Dear friends I’m sorry to say that I come here this morning to bury BoomtownX rather than to praise it. We’ve reached the end of the run - which for me began all the way back in 2004. The truth is that that BTX hasn’t managed to support my family and so I have to put my and energy elsewhere. There’s a limit to how much time and effort we can put into a site that doesn’t pay its way. And so today BoomtownX closes as an ongoing daily concern.

That’s not to say we’re going to suddenly disappear. Oh dear me no. The site will be here tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and so on. But it’s unfair for publishers and developers to send us games we can’t promise to get reviewed in a timely manner due to a lack of time and resources. And so while we’re likely to still post some of the usual nonsense, we’re not going to be a commercial site anymore, nor are we going to expect to receive review code that will just pile up waiting for someone to tackle it. So dear friends in the trade, thank you so much for your support, it has meant an awful lot to us. But please delete us from your mailing list to receive your games, we just can’t promise to review them.

Let me take you back in time a little. Back in late 2004 I had been working as a professional online writer/editor for several years. At INC I’d worked on such concerns as IGN, Gamespot, Daily Radar, FGN Online, BW Vault and Racing Gamer. I then moved on to edit sites for Telefragged - including PS2Faction which was hugely successful. I then moved out of mainstream games coverage for a while editing channels for the ISP Supanet and then developing a new website for Firesoft Technologies.

In November 2004 I became the UK editor for Boomtown.net. This was one of the greatest career moves I’ve ever made. Not in terms of riches, but in terms of job satisfaction and the wonderful friends I have made over the years. Of course many of you will think that getting paid to write about games is as good as jobs get but that isn’t true. But working for Boomtown was as good as you might imagine it could be thanks to wonderful colleagues such as Jakob Paulsen, Christian Johansen, Michael Ronde and James Hamer-Morton all of whom I’ve known since the very beginning. And there are many more names I could mention who have joined the writing team since 2004 and become good friends.

During most of the time I worked for Boomtown we were owned by TDC (Danish Telecom). We were a very small cog in a very big machine and didn’t really receive the resources to do our excellent team of writers justice. But while we didn’t have a flashy Web2.0 site what we did have was integrity, honesty and a team of writers striving to put the reader first. Our aim was honesty - which often didn’t sit well with fanboys or publishers - but meant we actually reviewed games between one and ten out of ten, rather than the current tabloid site norm of nine for good games, eight for poor ones.

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Editing a videogames website is more than a full time job. During the day I’d be busy with site administration, writing news, contacting publishers, writing interview questions, sending out review code to writers, handling freelance payments and a myriad other dull tasks that a boss had to tackle to keep his team together. So you may wonder how much game playing I could actually manage? As a single man that was very easy to answer - all my time was my own - and I could use much of my free time to also work on reviews. Being a games reviewer - at least a professional one - really is a single man’s game if you’ve got a site to run at the same time. Being a games writer is not really a grown up’s job.

Being a grown up though forces you to put a job like website editor on a more professional footing once you have a family. Ironically I think my use of time got better once I had less of it on my own than I did when I was single and fancy free. In 2006 I married Lanie and we were awaiting the birth of twins in early 2007. I knew that two small children coming into our life would mean I would have to make even better use of my time. It was during the year of my marriage and leading up to the arrival of our children that I think Boomtown was at its best. We had a really great setof reviewers at this point that was developing into a team with a sense of purpose and community. I was really proud of what we were achieving even though at this point the future of the site did seem a little uncertain.

And then tragedy struck. My wife Lanie died bringing our beloved twins into the world. I was alone and faced with looking after two small children without the help of the best friend I’d ever had. I took time away from Boomtown for obvious reasons. During that time the support from Jakob, Michael and Christian was amazing. It’s at times like this you discover that you don’t just have a job - you have a whole other family. Believe it or not I managed to return to work some weeks later while look after my children (madness I know) and I wouldn’t have been able to do it if it wasn’t for the support of my friends and colleagues.

From there Boomtown moved from strength to strength. We may still not have had the resources to do our copy justice, but our reviewers were firing on all cylinders and we had plenty of respect from the industry. We got on with our fun job. The wheels turned, life went on.

Now in 2011 I sit here explaining the end of Boomtown and my own life has changed quite a lot. I have married again and we have another little boy. I am a father of three small children and not someone who really gets to play as many games as he’d like anymore. I’m helped though by a games industry that seems intent on leaving gamers like me behind. Those of us who started with ZX Spectrums and can handle some intelligence with our gaming rather than an endless stream of crappy Call of Duty clones (and crappy Call of Duty games) have little to enjoy in the charts right now.

A lot has changed over the years since Boomtown’s heyday. Middle Eastern firm AATec bought Boomtown from TDC and we were looking forward to a bright new future for the site. There was plenty of money going into a whole new site redesign and everything looked very rosy indeed. And then in early summer 2010 AATec and TDC got into a silly spat over the rental of Boomtown’s net cafes. The result was the cafes were closed, putting many out of work. The site was suspended but I was promised that the site would return following the redesign. Despite having a family to support I clung on to that promise from AATec that not only did I have a job waiting for me, but that I would receive all the money owed to me. One year on both those things have turned out to be lies. To a big company like AATec I doubt the money owed to me seems very much, but it’d pay the rent on our house for two months.

Following these problems last summer I decided to keep the Boomtown flame burning. I registered this site and many of the review team joined me here. We kept on doing what we did best - honest reviews for the intelligent gamer and taking a somewhat irreverent tone to reporting the news. The response has been great - traffic was beyond our expectations given the situation and many publishers came along for the ride. So a big thanks to Sony, EA, Paradox, Team 17 and especially our friends at Rockstar Games.

But there’s no point hanging on when we can’t do the games justice right now. I’ve games piling up that we can’t get reviewed in good time. I need to find another job and I’ve small children to look after. I can’t focus on the site right now - it just doesn’t bring in enough money. And so as I said earlier it’s time to say goodbye. The site isn’t going to disappear, but we’re not going to be as prolific and we’re not expecting anyone to send us games we can’t promise to review. The irony is of course now the pressure’s off you may see me posting more.

I’m very proud of our legacy here and at the original Boomtown site. One of my aims was not only to get great writing talent in our team, it was also to give a start in the industry to fledgling writers who hadn’t yet developed their skills. I feel a real sense of pride when I some of those rookies now making a living writing professionally or working in other jobs in the games business. I’m also very proud to have worked for and with some great people - many of the Danish guys I’m sure will remain life-long friends. I don’t want to let go of the Boomtown legacy completely, that’s why this site will remain online. Us ex Boomtown guys will still be able to see some of our work online.

But for now my friends, I want to say thank you so much for following us and supporting us. Working for Boomtown (and this silly offshoot) since 2004 has been one of the greatest pleasures of my life. Goodbye.