Area 5 to Expand and Contract -- Only Two More Episodes of CO-OP
matt chandronaitA lot of you have been asking when CO-OP is coming back. Well, I’ve got good news and bad news. I’d love to play out a life-long desire of mine and ask: “Which do you want first?” but this is a blog post and you don’t get to choose. I guess that means I’ll choose for you.
First, the good news: Area 5 is going to be rapidly evolving in the next few months. Not to be coy, but provided all goes according to plan, we’re going to have some pretty incredible announcements to make. I’d love nothing more than to divulge all our hopes and dreams, but the deals aren’t done and we don’t want to get your knickers in a twist about what’s coming and then not be able to deliver. We’re all kind of in a tizzy (you heard me: TIZZY) about our prospects for the future and my hope is that you’ll be patient with us while we make rocket go.
Now the bad news: there will only be two more episodes of CO-OP Live. April 6th and May 18th. Business reasons, busy-ness reasons, and the aforementioned changes to the company are all collectively responsible. To be clear, we were not cancelled by Revision3, Area 5 decided to stop producing the show. We still own the IP to CO-OP. It could still return. If we can find a way to make it economically feasible, we’d love nothing more than to bring it back. We’re open to all possibilities (and all offers), but there comes a time in all business ventures where you have to take a long, hard look at the pillars of your business. It’s not that CO-OP didn’t make money. Both the number of viewers and the advertiser interest was building over this last year, but it just wasn’t enough to keep up the quality that we’re committed to and that made working seven-days-a-week feasible. So what are we going to do instead? If we’re shutting down CO-OP, what else is there?
That leads me back to the good news. Part of the reason why CO-OP is going on hiatus is that we’re just going to be too busy with all we’ve got planned for the future. First, Area5.tv is going to become a destination instead of just a blog repository for CO-OP. No, we’re not going to become another everything-under-the-sun video games blog. I think you’ll agree that that space is pretty well covered. Part of Area 5’s new business model is going to be to diversify our offerings. We’re going to be doing more work for more people as well as creating more content that we can distribute independently on our site and through online retail. Blu-Ray? iTunes? It’s all a little up-in-the-air at the moment. Regardless, Area5.tv will have new content every week day for you to (hopefully) enjoy. Video is going to be a big part of that, of course, and we’re trying to figure out how to retool our site so that we can offer said video in a pleasing fashion instead of having it scroll off the page after X-number of posts.
Second, our deal with EGM remains intact! We’ve been working like mad on all the stuff that’s going into the first issue and we’re pretty confident you’re going to think it’s awesome.
There’s also a third, and even a fourth thing that are going to happen. But, as things, they fear both the light and the sun until fully gestated. At such a time they will emerge from their hardened carapaces and the world will never be the same.
Reader Comments (118)
may i suggest the EGM show ...i mean it could be exactly like the 1up show...i miss the 1up show :(...although co-op is good
I tried writing this many times, but could not get a good foothold on what I really wanted to express. So I'll just wish you guys good luck in your retooled adventure. And I look forward to your work with EGM. Thanks for all the great years as the 1UP Show, then as CO-OP, we'll probably never see anything like that again.
can't wait for the new egm stuff, the egmnow site is currently down, does that means that the first issue is about to see the light?
can't wait for the new egm stuff, the egmnow site is currently down, does that means that the first issue is about to see the light?
didn't really care for the live shows, partly cuz i could never see them live (school, work, life, etc interfered) but i still thought it was a great idea and you guys definitely pulled it off. everything you guys do is A quality work, and i can't wait to see what guys you decide to do for the future. honestly my nergasm is gonna explode at even the very idea of egm coming back, and now multiply that by about a billion to hear you guys are working with them
keep up the good work guys, i hope to see your hard work soon!!
best of luck guys, its good to see someone fight to live the dream. we will be watching and waiting.
Wow all these comments show how much everyone loved you guys. I completely understand that you guys are going on to better things though I am dissappointed that that co-op had to go I know you guys are cooking up something even better to satisfy my appetite.
Best wishes
The show had an awesome year and I'm proud to see such a great show on the Internet!
