G4 is shutting down just a year after its launch.
Comcast's attempt to revive the game-centric show seems unsuccessful since Dave Scott, Comcast Spectator CEO, announced that they were closing its doors. According to The Verge, G4 started its services in 2002, appearing on linear cable. Esquire Network took its place after being shut down in 2012.
Then, back in 2021, Comcast relaunched the video game channel hoping that the growing popularity of gaming and online streams with video games as its subject would help catapult them back into place, but things did not go as planned.
Before Shutting Down
In the relaunch, G4 went live on Comcast's Xfinity and Verizon Fios. It also appeared in famous media where streamers usually thrived in gaming content, like Twitch and YouTube. The network had an unscripted variety show, game reviews, coverage of esports, and a series with popular roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons as its main subject.
The main appeal of the show is that it catered to geek and gaming culture. Russel Arons, the president of G4, even said that "It really is a Saturday Night Live for gamers," and added that it was comedy backed with gaming and fandom world insight and knowledge.
The show appeared to be profitable since Americans had spent $13.3 billion from July to September, which was a 7% increase compared to last year's same period. The New York marketing consultancy NPD group even said that it was the most ever spent during the third quarter, which was mentioned in The Inquirer.
The show even experimented with integrating its advertisements into the show. For instance, they would award the first 1,000 viewers who spotted a character playing a pizza delivery guy would win free pizzas.
The Shutdown
It was through an internal memo that Deadline acquired that the Comcast CEO announced the shutdown. As mentioned in the memo, low viewership and failure to achieve sustainable financial results is what drove the show to the ground.
The shutdown was so sudden that even its employees heard it first from initial press reports and tweets instead of being informed directly by Scott. They were also locked out of internal communication services used by the show, like Slack and Google Drive.
The demise of the show could have been initiated by the employees that had left before it started falling apart. The crew from the show "Arena," which was a deal the show made with WWE, had quit just recently, according to The Washington Post.
Russell Arons, the show's president, also left around the end of August. This was then followed by Indiana "Froskurinn" Black, the host of "X-Play," and Kevin Pereira, the host of the "Attack of the Show" reboot, leaving the network. That was on top of G4 laying of more than 20 crew members.
Scott announced the show's end, saying that it was a very difficult decision, and added that they would reach out to their staff to discuss opportunities that might be available to them.
