If UGO hadn’t bought 1UP, things could have been a lot worse. That’s what the company’s CEO told me in an interview that began with me asking: “How do you like being a bad guy”?
***
How do you like being a bad guy? That’s the first question I asked J Moses, CEO of the UGO Entertainment today, in an interview that I hoped would clear the air or at least tell the other side of the story that’s been lighting up gaming sites for the last 24 hours: the shutdown of Electronic Gaming Monthly, the firing of about 30 1UP.com employees and the purchase of 1up by UGO.
“How am I a bad guy?” Moses replied from his end of the phone. “I’m a great guy.”
On a day that many gamers are vilifying his company, Moses sounded upbeat. The reason: because he states unequivocally that his company just saved 1UP.
“We have just hired 24 people,” he said. “At a time where all you read about is layoffs we have expanded UGO by 33 percent. I don’t know of any content companies out there expanding their workforce. We did that because our business is robust and growing.”
While some gamers are lamenting what they see is a UGO-engineered gutting of 1UP, Moses argues that that interpretation is wrong. “The simple reality is that we only wanted to buy 1UP and related sites. That was our interest. We’re a dot-com company and that’s all we’ve ever been for 11 years. I’ve personally have always been a huge fan of 1UP. I’m thrilled to buy it through Hearst/UGO.”
But, I told him, some fans might argue back: why didn’t you leave it alone?
“We really have largely left it alone,” Moses replied. “We kept, we believe, the core editorial group that can continue to do great things. What we’re adding is 1up.com as an editorial site that will sit on top of the UGO publishing site. And we kept who we believe are the critical people who can make up a great site.”
Moses explains the departure of many of the people let go yesterday as the result of Ziff-directed cutting of EGM staff. UGO wasn’t trying to buy EGM, he said, so he believes that “Closing EGM has absolutely nothing to do with UGO.”
But what many gamers have reacted to is an apparent loss of 1UP’s key podcasts, shows such as 1UP Yours and the 1UP Show. “I think you will continue to see video-casts and podcasts,” Moses said. “It may not be on the exact same schedule that it was. It may not be the exact same people. But it will continue being a part of 1UP.”
Asked if 1UP Yours and the 1UP Show specifically would continue, Moses said that those decisions are still being worked through between UGO and the 1UP editorial team. What’s not encouraging for fans of those shows is the departure of the 1UP Show’s producers and one of 1UPyours’ key voices, Shane Bettenhausen. About those personnel, Moses deferred to continuing 1UP editorial director Sam Kennedy as the decision-maker about how and with whom those shows would continue. Moses did call out one person, though: “We would have loved to have had Shane join us, but Shane had other opportunities that we were informed of before we bought the site.”
(Reached for comment, Bettenhausen said he wasn’t ready to announce his new gig just yet.)
Interviewed by phone separately, Kennedy said that the Retronauts podcast will continue and that there are “some possibilities” with 1UPyours. The fate of the 1UPshow seems more up in the air.
Kennedy acknowledged that the loss of so many talented gaming reporters and personalities is a blow but drew an analogy to Saturday Night Live’s many cast changes and rebirths. He said 1UP’s voice can continue: “We’re real. We’re honest. That will never die with 1UP… We’ll introduce new stars along the way. Well try to keep people in the family if we can… as long as I’m here and all the other great people who are part of 1up here we will continue to do what we have done.”
Moses said he was expecting the reaction that has come, the anger and frustration online “I was prepared for it. The situation is what it is. A lot of people lost their jobs yesterday which was really unfortunate. But UGO was the cause of none of it. What we did is we offered 24 people jobs who may not have had jobs otherwise.
For now Moses says he thinks that most of 1UPs’ audience is in a “wait and see” mode. He hears the vocal people who are unhappy but believes that, over time, UGO will keep 1UP’s spirit intact. “Make no mistake about it, we are very intent on becoming the leader in the games space and we think, with 1Up, we are knocking on the door.”
Moses said that the 1Up site will continue to function without interruption.
Related Stories:
Fate Of EGM’s Unpublished 20th Anniversary Issue Unknown
EGM Shuts Down, More Than 30 Ziff Davis Employees Laid Off
EGM was to be closed after sale of 1UP to Hearst Corporation (Hearst Tower, New York).
Electronic Gaming Monthly is now dead. EGM was one issue away from its 20th anniversary in February 2009. An internal email leaked to industry website Gamasutra on Tuesday revealed that EGM was to be closed following the acquisition of the online element of the 1UP network by competitor Hearst Corporation's UGO Entertainment and that the January 2009 issue (with Wolverine on the cover) would be the final printed issue of the iconic magazine. Ziff Davis's sale, brokered by GCA Savvian Advisors also includes Mycheats.com, Gametab.com, and GameVideos.com. Hearst Interactive is the owner and operator of UGO Entertainment. 

