G4, and Tech TV before it, was the one-stop destination for many gamers looking to find something even remotely relevant to their interests on television. The quality had gone downhill over the years, but at least X-Play and Attack of the Show were around to keep things interesting. Hopes of a resurgence were squashed earlier this year when the two major names from both shows – Adam Sessler and Kevin Pereira – left the network. Now it looks like G4 is ready to kill off the whole thing.
Citing sources close to the matter, Kotaku is reporting that G4 will be killing off X-Play and Attack of the Show today. The network will also be killing off the rest of the gaming programming that G4 still dabbled in. We can assume that means the networks extensive live coverage of E3 and Comic-Con will be no more.
The source continues to say that the higher-ups at G4 will be holding meetings with staff later today to inform them of their fate. They will also detail the future of the network going forward. What kind of future? The source says that G4 will be transformed into a lifestyle network focused on “the modern male” – whatever that means.
A report from TV Guide confirms the cancelations and says that both shows will end later this year. Until then, they will air a number of farewell episodes over the next two months. Most of it will apparently be the network lazily rebroadcasting important moments in the history of both shows.
As expected, the news has already spread throughout the Twitterverse with many gamers, nerds and former G4 hosts looking back on a network that used to provide a much needed voice for a subset of culture that’s ignored, or outright ridiculed, by the rest of mainstream media.
My thoughts are with my friends at G4. Best wishes and all the confidence your talents will carry you.
Best wishes to those at G4 affected by the cancellation of X-Play and AOTS. Always good to have more outlets covering games, not fewer.
I appreciate G4’s commitment to airing nonstop Bond movies and Ninja Warrior, but the TechTV fanboy in me has been sad for awhile now
Hope all of my G4 friends are ok. Bummer.
Good luck to the G4 crew, one of the better groups in this industry, sad to see it get broken up.
Wow, so G4 just kills off X-Play and AoTS? That’s just sad and stupid they would do that.
G4 cancelling all of their game related programming. Haven’t watched it in years, but I guess they needed more time for Cops reruns.
G4 ending all game programming (Xplay, Attack of the Show, etc..). Enjoyed those shows back during 05-08ish. Havent kept up with them since.
G4 is canceling X-Play, which was also the only show I still watched. Guess I can prune G4 off my remote control’s Favorites list.
So G4 is abandoning games to get into that niche market of programming for males
Not surprised by the G4 news, seems they lost focus on video games a long time ago