I didn’t think this day or this post would ever come, but the words I’m writing are resonating loudly in my living room as I type: this will be the last article published at Loot Ninja. Ever. Today, sadly, we’re shutting down the website.
I’ll let you take a minute for that to sink in - it still hasn’t for myself or anyone here.
We’ve had a great run and have enjoyed bringing you news, reviews, previews, editorials, commentary and event coverage for the past 5+ years. From our humble beginnings to our dramatic growth over the last couple of years, it’s been one hell of a ride. We’ve had our fair share of ups and downs, but I can safely say we had more ups than anything else. If it wasn’t for you, our loyal readers, we never would have made it to where we’ve been. The website as it stands will remain up through the end of July, but on August 1st, we’re taking everything offline and shutting down our servers.
So, why are we closing our doors? Well, as you’ve probably read a number of times, we all have full time jobs outside of the site. Between our jobs and personal lives, not much time is left for writing for Loot Ninja. Myself, Steve and Justin are all going to be getting even busier in the very near future with work and personal things, so we all made the decision that it’s time to walk away. I’m sure you’ve noticed a decrease in posting here lately, and that’s because of our growing workloads away from the site. Our time commitments are being pulled in other directions, and we have always said that when we couldn’t do this anymore, we’d stop. Sadly, that time has come. Justin and Steve are both planning their weddings, so I want to congratulate them both now, since I won’t have the chance to do so here in the future!
From Matt:
Personally, Loot Ninja has been my baby for a number of years. WordPress development, server configuration and upgrades, attending GDC and E3, writing and breaking some news, interviewing some of the biggest names in video games, reviewing and previewing hundreds of games, sharing my thoughts in articles, and making more amazing friends than I could have ever hoped - that’s been a big piece of my life for the past five to six years. I can’t thank you, our readers, enough for coming back and reading everything I’ve typed in that time! Thank you to the game developers, publishers, marketing and PR folks for giving us the access we needed and review materials to bring coverage to the world! Thank you to all of the writers and editors here at Loot Ninja throughout the years, especially Steve and Justin, who I consider not only great writers, but great friends! Thank you to my wife for putting up with me playing video games on the living room TV at all hours! There are so many thank you’s to get out that I could never get it all out without my brain imploding and turning to mush. To everyone who’s ever interacted with Loot Ninja: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! I’m going to miss writing here, but there are exciting things ahead.
If you want to keep in touch, feel free to bookmark my personal website. I plan to blog there on all kinds of topics on a semi-regular basis (maybe once a week, if things work out). I’m in the process of designing a new theme for the site and reworking some of the functionality, so stay tuned. Also follow me on Twitter where I’m most active.
This has been an amazing experience. I’m going to miss it.
Your mom’s box.
(If you get that reference, I heart you.)
From Steve:
Let me let you in on a secret. I don’t like video games that much. I don’t like writing that much. I don’t like doing much of anything unless I am paid a lot of money. This is who I am.
However, I really, really, really enjoyed writing for free about video games for 5 years. It’s a contradiction. I know. Which is why when Matt, a fraternity brother of mine asked me if I wanted to write about like Xbox or something I was like, “Uh, I’m super lazy, I don’t play a lot of games, and you have no money to pay me.” Matt rebuts with, “Yeah, but you get to curse at strangers on the internet.” Sold.
Sentimental I am not, I guess I lack an empathetic gene. The words Matt and Justin wrote above and below echo my sentiments. Not many of us get a hobby where we get free shit, get to go places, meet awesome people, and have our thoughts, however maladjusted they are, be read by thousands every day. Loot Ninja > Collecting Stamps.
To all those who I interacted with through writing about gaming: best of luck man. To all of those who I interacted with through writing about gaming who whether intentional or not made my life more difficult through one avenue or another: lick my fucking balls. Seriously. It’s video games. Get over it. Get over yourself.
Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes, so goodbye for now. We’ll be back one day. I’ll see you then.
