IGN Ownership Chooses Busiest Time For Games Media In Years To Lay A Bunch Of People Off [Update]

Ziff Davis, the media company that currently owns IGN (along with Eurogamer, RPS, and more) has laid off several IGN employees just two months before the release of Grand Theft Auto VI, one of the most colossal news-making video game launches of all time. As Kotaku first reported, the layoffs “have affected multiple departments across the gaming website’s business,” most prominently affecting popular veteran video hosts Seth Macy and Brian. Altano. Tech writer Bo Moore has since shared that he was also fired, the same day his coverage of Valve’s Steam Frame launch was on the site’s front page. I just got fired.— Seth Macy From the State of Maine (@SethFromMaine) September 14, 2026 This isn’t the first time Ziff Davis has carried out extensive rounds of layoffs at what remains the most popular video game website in the world. Last year, IGN’s union embarked on a “no more, no less” workplace strategy after job cuts and acquisitions left many across the network scrambling to fill the work of those no longer there, while just a few months ago several tech workers were also laid off. There have also been several rounds of layoffs at the sites Ziff Davis bought from Gamer Network in 2024, including GamesIndustry, Eurogamer, and RockPaperShotgun. IGN’s union has not yet commented on the layoffs. We’ve reached out to them for comment. Update 7:20 pm: IGN Creators Guild has issued a statement saying: Today was a terrible day at IGN. We were shocked by the dismissal of four union members and many more people across the organization who contributed years of their careers to making IGN an unparalleled voice in gaming and entertainment. With each successive layoff, core parts of IGN’s operations continue to be eliminated. Today, IGN has decided to eliminate many of our talented producers, editors, hosts, and other crucial roles, both inside and outside the union. How many layoffs will there be before we no longer recognize the company we work for and the content we create? While we recognize the challenges facing the media industry as a whole, it is difficult to understand how laying off valuable employees better positions us to meet those challenges. In turn, remaining employees shoulder additional workloads worsened by anxiety over the increasingly imminent threat of another layoff. We are devastated, angry and heartbroken for our colleagues. Speaking to Aftermath, IGN Creators Guild leaders say the union was not informed of the layoffs in advance, even though in previous rounds they had at least been given a courtesy notice. This meant that it took the Creators Guild most of the day to discover who, exactly, had been fired both inside and outside the union; At the time of publishing, they estimate that four union employees were affected today and another is pending a decision in November. That worker’s status is pending because the union says the employee was given an ultimatum to move to Los Angeles, despite owning a home and having children in school in his hometown, or be fired. Creators Guild leaders expressed concern that today’s layoffs (and a new remote work policy starting next month) could be the result of a push to get IGN’s remaining workforce back into the office, as everyone affected today were remote employees.