No, I've never heard of this podcast before - not a sin in itself; I'm writing on a platform of which even fewer, far fewer, have heard - but the "first crack," as Gerstmann calls it on BlueSky, at his post-killing-of-the-corpse commentary until, presumably, his show on Tuesday is this interview. Which is frustrating, because the fellow running the podcast clearly was not prepared for this to Be It. He does just let Gerstmann speak, which is perhaps the best thing he could have done, and he puts the discussion right at the top of the podcast. He doesn't ask any interesting questions, though (or, really, any questions at all), and the main event, the founder and raison d'être of the site commenting on it being put out of its misery, is sidetracked by commentary from a freelancer the brand hired in its undead days (and it's worthwhile to have a recent viewpoint from within the corporation, but, you know, they're not why we're here) and by, man, we've got to move on to talk about this Titanfall news!

But the ten minutes of Jeff talking (starting at 10:00 in the podcast) is worth listening to, and the takeaway is, well, in the title. Gerstmann seems, in retrospect, to have considered Giant Bomb to have died the moment it was sold. The keynote bit is Gerstmann's memory of engineer Dave Snider* pulling him aside the day Giant Bomb was sold to CBS and telling him to remember moving forward that once you sell something, it's no longer yours, and Jeff reflecting that he never really internalized Snider's words but now feels he should have. He remarks that after parting ways from GameSpot and founding Giant Bomb to do things differently, "the very idea that we had to sell it to [GameSpot]...it's a failure of the original concept."

He describes the GameSpot takeover as the death knell for Giant Bomb receiving any funding from a parent company, as any resources Giant Bomb would have gotten were instead funneled to the larger, better-known GameSpot. (The money Giant Bomb's project proposals would have made wasn't considered enough for execs to invest in them - "we had to fight for scraps against executives who had no idea why we were even there.") He calls the Giant Bomb website "a series of missed opportunities" (he seems in particular to lament the diminishment of the wiki, on which he claims he worked for far into many nights) and claims in regard to the owner finally killing the brand that there's "a disgusting relief to it" - "there wasn't a moment in the last five years where it wasn't going to go any way other than this."

As mentioned, Jeff calls this bit just a "first crack" at his feelings. I do think it's unfortunate, though, that Gerstmann evidently looks on what I imagine most consider the defining creative project of his career as a failure due to corporate frustrations. It's difficult to exaggerate how foundational and inspirational Giant Bomb was for LPs, gaming coverage, and podcasting & video creation in general, and they made a lot of good content that entertained and informed a lot of people and got them through difficult times. I completely understand why Gerstmann feels frustrated, but that's going to be his outlet's legacy, not the corporate garbage.

There's a lesson in the podcast for the diehard fans who drown out everyone on the various forums and swear allegiance to the brand, regardless of who's behind it: Gerstmann talks about one major goal he had for Giant Bomb was to leave the creators who joined it "better [when they left] than when they came in" - that "it was never about the brand, because, like, who cares," that "it's about the people." But they will never learn this.

(The show host tries to put a happy face on events by citing all the social media tribute posts he's seen in the wake of what happened and claiming that Giant Bomb's true "legacy" was its "community." Jeff: "Heh heh - sure.")

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