From Justin:
With a very heavy heart, it’s time to close the doors and say goodbye to Loot Ninja. The time that I have spent here, the effort that I have put in, everything that I’ve done has always been for you guys – the readers. I have made some incredible friends here on the site (readers included) and I want to give a quick shout-out to everyone who has ever read my articles, listened to Twisted Gamer Radio, and commented on any one of my many posts. Thank you! Thank you to readers like Windowlicker, David, Magnis Canis, PFC Mike Honcho, Mike Y, Tweak and all of you “regulars”. I know there are more of you, but all of you guys shaped Loot Ninja and made it a great site and an awesome place to come to everyday. It’ll be a very sad moment when I finally click on Loot Ninja in my bookmarks and the site won’t load.
But with the closing of one door, yet another door opens.
I’ve decided to take a break from writing video games and doing the podcast thing to focus on other endeavors. Please, hit me up and follow me on Twitter, catch me at my personal blog, and on Facebook if you would like to. I promise to keep you guys in the loop about future writing gigs, and the status of Twisted Gamer Radio. I’m not done with this whole writing thing, so stay tuned. Just be ready for whatever happens. I’ll of course be there, so there’s no telling what kind of trouble I’ll get into.
I’ll never forget my first website writing gig with Loot Ninja, the same way I haven’t forgetten my first dish washing job. It’s really a testament to Matt and Steve believing in me as an un-tested writer and giving me a chance to voice my opinion on this website. I just hope that I’ve made both of them very proud over the years, and can see me maybe later down the road and say, “See that guy? He started with us.” I can’t thank both of them enough for what they have done for me (both the teaching and the emotional scarring) and this will continue with me forever. So thank you gentlemen. Thank you for all of the many dick jokes, spoilers, podcast and IM chats, funny videos, companionship and humor you’ve filled me with over the last 2 plus years. I’m just really happy you didn’t fill me up with man-seed.
Thank you so very much for everything Matt, Steve, the readers, the PR people we’ve met, everyone out there reading this right now, I will definitely miss it.
In closing:
With that, we bid you all farewell. If you’re the last one here, make sure to turn out the lights. We love you all.
Tweak
MegaBadger24
David
Windowlicker
GEARS_fn_4evr
This is a sad day, indeed! I hope that someday the twisted gamer podcast will resume! Ill look forward to that day!
You guys have done an AMAZING job and will be missed!
Matt - You’re very welcome for my putting up with all the video gaming
Just remember you can’t call it “work” anymore.
Scuba - Don’t lie you were cursing at strangers on the internet long before Loot Ninja.
Justin - Can’t wait to say “See that guy? He wrote for Loot Ninja”.
Sad to see you guys leave! The site was always my go to for gaming information. Best wishes to all you guys.
“All things must Pass. All things must Pass Away. So I’ll be on my way, to face another day” - John Lennon
Wanted to say bye guys. I have fond memories of the Loot. I remember way back when I won a copy of CoD 4. (thanks) And that crazy stupid console giveaway ya’ll had back when they were still $400-$500 dollars! (wait, they still kinda are :/ ) The first website redesign. All the dildo talk on the original Loot-ninja podcast (ahh good times) The Gears of War Xbox live playdates. etc. etc.
Anyway, GG’s fellas. I wish you all well with your future endeavors. =)
You guys will be sorely missed! You always told it like it was and never refused to hold back. Hopefully, kinda like mike stated, you’ll be able to throw out a podcast every now and again. Good luck with all you have going on and take care.
Sad day this is. I’m shocked, and I don’t know what else to say other than, thank you for all of your hard work and the fun times. Great memories here and one of my daily stops online. I’ll miss you guys!
One more time for old times sake…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZjIveHJNTU
Wow. Just wow.
I had a great time writing for loot-ninja as well, and I’ll miss the place. Best wishesd to everyone, and good luck in the future!
*BLARGH*
Ryan S.
Hate that I only found you guys last year. I wish you all the best of luck. I really enjoyed the page. Thanks for all your hard work.
It’s been fun guys. It’s sad to see you go but totally understandable. Hopefully some day when you guys are old and senile you’ll have time to put together a re-union site and complain about “kids these days”.