I'm sad that Co-op had to go but I'm happy to see that everybody at Area5 still has some sort of work.
Viva La Area5!!!!!!!!!
Favorite Episodes: the pre-E3 show to get in shape, the one with the bacon donuts, and the very first episode in season 0 of reflections of 2008
P.S. @Matt When does the Area5 shirts come in the mail!!!!????
Please respond
@ ummo
yeah egm is almost hear they actually were doing some testing late last night with the site. looked pretty good but all i could do was make a username before it gave me the "site off line" message. However you can find out more on egm at http://egmmediagroup.com/
It`s a shame that Co-Op will be ending. Regular Co-Op was great and Co-Op Live made changes to the show that I personally liked a lot. But nonetheless, best wishes and good luck to whatever you will be doing instead of Co-Op, hopefully it will give you joy the same way as (or more than) what Co-Op gave you.
Be bold, be strong, move forward forthwith... we shall follow you into the future and look forward to the delightful plans your talents combined will most definitely exude! :)
Since last May I've had a alarm going off on my cell phone every tuesday (wednesday after the launch of CO-OP Live) at around 9:00 a.m. - Norwegian time: "It's CO-OP time!". I then snuggle up in bed and put my laptop on my lap, and enjoy the very best hour in videogames today.
Reading your twitter message and your blogpost yesterday made me feel incredible sad, but getting the alarm message this morning was devastating. I truly didn't understand the consequence the end of CO-OP had on my mind - nay, my body - until this alarm went off for the umpteenth time and I didn't have anything to show for it.
Devastating I tell you. Matt, Ryan, Cesar, Jason - please come back with something as genuinly perfect. And Jay and Rob - quit your pathetic dayjobs (well, not really, just sayin'). Nothing is the same without you.
Wait - so, the new health care bill passes and CO-OP is no more? Should perhaps voted Republican after all. :P
Hey Matt what's the situation with the t-shirts? I'm pretty sure I ordered one but I haven't seen anything. Updates?
I thought the COOP show was great, I even enjoyed watching it when you covered iphone and PSP games (even though I do not own them). I think what made it so enjoyable was the enthusiasm you have about gaming (something I share), I am sure as long as that comes across you will have an audience.
Looking forward to seeing the new content
Regards
Al
Long time fan. Watched since the first episode of the 1UP show. Haven't missed one yet. It's good for you guys to keep to your strengths. When outside forces change what you do, you lose the spark that makes you great. As always, best of luck with the new ventures, I'll keep watching no matter where you guys go. Stay strong, keep the dream alive.
This blog post makes me a sad panda :(
But i wish to you guys the best of luck in your future ventures and i hope that maybe someday CO-OP will return!
WHAT? No CO-OP? What I'm supposed to do now???
Guys, you better come with something new quickly :)
Thanks for all the work you made on the show. Hope the next one will be even better.
It sucks to see you guys struggling to make the content you want, but as long as you're optimistic about what comes next I'll keep following. YOU GOTTA BELIEVE! I look forward to the next week's episode of CO-OP like you guys look forward to the next episode of Lost, so please don't disappear. We need the big questions answered!
You said "Area 5 is both growing and contracting" which made me think you are hiring. Is this a misunderstanding or will you provide more information later on?
Best of luck to you guys!
As long as you stay on the Rebel FM podcast — I think I'm cool with it =P
I tend to get a little choked up when I hear that change is coming or your show is going away for awhile, but I'm sure it's for the best. Area 5 is my favorite source for video game media and I'm sure that will never change. Keep up the good work, whatever that work may be!
April Fool, amirite? :\
I am going to miss CO-OP. While I applaud the attempt to "do something new", I was never really behind the switch to CO-OP LIVE, only because it felt like it did more to restrict you then it did to open doors for you. Not to mention the novelty of the show (it's live-ness) was lost because most folks aren't able to stop what they're doing an get onto streaming video and tweet back and forth with the hosts. Would like to know more about the "departures" of people like Ryan and Jay Fresh - assuming I missed announcements of them pursuing other employment opportunities?
Either way, we love you guys and wish you the best. Looking forward to what comes next.
