It is being reported that Ben Fritz - who covered the gaming beat for the publication and served as gaming reviews editor - has been sacked.
Really unfortunate if true, I thought Ben did quite a good job. Not to mention reviewers - including Tom - are pretty impressive as well.
Wow. That’s a shame. I think Ben does a lot of good work, and he’s one of a handful of people I always trust has his reporting right. I wonder if he’ll stay in the gaming segment of the entertainment media or gravitate to a subject mainstream mags like Variety are less likely to cut when belt-trimming time comes.
Sucks.
The newspaper I freelance for is cutting back on coverage too and the others either don’t have games coverage or is farming it out to gaming sites or magazines, which here are mostly made by students happy if they get a free game out of the deal.
So you’re still better off than us… but mainstream media taking gaming seriously seems a long way off still.
It does look like Ben is gone, but I can’t say I found him particularly impressive. And I imagine they will still be employing Tom and others to provide reviews and articles related to the gaming business.
And if I’m not mistaken, Ben on occasion took some pretty odd stances. I’m pretty sure he wrote a controversial column about how he thought the subject of the “Colonization” remake was insensitive and politically incorrect. And he may also have been one of those people who made a big deal about the supposed racism in RE4, though I could be confusing him with someone else on that particular issue.
None of which means I’m happy to see him gone or anything. Best wishes to him and anyone else they let go.
Say what you will about Ben’s opinions on gaming – personally, I disagreed with his take that Colonization was potentially offensive, but I thought his perspective on the issue was valuable – but you can’t deny the guy is an excellent reporter and he has a great nose for the business of the gaming industry. I don’t know what’s going to happen with Variety’s coverage of gaming, but Ben Fritz was a significant part of their voice and I hope he continues to write for them in some capacity or gets a regular gig somewhere else. There are far too few people like him writing about videogaming.
-TomThere are far too few people like him writing about videogaming.
It’s not like gaming journalism is that big of a deal. Copy what’s on the back of the box and ctrl-c ctrl-v the pr copy, right? Right??
Just do what PC Gamer does. Make it up and collect the payola.
Awww. PC Gamer isn’t that bad. :)
Yeah, their world exclusive review of Alan Wake 2 was great.