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

the company being a Best Buy Co. or Circuit City

[Grand]

Id rather drive to the store, stand in line, and drive back home instead of sitting through a bunch of flash ad's on their site.

Re:the company being a Best Buy Co. or Circuit Cit

[FoolishBose]

I agree, walking to the store to buy a new game is the only time I have to walk outside and interact with the world these days...oh wait, I get them from Suprnova, nevermind.

Hardly worth it.

[Ykant]

Points to download games. Not a bad idea in and of itself, but I have a problem with how much you have to purchase in order to get the points. It's an annual $24.95 (which will automatically renew every year) in order to use their software(GameSpy 3d) without being interrupted by (very annoying when you just want to get on with playing a game) ads. This is their base products, and I would imagine that this is their biggest seller.

The average game seems to cost around 600 points. How many points do you receive for the $24.95 annual subscription? Goose egg. Zero.

Now, they really push the $79.95 package - no ads anywhere on the GameSpy network (and you must admit, they've got some obnoxious ads), a newsletter, and some magazine subscriptions which will likely get you goodness-knows-how-many more additional junk mails and telemarketer calls at home.

For an extra $10, you get a membership on IGN. And for your $89.95 subscription, you get 1,200 points. To get the "best" deal, 3000 points (which will get you 5 games on par with Prince of Persia SoT or Civ 3), you've got to sign up for the $89.95 subscription for two years. Maybe this is a good deal for someone, but it's not me.

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.

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.

Re:Gamespy IGN, Two great tastes

[Snowmit]

It's GameSpot, not IGN that's involved with GameFAQs. If it was IGN, then every now and then GIANT HAMBURGERS would dance all over the screen while you desperately tried to figure out how to see more of the DOA girls' breasts.

The answer is...

[MMaestro]

Does IGN/GameSpy accurately represent the mainstream?

No.

Judging someone's preferences to video games based on what they subscribe to is like judging someone's preferences on food based on what they buy. Sure a college student LOGICALLY likes instant ramen if he buys a Costco sized 48 pack of the stuff every week. But when you take other factors into consideration (budget, time, lazyness, want something to eat a 4 AM while studing for your final, etc) obviously you noticed the data is slanted.

Same with video games. When you're in college and you're stuck in a small room with 2-4 other guys you've never met until 2 months ago, you're not gonna 'break the ice' with a game like Xenosaga or Final Fantasy. No you're gonna reach for a game like Goldeneye, Halo, or Quake. But when College Calvin goes back home, he MIGHT keep playing those games, or he might go back to his old singleplayer friendly games like turn-based strategy games.

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