IGN
 |
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2007) |
Type of site | Gaming & Entertainment |
|---|---|
| Owner | News Corporation |
| Created by | Imagine Media |
| URL | http://www.ign.com/ |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Free, IGN Insider, Founder's Club |
IGN (formerly Imagine Games Network) is a multimedia news, and reviews website that focuses heavily on video games. It should not be confused with IGN Entertainment, IGN's corporate parent company, which owns and controls separate sites such as GameSpy, Rotten Tomatoes, and AskMen.
IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites, each occupying a subdomain on IGN. These sites, commonly known as "channels", cover three generations of video gaming: PC Games, Nintendo GameCube, Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Wireless, N-Gage, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, and Macintosh. Also provided are Cheats & Codes, FAQs and detailed game guides. In addition, IGN has channels for Movies, DVD, Music, Comics, Gear, Sports, Anime, Cars, Stars (formerly known as "Babes"), and TV. Each channel consists of various subsections, such as Game/Movie Profiles, Product Lists, Previews, Reviews, Features, News, Mailbag, Editor's Choice, Release Dates, as well as links to the aforementioned Cheats, FAQs and Guides.
History
Founded in September of 1996 as Imagine Games Network, IGN began as five individual websites within Imagine Publishing: N64.com, PSXPower, Saturnworld, Next-Generation.com and Ultra Game Players Online. The growth of these websites enabled Imagine to expand the network in April 1997, hiring additional staff and birthing the now-defunct advertising-focused affiliate program. In 1998, the network consolidated the individual sites as system "channels" under the IGN brand. Next-Generation and Ultra Game Players Online were not part of this consolidation; UGPO dissolved with the cancellation of the magazine, and Next-Generation was put 'on hold' when Imagine decided to concentrate on launching the short-lived Daily Radar brand.
As of June 2005, IGN claimed 23 million unique visitors a month, with 5 million registered users through all departments of the site. IGN is ranked among the top 200 most-visited websites according to Alexa, and the IGN forums are among the most active Internet forums.[citation needed]
Corporate details
IGN originally stood for Imagine Games Network. However, IGN spun off from Imagine Media on February 1, 1999, to form an independent, online-only business. At one time, Peer Schneider, VP of Publishing, said it stood for Internet Generation Network.[1] Its corporate name, Affiliation Networks, was changed to Snowball.com and became a public company soon after the break from Imagine Media.
IGN runs on a combination of advertising and subscriptions. IGN Insider is IGN's premium subscription service for approximately $US 20 a year, although it has been known to fluctuate. Subscribers, who are also known as "Insiders", get special benefits, such as higher resolution videos and full access to the message boards.
IGN relies mostly on advertising to generate income. Each page on the network has at least one ad, typically a "banner" or the smaller "billboard." There are also interstils between some pages. IGN also uses tracking cookies from both itself and partners such as DoubleClick, Overture and Tribal Fusion.
IGN has substantially grown due to the various mergers and buyouts it has conducted. While still known as Snowball, IGN acquired the Vault Network and its message boards in 1999. In March 2004, IGN Entertainment acquired GameSpy Industries. For three months it was called IGN/GameSpy before formalizing their corporate name as IGN Entertainment. In June, IGN bought the popular movie review site Rotten Tomatoes. For a short time, IGN Entertainment was the only major independent gaming website in the stock market (IGNX). However, its stock is no longer publicly traded.[citation needed]
In February 2005, they acquired the popular download site, 3D Gamers. IGN announced on March 4, 2004 that they had completed the acquisition of GameSpy. In June, they acquired AskMen.com.
On September 8, 2005, News Corporation announced that it had bought 92.3% of total stock of the company for US$650 million, giving it a controlling stake in IGN.[2] It is now a division of Fox Interactive Media (FIM), which includes MySpace, foxnews.com, and several other properties owned by News Corp. FIM is not to be confused with "Fox Interactive," which is the (functionally discontinued) video game publishing branch of 20th Century Fox.
