“Polygon”, the American video game benchmark, changes ownership and launches mass layoffs

Is the crisis affecting the video game industry spreading to specialized media? On May ^1st , an official press release confirmed the sale of the American site Polygon to the Valnet group. The other major video game media outlet, Kotaku, reported : "Several employees have announced their dismissals or those of their colleagues on social media." The twenty or so layoffs, which are not mentioned in the Valnet press release, represent a large portion of Polygon's editorial staff.

“One of the biggest gaming websites has just collapsed,” Ethan Gach bitterly notes in Kotaku. And he praises the rival publication, founded in 2012 within the Vox Media group ( New York Magazine , The Verge, Vox, etc. ). “ Polygon quickly established itself as a reference in the industry for its reviews, reports, and original cultural analyses.”

“His coverage of video game, film, TV, comic book, and board game news is among the best in the industry, and his avant-garde aesthetic has helped elevate video game journalism, both in terms of content and form.”

Aside from the layoffs, the journalist is most concerned about the future of Polygon. The Montreal-based Valnet group includes the sites Screen Rant, Game Rant, and Collider, among others. Kotaku describes it as more of a “content farm” than a journalist. “The group is led by Hassan Youssef, who got his start in the internet world by creating porn sites.” Youssef welcomed the acquisition of Polygon in a press release, saying: “The acquisition of Polygon strengthens our editorial content and our ability to offer services of unparalleled quality to both the public and advertisers.”

An investigation published at the end of March by the Californian website The Wrap revealed the difficult working conditions for editors at Valnet Group titles. Editorial production is said to rely primarily on freelance journalists, who are reportedly blacklisted at the slightest protest about their contracts. And the general editorial line is said to be to seek clicks at all costs, including sacrificing journalistic rigor and preferring quantity over quality. A former Collider contributor testified anonymously: “Everyone is underpaid, overworked, and exploited—to the extreme.”

Valnet categorically denies these accusations, relayed by Kotaku. It declined to comment on the acquisition of Polygon to this other site. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed. The Vox Media Union denounced the Vox group's attitude, emphasizing that the decision is difficult to understand for the firm's long-term economic strategy. "Vox Media's lack of respect for Polygon's image in the video game world, for the hard and passionate work of its teams, and for the dynamic community of gamers and fans who support them could not be clearer. Abandoning Polygon in the hands of such a group represents a loss not only for Vox Media, but also for the entire industry and the entire internet culture."