IGN hit by layoffs as parent company Ziff Davis cuts costs

Ziff Davis-owned IGN Entertainment has laid off staff, including eight members of the IGN Creators Guild. Those cuts represent 12 percent of the bargaining unit. The layoffs are the latest shift in the turbulent gaming media landscape. Earlier this year, Verge parent company Vox Media sold Polygon to GameRant owner Valnet, Giant Bomb went independent, and Game Informer returned after being shut down by GameStop. Last week, Ziff Davis also laid off staff at CNET.

Laid off IGN staffers include former senior features editor Matt Kim and video editor Chelsea Miller, but no single department was primarily targeted by the cuts, Rebekah Valentine, IGN senior reporter and co-chair of the guild, tells The Verge. “It was largely single individuals from different departments.”

“The company has told us that the reason for this layoff stems from a Ziff Davis-mandate to cut costs despite several quarters in a row of year-over-year revenue increases, to which IGN Entertainment responded by coming for our members’ jobs,” the guild says. “This is perplexing to us, as we are told again and again that IGN Entertainment has had a tremendously successful year thus far thanks to their hard work.”

An employee in the engineering department was also laid off, Hunter Paniagua, a representative of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, which represents the IGN Creators Guild, tells The Verge.

Ziff Davis didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. Last year, across all of Ziff Davis, the company employed approximately 3,800 people, according to an SEC filing.

Last year, IGN acquired the website portfolio of Gamer Network, which includes publications like Eurogamer, Gamesindustry.biz, and Rock Paper Shotgun. Terms of that deal weren’t disclosed at the time.

“The company has not responded to the union’s questions about whether its budget for future acquisitions is being reconsidered as a cost-saving measure alongside these other apparently necessary personnel cuts,” the IGN Creators Guild says.