One month after leaving Giant Bomb, foundational members Vinny Caravella, Alex Navarro, and Brad Shoemaker have started a new Patreon-supported project known as Nextlander, which so far seems to be Giant Bomb in everything but name. And, shock of all shocks, it already has over 5,000 backers.
“With decades of experience covering and producing content around the game industry, we’ve decided to strike out on our own and produce the kinds of shows and streams we’ve always wanted to make,” Nextlander’s Patreon page reads, detailing the groups intent to start a new series of podcasts, Twitch streams, and bonus content for subscribers.
The trio’s exodus from Giant Bomb over a decade after they had all individually joined the personality-driven website naturally raised questions about why. Common speculation pinned the blame for these and other high-profile Giant Bomb departures on Red Ventures, the company that purchased the site and a slew of other media outlets from CBS Interactive in September 2020.
Caravella appeared to attempt to squash this line of thought by calling the acquisition “really great” during a May 6 send-off on the Giant Beastcast.
“I have not been at Red Ventures long enough to even know what they’re like as a company,” Caravella said at the time. “I can’t speak to that. I do know they’ve given Giant Bomb attention and thought that it has not had in a long time. And I think that’s important.”
Nextlander’s reveal today was met with enthusiastic support, not only from regular fans of Caravella, Navarro, and Shoemaker’s work at Giant Bomb but also their peers in gaming media. The group has already released a debut podcast episode introducing everyone to the project and plan to have an inaugural stream on their new Twitch channel later today.
Update (06/08/2021, 5:48 p.m. ET): Alex Navarro provided Kotaku with the following statement on the outpouring of support Nextlander has received from fans and their goals for the project.
The outpouring of support has been incredible. I think we all instinctively tend to keep our expectations low but it’s been absolutely wild to see people come out in supporting us in such droves from the jump. It is our solemn hope that the stuff we put out more than justifies the enthusiasm, and does right by the folks who are supporting us.
We spent a very long time making content under various corporate banners, and we see a lot of potential in being able to make the kinds of stuff we know how to make on our own terms, and also explore new avenues going forward. Obviously there’s an inherent risk to doing this kind of stuff for ourselves vs. having corporate backing, but we believe we can make it work—and hey, so far so good!