Friday, April 6, 2012

Game on! is Game over

Article first published as Game On is Game Over on Technorati.



As of April 5th, TWIT.TV's experimental gaming show hosted by Veronica Belmont and Brian Brushwood has officially been cancelled.  The shows fate was  first revealed via Twitter  from the gameon and Veronica Belmont  Twitter feeds.  Twit founder Leo Laporte answered queries about the shows demise throughout the day on his TWIT.TV network stressing that it was not the content but rather the profitability that brought about the decision.

As is policy for any new TWIT programming, shows have 12 weeks to meet their viewership goals or risk cancellation.  While Game On! had strong numbers with an average of 27000 viewers per episode it was unable to meet the 50,000 viewers necessary to make it profitable.
In response to multiple queries from the chatroom (which is omnipresent in all TWIT.TV productions ) before recording his Before you Buy podcast Leo Laporte responded with the following when questioned about the show's cancellation.

"We lost more money in one week than in a year of any other show"  He later explained that the "cost per episode was $7000" for talent and production costs.  Laporte also commented that TWIT had "lost $100,000" on the show.

When questioned about the reasons he believed it failed, Laporte's response was:"We didn't do a good job of promoting it."  He also went on to postulate that the gaming podcast market was already saturated with little opportunity for a new podcast to be profitable. 

The 13th and final episode airs on TWIT.TV on Sunday April 8th with Al Lowe of Leisure Suit Larry fame the guest.


No comments: