G4 plans to rebrand and end game coverage, says Variety

Television’s first and only dedicated gaming channel may call it quits by early 2013, according to a recent Variety report. NBCUniversal plan to rebrand the channel and cater toward older males that read GQ. So long andไ thanks for a♔ll the Cheaters and Cops reruns?

G4 launched on April 24, 2002 and has gone under many cosmetic changes and mergers over the past decade — most notably TechTV in 2004. While the network had a shaky start with some gut-wrenchingly embarrassing stuff like Game On, they eventually found solid footing with Attack of the Show, X-Play, Icons, Cinematech, and some others that I fondly remember.

Over the past five years, the channel has catered more and more to the SpikeTV crowd with♑ extreme sports, reality TV, and ﷺnon-tech related programming. With most of their game programs cancelled and their flagship game authority gone (still no word on if he quit or was fired), perhaps this is a logical progression toward the end of an era.

I’d mourn the loss of G4 but I did that long ago, after its glory days of 2002-2005. And I discovered a thing called YouTube and in the meantime.

[via ]