RIP To Waypoint, A Good Web site About Video Video games

In 2016 Vice launched a web site known as Waypoint, which the corporate hoped could be an “immersive dive into the tradition, ardour and politics of gaming”. It did that, after which some, after which kicked even extra ass, and in June 2023 it will likely be gone.

As anybody who learn the location (or listened to its podcasts) would inform you, Waypoint was totally different. In contrast to nearly every other main gaming web site, this one you’re studying proper now included, Waypoint wasn’t fascinated about consistently updating, in writing weblog after weblog about launch date postponements or trade shenanigans or the most recent scandal. It was a web site (and podcasts, and different associated group stuff) designed round treating video video games with the respect they deserve (and infrequently don’t), and a house for writing, dialogue and criticism that was all the time good, all the time considerate, all the time truthful.

“There are a ton of locations inside gaming media that do an incredible job masking whether or not a sport is price your cash,” Waypoint’s unique editor in chief Austin Walker mentioned on the time of the location’s announcement. “Gamers searching for that protection are properly served.”

“As a substitute, we wish to concentrate on telling tales about why individuals play, and investigating how the video games we love and spend a lot time with come to be. Whether or not a sport was a business success or has a small, devoted group, we wish to increase the dialog and take an in-depth take a look at the fervour, individuals, and politics that underpin these worlds.”

It employed superb writers and reporters—I’ve to acknowledge right here that lots of them, from Patrick Klepek to Gita Jackson to Renata Worth, had additionally labored at Kotaku—but in addition gave a voice to journalists and critics you hadn’t heard of, offering their distinctive items with a serious platform they won’t have in any other case had in an trade the place huge websites are normally dominated by previews and developer interviews.

But it was additionally a part of Vice, an absolute shitshow of an organization whose demise and monetary woes have been broadly documented. And so it feels as inevitable as it’s unhappy that we discovered in the present day that Waypoint was being closed, with the curtain coming down on June 2.

“I’m undecided the place to start, besides to say, with equal components fury and disappointment, that Waypoint is over”, Waypoint’s Patrick Klepek wrote on Twitter earlier in the present day. “The workforce, myself included, have been terminated by VICE, and our last day working the web site, the podcasts, and streams, will come to an finish on June 2nd.”

This sucks in the identical approach it all the time sucks when a great outlet doing good work that’s performing properly and entertaining readers is closed down, not as a result of it was “unsuccessful”, however as a result of the Adults In The Room have as soon as once more confirmed themselves incapable of working a media firm, and their employees—doing good and vital work—will endure in consequence.

Waypoint’s closure, scorching on the heels of Launcher’s shutdown earlier this 12 months, is one more blow for critical video video games protection and criticism, and leaves your complete house weaker than it was a 12 months in the past (when it was weaker than it was a 12 months earlier than that, and so on and so on). As the entire idea of an ad-supported web begins to creak and pop and present indicators of imminent structural collapse, each web site you presently learn without spending a dime is vulnerable to ending up precisely like Waypoint, and precisely like Launcher, and precisely like every other numerous examples of websites that may and do carry out good work (and infrequently financially profitable work), however are on the mercy of householders and a relentless financial framework that may crush us all to mud.

I want nothing however the most effective for everybody affected, and wish to thank them for all of the superb work they did over time. Fuck capitalism, go house.