Restart, a games outlet funded by Walmart, was hit by widespread layoffs today. According to affected staffers, the site’s entire editorial team has been let go.
“So we found out this morning that everyone – myself included – from Restart’s editorial staff has been let go,” wrote news editor Imran Khan on Bluesky. Editor-in-chief Brandy Berthelson wrote that “The entire editorial team at Restart, myself included, was laid off today. With that, my time in games media has also come to an end.” Associate editor Jesse Vitelli, deals writer Myles Obenza, and senior editor Henry Stenhouse also confirmed the layoffs on social media.
In addition to five editorial staffers, there are also five people listed as management on Restart’s masthead. Aftermath has reached out to some members of management—as well as Moonrock, the strategy and content marketing agency behind Restart—for more information.
Restart launched in December 2024 as a creation of Moonrock and was funded by Walmart. The site’s announcement was met with scepticism for its initial tagline “Independent gaming news powered by Walmart” (which was subsequently changed to “Triple-I gaming news powered by Walmart”), with many wondering exactly how ‘independent’ a site funded by a retailer could be. EIC Berthelson noted in the site’s announcement post that while stories featured Walmart purchase links, Restart didn’t receive commission if readers purchased through them, and rather, the links “help Walmart see exactly how customers arrived at the product” and thus presumably demonstrated the site’s value to the company.
“The links will simply tell Walmart where the shopper came from and will help Walmart see whether or not the site is achieving its goal of community building and outreach,” Berthelson told Aftermath in December 2024.
It’s not clear what precipitated today’s dramatic layoffs, and whether they were at the behest of Moonrock or Walmart. (Aftermath has reached out to Walmart for more information.) Berthelson told Aftermath in December 2024 that
We would be naïve to think Restart can last forever if it underperforms, but thus far, through the building of the site and our few months in soft-launch, Walmart has been nothing but a supportive partner… ‘Why would Walmart continue to fund Restart if the site underperforms?’ is a bridge we would cross if and when we had to cross it, but it helps that we – the Restart team at Moonrock – have our own standards and metrics for success we hold ourselves to, rather than being beholden to a list of [key performance indicators] from Walmart. The editorial team isn’t even aware of how poor the numbers would have to be before Walmart would consider pulling its funding.
“Walmart money could fund valuable journalism, but it never will”
AftermathNathan Grayson
Restart covered news centered around games, reviews, interviews with developers, shorter blogs, and some video content. Freelancers who had written for the site also mourned the layoffs today, with Lex Luddy writing that “the editorial team at Restart… fought tooth and nail to publish good games criticism despite the odds.”
Layoffs at games sites continue to be depressingly common, most recently with layoffs hitting GameSpot (again) in early July. Several of Restart’s laid-off staffers noted on social media that this wasn’t their first time experiencing what’s become practically a right of passage for anyone who writes about games, or pretty much anyone living through the last few years.
