R.I.P. Gay Porn: Sean Cody Sold To Men.com

Posted January 7, 2015 by Zach with 71 comments

Well, it was a great 14 years. Arguably the best gay porn web studio of all time, Sean Cody, has been purchased by Men.com’s parent company, the straight porn and tube site conglomerate known as MindGeek.

The news of a possible Sean Cody sale has been floating around for years (I first heard rumors that another straight porn conglomerate, AEBN, was going to buy Sean Cody back in 2011, but they didn’t offer enough money), and it was finally confirmed today after a commenter on The Sword pointed out that Sean Cody’s homepage now includes MindGeek’s company (“MG”) info in Delaware and Ireland:

As I’ve been pointing out ad nauseam for the past year, Sean Cody has been struggling to maintain the quality (both in terms of models and production) they became famous for after launching in 2001, and this sale explains a lot. Obviously, Mr. Cody himself just isn’t invested in the company anymore, so he’s decided to move on to bigger and better things.

But what could be better than Sean Cody, when they were at their best?

What will happen now that the people who operate Men.com will be operating Sean Cody? With its signature filming style, (mostly) gorgeous and well-endowed men, and consistent updates, Sean Cody has been (at least for me), the gold standard for hardcore gay porn. Meanwhile, Men.com squirts fake cum on their models and makes “parodies” of sex slave trafficking.

In both 2013 and 2014, I named Sean Cody scenes as the best gay porn scenes of each year. In 2014, the worst gay porn scene of the year was Men.com’s “Retribution,” in which a porn star murders his co-stars by setting them on fire.

Sean Cody has given us Colby Keller, Paul Wagner, Ryan Rose, and Calvin. Men.com has given us Rocco Reed.

To be fair, Men.com does release some good stuff occasionally. But in comparison to Sean Cody, well, there just is no comparison.

While this sale leaves several big, unanswered questions, at least one of them is easy to answer. Being sold to MindGeek can almost certainly guarantee that Sean Cody will switch back to condom only scenes—assuming Sean Cody as a studio keeps producing content. MindGeek’s only other major gay property that produces original content, Men.com, is 100% condoms, so they’ll undoubtedly require the same safety protocols for Sean Cody, too. Switching back to condoms means Sean Cody will lose a large chunk of customers (and revenue), but MindGeek will likely find other ways to monetize the site via their monopolistic network of tube sites and pirated content. [UPDATE: Sources with knowledge of this sale have confirmed to me that Sean Cody will REMAIN a bareback site, so disregard the above paragraph.]

As far as everything else—where will Sean Cody produce content? will Sean Cody staffers stay on? will Johnny Rapid be getting quadruple penetrated on the Sean Cody couch by Brandon, Dean, David, and Tanner?—who knows. Sean Cody has yet to respond to my request for comment. One thing is certain: If Sean Cody becomes anything like Men.com, the best gay porn studio of all time is officially gone forever.

Obviously, the only way to mourn is to binge watch every single one of Calvin’s scenes.