User:Gakon5/Giant Bomb

Giant Bomb

Type of site	Gaming wiki and video game journalism
Created by	Jeff Gerstmann Ryan Davis
URL	GiantBomb.com
Commercial	Yes
Registration	Optional (free and paid)
Launched	March 6, 2008 (blog) July 21, 2008 (full website)
Current status	Active

Giant Bomb is an American video game website and wiki that includes gaming news, reviews, commentary, and video, created by former GameSpot editors Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis in collaboration with Whiskey Media. After being fired from his position as Editorial Director of GameSpot, Gerstmann began working with a team of web engineers in Sausalito, California to create a new video game website. His intent was to create "a fun video game website" that would not heavily cover the business side of the game industry. The site's core editorial staff includes Gerstmann and Davis, as well as Brad Shoemaker and Vinny Caravella, both former GameSpot staff as well. Giant Bomb was initially launched on March 6, 2008 as a blog; the full site launched on July 20, 2008. The Giant Bomb office was originally located in Sausalito and is, as of July 6, 2010, located in San Francisco.

The Giant Bomb staff reports on video game news and reviews new releases. Their weekly

, which they played and recorded in real-time, accompanied by their own running commentary.

History

stated that his dismissal was unrelated to the review. Ryan Davis announced his departure from GameSpot in February 2008, citing Gerstmann's firing as one of his reasons for leaving.

Gerstmann considered his options after his dismissal, eventually deciding he did not wish to work in game development or

, which opened on March 5, 2008. The full site launched on July 20, 2008.

Site features

News and reviews

Unlike most video game websites, Giant Bomb does not heavily cover industry news from a business perspective. During an interview on

GamesRadar

, Gerstmann said that their intent was not to make a site that would compete with GameSpot, but rather create "a really great and fun video game website…that we like and that we would use, and that users will have a blast using as well."

Video games on Giant Bomb are rated on a scale of one to five stars, with five stars being the highest rating a game can receive and one star the lowest. There are no half stars on the official rating scale, though user reviews can have half star increments, with the lowest score being one half star out of five. Video reviews were first introduced on Giant Bomb on June 20, 2008. Shoemaker's review of the PlayStation 3 title Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots served as the feature's inaugural inductee, and has since been followed by many more video reviews for a wide range of titles.

Video

Giant Bomb has a heavy focus on video content as opposed to written content. Staff members post several new videos a day, which includes demos of new and upcoming video games, video reviews of games, trailers, and coverage of industry events such as

.

The most popular and longest-running special feature on Giant Bomb was the Persona 4 Endurance Run, which ran from February 2009 to September 2009 for 155 episodes. During the series's run, Jeff Gerstmann and Vinny Caravella played the

.

Podcast

The Giant Bombcast (or the Bombcast) is Giant Bomb's weekly

Penny Arcade Expo

.

Wiki

The Giant Bomb wiki, which opened with the full site launched in July 2008, is editable by registered users of the site. New users must first have their submissions approved by a moderator; approved changes grant the editor "wiki points". Users with more than 1000 points may submit page changes without moderator approval, and users with more than 5000 points are able to create new pages without moderator approval. There are eight types of wiki pages: games, franchises, characters, locations, objects, concepts, people, and companies.

Technology

Giant Bomb was designed by

, including news, reviews, videos, and the wiki