I’ve been a follower for 3 years. I’ve enjoyed the honesty in the articles and who can forget the dick jokes. “Hard as a diamond in an ice storm” CLASSIC! I wish you all the best of luck with your lives and wives.
Loot-Ninja don’t go changin.
Holy shit brothers that sucks but I’m glad it’s for these kinds of reasons not that you just don’t care. Change is just part of life you have to roll with it otherwise it’s a shitty ride. Congrats to you guys on the weddings and personal growth it’s awesome. I’llwear my loot ninja tee with pride!!
One last thing it’s Friday and I’m playing some games this weekend. What are you guys playing let’s share for the last time!
Just finished batman aa last night it was good now on to my pile of shame. Mgs peacewalker? Monster hunter tri? Demons souls?
Everyone that left a comment - THANK YOU! It means a lot to all of us and we’re very happy to have been part of your lives over the past few years! While we’re all sad about the site going away, as many of you said, it’s only because our personal lives are growing and that’s a good thing. Still, we’ll miss talking to you here on a daily basis.
And in response to Windowlicker: I’m sadly not playing anything this weekend. I’m going out of town for a conference, so I won’t have time to play anything. However, I’m going give you a bit of insight into the world of the games press: we don’t get a lot of time to play what we really want. As games get released rapidly, so went our play time on each game. There were plenty of games over the years I would have loved to drop tons of hours into, but just couldn’t because I had to push forward to cover games for Loot Ninja. I’m by no means complaining - I got to play so many games that I never would have without this website. But, with time ahead of me, I plan to spend a lot of time playing catch-up. I have inFAMOUS and inFAMOUS 2, Red Dead Redemption, and Mass Effect 2 (to get a save I’m happy with for Mass Effect 3) on the single player side. For multiplayer, I’ve never been a big FPS player online, so I’m going back to my roots: fighting games. If you’re looking for me online, you’ll find me playing Mortal Kombat and Super Street Fighter IV on PS3. And I still haven’t touched Portal 2′s co-op. There are hundreds of hours of gaming in my future just on things that rolled out already. So, that’s what I’ll be playing over the summer and early Fall. Then I’ll be playing Gears of War 3, Uncharted 3 and Battlefield 3 (all preordered already).
If anyone wants to play online with me, hit me up on Twitter @mattbanks. I’m more than happy to play with everyone whenever schedules allow.
Again, it’s been an absolute pleasure. I’m just upset no one understood my final comment in the post…
Matt Opie and Anthony heart you!
You just made my day
Now what am I suppose to do at work?!!! You can’t expect me to work!
Seriously guys I really enjoyed your site, info and humor. I can honestly say this was the only site that I ever commented on, on a regular basis. Normally I just read, skip the writting and move on, but I always looked forward to comment and wait to see where the thread went. Wish you all the best of luck in the future.
PFC Mike Honcho
Damn that sucks been coming to this site for a loooong time now… You and everyone @ Loot-Ninja will be missed.
I will miss coming to your guys site everyday to get my daily dose of gaming but i won’t forget when i joined this site just when their were a select few that actually knew about this site. Loot-ninja you will be missed!
Man, this sucks! Really enjoyed coming by and catching up on your articles.Funny as hell, yall were up front and real! Had an opinion, aired it out. Was really looking forward to getting me a Loot-ninja shirt. Thanks for the good laughs, good luck to yall and congrats on the weddings! My the force be with you so you can live long and prosper! Lol.
I came across this site less than a year ago and I’ve been hooked ever since! Definatley sad to see you guys go, but all good things must come to an end. Good luck on your future endeavors and hopefully we’ll see you around the Internet sometime in the future!
I’m really gonna miss you guys. This site is what got me started in guitar hero when I won a comment contest like, 4 years ago, sent by Matt Banks himself
It’s gonna suck losing the one honest, uncensored, gaming review site that gave a fuck, without giving a fuck.
Much Love
A1C John “Mister Needles” Lake
You guys take care. It’s been a great run. Thank you for all the news, reviews, funny videos, cosplay pictures, and TGR. I wish all you guys the best.