these market leading assets and teams in a great environment poised for further success. The transaction allows us to pay down debt and shift our full focus to our core PCMag Digital Network business. We thank our 1UP team members for their contributions and wish them the best of success into the future”.

CEO of UGO Entertainment followed up with, “Since we started UGO 11 years ago, we have served the gamer community and built a world-class online publishing platform. The acquisition of 1UP, with its authentic voice, tenured editorial personalities and bustling user community, allows us to expand our base of quality content and represents a major step forward in UGO’s mission to become the leader in the games space.”

One problem with his comments on expanding, they have actually downsized immensely. Immediately announced, was the ending of EGM, which has seen its last issue as of today with the January 2009 issue. Soon after, Sam Kennedy came forth and said many with 1UP would be moving ahead in the future with UGO. This seems to have been a huge err on his part, as Joystiq reported many of the staff reportedly let go. According to Garnett Lee's Twitter, 1UP Yours Podcast is officially over, and its safe to assume 1UPFM, 1UP Yours, and the rest are now gone as well.

We can only hope for the best to all those who were hit with this surprise mass layoff, and wish them the same success, and more, they found working with 1UP and EGM. As a huge fan of many of their podcasts, the shows will surely be missed, and I hope they come back in another way to continue what they started.

Here is the full list of employees laid off with this acquisition that Joystiq has obtained.

Adrian Frieg
Amy Mishra
Amy Moran
Andrea Garcia
Andrew Fitch
Andrew "Skip" Pfister
Anthony Gallegos
Cesar Quintero
Christina Rosa
CoyLou Steel
Derek Chinn
Doug Parsons
Eric Ellis
Giancarlo Varanini
Greg Ford
James "Milkman" Mielke
Jason Bertrand
Jason Wilson
Jervilyn Jaramillo
Justin Frechette
Leslie Gelfand
Marci Yamaguchi
Matt Chandronait
May Tong
Meredith Stowe
Michael Donahoe
Monique Convertito
Ndubuisi Madu
Nick Suttner
Norris Boothe
Philip Kollar
Rey Serrano
Robert Bowen
Rosemary Pinkham
Ryan O'Donnell
Ryan Scott
Shane Bettenhausen
Simon Cox
Tammy Ross
Tipler Ubbelohde