The end comes for EGM and 1-Up as we know it. 1-Up joins UGO Network, 1-Up Show and 1-Up yours end, EGM shut down

7 January 2009

4 Comments

Posted by:Josh

UGO Entertainment and parent company Hearst Corporation have acquired 1-Up and all its associated sites including GameVideos, MyCheats.com and GameTab from Ziff Davis who will also be shutting down EGM Magazine. They will print their last issue this month.

Ziff Davis has long been in financial trouble so it was only a matter of time before things got ugly. They finished up their Chapter 11 proceedings last summer, and had to sell off their assets and close EGM to keep them afloat while concentrating the rest of their energy on their PC Mag online network.

UGO Entertainment is a male-focused entertainment network that reaches 40 million unique visitors per month and has been in operation for 11 years. Adding the 1-Up Network to their entertainment options will give a big boost to what they have already done in the gaming sector.

For many regular visitors though, the saddest news is the demise of The 1-Up Show, the 1-Up Yours Podcast, 1-Up FM and Retronaughts among all the rest of 1-Up’s video and audio media which will not live on in the same form at UGO.

So make sure you download them while you can. Some people have already organized them into torrent threads. So if you are a fan then be sure to download this torrent of every 1-Up FM episode and I’ll keep my eyes out for other torrents to download the shows as I come across them.

Make sure to give Sam Kennedy’s thoughts on the selling of 1-Up a read as well as Philip Kollar’s final thoughts on the end of 1-Up.

Although it is sad to see industry legends like James “Milkman” Mielke, Greg Ford and Shane Bettenhausen go, they will undoubtedly find work because of their talents and will hopefully be able to move on to new and better things. We here at videogamesblogger wish them all well. Personally I hope a bunch of them get together and start their own site ala GiantBomb, which I’m a big fan of and I think it’d do the industry good to have some more sites like GiantBomb.

On a quick personal note, I have been an avid reader of EGM since December of 1997 and have watched the magazine change and evolve over the years. My favorite period was during the GameCube era when they gave HUGE reviews to the likes of Metroid Prime and Zelda: The Wind Waker (8-pages) and had a very cool, slick look and color for each system’s reviews. However it has been my personal opinion that the mag has gone downhill for years ever since Shoe took over and the Review Crew switched up so often I didn’t even knew who wrote for it anymore. Either way, I have over 100 issues personally and the mag was a big part of my young life and helped to cement my growing interest in video games and grow me beyond a ‘casual’ gamer to a hardcore one who had an extreme interest in the industry as a whole. Rest in Peace EGM. R.I.P.

Finally, here is the list of employees who were laid off at 1-Up: *tear*

Adrian Frieg
Amy Mishra
Amy Moran
Andrea Garcia
Andrew Fitch
Andrew “Skip” Pfister
Anthony Gallegos
Cesar Quintero
Christina Rosa
CoyLou Steel
Derek Chinn
Doug Parsons
Eric Ellis
Giancarlo Varanini
Greg Ford
James “Milkman” Mielke
Jason Bertrand
Jason Wilson
Jervilyn Jaramillo
Justin Frechette
Leslie Gelfand
Marci Yamaguchi
Matt Chandronait
May Tong
Meredith Stowe
Michael Donahoe
Monique Convertito
Ndubuisi Madu
Nick Suttner
Norris Boothe
Philip Kollar
Rey Serrano
Robert Bowen
Rosemary Pinkham
Ryan O’Donnell
Ryan Scott
Shane Bettenhausen
Simon Cox
Tammy Ross
Tipler Ubbelohde