According to CEO Jason Young, the court proceedings help Ziff Davis “pay down debt and shift our full focus to our core PCMag Digital Network Business.” Davis had been focusing on PCMag Digital Network. As a result, around 30 employees of Ziff Davis' Game Group, including EGM Magazine's staff, 1UP Network's web staff, podcast and video producers lost their jobs. A UGO spokesman explained that "the reality is that UGO Entertainment is saving over 25 jobs, the company is retaining a core group of editorial all-star performers." Ziff Davis Holdings Inc (ZFDH.PK), which publishes EGM and about 15 Web sites, obtained Manhattan, New York Court Judge Burton Lifland's approval of a reorganization plan under Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code. It was able, therefore, to emerge from its duly filed March bankruptcy protection petition.

Fabio Lanzoni on the cover for the game Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II.
UGO Entertainment CEO J Moses left a note on EGM's gaming legacy, saying, "since we started UGO 11 years ago, we have served the gamer community and built a world-class online publishing platform." Ziff Davis Media CEO Jason Young further noted: "We believe this is a smart transaction for Ziff Davis Media that places these market leading assets and teams in a great environment poised for further success. The transaction allows us to pay down debt and shift our full focus to our core PCMag Digital Network business. We thank our 1UP team members for their contributions and wish them the best of success into the future." In July 2007, Hearst acquired the 11-year-old UGO Networks (Hearst Interactive) for an estimated price of $100 million. Established in 1998 by CEO J Moses, UGO is an online site targeting men aged 18 to 34. 

J Moses stated categorically that his company just saved 1UP and UGO never tried to acquire EGM. “Closing EGM has absolutely nothing to do with UGO. We have just hired 24 people and have expanded UGO by 33 percent, because our business is robust and growing. We only wanted to buy 1UP and related sites. That was our interest as a dot-com company and that’s all we’ve ever been for 11 years." Sam Kennedy, editorial director of 1UP, further explained that Ziff Davis was insolvent and 1UP was not financially healthy. "The reality of the market was that no company, including UGO, was willing to sustain 1UP as it was so the cuts were very painful but necessary to the survival of 1UP," he added.

Electronic Gaming Monthly, which has been synonymous to video games for generations of gamers, was an American consumer video game magazine mainstay. It was published by Ziff Davis as part of the 1UP Network and released 12 issues a year (and an occasional extra "13th" issue for the Christmas season, also known as the "Smarch" issue, a reference to an episode of The Simpsons). As ZD's sole print magazine, EGM, a stalwart of the videogame industry and dubbed the New York Times of games journalism, has been losing money. The 20-year-old publication had 236 issues total, since its debut in 1989. 

In 2008, the company closed 27-year Games for Windows Magazine, or Computer Gaming World. In late 2006, Ziff-Davis also shuttered its Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, while its  Xbox-focused XBN and Electronics Boutique in-store mag GMR were terminated in 2004. EGM's February issue, which is completed, will only be available digitally. Print publications have been suffering for years now, due to the global economic meltdown.