The improbable return of Game Informer

Almost a year after GameStop's sudden and unceremonious shutdown of the long-running Game Informer magazine, the site's former staff announced that they're back – and I'm honestly a bit stunned by it.

You never, ever, see this happen in games media. Let's go over the basics:

• A video game studio, the Frankfurt, Germany-based Gunzilla Games, has bought the rights to GI from GameStop and brought back the whole team, including writers, design, production, etc.

• GI will remain independent and now operates under a new entity called Game Informer, Inc.

• They've regained access to their website and social accounts (notable because of how ruthlessly GameStop took them over when the shutdown was first announced and locked the writers out).

• They're bringing back the print magazine.

There is a lot more covered in their announcement video below. This is literally the best thing that could've happened to Game Informer, and it's amazing that they all received significant raises and promotions as well. So many seemingly improbable steps had to happen to get to this point, like GameStop being willing to sell the property in the first place – I didn't think they would! – and then finding a buyer that perfectly aligned with their goals.

This quote from returning EIC Matt Miller was comforting to read, too: "From the start, the new owners insisted on the idea of Game Informer remaining an independent editorial outlet; they felt just as strongly as our team did that the only path forward was with an editorial group that made 100 percent of the decisions around what we cover and how we do so, without any influence from them or anyone else."

Sadly, there aren't many video game outlets that've been able to come back after a complete closure like this. Those that did relaunched with a new, and usually much smaller, editorial team. And more often than not, it would just close again after a few months anyway.

This news is just wild and I'm super happy for everyone involved.