Even though rumors of the deal started weeks ago, the news that the 1Up.com gaming web site network from Ziff Davis was being sold to UGO hit the Internet like a freight train wreck Monday night. It got worse when news leaked out that a large number of the 1Up.com team had been laid off as a result. Today the wreckage was still being picked through on the Internet.

Former Ziff Davis employee (and former Games for Windows-Computer Gaming World magazine editor) Jeff Green got upset by some statements made by 1Up.com editorial director Sam Kennedy in his official statement on the deal. On his personal blog Green states, "You're not the same 1UP because you just lost a gigantic chunk of what made 1up 1up. It may go on, it may in fact produce great things, but it won't be the same. All that a company ever is is a mix of specific personalities. That's all it is. Period. When you remove people, it may go on, but it's never "the same." Saying it's the same is a disservice to all the people who just got canned."

Meanwhile Kennedy made an unofficial statement to the NEOGaf message board, admitting, " 1UP was a business that was losing money." He added, "But the reality of the market was that no company, including UGO, was willing to sustain 1UP as it was. And that includes Ziff Davis. I hate to to break it to you, but the sad fact was that there was little hope for 1UP to continue as it had been." Kennedy also expressed hope that some of the site's features, including the 1up.com, might continue in some form. He states, "I'm not saying everything will be back to "normal" as you knew it anytime soon, but I am saying there should be some good things to look forward to in the future."

Update: In a new chat with MTV Multiplayer, UGO's CEO J Moses defended his company's handling of the 1Up.com purchase, saying, "We have just hired 24 people At a time where all you read about is layoffs we have expanded UGO by 33 percent."