Vice plans to launch several new category-specific verticals over the next year, and one of those sites will be centered around video games. According to Variety, the alternative news publication has announced the hire of Austin Walker, the news editor of the website Giant Bomb, as the head of its new gaming hub.
At Vice, Walker will be able to choose the name and the angle of the upcoming vertical. He will also oversee the construction of the gaming site’s editorial team. “More than having a lot of people, we want the right people,” he told Variety.
The new site will serve as an extension of Vice’s existing coverage of gaming culture. Among other projects, the Brooklyn-based publication released a five-part documentary about eSports in 2015.
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Once it is launched, Vice’s gaming site will join the other verticals that are expected to arrive in the coming months. At the company’s most recent NewFronts presentation, CEO Shane Smith said his team plans to launch seven verticals over the next year, though a Vice representative later amended that number to six. One of those verticals will be a health destination led by former Prevention magazine exec Kate Lowenstein.
Vice distributes its digital content on its website and across YouTube. The publication’s current lineup of category-specific hubs includes destinations related to food, technology, and sports.
