Celebrating 3 Years of PixlBit

A note from the Director and Co-Owner, Nick DiMola.

Well, here we are again. Today, PixlBit celebrates its 3^rd Anniversary, an achievement I'm quite proud of. A little more than three years ago, Chessa and I poured our heart and soul into the creation of this website. Built from nothing, PixlBit slowly secured its place in the gaming media, and is now the site that stands before you. We've had ups and downs, several rewrites, and many staff members, but somehow we've made it this far and there's no stopping us now.

While we're no media giant, I couldn't be more proud of all we have accomplished over the course of these three years. Our staff is absolutely dedicated to delivering the best content they can, specifically thoughtful pieces that rival or exceed those of the biggest publications in the industry. You might be surprised to know that in total over the past three years, we've posted:

663 Reviews (3.33 average score / 914.37 average word count)
238 Previews
2157 News Stories
207 Podcasts
99 Editorials
5 Interviews
99 Specials
35 PlayBits
52 Tour de 64s
1128 Videos
15 MIAs

These articles have collectively brought a total of more than a quarter of a million unique visitors and well over a million page views. I can only hope that of those tens of thousands of visitors, we've impacted many of them in a positive way - whether it was insightful commentary on the industry that they were able to appreciate, assistance in a buying selection, or just the daily news.

Going forward, I hope that PixlBit grows even larger and reaches an even greater audience. Myself and the entire staff do this for our mutual love of gaming and writing and interacting with our readers - this three year voyage has been an enriching one and I can't wait to see where we're headed next.

Thank you to the staff and the readers for making PixlBit a special place on the web.

P.S. - Don't forget, we're looking for new members to join our staff!

#Pixlbit #Anniversary

Joaquim Mira Media Manager

09/24/2012 at 07:27 PM

It's party time! WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB

Angelo Grant Staff Writer

09/26/2012 at 11:50 AM

Wub step?

09/26/2012 at 12:16 PM

Yup. Been playing the the first Borderlands and was inspired by the Claptraps.

Jason Ross Senior Editor

09/26/2012 at 07:03 PM

There's more of that in the second!

And I'll have a more extensive post in time.

09/26/2012 at 10:45 PM

It's more of a techno beat in the first one. I just had to do that because I've already spoiled myself in watching videos from the sequel. Claptraps are awesome.

Michael117

09/25/2012 at 11:32 AM

This may not be a media giant, but all of the staff out there making this site what it is really do a lot of work. There's so much content being created here between previews, reviews, news, podcasts, editorials, videos, etc, and at the end of the day all that content comes out the end of the cannon in a professional, creative, and entertaining fashion. Well done, everybody. My thanks go to the staff who not only make this a great enthusiast site, but a great community that I enjoy being a part of. The cake isn't a lie here at Pixlbit.

Congratulations on 3 years, that's a spicy meatball!

vudu

09/25/2012 at 12:24 PM

Congratulations on 3 years!

I don't know if you'd be willing to share any of this information, but I'd be interested in reading an article--or series of articles?--about the growth of the website. Challenges with design, direction, finding a unique voice in the gaming media, etc. Any mistakes you made when starting out that you wish you could have avoided? Anything you did 3 years ago that you can point to today and say "we wouldn't be here right now if we didn't do this ..."?

You mention that the site's received over 250K unique visitors. Can you share anything about how that's grown/contracted over time? Have there been any particular articles that went viral and caused a short-term, massive increase in readership?

I remember that when you left NWR one of your goals was to make money from this site. Do you? Can you talk at all about what happened with Neal? :)

Not sure if you have any desire to discuss these things on the site--after all, they're not directly related to video games--but I think it could be a facinating retrospective at a start-up website that has grown over the past 3 years.

Also, I want to state that it's a complete sham that there's only been 52 entries in the Tour de 64. Moppy needs to step up her game! I'm never going to get to read her thoughts on War Gods at this rate.

Nick DiMola Director

09/25/2012 at 01:23 PM

Thanks for the kind words, vudu. I'd absolutely be interested in sharing this information. Let me see if I can draft something up today and get it posted soon. As for the history behind what happened with Neal and Lauren, I'll share some of that here since I probably won't include it in the article.

Truthfully and honestly, it was just a difference in opinion. Neal and Lauren had a different vision for the site than Chessa and I - as a result things began spiraling downward pretty quickly. The break was a little messy due to some outstanding obligations left unfulfilled and some general bad blood from the conflict. But in the end, I saw Neal at the following E3 and we put the whole thing to bed and moved along amicably.

Regardless, I don't think we rank particularly high over at NWR these days, but c'est la vie. In the end, the split was in all of our best interest. Neal & Lauren moved back to NWR and he got control of the site shortly thereafter. I can only imagine that has been great for his career and under his leadership NWR has seemingly increased their readership and expanded the coverage of the site.

For Chessa and I, we've had the opportunity to build something from the ground up and that's something that we wanted to do from the beginning. Toiling in obscurity is never an easy thing - you need to be satisfied with what you create and be happy with whatever it is, solely because you love what you're doing.

If you have any more specific questions about the situation, let me know, I'll be glad to answer.

PixlBit