Joystiq and Massively shut down amid AOL downsizing

The rumors are true: Venerable games media outlet Joystiq is closing up shop alongside its MMORPG-focused sister site Massively and a host of other AOL-owned websites.

Rumors of the impending shutdown were published earlier this week by Joystiq itself, and confirmed today via Twitter by (now-former) Joystiq employee Alexander Sliwinski. 

Regrettably, all staff appear to have lost their jobs; developers in turn have lost a pair of websites that served as valuable outlets for press coverage and industry reporting.

Joystiq recently celebrated the ten-year anniversary of its launch, in 2004, as a spinoff of AOL's tech-focused blog Engadget. Going forward, Engadget is expected to take up some of Joystiq and Massively's responsibilities for game industry reporting.