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IGN/Gamespy Going Public

Posted by Zonk on from the good-luck dept.

GameDailyBiz has the news that gaming media powerhouse IGN is going public. From the press release: "IGN owners Great Hill partners were recently looking for someone to purchase the company, and then priced IGN for over $800 million dollars. According to Media Metrix, IGN and its sister sites attract over 25 million users a month. This includes GameSpy, RottenTomatoes, FilePlanet, TeamXbox, and VE3D. IGN also provides online gaming technology for hundreds of video game developers."

8 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. Whoopty Shit... by ZephyrXero · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As if IGN wasn't a crappy enough site already, now we've got the shareholders to put their worthless voices in on it too... Public corporations are a waste of time if you want to do anything more than make money...

    --
    "A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
    1. Re:Whoopty Shit... by vertinox · · Score: 2, Interesting

      now we've got the shareholders to put their worthless voices in on it too...

      So let me get this straight, if one buys enough stock, one might say... Get unbanned on their forums and get ad free downloads on file planet? And maybe ban a few non-stock holders off the planet forums while your at it? Seems like Capitalism works for me!

      --
      "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
      -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
  2. 800 Million dollars? by hobotron · · Score: 5, Funny


    Yeah, of annoying flash ads, interrupting full screen ads, html overlay ads, are-you-sure-you-want-to-click-that picture-cause-it-might-be-an-ad ads, 25 million hits because reviews are split over more 10 more million pages than TomsHardware.

    Actually, I salute them for making the internet's first advertisement wildlife preserve.

    --
    There is truth in humor.
    1. Re:800 Million dollars? by superpulpsicle · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Nowadays you have to get to the central hub www.gamerankings.com. They link you directly to the game in an organized format may I add.

      The only thing SPECIAL about gamespy not matched anywhere else is http://archive.gamespy.com/stats/
      which gives you almost realtime statistics on the most popular games online. If there is anything better, let me know.

  3. Deja vu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hold on a second, wasn't this already pulled under the (now deceased ?) company/scam dubbed "Snowball" during the peak of the dot-bomb era?

    Ah, how soon the public forgets. It was a poor choice for a name btw. ;)

  4. I agree by hexghost · · Score: 3, Insightful

    IGN is complete shit. Their reviews are worth less than the data that stores them. I'd rather just pay a monkey to hoot and holler and act excited - at least you know the monkey is honest. Their sites are so jam packed full of ads its not even funny. And who gives a f*** what their stupid staff is playing right now?
    Don't even get me started about fileplanet. I don't want to sign up to IGN's marketing system just to get a game patch, and I don't want to pay to do it either.
    I hope IGN gets bought up by someone who promptly fires off the entire staff and turns it into, well, its hard to make it worse, so just fire the staff.

    1. Re:I agree by aeoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well said. IGN is a joke. I think it reflects the heavy corporatization of gaming and the overwhelming amount of boring and half-baked knock-offs and promotional games (all the games with the same title as the "popular" movie of the month).

      One can only hope someone remembers what gaming was all about originally.

  5. Why is IGN bad? by zuivelproduct · · Score: 2, Insightful

    (I am not associated in any way with metacritic or IGN, this is just my honest opinion)
    I usually go to metacritic.com for reviews of games. They take a lot of reviews from other sites, convert their ratings to a '0 to 100' scale and calculate an average score.
    I've found that these scores reflect my own opinion most of the time (not always).
    Now, IGN's score is usually close to the average score. This indicates to me that they are not very biased at all. And I usually find the reviews themselves to be pretty good as well. They cover all the aspects of the game and give a good impression.
    Now, I am naive or missing something?
    I do agree that sometimes the add overdose can be annoying, but I think the content of IGN is just fine.