At least 20-30 staff members of the revived video game network G4TV were laid off on Wednesday, according to sources familiar with the business.
The network has reportedly faced an uphill battle since it's revival in November last year culminating in network talent being laid off and given between 16 weeks and six months of severance pay depending on their time with parent company Comcast, Kotaku reported. Network managers have been strategizing ways to cut the company over the last several months, culminating in the mass lay off of employees on Wednesday.
Staff were reportedly blindsided by unrealistic goals set by now former G4TV president Russel Arons who left the company in August. Arons was replaced by CEO of Comcast Spectacor Joe Marsh who reportedly had been looking for ways to save money on the company's budget.
G4TV tweeted out Wednesday evening, "Due to unforeseen circumstances, all G4 streams today have been cancelled, but we will return with all of our regularly scheduled content tomorrow."
Founder and owner of the brand new comic book company Rippaverse, Eric D. July replied to the news in a terse tweet, saying, "Tuff…"
July, who has previously been critical of the revived network, posts his commentary on video games, comic books and other pop culture topics on his Youtube channel.
G4TV tackled cultural politics earlier this year when show host Indiana Black, also known as Froskurinn, took the network's own viewers to task over alleged crude and sexist comments during a livestream of revived fan favorite show Xplay in January, Kotaku reported.
"We have the chat in front of us, I can see you," a visually flustered Froskurinn said to the audience.
"Without a doubt there will be backlash because I’m not as ‘bangable’ as previous hosts," she said, referring to the original show's previous hosts Morgan Webb and actress Olivia Munn. "It has somehow been expected that you can talk about how much you jerked off to women as a compliment," Froskurinn said as co-hosts cheered her on. "It’s not a compliment. It’s dehumanizing and it’s weird. Women do not exist to be nice on the eyes for you. Morgan Webb [and] Olivia Munn did not exist to be nice on the eyes for you."
Froskurinn's comments were later shared by G4TV in what appears to be a now deleted tweet: "We stand with @Froskurinn and the women in the space."
The network originally launched in 2002 and was reportedly aimed at a target audience between 12- and 34-year-olds, according to founder and CEO Charles Hirshhorn, who is also the former president of Walt Disney Animation and Animation Television. The network originally premiered the shows Xplay with co-hosts Webb and Adam Sessler and Attack of the Show! hosted by Kevin Pereira and Munn.
