Dan "Shoe" Hsu Leaves 1UP

Short Round

Short Round

CAGiversary!
As for here, long-time 1UP.com Editor-in-Chief and current 1UP Network site director Sam Kennedy will be taking over my role as Editorial Director. The group's in excellent hands with this guy. I've been working with Sam for years. He's smart, enthusiastic...and not addicted to Achievements, so he should be able to get a lot more done here than I was able to.
Click to expand...


Check out his blog.


What is happening to 1UP? With Shoe leaving and GFW closing shop, all in the period of one week, it doesn't paint a pretty picture.
 
Holy shit! I'm speechless right now. I never thought he'd leave 1up/EGM. It's basically the house - er..magazine - that "Shoe" built. He's pretty much synonymous with them. I wonder where he's going. He could start up a gaming site similar to Kotaku or TechCrunch (please go work for Michael Arrington and start an online magazine conglemerate like the Gawker media group) and steal a lot of thunder from them. EGm has to be out of their minds for letting him go.....hmm...actually...he could go take the position over at Gamespot and bring that site some semblance of their former self
 
[quote name='ryanbph']maybe he is seeing the writting on the wall and left before egm went the way of games for windows...[/QUOTE]

He'd already left EGM a couple months back, is/was the top dog for the 1up gaming sites currently.
 
Whoa...The whole of 1up is in some sort of turmoil. I bet this won't be the last big loss for them in the upcoming weeks, I can't see how the whole GFW crew will stay around after all the ragging they did about online only stuff on the podcast this week. I don't think that EGM will fold but I am not a huge fan of the new EIC, Mielke, and it seems that with all the ZD chapter 11 stuff going on there will be some cut backs (I know chapter 11 isnt the same as chapter 7 but it still means they want some protection from creditors).
 
Wtf. Is it just common place to leave video game jobs. Everyone from the 1up show is gone. People keep leaving gamespot. People are now leavin 1up and egm. It makes me sad, you become accustom to peoples personalities and styles then they are no longer there. Its like watching magnum PI then all of a sudden Tom Selleck has no mustache.
 
We need better review sites, says I.

"And you won't get 'em, cause we don't want 'em," says hardball-playing publishers and petulant fanfucks who can't stand to hear anything less that 100% undiluted gushing. You might have seen a few here.

Oh, people will try, but they'll stay on the fringes and not get many hits. And if they do start getting hits, start being potential marketing tools for publishers, it won't be long before "it's back...where ya started...here we go 'round again...."
 
[quote name='ryanbph']maybe he is seeing the writting on the wall and left before egm went the way of games for windows...[/quote]

I'm inclined to agree, even though he claims that's not the case. I'm guessing he found another/better job elsewhere...
 
[quote name='javeryh']Hmmm... I liked that guy. Oh well.[/QUOTE]Yeah, that pretty much sums things up for me as well. He's one of the better game journalists out there, and this comes as a bit of a surprise, but aside from a couple of podcasts, I don't follow 1UP all that often.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']He'd already left EGM a couple months back, is/was the top dog for the 1up gaming sites currently.[/QUOTE]

actually, he was editorial director for the 1UP Network, which includes EGM. just to clarify.
 
Hey rocksolidaudio, great job on your recent 1UP Yours appearance. Oh, and if you would be so kind, could you tell us where the hell you're actually from?
 
EGM is nowhere near as good as it used to be IMHO. The mag is much smaller -- absolutely tiny. I prefer GameInformer or the UK Games magazine nowadays.

I always enjoyed Shoe's reviews and writing.
 
I lost much respect for Shoe after the whole bad Assassin's Creed review=Ubisoft backlash thing. It's one thing to say that a game sucks, offend some people, and then tell the readers what happened... it's a whole other thing to crow about it, telling everyone who will listen about integrity and not caving to publishers and their filthy lucre, only to subsequently stick your tongue up Nintendo's proverbial bunghole by having multiple collectible covers for SSB:B a month or two later. Whatever. I'll stick to Edge where they display their Namco/Rare/Lionhead bias proudly.
 
[quote name='jbroush99']EGM is going bankrupt because half of their subscribers are CAGs that have free subscriptions through 2039![/quote]

LOL!
 
[quote name='bsesb2003']EGM is nowhere near as good as it used to be IMHO. The mag is much smaller -- absolutely tiny. I prefer GameInformer or the UK Games magazine nowadays.

I always enjoyed Shoe's reviews and writing.[/quote]

I just got my free subscription in (after having to pay for a year), but there's practically no content in it anymore. It's a ton of ads and very little content.
 
[quote name='Short Round']Hey rocksolidaudio, great job on your recent 1UP Yours appearance. Oh, and if you would be so kind, could you tell us where the hell you're actually from?[/QUOTE]

thank you much sir. and my origins remain a mystery, though the info is out there (they involve a meteor).

[quote name='olde_english']I lost much respect for Shoe after the whole bad Assassin's Creed review=Ubisoft backlash thing. It's one thing to say that a game sucks, offend some people, and then tell the readers what happened... it's a whole other thing to crow about it, telling everyone who will listen about integrity and not caving to publishers and their filthy lucre, only to subsequently stick your tongue up Nintendo's proverbial bunghole by having multiple collectible covers for SSB:B a month or two later. Whatever. I'll stick to Edge where they display their Namco/Rare/Lionhead bias proudly.[/QUOTE]

i will never understand why people think of the Ubisoft editorial as a bad thing. and i'm not sure what you mean about the SS:BB covers...are you implying they affected the review?
 
