This is very sad news for the video game press in France that we learn this evening. The writing of gamekult has just announced that almost all of its members will leave the site following its takeover by the Reworld Media group.
An era is ending
No need to introduce Gamekult. Most of us grew up with this site, which will certainly have given rise to some vocations within the press. If you are interested in the world of video games, you probably know this site, which has been one of the pillars of the video game press in France for over twenty years.
With their quality programs and the excellent writing of the people who worked there, the site was able to retain an audience for two decades, which was ready to support this editorial staff thanks to the establishment of a paid subscription which made it possible to maintain float the ship, even if it was not enough to assure them any real peace of mind.
When last June the TF1 group sold its Unify media division (which included Gamekult and Les Numériques) to Reworld Media, many were worried about what would become of the site. And if you still don’t know who Reworld Media is, we can only encourage you to read the articles from Liberation and Stopping Images, in order to see a fairly representative portrait.
Now that the takeover is effective, the editorial staff of Gamekult has announced its departure. The vast majority of current editorial staff will be leaving the site soon, starting December 7. :
” It was after a long and painful reflection, which began at the beginning of the summer with the process of changing ownership of the site, that a very large part of the editorial staff chose to leave, relying on this peculiarity specific to the profession. It allows journalists who so wish to leave their jobs with the conditions of a dismissal, as part of the change of hands of their media.
This decision, taken individually by each of the journalists concerned, is the result of an accumulation of factors which make it the only possible outcome for them, despite the exploration of various alternatives. »
Gamekult does not die for all that, since a new writing will be put in place soon to feed the site.
The witness of a suffering environment
This testifies once again that the video game press is not doing well in France, and that we are not heading towards happier days. You would have understood it, it is essential to support the press, sites or content creators you love, whether it’s us (if you support us) or whether it’s editors like Canard PC, JV le Mag and many others, who are also examples for our community. The plurality of the press is important, as is its independence, and as readers, you have real power over the future of the sites and people you follow.
It is therefore a great page for the video game press that is turning this evening. All our thoughts are with the editorial staff, whose courage is to be saluted. It goes without saying that many sites, like ActuGaming, would probably not have seen the light of day without Gamekult. Symbol of a demanding press but also of an irreproachable accuracy, with a team full of very talented people, Gamekult will have been an example for many during all this time. What to say if not thank you to the Gamekult team, for all these years.