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

Gamespy IGN, Two great tastes

[cgenman]

Gamespy does one thing right: It's online matchmaking service is both very convienient and (now that inline clients are common) well done. On the other hand, Fileplanet is reviled pretty much universally. IGN, on the other hand, has never been accused of objectivity, but it is generally associated with great sites such as GameFaqs and the excellent and now deceased Daily Game News (I might be remembering the name wrong).

Where does this leave the two companies? Grasping. While both have lost the edge in terms of either timely reporting of events or accurate, believable reviews, they could concievably team up in a Cnet Zdnet paradigm, whereby both sites get all of the content and neither lose out. Of course, Cnet is notorious for doing things like declaring every new cellular phone that comes out the "world's first internet phone!" Then again, Gamespy declares every year that the latest Madden is "Only for the PS2!"

Good luck you two. At least you don't have high expectations to live up to.