In the early 2000s, Brandon Jones, a recent film graduate, was inspired by Apple's movie trailer portal and lamented the lack of readily available, high-quality video game trailers. At the time, game trailers were often relegated to demo discs, paywalled content, or basic television commercials. Jones and co-founder Geoff Grotz began aggregating available footage, even recording commercials from TV broadcasts via TiVo and cropping watermarks from rival sites, a practice Jones described as "Yoink."
Their unofficial hub, GameTrailers.com, launched in 2002. Initially, the site operated on a shoestring budget, with Jones and his colleagues manually managing servers and forgoing advertising revenue. The operation gained traction by featuring sophisticated trailers for games like Blizzard's animated openings and the visually striking The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. This organic growth eventually caught the attention of Jon Slusser, Jones's boss at Hornet Animation, who saw the potential for a larger enterprise.
From Fan Project to Viacom Powerhouse
Slusser began seeking a buyer, and after attracting interest from media organizations like Ziff Davis, GameTrailers was acquired by Viacom in 2005. Unlike typical media mergers, GameTrailers was allowed to operate as a digital-first entity within Viacom, which at the time was focused on expanding its digital footprint. Without significant corporate guidance, the site expanded on its own terms.
Under Viacom, an editorial team was assembled, including Daniel Bloodworth, Justin Speer, Ryan Stevens, and Shane Satterfield as editor-in-chief. Leveraging professional editing and animation backgrounds, the team produced high-quality video content, including reviews, previews, and retrospectives. Jones's voice became a signature element of the site's output, though he later expressed regret about not appearing on camera more frequently. The site became a popular destination for young gamers, often found alongside sites like Newgrounds and Candystand in computer labs.
Navigating the Rise of YouTube and Eventual Closure
As YouTube's dominance grew throughout the 2010s, traffic to standalone websites like GameTrailers began to decline. Despite plans for a subscription service, GameTrailers Plus, the site's future became uncertain. Jones was reportedly informed of the impending closure a year and a half in advance but was instructed not to inform his team. Viacom sold GameTrailers in 2014, and its branding was eventually absorbed by IGN in 2016. Today, GameTrailers exists primarily as a header on an IGN YouTube channel.
In the aftermath of GameTrailers' closure, Jones and several former staff members launched Easy Allies, a subscriber-supported venture that continues to operate. Jones retired from games media in 2022. The trajectory of GameTrailers mirrors the increasing importance of video game trailers and digital presentations in marketing, from early aggregated clips to today's elaborate reveals and event-driven hype cycles, a shift exemplified by Geoff Keighley's role in broadcasting major gaming announcements.