articles to a badly written goodbye message than do the bare minimum to keep it accessible. People would volunteer to keep it up. They could export this shit and give it to Archive.org to make a proper collection, but they literally give zero fucks.

Has GameStop ever been accused of competence?

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

I don't think anyone here remembers the tongue-in-cheek days of gaming mags.

I remember when Gamepro staff were basically just caricatures

I also remember Tips and Tricks did this whole article about someone sabotaging the Dreamcast factory and portraying him as the Unibomber

 

[Mizafuginmike]

So, there is a movement underway to preserve what can be saved through internet archives and such, though it would be a massive project that would take ages to complete, given the volume of what we’re talking about here.

Was there anything on there even worth preserving?

 

[niggyfaggot]

Ai response read's better than the official statement TBH

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

I get it only because there's a lot that can make or break a publication, and the fact that they were almost done with the scrapped issue can be a downer.

But at the same time we have to remember that gaming magazines are an unfortunate thing of the past. Physical media is dying and it sucks.

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

People like AVGN and Spoony made traditional games journalism irrelevant, because they actually played the games they were reviewing and could give an actually informed opinion on the subject. I'm more surprised that games journalism didn't die off with the rise of the Youtube angry reviewer.

 

[bango skank]

As a writer, it’s hard to understand how devastating this is, as it’s one thing to lose your job, but to be unable to point to your past work as you try to move on elsewhere is horrible.

I keep seeing this brought up whenever some bullshit publication gets wiped and do these supposed professionals not keep personal copies of their work for their portfolio? They don’t even have to keep a filing cabinet full of printed out hardcopies they can just have a thumbdrive full of pdfs, do they really just expect to apply for a position with “idk google my name and 1up.com” in place of their portfolio?

 

[Heather Mason 2]

Was there anything on there even worth preserving?

There are probably articles on vaporware games that got stuck in development hell for a decade or never ended up coming out. Other than that, who gives a fuck? I only liked Game Informer as a kid because I didn't know about all the independent journalists on the Internet doing a much better job

 

[Happy Fish]

Game Journalism died 10 years ago.

 

[Devout Muslim]

This affects not just the recently laid off employees, where the site and magazine had already been cut to the bone from layoffs before this. But now anyone who has ever written for Game Informer has seen those articles lost. There is likely no recourse for this through GameStop as they technically own that content and are unlikely to simply turn the lights back on out of the goodness of their hearts.

I write for a living but it’s all proprietary information and once I leave I will never see any of that shit again. So what? If you’re a journo publishing stuff publicly then you should keep your own archives.

These writers are R E T A R D E D.

 

[Plantation Barbie]

I keep seeing this brought up whenever some bullshit publication gets wiped and do these supposed professionals not keep personal copies of their work for their portfolio? They don’t even have to keep a filing cabinet full of printed out hardcopies they can just have a thumbdrive full of pdfs, do they really just expect to apply for a position with “idk google my name and 1up.com” in place of their portfolio?

Gaming journalists aren't exactly the most intelligent people.