Post

Chris Grant
@charstring.com

14 years ago I pitched what would become Polygon to a startup called Sports Blogs Inc on the unfurnished third floor of a DC townhome. I held a laptop on my knees and went through a deck. Today that same company -- now called Vox Media -- sold Polygon to Valnet.

195 reposts1.3K likes

Gojira1000
@gojira1000.bsky.social

Well, this one is owned by a couple of pornographers that lost millions when Fed fraud investigators seized assets - oh, plus they had the videotaped rape of a minor presented hosted on their site(s), so the name's the least of the issues, really.

Christian Kündig
@christian.kuendig.info

I really hope someone at FT, WSJ, Bloomberg etc will write up how this became a SEO/Slop sale. The financials must have been diasastrous (at Polygon or Vox) that this was the only exit and (!!!) that it had to be taken. The market has been bad for a while (BZFD), but theres has to be more to it.

DJ Orta
@djorta.com

thought of you seeing this news. hate to see it go this way after cultivating a site filled with a talented crew.

Chris Grant
@charstring.com

Their press release proudly calls Polygon a "premium gaming publication" but Valnet literally refused to meet with me or answer a single question of mine throughout this process. They were wildly incurious about how a gaming publication even becomes "premium."

Chris Grant
@charstring.com

I really, truly (!) hope that the remaining Polygon team gets a chance to continue the work we all cared about so much! But somehow this is the end of my journey with the thing I created.

Chris Grant
@charstring.com

I'm staying at Vox Media for now but not sure what's next for me ... outside of taking time off to think through that exact question. My most heartfelt thanks to the entire team, I'm so sorry things ended this way. ❤️

Game Boy Camera
@gameboycamera.com

I’m so sorry. I remember so clearly that early announcement video with such fondness, “Polygon… dot com… it’s a website,” and it found a place in my heart immediately. Heck, I even have some merch! Truly heartbreaking.