Eurogamer's parent company Gamer Network has been bought by PAX operator ReedPOP
Big news for Eurogamer today: after 18 years as an independent, our parent company Gamer Network has been acquired by ReedPOP. ReedPOP is an American events company that, among other things, owns and operates the PAX gaming events that Eurogamer readers will surely be familiar with. (I've included the full press release announcing this news below.)
The most important thing you, as Eurogamer readers, need to know about this deal is that Eurogamer is not going to change. We will still cover video games in exactly the same way, to the same depth as we do now. Our editorial policies won't change and nor will our independent spirit. Our team of editors, writers and video producers isn't changing at all. Nor are the tech, sales and management teams who make what we do possible. And the website isn't going to change. (Actually, that last one is a lie - the website totally is going to change, but more on that later.)
As you might expect, it was our EGX events that brought us to ReedPOP's attention. But the ReedPOP team is 100 per cent committed to our digital media business (which is a businessy way of saying our websites and YouTube channels), too. Just as we, over a decade ago, figured that the online communities we'd built around our websites might want to meet up in the real world to play games, ReedPOP wants to find ways to talk to the communities it has built around its events outside of those events. It reckons our websites and video channels provide a great model for how to do that, so it wants to keep them and expand on them. It's also worth pointing out that we aren't merging with another editorial team with an existing vision that might conflict with ours. We will stay true to our values, and our vision will serve as the model for more expansion elsewhere.
All this is equally true of our sister sites and channels: Digital Foundry, Rock Paper Shotgun, Outside Xbox and Xtra, GamesIndustry, VG24/7, USgamer, the European versions of Eurogamer, Metabomb and more. EGX Rezzed and EGX will go ahead this year in the same venues, and they'll still be called EGX Rezzed and EGX. (And hey, did you hear about
EGX Berlin, too?)
All of us will continue to do what we do in the way that we do it - with some additional muscle behind us. We're all ambitious to expand, and ReedPOP has resources we don't. Apart from anything else, as a US company, it gives us a stronger base in North America.
One reason that I'm able to say all this is that the events and media arms of our business are equally successful and strong. And we owe that success to you, for reading our stories, watching our videos, following our channels, chatting in our comments and forums, and coming to our events. Thank you! You are what makes Eurogamer Eurogamer, just as much as we are.
That's not to say that this isn't a big change for us. Until today, Gamer Network - the company formerly known as Eurogamer Network - has been a family business. Our founder Rupert Loman's parents sat on the board, and we had our annual company party in their back garden, savouring their delicious pulled pork rolls next to the modest home extension that served as the company's first office. We've all loved working for the Lomans, and we know you'll join us in thanking them for building such a unique business, such great publications and events, and such a fun place to work. I'm delighted that Rupert - who some of you in the community will know by his forum handle, 'rauper' - is staying on with ReedPOP and Gamer Network after this deal to lead us into the next chapter.
About that next chapter. A couple of other big things are going on here that you might want to know about.
First - and of less relevance to you really, but I wanted to brag about it - we've moved offices, only we haven't. We've taken over all three floors of the building in central Brighton that we previously occupied the top floor of, and are in the middle of completely refurbishing the whole thing to our spec. Included in the build are such luxuries as more than one meeting room, a kitchen with windows, carpet that isn't an eye-watering shade of Eurogamer blue, two dedicated video studios, and toilet cubicles named after Quake 2 maps. It's actually all very cool and very grown-up (apart from the toilets) and is intended to be our future-proofed HQ for many years to come. We started in on this project before the acquisition, but ReedPOP has been more than happy to commit to keeping us in Brighton in the long term.
Secondly, I'm very pleased to announce that the extremely long-awaited, not to say overdue, redesign of Eurogamer is now only weeks away from launch after many months of development. It won't be a radical change - the homepage layout will look pretty familiar at first glance, for example - but it's still a complete overhaul of every element of the site and, considering the site you're looking at now was launched all the way back in 2011, it will still feel like quite a big leap. We think it provides a massively improved reading experience and I can't wait to share it with you. (And yes - portable view is back.)
So, it's all change here. Only it's not, because Eurogamer's mission - to bring you the best video games coverage with integrity and without compromise - remains the same, and has the same team behind it. We hope you'll join us as we start this next chapter. Exciting times!