[quote name='jbroush99']EGM is going bankrupt because half of their subscribers are CAGs that have free subscriptions through 2039![/QUOTE]

Shit, with the quality of the mag these days, I'd imagine the only subscribers ARE the free ones.

The mag seems to get skinnier every month, and this month was full of reviews for games that are mostly already out... not to mention I read all about Socom 3 before the mag even came in =/

Shoe was one of the main reasons I cared about EGM, though.
 
[quote name='Roufuss']not to mention I read all about Socom 3 before the mag even came in =/[/QUOTE]

and there is the reason why print media is dying
 
[quote name='fart_bubble']and there is the reason why print media is dying[/QUOTE]

Well, to it's credit, Game Informer always manages to keep a lid on its exclusives until the magazine is actually in people's hands. PC Gamer did, too, with Red Alert 3.

I read shit about Socom 3 on 1up before the mag had even shipped, and Maxis themselves along with other sites already had tons of information up on Sims 3 before Games for Windows covered it in the magazine.

It also seems like EGM never has any real exclusives... all the information I read in the mag is usually the stuff that was on the internet two - three weeks ago.
 
My guess is that Shoe either got offered a better job, saw the writing on the wall or figured he'd try to get a different job and could always go back to EGM like he did when gamer.com died.

But with print media slowly dieing and ZD's current situation, I doubt EGM will be under Ziff's control for much longer. I mean, we are talking about a company that use to publish XBN, GMR, Gamenow, GFW and OPM. And now there is only one. :(
 
[quote name='jollydwarf']We need better review sites, says I.

"And you won't get 'em, cause we don't want 'em," says hardball-playing publishers and petulant fanfucks who can't stand to hear anything less that 100% undiluted gushing. You might have seen a few here.

Oh, people will try, but they'll stay on the fringes and not get many hits. And if they do start getting hits, start being potential marketing tools for publishers, it won't be long before "it's back...where ya started...here we go 'round again...."[/quote]

rocksolidaudio pointed this out in a letter to the cagcast. Until the community grows up that is exactly the scenario that will continue to play out. I wholeheartedly agree.

How the hell did you get that prediction? I don't think they'll be hit with a scandal editorially, because they do have veterans in their staff to maintain a solid environment.
 
The move to 1up was implied to be a promotion, but I think it's pretty clear Hsu was pushed out of EGM and wasn't popular with management in the company. A lot of people have been leaving Ziff-Davis because they are almost bankrupt, but the fact that he doesnt even have a new job to go to makes it clear that this was in effect a firing. Happens all the time; want to get rid of someone without making a big fuss, you transfer them to a new position that they don't want, sit back and wait for them to quit.
 
How the hell did you get that prediction?

The Force? I turned a failsafe key?

No, really, it was a combination of seeing a trend developing at 1up and my ability to be correct roughly 15% of the time on this board and gloat about it when I am.

P.S. For what it's worth, this is the second year running I've predicted Wombat leaving the podcast. Last year it was totally a sincere prognostication, this year I'm...half-joking.
 
From the sounds of his last EGM editorial, he didn't exactly sound thrilled moving into to the "videogames" editor for 1up. Mostly likely, he quit cause it wasn't working. Although it makes me wonder if it was a result of ZD filing bankruptcy.

As for EGM, I give it 9 months before Milkman totally destroys any respect that magazine has left. In his first editorial, he claims GMR was a tremendous success. Uh yeah, wasn't it canned shortly after the 2 year mark? Even then all it did was rip-off Game Informer. So don't be surprised if EGM moves "to the digital era" before the end of the year.
 
Yeah, I heard the news and it doesn't really surprise me. Although I've known him for quite a while, many gaming news media are seeing people leave all of a sudden (plus 1UP did declare for Chapter 11).
 
[quote name='donkeydrop']I think it's pretty clear Hsu was pushed out of EGM[/QUOTE]

BS

I think it's clear he left by choice.

$20 says Dan writes for Jeff on GiantBomb.com this summer. Mark my words.
 
[quote name='jollydwarf']We need better review sites, says I.

"And you won't get 'em, cause we don't want 'em," says hardball-playing publishers and petulant fanfucks who can't stand to hear anything less that 100% undiluted gushing. You might have seen a few here.

Oh, people will try, but they'll stay on the fringes and not get many hits. And if they do start getting hits, start being potential marketing tools for publishers, it won't be long before "it's back...where ya started...here we go 'round again...."[/quote]One of my favorite amature review sites: www.videogamecritic.net
 
Here's Sam Kennedy's (Shu's replacement at 1up) blog response.

http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8697952&publicUserId=4561231


I agree with others that things aren't looking good for 1up or EGM. I don't care about the site much, never really bothered with gaming sites beyond the forums here much. EGM I'd like to see stick around as I respect their reviews and it's a good mag to read on the shitter with the short reviews etc. And that's about the extent of my interest in reading about games since I just get most of my info, impressions etc. here. And even then don't use them much as I mainly just stick to the AAA releases in genre's I like with the limited gaming time I have these days.
 
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