GameTap, the on-demand game portal owned by Turner Broadcasting, is closing the books on its editorial division to focus solely on games, according to a community post by content vice president Ricardo Sanchez.
Sources have confirmed to Wired that all staff members not involved in developing game content will be laid off beginning in June. GameTap's editorial division has been operational for less than a year, and Sanchez said that "while we have been very happy with the work done by our editorial and video teams, we've made a decision to focus the business on our biggest strength, which is our game catalog."
"As a result, we will be restructuring the site to focus exclusively on gameplay."
Sanchez's full statement follows the jump:
A year ago we introduced a whole new GameTap to the world – GameTap.com. We added free, ad supported games, download to own games, and moved all of our video to the web site as well. A little later we added the editorial section.
We have had a lot of successes over the last year and the move to the web has been a good one for us. While we have been very happy with the work done by our editorial and video teams, we've made a decision to focus the business on our biggest strength, which is our game catalog. As a result, we will be restructuring the site to focus exclusively on gameplay.
What this means to our visitors is that instead of having a separate "READ" and "WATCH" section of the site we will be incorporating written and video content directly into the game pages. Doing this will allow us to improve and expand the gaming library and community aspects of our business.
For us, it's always about how can we make your on-line gaming experience at GameTap the best out it can be and we think this is the way to do it. Speaking of having the best experience, American McGee's Grimm is coming along great and will be ready to play this summer.
A change to GameTap.com [GameTap Forums via Game|Life]