Poly gone?
Gaming news site Polygon gutted by massive layoffs amid sale to Valnet
Polygon cofounder says he's "just completely sickened by this news."
Kyle Orland
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May 1, 2025 12:49 pm
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Vox Media has sold video game specialist website Polygon to Internet brand aggregator Valnet, the publisher of content-churning sites including Game Rant, OpenCritic, Android Police, and Comic Book Resources. The move comes alongside significant layoffs for veteran journalists at the 13-year-old outlet, including co-founder and editor-in-chief Chris Plante and Senior Writer Michael McWhertor.
The sudden job cuts appear to have been completely unexpected for those affected. Polygon Senior Reporter Nicole Carpenter, for instance, published a story about the Epic vs. Apple case at 10 am Eastern time this morning before sharing news of her layoff less than two hours later on Bluesky.
"Along with just about everyone else at Polygon, I am now out of a job, ending over a decade at Vox Media for me," Curation Editor Pete Volk wrote on Bluesky. "Working at Polygon was a wonderful experience, and I'm proud of the work we did there."
"I was just thinking earlier this week, 'Man, I love my job and I'm so excited to jump into summer blockbuster season!" Polygon Entertainment Reporter Petrana Radulovic wrote on BlueSky. "And now i dont have my job..."
"Apparently I'm out of a job," Special Projects Editor Matt Leone wrote on Bluesky. "I really can't complain too much—Polygon was a great place to work for the last decade-plus—but if anyone's hiring, please reach out!"
End of an era
Polygon was founded in 2012 when Vox Media spent significant money to poach top journalists from popular gaming blogs like Kotaku, Joystiq, and The Escapist. After initially publishing as the Gaming section of Vox.com for a few months, the Polygon domain launched alongside a series of flashy videos hyping up the staff's lofty goals for video game journalism.
In the years since, Polygon has become a respected source for news and views on the gaming and entertainment industries—one that Ars Technica has cited frequently during my tenure as senior gaming editor.
"Just completely sickened by this news," Polygon cofounder Brian Crecente shared on Bluesky. "Mostly for those so suddenly and deeply impacted, but also for the dwindling number of publications seriously covering video games."
New Polygon owner Valnet publishes dozens of Internet content brands, which collectively have over 260 million page views. But the publisher, founded by Pornhub co-founder Hassan Youssef, has earned something of a reputation over the years for exploitative work conditions and quick-churn, clickbait content. One contributor to Valnet-owned Collider told The Wrap last year that the site runs as "a content mill, borderline like almost sweatshop-level," with writers "constantly being pushed to write more, to do it quicker."
"We’re proud to have built Polygon into the gaming authority for both experts and casual fans alike, a publication that has informed and delighted tens of millions of gaming enthusiasts since its founding at Vox Media more than a decade ago," Vox Media co-founder, chair, and CEO Jim Bankoff said in a statement.
Kyle Orland
Senior Gaming Editor
Kyle Orland
Senior Gaming Editor
Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, writing primarily about the business, tech, and culture behind video games. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He once wrote a whole book about Minesweeper.
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