GameSpy And IGN To Merge

Bagels writes "'I had a big company, and he had a big company, and now we have a very big company.' This very appropriate Simpsons quote begins IGN's announcement regarding its imminent merger with GameSpy Industries, their former rival. GameSpy has its own announcement about this, as well. The official press release claims the companies' two websites will remain separate entities, and those websites will retain their original feel; the merger is mainly to pool the financial (and likely informational) resources of the two companies. The merger will be completed in the first half of 2004 - SpyGN, anyone?"

Comments

ehhhh

[acxr is wasted]

This combination offers tremendous synergies as GameSpy and IGN have very complementary strengths

What is it about business deals that reduces everything to verbal sludge?

The quality of IGN's articles is far beyond that of Gamespy's... Hopefully the Gamespy editorial staff gets downsized in the process, and thus forever freeing games.slashdot.org from stupid Gamespy filler articles.

Re:ehhhh

[UltimaL337Star]

"The quality of IGN's articles is far beyond that of Gamespy's... Hopefully the Gamespy editorial staff gets downsized in the process, and thus forever freeing games.slashdot.org from stupid Gamespy filler articles." No, that would only lower the choices of stupid filler articles... Eventually we will accept the inevitable.

Ads

[fredrikj]

Does this mean I'll have to click through two advertisement pages each time I want to read a review?

Re:Ads

[b0r0din]

You ain't kidding. The ads on gamespy are definently an eyesore. I don't even go there anymore, it's so hard to actually find a review through all the awful advertising crap.

"Oh look, new Mario game on...*click*...damn I thought I saw something under that translucent army ad that has no X to close...ahh there *click*...now if I can only *click* get these *click* mother*click*ing pages *click* to come up."

Come to think of it, it's like it's own video game experience. "Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to click through all the crap and try to find a worthwhile article."

And no, there's no fscking way I'm payin 15 dollars a year. Maybe 3-5 bucks, but not 15.

Re:Ads

[Babbster]

Forgive me for stating what should be obvious (and perhaps veering a bit offtopic), but wouldn't it be better to use Mozilla/Firebird rather than giving up on sites that might have content you want to access? I visit Gamespy once a day (mainly to remind myself of new games that I might otherwise forget) and with Firebird I don't get annoying ads - in other words, there are still ads but only the static, banner-types.

Come to think of it, maybe this is why I get a bit confused when people talk about Gamespy in ways that make it sound like the site is a cesspool, since using Firebird means I don't even see the in-between-pages ads.

Ah..

[OutRigged]

There's nothing like the consolidation of two evil companies.

Thank god.

[pr0ntab]

That's one less domain I have to maintain in my spam/ad-filtering regexes.

Re:Thank god.

[CasulPoster]

Nope, they're staying as two different sites. Now they'll just have a more coordinated strategy for selling you things.

Where's the benefit to us?

[BortQ]

In any big merger like this I can't help but feel disappointed. We go from a state of having two independent sources to having only one.

I'm sure that some staff will be let go to reduce costs and eliminate duplication. But the duplication is what users like. Two differing views are better than one.

Re:Where's the benefit to us?

[Captain Beefheart]

"We go from a state of having two independent sources to having only one."

From the press release: "Both brands will remain separate entities."

Re:Where's the benefit to us?

[BortQ]

Yeah sure, both brands will remain separate entities. Then they will start to share content. Maybe the message boards will be merged. Eventually what's the point of having both of them around?

It's quite common to lie at the outset of a merger. Saying that no jobs will be lost or some such. It puts a good spin on the move. Then after the deal is done they can do whatever they want. And they will do what's the most cost-effective.

Hopefully they will keep the best from both and make a good site.

Re:Where's the benefit to us?

[sevensharpnine]

You're incorrect. We went from having zero independent sources to having zero independent sources. IGN is the worst, with a notable proportion between a game's advertising and its review score. Gamespy's reviews have been better (their console reviews are quite decent), but they are the model for what's wrong with the Internet today.

Gamespy is the ultimate consumer-feeding media machine. You don't go to Gamespy to find out what's cool; you go to Gamespy to be told what's cool. It's the online equivalent of MTV, complete with drooling fandroids absorbing the mindless consumerism that the advertisers want. That's all Gamespy is--one large, expertly crafted advertisement. There's no original or meaningful contribution to the Internet there. They take mod/map authors' work and basically sell it (specifically, they sell bandwidth to it).

