Press F in the chat, folks - the A.V. Club is officially dropping full-time gaming coverage, with parent company Paste Media citing a need to refocus on its "core strengths." According to Kotaku, this marks yet another significant hit to the already battered world of games journalism, and long-time readers are understandably losing their minds over it.
For the uninitiated, the A.V. Club has been a cultural institution since 1993 - that's older than most of the people currently rage-quitting on Reddit about this news. Its gaming section wasn't just some side quest bolted onto the main story; it was a meaningful part of the outlet's DNA, offering the kind of thoughtful, critical coverage that didn't just slap a score on a game and call it a day.
The respawn screen that never came
Paste Media has been on a bit of a acquisition spree in recent years, gobbling up outlets like a Pac-Man with a business degree. The A.V. Club was absorbed into the Paste empire back in 2023, and it seems like the new overlords have decided games coverage just isn't dropping enough loot to justify keeping it in the build.
This isn't happening in a vacuum either. The games media landscape has been getting absolutely farmed lately - layoffs at IGN, the shuttering of outlets, and a general sense that the industry is stuck in a permanent death loop it can't find the exit to. As Kotaku reports, the A.V. Club move feels like another boss fight that players on the side of quality games journalism are simply losing.
Why this actually matters (no, seriously)
Look, we can make jokes about skill issues and touching grass, but the real talk here is that every outlet that scales back gaming coverage is another gap in the ecosystem. A.V. Club brought a literary, culturally-literate perspective to games that you genuinely cannot get from a YouTube reaction video or a three-sentence Steam review.
Paste Media hasn't exactly dropped a detailed patch note explaining what "core strengths" they're pivoting to, so the community is left speculating. What we do know, per Kotaku's reporting, is that full-time dedicated gaming coverage at the outlet is effectively game over.
Whether this is a permanent death or just a temporary de-list from the storefront remains to be seen. But right now, it's not looking like there's a New Game Plus waiting on the other side.
