Game On! G4 TV Poised For 2021 Reboot; Video Game Network Unplugged In 2014

Dominic Patten
·3 min read

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On the second big day of Comic-Con@Home, the virtual confab and gamers galore received a very real blast from the past – with more to come.

Unplugged since 2014, video game network G4 TV is coming back to life next year.

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The NBCUniversal-owned once time home of Attack of the Show and X-Play sparked up earlier Friday with a PONG playing G4 TV website and a short “2021” tease on social media that resembled an eighties teen flick – in the best way:

Sparking a flurry of digital delightfully raised eyebrows online, the brief communique apparently is indicative of a move by Comcast-controlled NBCU to take back a space it once dominated as newer players move it. To that end, a rebooted G4 TV will debut next year under the umbrella of esports division Comcast Spectacor.

As well as overseeing the telecom’s stake in hometown NHL team the Philadelphia Flyers, the division has been charged with constructing a new G4 TV to engage the ever-expanding gamer market on a multitude of platforms.

Following up on the excitement generated today, there will be waves of G4 TV news to come in the next weeks and months, I hear. Clearly timed to capture the attention of the fanboy and fangirl crowd at a Comic-Con made remote by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, today’s witty activation harked back to the PONG marathon of the 2002 premiere of G4 – which had a big SDCC presence over its more than a decade long initial lifespan

In a very different way, today’s unveiling was also reminiscent of the grubby manner the once high flying G4 died six years ago.

Originally set in 2013 to be melded into a newly formed Esquire Network in a deal between NBCU and Hearst, G4 was shoved aside for the Esquire slot by Style instead. A year later G4 essentially faded away a victim of some very analogue upper tier cable musical chairs

Now the 2017 closed Esquire Network is old news and G4 is back in the game —- which seemingly met with approval from former Attack of the Show co-host and X-Men: Apocalypse alum Olivia Munn in one of a series of G4 TV related tweets today:

On that note, Comic-Con@Home runs until July 26

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