GameSpot departures, origins under Whiskey Media (2007–2011) Jeff Gerstmann was terminated from his position as the editorial director of
GameSpot on November 28, 2007.
Giant Bomb announced two opening vacancies in 2014 for senior editor and video producer positions. At the same time, Caravella announced that he was moving from San Francisco to his home-town in
New York following the birth of his second child. In addition to the two new staff members, Caravella and Navarro would open a new studio in CBS Interactive's New York offices. The reasoning for expansion stemmed from having the two offices recording simultaneously to increase the variety of content and subsequently not competing for studio time and people, while also giving the opportunity for the new staff members to establish themselves and freshen up the content being made in San Francisco. The new hires were announced as
Game Informer staff members
Dan Ryckert and Jason Oestreicher, who had worked at Game Informer since 2009 and 2011 respectively. In December 2014, Klepek announced his departure from the website. In his final post, Klepek thanked the staff and the
Giant Bomb community, saying "Until
Giant Bomb, I held a devil-may-care attitude about my employment, and no place kept my attention very long. It's not to suggest I've never cared about my work before
Giant Bomb, but I never loved where I worked until strolling into the Whiskey Media offices back in 2011." Klepek later announced that he would be joining
Kotaku as a senior reporter. In May 2015, Austin Walker joined the editorial team at
Giant Bomb, working out of the New York offices alongside Caravella and Navarro. Walker announced his departure from the website in June 2016 to become the editor-in-chief for
Waypoint, later hiring fellow
Giant Bomb alumnus Klepek as well. In September 2016, Ryckert announced he would be permanently relocating to the New York office at the start of the new year, with a new hire scheduled to join the San Francisco office in the following months.
Scanlon, blinking white guy meme, and departure (2017–2019) . A
GIF image of video producer Drew Scanlon, nicknamed the "Blinking White Guy" GIF, became an
Internet meme in February 2017 after becoming
viral on
Twitter. The reaction GIF, which originated from an episode of the video series Unprofessional Fridays in 2013, was noted by
Mashable for its versatility in being used as a reaction in tweets. The meme has resulted in multiple tweets accruing hundreds of thousands of retweets and likes while
Cosmopolitan magazine called it "the most relatable meme ever". In interviews with
BuzzFeed and
The Guardian, Scanlon commented on his approval of the meme and noted how people separate the real person behind it, saying "I do feel fairly removed." That same week,
San Francisco Chronicles SF Gate website reported that Scanlon had announced that he was leaving
Giant Bomb at the end of the month. Going into more detail on the
Giant Bombcast, Scanlon explained his intention to begin a
Patreon-funded solo documentary project titled "Cloth Map" and joked with Gerstmann about the timing of the blinking meme going viral coinciding with his announcement, despite informing his colleagues of the decision weeks before. On May 1, 2017,
Giant Bomb announced that Abby Russell and former intern Ben Pack would be joining the
Giant Bomb East and West offices respectively, with additional hires planned for later in the year. Caravella commented on the hires of Russell and Pack, saying that "Gaming culture has changed so much over the last decade and there are so many new voices that need a chance to be heard. I have always felt very lucky to have been there since the beginning of our industry, but it's also fascinating to me now to get the perspectives of people that weren't there." In November 2017 the site announced that a new video producer, Jan Ochoa, had taken the seat vacated by Scanlon.
