Categories
Programming and Podcasts

A Requiem for Game On!

Game On Logo

It seems like only yesterday we were telling you about a hot new podcast on the TWiT network called Game On! – the network’s first gaming podcast, starring Veronica Belmont and Brian Brushwood. If you’ve actually watched the show, you probably love it, and know how sad we are to learn that the 13th episode, produced last night and up on the site to download now, is the last episode of the show.

Yup – sadly, Game On has been cancelled. But all isn’t lost! Leo Laporte said that if the show gets 50,000 downloads, he’ll bring it back! If you’ve been thinking about subscribing but haven’t been sure of it, or watched an episode here or there and didn’t know if you wanted in full-time, it’s time to do it!

The show is great, Veronica and Brian are in their element, and I love the concept of viewer-LAN parties after the show. The format is a great change for the TWiT network, a separation from the “guys behind desks sitting at chairs” format and a more dynamic, interesting, segment-based approach (kind of necessary for a topic like video games) and the show was definitely worth watching. I was subscribed, and loved every episode – sadly though, Game On’s demise is proof of a larger point: that advertisers and views still dominate even this new media we know and love on the internet.

Podcasts and video shows cost money to produce, and without sponsors and advertisers, shows simply can’t survive – even if there are die hard fans around them. And the video game industry – the kinds of sponsors a podcast like Game On! would need – are only interested in big budget entertainment concepts that have either already been proven, or have enough money behind them to chug along until an audience finds them and then they can get in on advertising to the audience. The TWiT network just can’t justify producing a show like Game On! week after week without any income being generated by the show, even if we all download and love it. Sadly, it’s just the truth of the medium. But – we can do something about that and vote with our browsers and our podcast catchers.

Head over, check out the latest episode, subscribe, download, and maybe, just maybe, we can convince Leo to bring the show back!

[ Game On! ]

Categories
Programming and Podcasts

This Week in Tech [TWiT] // Episode 348

TWiT Logo

On this week’s episode of TWiT, Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, Iyaz Akhtar, and Rafe Needleman gather around the table to discuss the week’s tech news, including the Nokia Lumia 800 – which we assume no one was standing in line for on Sunday morning, Wi-Fi innovations, brogrammers, and more.

This Week in Tech [TWiT] // Episdoe 348
[ episode notes | audio download | HD video download ]