Thank You For All The Years of Laughter and Insight EGM/1up

So I’m sure most of you know of EGM/1up and know of the recent news. UGO has bought the 1up network from ZiffDavis and now EGM is dead. The weird thing is I, a grown man, is sitting in his office at work broken hearted and ready to shed a few tears over this.

I’ve been reading EGM since I was a kid back when we had Shoe, Shawn, Crispen (taking naps all the time) and even Sushi-X. Trickman Terry always had the greatest codes and a silly anecdote about needing more next month along with the rest of the crew at ‘Area 52′. Every issue I got in the mail was the greatest day of my life. Yes. Every issue dictated the greatness of my childhood.

Over the years we have welcomed new staff into our lives and said goodbye to other greats. EGM was one of those magazines that I really felt like I was a part of the crew, even just being a reader. I can proudly say no other magazine has done that for me.

When 1up came about, I had my doubts. It was weird and I wasn’t much into the whole read about games online at the time, but I stuck with it. The 1up Show and podcasts really were a major milestone for the site and crew and even for myself. I remember listening to EGM Live, The Sports Anomaly with one of my favorite guys, The Fragile Eagle (MONEY HAT, MONEY HAT, MONEY HAT!), and even rediscovering my fanboy side for Jeff “The Black Dragon” Green through GFW Radio. I was always a big fan of Green Speak on the back page of CGW.

Sadly, this is all gone now.

Ziff Davis filed for bankruptcy, the Fragile Eagle has left the nest along with Jeff Green, Sean Elliot, Jennifer Tsao, Shoe (for what the 3rd time? haha..) and many others. Things have had a bleak outlook, but I still held my head high. There was new podcasts with Ryan Scott and Garnett Lee still had “HIS GODDAMN SHOW”. Life was still good and kept me going through my work week and even kicking off the weekend.

This all led up to where we are now. UGO has bought the 1up Network, EGM is shutting its doors and over 30 people have been laid off. Angry? You bet. Depressed? Even more.

With the way the market is going, it’s understandable that these things happen. I work for an investment bank in NYC and it’s like watching the world collapse all around me. This of course is going to affect everyone. Even our friends at 1up.

Don’t take this as if I’m trying to defend UGO. The internet is already up in arms over at Dtoid, Twitter, NeoGAF and even myself, but money is what makes the world go round. Sorry John Lennon, but love is not all we need to survive.

Taking on 1up of course is going to take a lot of money to try and equalize out and with this leads to cutting costs. Was it the smartest thing to let go of most of the greatest personalities of game journalism? Hell no, but I’m not the boss.

Sam Kennedy, who has taken over ship, on his blog is trying to hold onto what little sanity is left of the fans and friends of 1up and EGM, but it’s a sinking ship. UGO made a mistake in the eyes of us. 1up is not going to be the same. It is simply just a hollow husk of what used to be great. No more podcasts. No more 1up Show. A lot of great stuff is going bye bye.

I could ramble on forever about memories and all that jazz, but I figure its best to wrap it up here with a note to our friends at EGM and 1up.

It has been an amazing ride and you are all talented people. For those of you who have been let go, you will get back on your feet. I know it. Those who stay, I wish you the best of luck and hope things turn for the best for you as well. You all have given me laughter, smiles and even inspired me to podcast and even join Negative Gamer here. Without all of you, I wouldn’t be here making an ass of myself over video games.

GG everyone. It’s time to close another chapter of our lives and look forward to the future.

I guess this is what they call growing up.