Site editors
- Notes:
- (M) stands for an Editorial Manager
- (C) stands for an Editor-in-Chief
- (EE) stands for an Executive Editor
- (F) stands for an IGN Founder
Management Team
- Peer Schneider - Senior Vice-President and Publisher (M) (F)
- Talmadge Blevins - Vice-President, Games Content (M) (F)
- Jeremy Dunham - Editorial Manager, Games (M)
- Chris Carle - Editorial Manager, Entertainment (M)
- Fran Mirabella III - Chief Video Producer (M)
- Justin Keeling - IGN UK Director (M)
- Teddy Pierson - IGN Boards Administrator (M)
Senior Editorial Staff
- Dan Adams - IGN PC Team (C)
- Chris Roper - IGN PlayStation Team (C)
- Hilary Goldstein - IGN Xbox Team (C)
- Matt Casamassina - IGN Nintendo Team (C) (F)
- Mark Ryan Sallee - IGN Guides, Cheats, FAQs (C)
- David Clayman - IGN Insider (C)
- Marc Nix - Games Database Manager (C)
- Brian Zoromski - IGN TV (C)
- Todd Gilchrist - IGN DVD (C)
- Gerry Block - IGN Gear (C)
- Justin Kaehler - IGN Cars (C)
- Spencer A. Abbott - IGN Music (C)
Editorial Staff
- Steve Butts - IGN PC Team (EE)
- Charles Onyett - IGN PC Team
- Greg Miller - IGN PlayStation Team
- Jeff Haynes - IGN PlayStation Team
- Ryan Clements - IGN PlayStation Team
- Erik Brudvig - IGN Xbox Team
- Nate Ahearn - IGN Xbox Team (fictional virgin)[citation needed]
- Craig Harris - IGN Nintendo Team (EE) (F)
- Mark Bozon - IGN Nintendo Team
- Levi Buchanan - IGN Wireless
- Michael Thomsen - IGN Insider
- Stephen Ng - IGN FAQs
- Andre Segers - IGN Guides
- Colin Moriarty - IGN Guides
- Daemon Hatfield - News and Features
- Ryan Geddes - News and Features
- Meghan Sullivan - Database Team
- Michael Pereira - Database Team
- Brian Linder - IGN Movies
- Eric Moro - IGN Movies
- "Stax" - IGN Movies
- Dan Iverson - IGN TV
- Eric Goldman - IGN TV
- Jonathan Clavin - IGN TV (DirectTV Users)
- Bill Barnwell - IGN Sports
- Erik Harte - Senior Video Producer
- Nick Scarpino - Senior Video Producer
- Kyle Watson - Video Producer
- Ty Root - Video Producer
- Craig Beridon - Video Producer
- Amy Do - Video Producer
- Bennett Ring - IGN Australia
- Deng Xao Ping - IGN Korea
- Cam Shea - IGN Australia
- Patrick Kolan - IGN Australia
- Anoop Gantayat - IGN Japan
- Jonathan Clavin - IGN Iceland
- Alex Simmons - IGN UK
- Matt Wales - IGN UK
- Rob Burman - IGN UK
- Jessica Chobot - Host, IGN Weekly
Other sections
- In 2000, Snowball.com purchased an E-federation called the Internet Wrestling Organization (IWO) [3]. Since Snowball owned both IWO and IGN, IWO would go on to become IGN's first official E-Fed, even doing a column on the website.
- IGN For Men: This section closed down officially on October 2, 2001. It is no longer updated. IGN has sites such as IGN Stars and AskMen.com that fulfill much of the function of the old IGN ForMen site.
- IGN Wrestling met its end in early 2002, when many of the staff departed. Interviews with professional wrestling personalities and coverage of wrestling games has been folded into IGN Sports, currently headed by Jon Robinson.
- IGN Sci-Fi: Largely dead since 2002, this section of the site included movie news, comic book reviews, anime coverage, and other associated items. It has since been discontinued. The site, SciFI.ign.com now redirects to the recently created SciFiBrain.ign.com which covers some of the content of the old SciFi site.
- In 2002, IGN launched a dedicated videogame FAQs site specifically designed to host user-submitted guides.[4] This was launched following the cancellation of affiliation with GameFAQs.[5]
- In 2004, IGN launched GameStats, which serves as a more unbiased rating network, as it takes in every corporately owned game rating site, and averages it all into one score to give a general idea of the quality of a game.
- In 2005, IGN launched their comics site. It is devoted to not just the staple Marvel and DC titles, but also manga, graphic novels, statues, and toys.
- In 2006, IGN launched their television site. It provides interviews with various television celebrities in addition to a TV schedule, TV trivia, and TV news. Akin IGN FilmForce, IGN's TV section has a variety of exclusive clips from upcoming television shows.
- In 2006 IGN launched regional versions of the site based in the UK and Australia, which both share the same information as the American site but with added content authored from editors within each respective region. When visiting IGN.com from either the UK or Australia, the site automatically redirects you to your localised version using geolocation software. Each version of the site has a modified logo with the UK, Australian or American flags beneath the IGN symbol.
- On May 30, 2006, IGN Dreamcast was restarted however none of the Dreamcast updates were posted on main IGN webpage.
