
I was probably one of the few people on earth and in the gaming community who was genuinely excited when G4 announced that the channel was making a comeback. Even better was the fact that some of the original faces such as Adam Sessler were making a return.
The channel seemed like it had all the momentum in the world this time; after all, gaming is more popular than ever. But in under a year, the closure was announced and once again we are left wondering why a TV channel dedicated to the gaming community failed.
Many people have been saying that with the advent of social media, YouTube, and TikTok there is no way that a dedicated TV station could ever survive. But that isn’t necessarily the truth. I have some theories about G4 and where the station went wrong this time.
Steering Away From Its Tech Roots
For those who are old like me, you may remember G4’s humble beginnings as Ziff Davis’s Tech TV. I watched Adam Sessler do an hour-long special on the launch of the Sega Dreamcast. The show was focused on E3, game consoles, and game reviews.
When the channel launched in the 2000s it stayed relatively close to this original mission with X-Play featuring video game reviews. There was also G4 Icons, a great documentary series. Everything about the channel was geared toward video game culture and gamers.
The first thing I noticed upon G4’s relaunch was its focus on quirky game shows and skits as opposed to hardcore gaming content. Honestly, if you’re an old head like me you enjoy watching documentaries and reviews of new games that are coming out.
Even live event coverage of some retro gaming expos would have been great. There is so much content that could have been done to have given the channel a new lease on life. All they had to do was take a page from what’s popular on YouTube and they would’ve seen the results.
But those game shows and skit shows aren’t what traditional gamers were really looking for. It seemed like this time G4 was trying to be a part of the gamer culture instead of focusing on showcasing games, and that wasn’t what made it special.
Why I Feel We Originally Watched G4 TV
When I originally discovered G4 TV it was because I was scrolling through the channels one day and saw a documentary on the Sega Dreamcast. The show was called Icons and I remember it like it was yesterday.
For someone who loved everything about the Dreamcast, seeing a documentary about it was amazing. Then I started to discover the rest of G4 TV; from retrospectives to reviews, the channel had everything. Who can forget the live coverage of E3? Those are moments we’ll never forget.
But, by the end of the first G4 TV run, we had YouTube and the rise of online celebrities made an idea such as G4 a thing of the past. The advent of broadband internet also made it possible to stream tons of videos right from your computer. So, who was really watching cable anymore?
I know for those of us who grew up with G4 TV it was a sad day to see the channel go. The originality of it and the concept had just grown stale and it just wasn’t viable any longer.
Enter The Failed Reboot
Ah, the G4 TV reboot. A cryptic Twitter message said the channel was on its way to returning, and this time it had WWE star power with Xavier Woods behind the re-launch.
Unfortunately, once the channel hit the air there was very little actual gaming content on it. It was mostly skit shows with gaming personalities such as the Completionist and a few others. Attack of the Show returned… sort of. Adam Sessler was usually in a Skype box and the rest of the crew seemed more focused on bashing the current gaming generation than actually talking about new developments.
All-in-all, the channel was a bust. At one point I’d turn it on at night just to see how bad things were. I tried to support it, I really did. But, G4 was still just a shell of its former self.
Is There Room For a Gaming Channel?
Back yonder, when we only had cable TV and a new place called the Internet, there weren’t a lot of places for gamers to associate with each other. So, something like G4 was a welcomed experience.
But, nowadays with YouTube stars garnering millions of subscribers there just isn’t a need for a dedicated TV station anymore. And, as most of us move away from cable anyway, YouTube is built into every brand-new TV.
So, all-in-all we’ll always miss G4, but the re-launch was one of the saddest experiments in recent gaming history.
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