The wiki platform Fandom has acquired several gaming and entertainment outlets from Red Ventures, including GameSpot, Giant Bomb, Metacritic, GameFaqs, TV Guide, Cord Cutter News, and Comic Vine. Fandom describes itself as “the world’s largest fan platform” and offers a network of more than 250,000 fan wikis.
Details around the purchase price were not officially disclosed, but Variety reported that according to insiders, the deal was worth about $50 million. In 2020, Red Ventures bought CNET Media Group from ViacomCBS in a $500 million purchase that included GameSpot, Giant Bomb, Metacritic, and others.
While the specifics of what this acquisition means for these sites are unclear, the CEO of Fandom said: “We’re thrilled to add these powerful, authoritative brands into the Fandom platform, which will expand our business capabilities and provide immersive content for our partners, advertisers and fans. The trusted insights, ratings and content they provide will make us a one-stop shop for fans across their entertainment and gaming journey.” Over the last few years, Fandom acquired ScreenJunkies, another entertainment site, as well as Curse Media and Fanatical.
Tom Caswell, a video producer at GameSpot, said on Twitter that “everyone got to keep their jobs, titles, and salaries” following the acquisition, presumably referring to those at GameSpot.
This news follows a disastrous month in games media, as Tencent laid off the majority of Fanbyte, G4 laid off between 20-30 employees, and Future let go of staff across multiple outlets.