Good Game Has Been Cancelled

ABC2’s Good Game, Australia’s longest running television show about video games, has been cancelled.

Announced today, the decision to axe Good Game appeared to come as a last-minute shock to its production team. Host Stephanie “Hex” Bendixsen said at the end of December’s season finale that the show would return mid-February. The Good Game website still states that 2017 episodes will be “available soon”. And up until last Monday, Good Game’s Twitter seemed to believe that they were returning as well.

Hello 2017. — Good Game (@GoodGameTV) January 23, 2017

Unfortunately, it is not to be, and season 10’s finale will now be the series finale.

Good Game’s children’s show on ABC ME, Good Game: Spawn Point, will continue, albeit in an as yet unspecified alternate format. Good Game: Spawn Point debuted on 20 February 2010, and only reviews games rated G or PG.

Hosted by Steven “Bajo” O’Donnell and Stephanie “Hex” Bendixsen, Good Game was created in 2006 by Janet “Sydski” Carr, Michael “Kapowski” Makowski and Jeremy “Junglist” Ray.

Good Game celebrated its 10th anniversary last September with an hour-long birthday special in front of a live audience, which seemed to indicate that it was only going from strength to strength. There was a recent production shake-up, with Carr moving on from her role as Executive Producer at the end of last year, but a replacement had been instated. There was no indication the show would not continue.

There has been no official word regarding the fate of Good Game’s online shows, which were launched over the last two years. Good Game: Well Played covers esports, and was previously hosted by Michael “Hingers” Hing (who has since left to host the League of Legends’ Oceanic Pro League). It is currently hosted by Angharad “Rad” Yeo. Good Game: Pocket, hosted by Nich “Nichboy” Richardson, is a daily news and gameplay show.

The show’s cancellation was attributed to the decision of two of Good Game’s hosts to pursue other opportunities, as well as its audience’s increasing tendency to find gaming information from other sources.

Both the show and games themselves have changed significantly since the first episode of Good Game back in 2006. Hosted by Kapowski and Junglist, it reviewed the then-new game Saints Row and looked at trailers for Portal, Team Fortress 2 and Crysis. It also featured creepy yellow monkey mascot P-Nutz.

As we wrote last September, it’s difficult to imagine a world without Good Game. Regardless of whether you enjoyed the show or not, there is no denying that it was an integral part of the Australian gaming scene. It’s a devastating loss, and leaves a massive void in Australian gaming media.

Goodnight, Good Game. Until next time, may all your games be good ones.

Update [11:50AM]: It has been confirmed that none of the shows aside from Good Game: Spawn Point are continuing.

Spawn Point continues, hosted by myself, @bajopants, @goosemangus & @DARRENgg. No other GG shows continue. — ur m8 raddles (@angharadyeo) January 31, 2017

Update [12:11PM]: Good Game has confirmed that the two hosts leaving are Stephanie “Hex” Bendixsen and Nich “Nichboy” Richardson.

Update [12:47PM]: Senior producer Peter Burns has criticised the ABC, saying the cancellation of Pocket was “absurd” and that the online series was “the exact show the ABC should have been making”.

money = manpower. Pocket was the exact show the ABC should have been making. It's absurd that they abandoned it. — Peter Burns (@Pierreth) January 31, 2017

Update [8:53PM]: Presenter Gus “Goose” Ronald also put out a statement on Twitter earlier today.

Because 140 characters was never going to be enough for these feels 🙁 #ggtv pic.twitter.com/eQrGxuIU3f — Gus Ronald (@goosemangus) January 31, 2017

Disclosure: Amanda Yeo is the sister of Angharad “Rad” Yeo.