{"id":888226,"date":"2026-10-19T23:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T23:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/888226\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T23:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T23:40:09","slug":"as-ign-retreats-from-podcasts-fired-hosts-start-their-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/888226\/","title":{"rendered":"As IGN Retreats From Podcasts, Fired Hosts Start Their Own"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month, IGN underwent its latest wave of brutal cuts<\/a>. Longtime hosts Brian Altano and Seth Macy were among those laid off. They\u2019re now launching their own independent network of gaming podcasts called X Button<\/a> alongside Max Scoville, who also departed the organization amid its latest strategy shift. The news comes as IGN itself is backing away from its well-known gaming podcasts, Kotaku understands.<\/p>\n

\u201cA couple weeks ago, you know, there was a slight shift in, uh, programming at our former employer, and we are now out into the great unknown and doing a brand new thing,\u201d Altano said in the inaugural episode<\/a> of one of the group\u2019s new shows. \u201cAnd hopefully by this time, by the time you\u2019re hearing this, we\u2019re all crying tears of joy because it worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Housed on Patreon<\/a>, the group has two podcasts so far. The first is called X Button, a general gaming show, and the second is called Ninfriendo 64, a show dedicated to Nintendo. \u201cWe\u2019ll cover video game news, new game releases, and the classic games we still love today, all with the insight, passion, and humor you expect from us by now,\u201d reads X Button\u2019s About page<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re bringing our years of experience and inviting dozens of games industry peers, game developers, voice actors, and more on as guests, all for every listener and viewer we\u2019ve reached along the way. We\u2019re making something brand new that also feels familiar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to last months layoffs, Altano and Scoville cohosted IGN\u2018s weekly PlayStation show Beyond! and Macy was a longtime cohost of Nintendo-themed podcast NVC. Following the restructuring, Beyond! is currently on hiatus and NVC will no longer publish weekly episodes.<\/p>\n

Unlocked, IGN\u2018s Xbox-themed podcast, hasn\u2019t published a new episode since October 1. Kotaku understands that Game Scoop, cohosted by site veteran Daemon Hatfield, will be the only show that still publishes regularly. According to a source familiar with the discussions, staff were informed by site leadership that the rest of the shows weren\u2019t generating enough revenue to commit weekly resources to them.<\/p>\n

Retreating from podcasts is an unexpected move for one of the medium\u2019s earliest adopters, especially as other media outfits like The Ringer and the Vox Media Podcast Network double down on producing conversational video content. Some have even struck deals with streaming platforms like Netflix to air shows directly alongside movies and TV. Kinda Funny, another podcast network launched by ex-IGN staff, has shown the model can still be lucrative<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got let go,\u201d reads X Button\u2019s pitch to new subscribers. \u201cCareers we put so much passion, love, and expertise into for so long vanished instantly. We lost it all, suddenly and unexpectedly. And it really, really sucked. But then, we got thousands of comments and messages telling us to keep going. So we\u2019re picking up the pieces and doing just that. And we\u2019re bringing our community, our peers, and our years of experience with us. Because we know we want to keep doing this crazy fun thing, and we want you there with us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last month, IGN underwent its latest wave of brutal cuts. Longtime hosts Brian Altano and Seth Macy were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[49128,372502,49129,206068,2294,74],"class_list":["post-888226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-games-media","tag-gaming-journalism","tag-ign","tag-patreon","tag-podcasts","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}