IGN/GameSpy Tries Hitpoints, Lusts Non-Gaming Market

Thanks to Washington Post/MSNBC for its fairly hagiographic profile of the merged IGN/GameSpy website/game matchmaking network. Among the more interesting comments: "IGN/GameSpy is letting some subscribers download entire games instead of just patches. Firaxis's Civilization III: Play the World is one of the debut titles under the program, called HitPoints... [which] gives away games on a frequent-flier-style basis, determined by how many and what kind of GameSpy subscription programs a user has signed up for." It's also revealed: "Chief executive Mark A. Jung would not mind the company being a Best Buy Co. or Circuit City Stores Inc. He cites Viacom Inc., the vast entertainment and publishing conglomerate, as an example of the multi-brand company he wants IGN/GameSpy to be, one that builds on his core audience." Does IGN/GameSpy accurately represent the mainstream?

Comments

hagiograpic

[peripatetic_bum]

Sorry Just had to look up the definition for Hagiographic.

Sounds like they are using the second meaning of the word here

Re:Hardly worth it.

[tvalley000]

which will get you 5 games on par with Prince of Persia SoT or Civ 3

And so you spend all that money on games that will likely be reduced in price within that year's time to levels that don't even compare with your subscription fee.

For example: Civ 3 latest expansion (which includes the original game, and all expansions to date) was selling for 9.95 from Amazon recently. As they use that as an example, I find it very hard to understand how'd you end up getting a value out of this as a player.