IGN‘s Summer of Gaming has become another summer of layoffs. Sources tell Kotaku that the top video game website is cutting loose even more of its top talent, including some of its most public faces like long-time video hosts Seth Macy and Brian Altano. They and others impacted have since confirmed the news.
The latter has worked at IGN since 2009 and has been one of the main hosts of its popular PlayStation podcast Beyond since the departures of Kinda Funny‘s Greg Miller and Last Stand‘s Colin Moriarty more than a decade ago. Macy was a senior commerce team editor at the site and frequent host on its popular Nintendo Voice Chat podcast. He confirmed his departure on X.
IGN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
I'm so sorry to hear this, Seth. You're a rockstar and brought so much to the IGN team across many departments that most people can't publicly see. You didn't deserve this. I think the world of you and am here if you ever want to chat or if I can be helpful somehow.
— Ryan McCaffrey (@DMC_Ryan) September 14, 2026
Kotaku understands that today’s layoffs have hit multiple departments across the video game website’s business. The scale of the layoffs is not yet clear, though they may be influenced in some cases by employees’ remote status and whether they were willing to relocate.
“My team had a huge content day today on IGN, covering the launch of Valve’s Steam Frame. So this seems like a good time as any to say that I was affected by today’s layoffs,” Bo Moore, senior manager of tech coverage, posted on Bluesky. “My byline is only on one of the 7 stories we posted this morning, but I edited every one, worked late last week and logged on early this morning to make sure everything was on track for one of our biggest coverage days of the year.”
The latest round of cuts comes just months after a smaller group of employees, including engineers, were laid off just days after IGN Live, the site’s annual LA event for Summer Game Fest, wrapped up. The company had “a habit of doing layoffs right after a successful event,” one IGN Creators Guild member told Aftermath at the time.
In addition to IGN Live, the website recently put on its annual on-site coverage blitz of San Diego Comic-Con earlier in the summer with interviews hosted by Altano, among others. Ziff Davis, the site’s owner, acquired a bunch of other video game websites back in 2024, including Eurogamer and Rock Paper Shotgun, and has been instituting sporadic editorial cuts ever since. IGN‘s previous publisher, John Davison, exited the company just over a year ago and was not formally replaced.
Update 9/15/2026, 12:07 a.m. ET: The IGN Creators Guild shared the following statement:
Today was an awful day at IGN. We were blindsided by the layoff of four union members and many more people across the organization who contributed years of their careers to making IGN an unparalleled voice in games and entertainment.
With each successive layoff, core parts of IGN’s operation continue to be stripped away. Today, IGN has decided to do away with many of our talented producers, editors, hosts, and other crucial roles, both within and out of the union. How many layoffs will occur before we no longer recognize the company we work for and the content that we make?
While we recognize the challenges the media industry is facing as a whole, it is difficult to understand how laying off valuable employees better positions us to meet those challenges. In turn, remaining employees bear additional workloads worsened by anxiety over the ever-looming threat of another layoff.
We are devastated, angry, and heartbroken for our colleagues.
Update 9/15/2026, 9:43 a.m. ET: Altano shared a statement on his Instagram account calling working at IGN “one of the coolest jobs on earth.” His last day at the company is October 2. Here’s the full post:
The rumors are true. After seventeen and a half years at IGN, Friday, October 2nd will be my last day working there! It feels surreal even saying that, but getting to work one of the coolest jobs on earth for roughly the same amount of time that I spent in first grade through college is just an insane run that I’ll forever be immensely proud of. I traveled the world for this gig, got to meet so many of my heroes, work alongside some of the most talented writers, hosts, and producers on earth, and meet hundreds of awesome and wonderful fans. There really isn’t any other way I can summarize this. I just feel so lucky I got to do this thing for so long. That wasn’t a chapter. That was several books.
For many of you, I’ve been in your podcast feeds every week talking about video games and more for years and years and my first priority is to figure out how to keep doing that for you, ideally with some familiar voices you’ve heard me collaborate with many times before. I’ve got a few shoots left to do for IGN and then I’m a free agent and I’m honestly more excited than scared about what that’s gonna look like.
Until then, the outpouring of love I’ve received in the past 24 hours has both knocked me on my ass and fired me up like crazy to figure out what’s next. I’m trying my best to get back to everyone. Thank you for being so kind. I’ve got nothing but love for the folks still working to make cool stuff at IGN and I wish them all the success in the world.
Thank you ALL for letting me be a part of your life and I hope you’ll join me for what’s next. We’re gonna have fun. That’s always what this was all about.
Love Brian
Update 9/16/2026, 1:58 p.m. ET: Max Scoville, one of IGN‘s other best-known video hosts, is also departing the website as part of the organizational shift. He wrote the following on Instagram:
Welp. Starting in November, I will no longer be employed by IGN. I cannot overstate how much of an honor and a privilege it’s been to be part of this company. I’ve been all over the world, met multiple heroes, and gotten to make mountains of cool stuff I’m immensely proud of. However, the best part of IGN is, was, and always will be the people there (that’s right, “the friends we made along the way”). Some jobs are just jobs, and some co-workers are the people you see at work, but I’ve been lucky enough to spend my tenure surrounded by a huge group of talented, hard-working, passionate and kind human beings, and I’m heartbroken to be saying goodbye. As for anyone who took the time to watch, read, listen to or otherwise give a moment’s attention to what I worked on at IGN over the years, thank you. I hope it was entertaining, informative, or at the very least, not too annoying. Right now, I’m figuring out what comes next. If you have any leads or opportunities, please reach out!
Update 9/14/2026, 5:49 p.m. ET: Added further comments from staff.Â