There is something about the lack of "we want to thank Revision3 for our time with them" that makes me feel like it wasn't a good breakup.
Hey guys,
Really sorry to hear Co-Op is on the way out. Co-Op Live is/was really cool and innovative but I always thought it must take a huge amount of time and resources to produce. Personally I thought that the pre-recorded stuff might have been a better compromise between quality/time invested.
Still, I'll be following you guys in your next endeavors. Hope it works ok well for you all! :)
Really sad to hear this :( Can't say I didn't expect it though, what with some of the crew dropping off the past few weeks. Been following you guys for years now and love all of your projects you've been a part of. If this change means anything like Giantbomb.com's steady flow of great video-based content then I'm super hyped to see it. Make sure you keep up the good work guys. Everyone here will stick with you no matter what you guys end up doing!
To everyone who ordereed the T-Shirts! The shirts actually had a miss-print. The first run was UGLY and the colors were all misaligned, so they've had to go back to be redone. Adam from Attractmo.de is handling it all for us and he's doing a bangup job, but it's going to be a little while. Sorry about that, but we figured it would be better to delay the shipment than to put out a crappy product that y'all paid good money for!
@Thomas Heger ... the new healthcare bill, while a step in the right direction, is largely just another way for insurance companies to force people into the subscriber roles. If we'd gone fully-socialized medicine then small business like Area 5 could actually start saving a TON of cash. Ah well. Thanks for all the kind words, man. I'm sorry we can't be that great part of your morning any longer! Still, the kind of things we'll be doing in the future should be a pretty great alternative, even if they're not available every Tuesday morning ;).
@john ostermiller ... Ryan is still around. It was Rob that left back in December. JayFresh is now working as community manager for Visceral Games under EA (they made Dead Space!). The rest of us are still alive and kickin' and trying to make this Area 5 thing into something grand.
@Jeremy Janzen ... actually, you might be surprised to learn that Live is WAY less time-consuming. The pre-edited stuff takes an unbelievably long time as editing, itself, takes an unbelievably long time. We went to a Live format in order to save on time so that we could focus that other time on contract work in order to help bring in the bacon. It didn't work out quite as planned, but we've got some new opportunities now (which I hinted at with this post) that are just starting to take hold. I think you'll like the end results :)
Once again, thank you to all of you for so many kind words and all the great support! It really is for all of you that we keep doing this and it means so much to us that you'd be willing to stick with us as we continue to try to find formats and business models that can keep this ship afloat! We have high hopes for our future and while we realize that losing CO-OP is going to lose us some of our audience, the fact that there's a core that continues to stick with us is where the real value in our work is defined and seeing all these comments only confirms what we already knew: you people rock!
While I'm going to miss CO-OP something awful, you guys have inspired me in ways you couldn't imagine. I work in sports, and want to start a show in CO-OP's model. CO-OP was so incredibly produced and entertaining...something that the vast majority of sports shows lack. It's all in the "ideas" phase now, but I hope I can flesh them out one day. You guys give me hope!
Matt, would you mind terribly if I asked you some questions? What kind of editing software do you use? Recommend any cameras? How many would you say is acceptable? How about sound...do you guys use a boom mic or does everyone have their own mic?
Long live Area 5!
This all sounds great. Congratulations, guys, and good luck! : )
This is like an MMO where the the player base kept encouraging all the up-and-coming new features and one day realized they were subscribed to a dead game.
thank you for correcting me and answering my question, matt! my brain got stuck on stupid switching up Rob and Ryan.... glad to hear Jay got one with EA, and hope they keep going in the direction they started with Dead Space (great game, still not sold on Extraction, as much as I want to be I'm just not a Wii-compatible gamer).
you guys are awesome, and I will always support passionate folks who are as dedicated to quality like you guys are.
p.s. looking forward to what you guys will be doing with EGM(i), but wanted to ask... was going to a subscription model for CO-OP ever considered (and if so... did look viable?)?
Thanks again!
Hey guys will the EGM show be like what the 1up show was like? just looking at the first digital issue of egm and i can see the words EGM show with the area5 logo right next to it. Either way cannot wait to see it.