Remote work, acquisition by Red Ventures, Nextlander departures, and new contractors (2020–2021) In January 2020, Dan Ryckert announced his departure from the site, having accepted a position as a podcast producer for
WWE. The following March, both offices were closed in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic, forcing the staff to work remotely from their homes. In September 2020,
ViacomCBS announced the sale of CNET and related websites to the
Red Ventures marketing firm for 500 million. Jeff Gerstmann later confirmed that
Giant Bomb was among the sites included in the sale. The following October, Abby Russell announced that she would be departing the site at the end of November 2020. In January 2021, Ben Pack announced he would be leaving the site after the Game of the Year discussions concluded later that month. The same month, longtime
Giant Beastcast co-host Jeff Bakalar of
CNET was named Head of Content Development and Strategy for
Giant Bomb. In May 2021, Vinny Caravella, Alex Navarro, and Brad Shoemaker announced that they were leaving the site, effectively leading to the closure of the New York studio. The three later established a new podcast and streaming project, "Nextlander", the following month, gaining over 5000
Patreon subscribers within its first day of activity. In a statement made to
GameSpot following the departures, Gerstmann confirmed that they would be "using this as an opportunity to rethink what this site is. It's a chance to introduce new personalities from different backgrounds and explore categories and topics that [
Giant Bomb] never have before." On the June 8, 2021, episode of the
Giant Bombcast,
Giant Bomb confirmed that in addition to hiring new on-camera and production staff, multiple others who had appeared as guests in previous
Giant Bomb content would be joining as contractors and contributing new shows and content, including Danny O'Dwyer of
Noclip; Jeff Grubb of
VentureBeat; Tamoor Hussain and Lucy James of
GameSpot;
Evil Uno of
All Elite Wrestling; actors
Matt Shipman and
Janina Gavankar; and
Giant Bomb alumni Ryckert and Pack. In October 2021,
Giant Bomb announced that YouTube video producer Jess O'Brien, who had been assisting
Giant Bomb in a contractor role, would be joining the site as a full-time employee. Gerstmann confirmed in a later episode of the
Giant Bombcast that the San Francisco office would be closing and the site would be permanently shifting to a remote work environment.
Gerstmann's firing, reorganization, and acquisition by Fandom (2022–2025) On June 6, 2022,
Giant Bomb announced Jeff Gerstmann's departure from the website. The following day, Gerstmann confirmed he would be starting a new independent podcast, "The Jeff Gerstmann Show", funded via Patreon. Gerstmann elaborated in the podcast's first episode later that day that the decision to leave
Giant Bomb was a result of feeling overly stressed and creatively stifled by the increasing bureaucracy and time spent on business and management while working under a corporation, coupled with a desire to spend more time focusing on the actual production of content and the discussion of games and the industry. Gerstmann elaborated further in the October 25 episode of the podcast, stating that he "got fired three weeks before [he] was going to quit;" while uncertain as to the exact circumstances surrounding his dismissal, he noted that he had become disillusioned at that time, as it had become clear that his goals for the website would not be possible under their parent company. On the same day as Gerstmann's podcast began,
Giant Bomb announced a reorganization focused on a core crew of nine personalities. In addition to Rorie, Oestreicher, Ochoa, Bakalar, and O'Brien, Tamoor Hussain and Lucy James would be joining
Giant Bomb while also remaining part of
GameSpot editorial team, with Jeff Grubb joining the site full time and producing a daily news show,
Game Mess Mornings, as well. Former editor Dan Ryckert would also be returning to the site, now in a creative director position. On October 3, 2022,
Fandom, Inc. announced that they had acquired multiple entertainment websites from Red Ventures, including
Giant Bomb. On January 19, 2023, several employees of various Fandom websites were laid off, including Oestreicher and O'Brien. On the March 14, 2023, episode of the
Giant Bombcast, Matthew Rorie announced he would be departing the site at the end of the week.
Independence (2025–present) In March 2025,
Giant Bomb and
GameSpot launched the Power Block, a shared streaming block made up of content from both websites. However, conflict arose in April after
Fandom management forced all streaming activities to be halted, along with placing content restrictions on the site due to "brand safety" concerns. This culminated on April 30, with episode #888 of the
Giant Bombcast, in which the staff openly mocked these changes, being removed shortly after release; the following day, Grubb confirmed he was no longer employed at
Giant Bomb, while Ryckert and longtime contributor Mike Minotti stated they would no longer be appearing on the site due to disagreement with Fandom's treatment of Grubb and direction for ''Giant Bomb's'' future. One week later during a live
Giant Bombcast recording at
PAX East, Grubb and Bakalar announced that the two had purchased the site from Fandom, and would be sharing ownership with Ryckert, Ochoa, and Minotti. The staff confirmed that funding would primarily be driven by premium subscriptions and merchandise sales going forward. ==Main features==