G4 will be shutting down November 30th, 2014. The once go-to source for geek news, reviews, and content, over 53% of American households received G4 at the height of its popularity. G4 grew a large viewership thanks to its well-received original content such as X-play with Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb, and Attack of the Show.
G4 launched on April 24, 2002, under Comcast with shows such as: Cheat, a show about tips and cheat codes for video games; Sweat, a show for sports game news; Blister, a show for action/adventure game news; Pulse, a show talking about the video game industry; and more.
Some attribute the decline of G4 to the growth of online venues for video game news and opinions, such as Youtube channels and video gaming websites. Being targeted at an audience that does so much online could make the sell of a video game channel difficult.
The original creator of G4 envisioned the channel as a sort of 'MTV of video games', believing MTV provided music producers with a venue for non-traditional television programming. When the channel was headed by Neal Tiles, he proclaimed "guys like to play games, but not necessarily watch a bunch of shows with games on the screen." From thereon G4 became more targeted towards men rather than just video gamers, and began running more and more episodes of Cops and Cheaters.
As of now, G4 has announced no plans for preserving its back catalog of content. Some places have preserved clips from the shows, such as Youtube channel xplaybackintheday.
