GameTrailers

GameTrailers (GT) was an American video gaming website created by Geoffrey R. Grotz and Brandon Jones in 2002. The website specialized in multimedia content, including trailers and gameplay footage of upcoming and recently released video games, as well as an array of original video content focusing on video games, including reviews, countdown shows, and other web series.
"GameTrailers" was acquired by Viacom in November 2005; under its ownership, "GameTrailers" also produced a television series, "GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley", for sister property Spike TV. In 2014, the site was acquired by Defy Media. In February 2016, the site was shut down; rights to "GameTrailers" brand and content were sold to IGN Entertainment, which continues to run its YouTube channel, while most of "GT" remaining staff went on to found the independent gaming publication "Easy Allies".
Business history.
GameTrailers was founded by Geoff Grotz and Brandon Jones (the latter who was the primary narrating voice of the company's videos throughout its existence) in 2002. Jon Slusser and his company Hornet Animation invested in the startup, and Jon took over as CEO. The company was then acquired by MTV Networks in November 2005 for an undisclosed sum. On March 18, 2006 Shane Satterfield was hired as GameTrailers' first editor-in-chief and supervising producer.
In 2007, MTV Networks restructured its entertainment division, merging Ifilm.com and SpikeTV.com into Spike.com, and grouping this new property, GameTrailers and Xfire, into Spike Digital Entertainment, with Jon Slusser as the new SVP in charge, Geoff Grotz as Vice President of Product Development, Shane Satterfield as Vice President of Content, and Brad Winters as the new general manager of GameTrailers.com.
In June 2014, GameTrailers was purchased by Defy Media. Soon after it was reported that senior members of GameTrailers were fired, which is about two-thirds of full-time staff. On February 8, 2016, GameTrailers was shut down.
On June 1, 2015, Shane Satterfield launched a hand-curated social network for gaming enthusiasts under the name SIFTD. On March 21, 2016, a majority of the remaining staff at GameTrailers, including Brandon Jones, launched a series of new Patreon-supported channels under the new name Easy Allies. Since 2016, IGN Entertainment has owned GameTrailers' brand and back catalog. The company will continue to maintain GameTrailers' YouTube channel, uploading archived original content, and posting new trailers via the channel.
Original content.
GameTrailers' first version of its magazine style show was "GT Weekly" and premiered in August 2005, hosted by Amanda MacKay and Daniel Kayser. After 44 episodes, in March 2007, the show was rebranded as "GameOne" and given a live chat where viewers could talk about the show.
In February 2007, ScrewAttack started providing content including Top Tens, Video Game Vault entries and episodes of "Angry Video Game Nerd" for GameTrailers. Shortly after, Spike's "Game Head" also started to cooperate with GameTrailers.
On January 25, 2008, "GameOne" was replaced by "GameTrailers TV", the rebranded version of Spike TV's "Game Head", still hosted by Geoff Keighley, but produced by GameTrailers and co-hosted by Amanda MacKay and Daniel Kayser. The show appeared at 12:30 AM on Spike every Thursday night.
List of shows hosted by GameTrailers.
"Invisible Walls".
"Invisible Walls" was a video blog-podcast created and hosted by editor-in-chief Shane Satterfield and run by the staff of GameTrailers with freelance journalist Marcus Beer, who originally came to the show on a biweekly basis as the ever-angry character "Grumpy McGrump", as co-host. The podcast was eventually hosted by editorial director Ryan Stevens after Shane Satterfield left GameTrailers after Episode 238. They were often joined by a rotating panel of GT editors including Justin Speer, Daniel Bloodworth, Michael Damiani, Patrick Morales, Chris Nguyen, and (formerly) Miguel Lopez. The show's debut episode was recorded on March 13, 2008 and published the following day. The podcast was a semi-round table discussion show in which the GameTrailers staff members discussed various goings-on in the video game industry, including new video game releases and controversies.
The show underwent a couple of major overhauls throughout its run; for its one-hundredth episode, the show introduced new visual graphics (including new avatars for the cast designed by iam8bit, a new intro also done with iam8bit, and a new logo) and stopped censoring profanities. On the show's two-hundredth episode, which was streamed and recorded live for the milestone occasion, the show began recording with the hosts on-camera and the hosts' avatars were no longer used, although the hosts were seen recording on-camera for Episode 150 and had to record themselves without being seen one last time on Episode 201, due to not having cameras on hand at the 2012 Game Developers Conference and for the new "Invisible Walls" studio to be prepared.
The podcast ended after publishing Episode 284 on January 17, 2014. It was initially replaced by a short-lived show called "Thanks for Playing!", which lasted until April 25, 2014, with a true final episode published on June 27, 2014. A later revival podcast called "GT Time", which features some of the "Invisible Walls" regulars including Damiani and Bloodworth, debuted on March 14, 2014 (which was coincidentally the six-year anniversary of the debut episode of "Invisible Walls") and lasted until February 2016.