G4 is shutting down, again, and it’s obvious why

G4 is shutting down, again, and it’s obvious why

Surprising no one, but also basically everyone

Deadline has shared information that G4TV will no longer be on… TV. Or likely anywhere else, for that matter.

The publication has learned that Comcast is shutting down network less than a year after it was revived, effective immediately. Though it struggled to gain the viewership of its predecessor, it aimed to battle in a gaming world that had shifted towards streaming and short form social media. It was trying to be what it was in the mid 2000s, but that just doesn’t work any more, especially when outfits like KindaFunny, Giant Bomb and others do it better.

And that’s because what the new gaming world relies on is community, not personality.

In the time since G4 originally shut down, people moved towards self-sustaining networks; not only did streamers and influencers gain in popularity, but so did the websites that powered them, like Twitch and YouTube and Discord and Instagram. You couldn’t start a network and hope to have it last if that community was non-existent. Heck, our own Discord server has now officially outlasted G4TV.

And so, here we are. The news dropped on a Sunday night, with an email to the network’s employees whom probably wouldn’t check it until the morning or when they got to the network’s offices. Some of them were learning about losing their job via Twitter. UGH.

RIP G4TV. Again.

Source: Deadline