Podcasts
IGN has offered audio podcasts since 2005 and video podcasts (IGN Weekly) since 2006. Examples of the audio podcasts include:
- Wii-k in Review - a podcast dedicated to the Nintendo Wii and DS consoles. Most podcasts are hosted by Matt Cassamassina and Mark Bozon, the editors of the Nintendo channels although other IGN staff are known to join such as Jessica Chobot or Peer. (Weekly)
- Three Red Lights - a podcast dedicated to the Xbox 360 console. The podcast was hosted by Hilary Goldstein, former editor-in-chief of the Xbox team, with regular input from Erik Brudvig, Nate Ahearn, and David Clayman and the Jeff Bell (a parody of the Microsoft employee with the same name that called Reggie Bush his brother and "dog"). Hilary Goldstein no longer hosts the show due to the fact that he is in vacation until next year. The podcast gets its name from the Xbox 360's indicator, which flashes three red lights when a "general hardware failure" has occurred. Each podcast begins with a 'moment of silence' for all the Xbox 360's that have experienced the three red lights during the last week. (Weekly)
- Podcast Beyond - a podcast dedicated to the PlayStation 3. This podcasts catch-line is yelling "BEYOND"! (Weekly)
During the end of each Episode One of the podcast members sings a parody song about the podcast.
To Date the Song list is as follows:
Podcast Beyond, Episode 22: Portal - Still Alive - Sung By Ryan Clements
Podcast Beyond, Episode 21: Super Mario Bros Theme - Sung By Greg Miller
Podcast Beyond, Episode 20: Sarah McLachlan - I Will Remember You - Sung By Greg Miller
Podcast Beyond, Episode 19: Marvin Gaye - Whats Goin' On - Sung By Jeff Haynes
Podcast Beyond, Episode 18: The Dispatch - The General - Sung By Greg Miller
Podcast Beyond, Episode 17: Van Morrison - Moondance - Sung By Ryan Clements
Podcast Beyond, Episode 16: The Beatles - Lady Madonna - Sung By Ryan Clements
Podcast Beyond, Episode 15: Semisonic - Closing Time - Sung By Greg Miller
Podcast Beyond, Episode 14: Right Said Fred - I’m to Sexy - Sung By Greg Miller
Podcast Beyond, Episode 13: The Rembrandts - I'll Be There For You - Sung By Greg Miller
Podcast Beyond, Episode 12: Haddaway - What Is Love - Sung By Greg Miller
Podcast Beyond, Episode 11: ??? - ??? - Sung By Greg Miller
Podcast Beyond, Episode 10: ??? - ??? - Sung By Ryan Clements and Jeff Haynes
Podcast Beyond, Episode 9 : Queen - We Will Rock You - Sung By Ryan Clements and Jeff Haynes
Podcast Beyond, Episode 8 : Lou Bega - Mambo Number 5 - Sung By Greg Miller
Podcast Beyond, Episode 7 : Brittney Spears - Hit Me One More Time - Sung By Greg Miller
Podcast Beyond, Episode 6 : Nine Inch Nails - Head Like a Hole - Sung By Jeff Haynes
Podcast Beyond, Episode 5 : John Lennon - Happy Christmas - Sung By Greg Miller
Podcast Beyond, Episode 4 : Divinyls - I Touch Myself - Sung By Greg Miller
Podcast Beyond, Episode 3 : Cory Heart - Sunglasses at Night - Sung By Greg Miller
Podcast Beyond, Episode 2 : Proclaimers - 500 Miles - Sung By Greg Miller
Podcast Beyond, Episode 1 : Journey - Wheel in the Sky - Sung By Greg Miller
- Game Scoop - a podcast reviewing the week in video games news. This podcast also has a catch-line, yelling "SCOOP" (Weekly)
- Alt+Tab - a podcast dedicated to PC gaming. (Monthly)
- IGN is AFK - a podcast where IGN editors choose a random gaming related topic and discuss it, and also a month in review podcast, highlighting key titles released in the previous month (Weekly)
- IGN Wireless - a podcast dedicated to mobile gaming. (Irregular)
- Don't Tase Me, Bro! - an IGN insider podcast. (Name to change soon)
References
- ^ "Insider Inbox". 2003-02-28. Retrieved 2006-11-04.
- ^ "News Corp buys internet firm IGN". BBC News. 2005-09-08. Retrieved 2006-11-04.
- ^ "Internet Wrestling Organization". Archived from the original on 2000-05-19.
- ^ "Get the FAQs". IGN. 2002-07-09.
- ^ "GameFAQs homepage". 2001-01-09. Archived from the original on 2001-01-18.
