Polygon, Vox Media’s video games website, has been acquired by Valnet, a company founded and helmed by Hassan Youssef, a former pornography mogul and the co-founder of the popular adult entertainment site Brazzers.
The news, which broke first on social media via various Polygon writers and editors saying that they suddenly don’t have a job, came as a shock to both Polygon staff and readers. Media in general has been suffering from regular layoffs for years, and video game publications have been hit especially hard recently with legendary magazine Game Informer shutting down in 2024 (and recently being revived) and layoffs at Gamespot and other publications. But Polygon, a brand that Vox built from scratch, has a large staff, excellent reporters, a sizable YouTube presence, and relatively less clownish leadership than new media counterpart VICE, did not seem like it was about to be sold and lay off much of its staff.