Earlier today, Anandtech posted a farewell to its audience saying that today is the last day of publishing after 27 years. They stated that Future intends on keeping the site online indefinitely (unlike TheInquirer.net that was snuffed out after it closed) and their forums will remain in business as well. This is 10 years to the day that Anand took his retirement package and headed out the door.
I’ve personally been a reader of Anandtech for most of its existence, and especially before the content stream started to dry up, it was a great go-to source for hardware information along with the previously departed HardOCP. Their detailed deep dive writing along with others in the long form business is exactly why I started The FPS Review – because this is the type of content that I prefer and I would like to think there is a way to make it into a sustainable business model.
This is a reminder to everyone that this is a difficult industry to not only thrive, but also survive – publications have to adapt with the changing environments to stay relevant, but at the same time, keep true to their passions – which is a very difficult balance. The balance is even more so when the publications are owned by the larger corporations as opposed to enthusiasts in the industry – the larger companies have far more metrics for revenue growth, cost cutting and a decision process that focuses on immediate return of investment as opposed to doing what is right for their audience.
Ian Cutress posted an insightful farewell video that gives a bit of the backstory around how the last decade operated under the hood and from myself, as an outsider looking in, it looked about like that as well.
I hope the Anandtech crew lands on their feet and gets the support that’s needed to continuing doing the excellent work that they’re known for.
Discussion (19 replies)
Join Discussion →I guess everyone just wants YT videos now? I like Gamer's Nexus / Steve as much as the next guy. But I prefer written articles, which of course requires more work. I honestly haven't been to Anandtech's site in a long while but back in the day it was required reading.
As David said earlier, Anandtech hasn't been the same in about a decade. This is when Anand retired and it was purchased by the same media company that owns Tom's Hardware.
At a time they focused a lot on servers, then they mostly switched to mobile/apple stuff. They stopped doing video card reviews ages ago.
For a long time they were the TO GO site for tech articles. Be it GPUs/CPUs/mobos/storage, etc. That was the main reason I went there in the first place.
Today no one really does in depth tech reviews anymore, except maybe Ars Technica.
They join the list of the fallen.
Sharky Extreme
NvNews
ardOCP
The Firing Squad
TheTechReport
And many more I can't even remember.
Bums me out. But I haven't been there for a while. Good memories though reading reviews back in the day.
Written articles are far less work than video reviews.
Workflow for written review:
Same for a video review:
Even some of the ones that are still around aren't the same. That includes Tom's and PC Perspective.
I don't think more or less work is a good way to describe it - I would say they are different.
Afaik, Gamers nexus should still have a site with written reviews on it.
They neglected that part for a long time. Earlier this year they started an initiative to create written articles out of past videos... but... I'm not sure the format is translating well. It looks easier than it is to leverage video for written and vice versa.
Not yet a fan of YT videos. I still prefer the written word. At the risk of dating myself I miss the days of , XS, OCForums, AT (the OG version) and JonnyGURU's reviews. I discovered this site on accident, looking for a new hardware home. :)
I like videos for some stuff which is why I do watch some tech channels YT videos, but when it comes to benchmarking with graphs, charts and stuff like that I prefer it to be written so I can study the charts/stats myself at my own pace and come to my own conclusions instead of someone else's.
End of an era for sure. Sad to see them go as they were a part of the 2 to 3 dozen sites that I still occasionally check up on, albeit not every day but at least once every week or so.
At least they didn't get replaced by AI like some sites out there.
I was jumping on to say the same thing. They were just a walking corpse for several years. It was time for a full burial.
Yeah I was gonna say I would throw sites like them in with the list of the dead and fallen, cuz the modern versions of sites like these aren't even remotely the same as the true original ones.
Sad to see another icon shuttered but yea it having become a corporate owned site didn't help much.