An update about VideoGamer

Hello there. I’m Alice Bell. You may know me as the editor of VideoGamer — or at least, hopefully you did, since you’re reading this. And if you didn’t then you do now. I’m talking to you directly today because we at VideoGamer (that is, myself and Colm, who represents the other 50% of the full-time staff here) have some exciting news!

Here it is: we’ve been bought! We have new owners! We realise this exciting news is coming after a long period of change here, and it’s been a weird few months if you’re a fan of the site. So here’s a handy Q&A explaining what’s happening and about to happen.

You’ve been bought? Are you being shut down?

Yes, we’ve been bought. Nope, we’re not being shut down. Candy Banana, the company that used to own us, has just sold us to someone else.

Okay, so who have you been bought by?

Confusingly, a company called VideoGamer Ltd. But this company has been incorporated specifically to buy us, so we feel like the most popular kid in school (this was not the case for me when I was actually at school, so it’s great to have this feeling now).

VideoGamer Ltd. has been set up by a company called Resero Network Ltd, who already operate in the video game industry. Resero owns and runs two longstanding video game websites here in the UK and is run by Dan Webb and his partner-in-crime, Aleksander Gjengstø. While Aleks handles the coding side of things from his little hideaway in Norway, Dan will be boots on the ground running VideoGamer here in London.

This is a picture of Dan. He’s not actually a real life Vice City character, though.

Please, tell me more about this Dan Webb guy.

Certainly! Dan is a veteran of the industry, and has spent over a decade doing the whole games journalism and website management thing. He owns and runs Xbox Achievements and PlayStation Trophies — you may well already know of these sites. We’ll be sharing an office, but will operate separately from them. This office isn’t in Croydon, which we are very excited about. Dan got a round in for us at the pub once, so we both think he’s pretty cool.

So who is in charge of VideoGamer.com?

Still me. Colm and I both keep the positions we had before the sale, so if you need to contact VideoGamer.com you should get in touch with one of us. Dan is going to be managing the company that runs the site and overseeing our work in broad terms, but will not be very involved in the day-to-day of VideoGamer. 

Is the site going to change?

Not much about the general content will change. We’re going to keep doing the kind of fun things you’ve told us you enjoy, and Colm will still be dressing up and doing Reviewsicals (he was very insistent about this). The good news is we’ll be able to start bringing in some of the long-term plans we’ve had, and continue to have. Colm has a load of great video ideas that he’s raring to get going with, and you’ll see some of those in the near future. 

The biggest change is that we’re going to open up forums and comments on the site again, as quickly as possible. We can all hang out here together, and talk about games and all the other stuff we like. Do not bring up Bounty bars, though. I am ambivalent towards them, but Colm will get cross.

What does the future hold for VideoGamer, then?

Growth, and plenty of it. The growth will be gradual to start with. There’s been a lot of questions about new hires in recent months, but because of the sale the plans around that have changed an awful lot. What we are certain of is that Resero is fully invested in VideoGamer and will be looking to add to the team very shortly. Once we’ve found our feet, and where Dan keeps the tea bags, we assure you we will be adding new people.

We’re not going to be commissioning freelancers, sorry. Although for the time being Miller is still going to be working as a hired gun for us, just shooting videos rather than people (doyouseehwhatIdidthere?).

This is all happening so fast!

Right? It’s actually been in the works for a while, we just couldn’t tell you until now! It’s like having a big, fat, incorporated baby.

Well, that all sounds great! But before I go… how do you pronounce Colm?

Like Cull-umm. It’s got two syllables.

Thanks for sticking with us! The new normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.