G4 plans to rebrand and end game coverage, says Variety

Television’s first and only dedicated gaming channel may call it quits by early 2013, according to a recent Variety report. NBCUniversal plan to rebrand the channel and cater toward older males that read GQ. So long and thanks for all the Cheaters and Cops reruns?

G4 launched on April 24, 2002 and has gone under many cosmetic changes and mergers over the past decade — most notably TechTV in 2004. While the network had a shaky start with some gut-wrenchingly embarrassing stuff like Game On, they eventually found solid footing with Attack of the Show, X-Play, Icons, Cinematech, and some others that I fondly remember.

Over the past five years, the channel has catered more and more to the SpikeTV crowd with extreme sports, reality TV, and non-tech related programming. With most of their game programs cancelled and their flagship game authority Adam Sessler gone (still no word on if he quit or was fired), perhaps this is a logical progression toward the end of an era.

I’d mourn the loss of G4 but I did that long ago, after its glory days of 2002-2005. And I discovered a thing called YouTube and Revision3 in the meantime.

[via Variety]