The Inverse gaming part is lifeless. Three workers, together with Deputy Editor Shannon Liao, have been laid off from the web site on Friday because it reportedly “divests from gaming.” It’s a shift that comes as proprietor Bustle Digital Group pivots to being an “influencer firm,” no matter that’s.
Launched in 2015 by Dave Nemetz, who beforehand co-founded Bleacher Report, Inverse started life primarily as a tech and science web site earlier than later pivoting to leisure and gaming. It’s going to seemingly now solely cowl motion pictures and TV because the gaming facet of its masthead has been worn out. A number of workers, together with Liao, shared the information on Bluesky.
“After flying again from Vegas final week, I used to be simply laid off from Inverse in the present day,” she wrote. “Inverse‘s gaming part is being shut down as the corporate ‘divests’ from gaming content material. I’m out of a job together with my great co-writers,” wrote staffer Hayes Madsen. “I’ve put my coronary heart and soul into this job for 4 years. Gonna must take time to course of…”
Kotaku understands that recreation part staffer Trone Dowd is being stored on, nevertheless it’s unclear in what position shifting ahead or if will probably be in any respect concerned in masking video games.
Bustle Digital Group, which bought Inverse in 2019, has been on a rollercoaster journey during the last 12 months. Final February, it was being sued for $3 million it allegedly owed in again lease. CEO Bryan Goldberg, who additionally co-founded Bleacher Report, then announced in May that income have been hovering and the corporate’s cost-cutting period was behind it.
By the autumn, nonetheless, he was pitching the investor world on a brand new pivot. “We’re the subsequent era affect firm,” Goldberg told Axios final October. The thought was to show fashion and clothes viewers members into cash-generating influencers by giving them particular entry to manufacturers. The entire thing nonetheless sounds actually bizarre, however apparently 12,000 individuals utilized. It’s mainly the unpaid blogger community that Bleacher Report pioneered, however for Instagram.
Replace: 1/16/2026 1:09 p.m. ET: Clarified that certainly one of Inverse Gaming’s workers members stays on the firm.