I'm very sad to see CO-OP Live go away, even if it was (an understandably) pale shadow of CO-OP proper. You guys were making concise, thoughtful conversational shows about video games with very high production value, and I wish there was a big enough audience in the world to make advertisers fight over ad-space. Maybe in another 20 years.
I'll be keeping an eye on this blog and the stuff you'll be doing for EGM. Best of luck to you guys in all your endeavors!
Some time ago, I really needed to buy a good car for my organization but I did not have enough money and could not order something. Thank goodness my colleague suggested to try to get the credit loans from reliable bank. Therefore, I did so and was satisfied with my consolidation loan.
Well best of luck with everything guys! I hope all the plans come to fruition and everything is awesome once again :)
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The live shows were garbage and a horrible idea....the old shows were great. This news blows.....the show is what made you guys different...the blogs and other website stuff to come is just more of the same I can get anywhere.
I love coop! I'm going to miss it.
I think Javier A. said everything I was thinking. I wasn't digging Coop Live, I loved the "getting together with gaming review buddies" feel of the older Coop stuff, and I hope whatever you're up to next carries the same vibe that early Coop had, because seriously, this is the only online show I watch, and that says something to the quality. Don't just disappear, guys.
I'm sad. However, as long as I can watch your future videos on my AppleTV or iPod touch, I will be happy. If video is only viewable in a browser, I don't view it.
I would just like to say, ever since I saw my first COOP Show, I was hooked. I watched a little bit of the 1up show but not a lot. This is so much better. I also really enjoyed your live episodes. I can not wait for the new, big stuff to come out. But all I can say is that, I hope COOP comes back someday.
Man, you missed your chance! You could've just posted links to the Good News and Bad News and let us choose which to read first!
Anyways, hope the good news comes to fruition and the bad news is quickly forgotten.
I think it's a real disappointment to hear that CO-OP is ending, although I have to say that the change to live wasn't exactly a move I liked. I miss the old show with all the voices and the group conversations. It had such a good feel, while the newer live show felt too 'produced'.
When it comes to leaving Rev3, I think that's a real bad decision. I love having one place to go to for all my viewing needs and I probably will not be able to follow Area5 after CO-OP is finished.
I hope you, Area5 do well in your future ventures.
Good Luck!
The future's always bright.. you guys got this! Can't wait to see what you bring next! Thanks for everything as always. Good luck :)
So they are turning into another Giantbomb.com?
That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just that Giantbomb is doing a decent job. A competitor wouldn't do well against them.
Sometimes when you see posts like this, it becomes hard to tell what is a transition, what is a goodbye, and what is a hello. I thoroughly enjoyed co-op and hope that in some form or fashion it may make a return, but anticipate that the upcoming works and projects will be every bit as thoughtful and genuine as broadcast was.
Best of luck to the whole team, especially Matt & Jason for being such cool interactive community guys. To a even more prosperous 2010-2011...? Bring it fellas.
So I guess this is (part of) the news that couldn't be revealed?
http://i41.tinypic.com/5xvrth.png
I hope that's not it ... I don't want to subscribe to the print issue of EGM in order to watch you guys. I'd pay to watch the show, but please don't force me to pay for oversea shipping a magazin I'm not interested in.
Man, what a bummer. I'm sure whatever the new things that you are doing will be awesome, but it's shame to loose as quality a show as CO-OP. I can't think of another online video game outlet that produces same quality of content & discussion as you guys do.
I don't have cable or satelite, but I watch a ton of online content through my TV, and as much as I love shows like TRS & Diggnation, CO-OP by far had become my favorite show. I really think it is a gold standard for video productions online, and it's sad that it couldn't work out financially. I'd gladly pay a subscription fee to watch a weekly CO-OP.
I wish you guys the best of luck in your new ventures and anxiously await whatever is coming next.
P.S. Totally stoked for the first print issue of EGM. When is it coming out?
EGM FAQ:
http://www.egmnow.com/help
Also, I personally wouldn't worry about the quality of what Area5's going to work on next.
THE SHOW MUST GO ON!!!