1UP director Sam Kennedy: UGO not 'the bad guy'

The closure of games mag EGM and accompanying staff reductions at 1UP had many gamers pointing the finger at UGO. It seems unfathomable that so many longtime industry veterans would find themselves out of a job. Even a day later, it's difficult to truly understand the repercussions of the UGO-1UP merger.

Sam Kennedy, director of the 1UP Network, may have come off as a bit too cheery in yesterday's press release. However, a post on NeoGAF reiterates his belief that UGO's purchase of 1UP is ultimately the best (and perhaps only viable) option left for the community. "There's no way to rationalize this for most people, and I don't want to sugarcoat anything," he says. "Fact: 1UP was a business that was losing money. Fact: This economy sucks and the ad market is diminished.

"UGO did what they could to, what I consider, 'save' 1UP. Obviously, all of us would have wanted to see things go differently - most of all me, considering I just lost many of my closest friends as coworkers and employees today ... If any company out there would have been willing to support us as we were, they certainly didn't step up. The only company that really did was UGO, and they did their very best to continue 1UP."

While things are obviously going to be shaky for the 1UP Network in the coming weeks, Kennedy is hopeful that affected podcasts and writers will be able to return in the future. "I have a commitment from the UGO guys that they -- now, actually, we -- are going to do whatever we can to help these guys out and look for ways to continue these shows with them and/or to look into possibilities for new shows in the future. I'm not saying everything will be back to 'normal' as you knew it anytime soon, but I am saying there should be some good things to look forward to in the future."

[Via Rosenberg's Ramblings, blog of UGO contributor]