G4 (also known as G4TV) was an American pay television and digital network owned by NBCUniversal and later Comcast Spectacor that primarily focused on video games.

He envisioned that G4 could follow in the footsteps of MTV, which provided music video producers with a venue for non-traditional television programming.

[21] G4 offered what was called a "2 minute unit", which was an advertising package played as if it were part of a G4 program that was long enough to run an entire movie trailer.

[35][36] It was announced during Comic-Con 2010 that G4 would be the exclusive North American broadcaster of Marvel Anime, which made its television debut in 2011.

[37] During the week of July 26-August 1, 2010, G4 changed its logo to 4G as a promotion for Sprint Nextel's next generation wireless internet service.

In December 2012, NBCUniversal signed a brand licensing deal with the Hearst Corporation, owner of Esquire magazine, to relaunch G4 into Esquire Network which would air shows aimed at a metrosexual audience about travel, cooking, fashion and non-sports related male programming, including the addition of acquired and archive NBCU content such as Party Down, Parks and Recreation, and week-delayed episodes of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

[61] The final day of G4 in its previous iteration was a marathon of the Top 100 Video Games of All Time, followed by the last program being the debut episode of X-Play.

G4's website was reopened with a playable game of Pong which, if won, redirected to a mailing list to sign up for updates and a free shirt promo code.

[67][68] Comcast would transfer operations of G4 from NBCUniversal to its Spectacor division (former owners of the now-defunct PRISM regional premium cable television channel).

[71] At the special's end, wrestler Xavier "King" Woods / Austin Creed would be the first newly announced host for G4's relaunch, after beginning a campaign on Twitter to become a G4 personality in August 2020.

[72][73] On the same day of the special's premiere, G4 launched Gravython, a charity drive that would be raising funds for a variety of community partners.

[9] The following day, the company launched the B4G4 brand, featuring short-form experimental content on YouTube and Twitter created to gain feedback from audiences that would help determine the shows for G4's relaunch.

[77] In March, the network also began livestreaming on both Twitch and YouTube, where its hosts interact with the audience and do watch-alongs to new B4G4 videos.

On April 5, G4 revealed the development of a new competitive series hosted by Xavier "King" Woods / Austin Creed in partnership with WWE to air in the fall.

[81] On April 28, Adam Sessler and Kassem G revealed during a livestream that cosplayer Jefferson "Jeffersawrus" Carvey was the network's first #G4NeedsTalent hire.

[82] Its final "Epic April" announcement was made on the 30th, where Virtual YouTuber and livestreamer character CodeMiko, along with her creator known only as "The Technician", would be joining as a new host.

[84] On May 14, YouTuber and podcaster Gina Darling was revealed during a livestream with Adam Sessler and Kassem G to be joining as a new host.

[86] The show was scheduled to debut on December 7, 2021, at 6:30 pm EST[87] but due to technical difficulties involving Amazon Web Services, it did not air in that timeslot.

[88] On March 7, 2022, G4 launched a FAST channel on Pluto TV called G4 Select, which carries most of G4's regular programming.

As part of an exclusive partnership, the channel would also feature new content catered to free, linear streaming audiences.

[93][94][95] Several factors that led to G4's discontinuation ranged from low viewership, a lack of audience strategy, ever-changing and absent leadership, competition with streaming content creators on YouTube and Twitch, cord-cutting, underpromotion, and high expenditures.

G4 in itself left Philo, YouTube TV, Xfinity, and Cox prior to the shutdown, with Fios being the last to carry the network until the true discontinuation date, November 18, 2022, two days after the first anniversary of the re-launch.

This was followed by a zoomed-out photo of former Attack of the Show host Gina Darling's forehead, with a still game of Pong etched onto it and text reading, "G4" and "Thanks 4 watching!," along with Kassem G's deadpan voice saying "I'm at Comic-Con."

[102] In addition to video game culture, G4's programming encompassed geek, fandom, genre, and general audience shows aimed at young adults.

News segments were merged with revamped version of The Screen Savers (later Attack of the Show), though eventually those duties were taken over by the editorial staff of X-Play.