They cater to the absolute lowest denominator of the public. There is never an engaging idea, never a meaningful news item, rarely a forum conversation with a coherent theme on Gamespy. I could understand if it was mainly kids there (as it was in years past), but I'm honestly concerned about the state of gaming when I look at the intellectual midgets that populate Gamespy today.

I don't think people see it. It's right fucking there, all in the open. Read. A game being announced is news. A game being released is news. A game being patched is news. Never mind it was broken in the first place!

Each and every aspect of Gamespy has two purposes: the first, to gently shape the visitors' thought, to encourage them to buy; second, to show the advertisers what type of people visit Gamespy--those that can't differentiate between an advertisement and a news story!

Yes, I'm disappointed too. Not because two companies have turned to one, though. I'm disappointed by the fact that Gamespy has enough visitors (and hence ad revenue) to grow. Gamers of the past were more discriminate and more demanding from gaming journalism. This newest batch of gamers has shown a new trait. They don't think. They just listen.

Re:Where's the benefit to us?

[sevensharpnine]

I could reinforce my arguement with links, but they would be to sites that don't exist anymore. There may be some true independant games journalism left on the Internet, but they won't be of sufficient size to matter. It's a complex situation: the game companies often give the exclusive previews and ad money to the pseudo-journalists like Gamespy. And people want that up-to-date content, slant and bias be damned.

Re: Gamespot is Good

[davidslife_com]

I think that the reviews on Gamespot.com are way better than ad hoc reviews *or* stuff on Gamespy and IGN. Also, their video features and clips are much more representative . . .

Two press birds with one webcomic stone!

[Bansuki]

Looks like PA can make fun of GameSpy and IGN at the same time now.

Re:Two press birds with one webcomic stone!

[mraymer]

They already did. This is Friday's strip:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2003/20031205l. jpg

Good news and bad news

[NetDanzr]

As a writer and editor for a small, independent review site, I view this merger as both good and bad.

On one hand, with a single dominant company we are likely to get more visitors who are disenchanted with them. Before, manly people (not all, of course) went to IGN if they disliked GameSpy and vice versa; now they'll spread out over the smaller sites, and we are likely to get a piece of the pie. In addition, publishers will most likely catter to smaller sites more, as they won't stand idle while a marketing channel is getting monopolized.

On the other hand, this merger does have some negative effects on me as a reviewer and a gamer. First, the new company would have enough leverage to try to push us out of the gaming field or acquire us, mainly by signing exclusive deals with publishers. Second, they'll have much more resources to overhype a game, which will result into high-quality titles (adventures, wargames, turn-based strategies) being pushed even further into background, killing of their developers and offering a smaller choice of games for me.

Re:Good news and bad news

[JAYOYAYOYAYO]

bro, you average about 15 views and 1 comment per news posting on your site. i dont think you have to worry about IGN/GameSpy acquiring you...

Re:Good news and bad news

[unclethursday]

You gave Smash Bros. a *6.5*?!

They also gave Viewtiful Joe a 5.5...

Well, glad I had never heard of the site before, no I can go back to not having heard of it again.

Re:Good news and bad news

[NetDanzr]

Quite frankly, I can't tell you whether the game deserved a 6.5 or not, as I am a 100% PC gamer. However, considering that average is 5, 6.5 is a pretty good, above average score. Anything above 7.5 is excellent, and anything above 9 is an instant classic. I have yet to rate a PC game that highly...

Too late

[Scrameustache]

those websites will retain their original feel;

I'm sorry, but IGN lost its original feel about a gazillion annoying ads ago.

Do they even have content anymore?

Re:Too late

[Anonymous Coward]

Best damn McGriddle review I ever read...lemme tell you that.

Oh and as for ad's

[xQuarkDS9x]

As for ad's on Gamespy and IGN which can be bloody annoying as heck, that is what proxy filtering is for. Setup something like Proxomitron and JD5000 Filters for Proxomitron and you can kiss all those flash and regular ad's goodbye and actually READ content on the Gamespy/IGN sites without being bombarded by ad's.

A Gamespy Response

[Doodleman3]

Dave "Fargo" Kosak one of the founders of Gamespy talks about this merger in his weekly coulum called PlanetFargo.

http://www.gamespy.com/fargo/december03/merger/