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| File:IgnLogo.png | |
| File:Ignmain.png | |
| Type of site | Gaming & Entertainment |
|---|---|
| Owner | IGN Entertainment |
| Created by | Imagine Media |
| URL | http://www.ign.com/ |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Free, IGN Insider, Founder's Club |
IGN 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.
Founded in September of 1996 as Imagine Games Network, IGN began as three individual websites within Imagine Publishing: N64.com, PSXPower, and Saturnworld. 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 eventually became Daily Radar.
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, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, GameCube, Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy, Wireless, N-Gage, PlayStation, N64, 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, Cars, Babes, Sci-Fi Brain, Horror Brain, 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.
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.
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. 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, Tribal Fusion and Claria Corporation.
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.
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. It is now a division of Fox Interactive Media (FIM), which includes MySpace.com, 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.
In legal affairs: in May 2006, IGN filed a motion to shut down former employee Ashkan Karbasfrooshan's company, WatchMojo.com. The judge sided with Karbasfrooshan; the case is ongoing.
Site editors
- Notes:
- (M) stands for an Editorial Manager
- (C) stands for an Editor-in-Chief
- (F) stands for an IGN Founder
- Peer Schneider - Vice President Site Content (M) (F)
- Steven Horn - Publisher, Entertainment and Lifestyle (M) (F)
- Talmadge Blevins - Editorial Director, Games (M) (F)
- Chris Carle - Editorial Manager, Entertainment (M)
- Dan Adams - IGN PC (C)
- Steve Butts - IGN PC
- Charles Onyett - IGN PC
- Jeremy Dunham - IGN PS2, PS3, PSP (C)
- Chris Roper - IGN PS2, PS3, PSP
- Juan Castro - IGN PS2, PS3, PSP
- Jeff Haynes - IGN PS2, PS3, PSP
- Douglass C. Perry - IGN Xbox, Xbox 360 (C) (F)
- Jon Miller - IGN Xbox, Xbox 360
- Erik Brudvig - IGN Xbox, Xbox 360
- Matt Casamassina - IGN Wii, Cube (C) (F)
- Mark Bozon - IGN Wii, Cube, DS, GBA
- Craig Harris - IGN DS, Game Boy (C) (F)
- Fran Mirabella III - Chief Video Producer (C)
- Erik Harte - Video Producer
- Brennan Ieyoub - Lead Video Producer
- Ty Root - Video Producer
- Nick Scarpino - Video Producer
- Kyle Watson - Video Producer
- Mark Ryan Sallee - IGN Guides, Cheats, FAQs (C)
- Jason Allen -IGN Cheats
- Levi Buchanan - IGN Wireless (C)
- David Adams - News and Features Editor
- Kathleen Sanders - News and Features Editor
- Daemon Hatfield - News and Features Editor
- Brian Zoromski - IGN TV (C)
- Brian Linder - IGN Movies
- Eric Moro - IGN Movies
- "Stax" - IGN Movies
- Todd Gilchrist - IGN DVD (C)
- Spencer A. Abbott - IGN Music (C)
- Hilary Goldstein - IGN Comics (C)
- Jon Robinson - IGN Sports (C)
- Justin Kaehler - IGN Cars
- David Clayman - IGN Insider (C)
- Craig Beridon - IGN Insider
- Anoop Gantayat - IGN Japan
- Aaron Boulding - Not Host of IGN Weekly
- Jessica Chobot - IGN Weekly
- Marc Nix - Games Database Manager
- Meghan Sullivan - Database Team
- Teddy Pierson - IGN Boards Administrator (M)
- Gerry Block - IGN Gear
- Thomas Byrnes - IGN Korea
Top "All-Time" Lists
IGN has become quite popular with making "Top Lists" (ie Top 10, Top 25, etc.) Some of the more popular lists include:
- Top 25 X-Men
- Top 10 Bond Babes
- Top 25 Film Franchises All-Time
- Top 50 Loose Ends
- Top 10 Arcade Title
Other sections
- In 2000, Snowball.com purchased an E-federation called the Internet Wrestling Organization (IWO) . 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 Babes 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. This was launched following the cancellation of affiliation with GameFAQs.
- 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 and the articles and Retroviews written were "Fan-boyish" rather than IGN standards.
Notes and references
- "Forum Rankings". Big-Boards.com.
- "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.