Another one bites the dust – CVG is shutting down

2014 has been a year filled with casualties this year. Numerous websites have shut down, publications have ceased to exist and my parrot is still pining for the fjords. One such website which looked like it may have weathered the storm however, was CVG. A digital spin-off of the longest running video game publication in history since 2004, CVG was on death row for the last six months waiting for a reprieve. Now, that switch has been pulled and the site is closing up shop.

Future Publishing announced that they would be ending the website, after an intial reprieve saw the core staff reduced to just three members back in June. Back then, Future CEO Zillah Byng-Maddick reportedly emailed staff explaining that the company’s current business model wasn’t “working hard enough,” and that it needed to “change and fast.”

This change in pace also resulted in several other websites under the Future banner being murdered, such as Edge Online, Official Xbox Magazine and Official Nintendo Magazine spanning the digital and print gauntlet. Even after massive cuts and various staff being future endeavoured, Future is still reporting a loss of around $50.4 million for the first half of the year, as it moves its game operations away from London and into Bath.

It’s been an all-around crappy year or two for many a game publication. 1up, GameSpy and the Penny Arcade Report were all killed off, with many other websites being dragged off into the sunset. I’m going to miss CVG. It had a great layout, quick content and a pretty decent accuracy rate. It’s also one of the first gaming magazines I ever read, a publication that had been kicking around since 1981. Finding a treasure trove stack of those magazines in my school library, will always be a magical moment for me.

Last Updated: December 1, 2014