Gaming Forums => General Gaming => Topic started by: TJ Spyke on October 17, 2012, 01:55:51 PM
Title: IGN up for sale
Post by: TJ Spyke on October 17, 2012, 01:55:51 PM
It's being reported that News Corporation is working with investment bank Allen & Co. to sell IGN (after a year of failing to find buyers). The Wall Street Journal (which is also owned by News Corp.) expects IGN to be sold for $100 million (come on NWR, you have that kind of money, ;) ). This is far less than the $650 million News Corp. paid for it back in 2005. Don't forget that News Corp. also bought Myspace for $580 million in 2005 and sold it last year for only $35 million. Some of the interested parties include Break Media (which owns break.com and ScreenJunkies) and SAY Media (which owns sites like Dogster). [/size] http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-10-16-ign-going-up-for-auction?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=us-daily (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-10-16-ign-going-up-for-auction?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=us-daily)
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: Fatty The Hutt on October 17, 2012, 01:57:45 PM
That site has really gone downhill, IMO. Guess the business valuators agree.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: MegaByte on October 17, 2012, 03:41:18 PM
Who wants to do a Kickstarter to buy it? :P
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: ShyGuy on October 17, 2012, 05:53:16 PM
IGN destroyed itself by putting out low value content. They need to fire the majority of people working there and start over.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: ThePerm on October 17, 2012, 07:37:03 PM
Stretch goal: We fire anyone who's ever been featured on @igndotcom (http://www.twitter.com/igndotcom), or at least the one responsible for "Our frothing demand for this game increases".
(Though I'd probably fire that guy + the guy who decided to kill PSP coverage, merge the rest of them into 1up and shut the whole thing down.)
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: MagicCow64 on October 17, 2012, 09:11:09 PM
I've been wondering what the hell the Wii/WiiU guys have been doing for two years. No way that's been full time work for quite some time. I think it's pretty clear that having dilineated tribal content channels doesn't make sense at this point.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: BranDonk Kong on October 17, 2012, 11:32:32 PM
Hopefully News Corp has to sell Faux News soon too, then someone buys it and burns it to the ground.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: TJ Spyke on October 17, 2012, 11:44:41 PM
LOL, who would have thought the one of the few things Brandogg and I agree on are politics?
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: Pixelated Pixies on October 18, 2012, 02:23:58 AM
For me alot of it had to do with not only low quality content but also with the personalities of the people who headed up the various teams. There are a handful of people working at IGN who actually know what they're talking about and fewer still who come across as likeable. Their coverage and discussion of Nintendo is just embarrassing when compared to the content put out NWR.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: S-U-P-E-R on October 18, 2012, 04:33:20 AM
IGN has had how many different owners now?
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: TJ Spyke on October 18, 2012, 05:18:34 AM
Just 2, actually. The original owners (who changer their names a few times) from 1995 to 2005, then News Corp. from 2005 to present.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: UncleBob on October 18, 2012, 05:30:11 AM
While I know this was a joke, perhaps NWR could team up with Sony, Microsoft and PC equivalent of NWR-esque websites and buy out IGN... that's only $25 Million each. :D
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: S-U-P-E-R on October 18, 2012, 06:46:57 AM
I'm pretty sure there was at least one other. I can't help but think Viacom was one of them...
Nope. According to wikipedia, a site named Snowball.com was interested in buying in, but the deal was broken off when they got flushed away after the .com-bubble burst.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: S-U-P-E-R on October 18, 2012, 08:40:47 AM
I believe the Wikipedia information is incomplete. From the looks of these articles, Snowball.com actually did own them for a period.
And before that, the company actually broke off from Imagine Publishing altogether.
http://vipy.co.uk/ign/2 (http://vipy.co.uk/ign/2)
Looks like I'm always right about everything, as usual :smug:
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: BranDonk Kong on October 18, 2012, 07:57:13 PM
Snowball definitely owned IGN for a while, I remember seeing snowball all over IGN back in the GameCube days.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: TJ Spyke on October 18, 2012, 08:06:08 PM
I think they are still related to IGN somehow, "snowball.com" redirects to IGN's corporate website.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: Do_What on October 19, 2012, 02:09:52 PM
Poor 1up. Those guys can't win for anything. IGN has been a disaster for a while. They market to a weird segment of gamers and definitely hit the lowest common denominator thing super hard. Also, their articles are not always well written. Not from a subjective "I don't agree with their review" thing, but in a "this article does not have any consistent flow" and "some major editing needed to be done to this preview" sort of way. All that said, Murdoch wanting to sell off IGN probably has nothing to do with any of that. It's just that video game reporting sites are sort of losers. Since you can't do any sort of actual investigative work or "hard" journalism or whatever so much of your content is out of their hands. They are at the mercy of publishers. If a website wanted to do things without help from publishers they would end up way behind on everything. They couldn't get previews or early review copies. They wouldn't have access to developers or be able to get help from PR people on any sort of issues. On top of that the way people consume info is different and some of the major gaming sites might just be a bit too big. If most of your content is just previews and reviews maybe you don't need so many staffers and so much money. You're just publishing videos the publishers sent you anyway. So it's never really surprising when these sites go down a bit.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: Pixelated Pixies on October 19, 2012, 02:37:58 PM
Since you can't do any sort of actual investigative work or "hard" journalism or whatever so much of your content is out of their hands. They are at the mercy of publishers. If a website wanted to do things without help from publishers they would end up way behind on everything. They couldn't get previews or early review copies. They wouldn't have access to developers or be able to get help from PR people on any sort of issues.
On top of that the way people consume info is different and some of the major gaming sites might just be a bit too big. If most of your content is just previews and reviews maybe you don't need so many staffers and so much money. You're just publishing videos the publishers sent you anyway. So it's never really surprising when these sites go down a bit.
I completely agree. I think that's why I really like Giantbomb, because those guys have deliberately moved away from the traditional previews/reviews/features model and have instead focused on having a voice, putting out great video content and building a community.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: NWR_insanolord on October 19, 2012, 02:39:31 PM
Poor 1up. Those guys can't win for anything. IGN has been a disaster for a while. They market to a weird segment of gamers and definitely hit the lowest common denominator thing super hard. Also, their articles are not always well written. Not from a subjective "I don't agree with their review" thing, but in a "this article does not have any consistent flow" and "some major editing needed to be done to this preview" sort of way. All that said, Murdoch wanting to sell off IGN probably has nothing to do with any of that. It's just that video game reporting sites are sort of losers. Since you can't do any sort of actual investigative work or "hard" journalism or whatever so much of your content is out of their hands. They are at the mercy of publishers. If a website wanted to do things without help from publishers they would end up way behind on everything. They couldn't get previews or early review copies. They wouldn't have access to developers or be able to get help from PR people on any sort of issues. On top of that the way people consume info is different and some of the major gaming sites might just be a bit too big. If most of your content is just previews and reviews maybe you don't need so many staffers and so much money. You're just publishing videos the publishers sent you anyway. So it's never really surprising when these sites go down a bit.
Since when has NewsCorp had any desire to do real journalism?
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: Fatty The Hutt on October 19, 2012, 06:49:07 PM
Poor 1up. Those guys can't win for anything. IGN has been a disaster for a while. They market to a weird segment of gamers and definitely hit the lowest common denominator thing super hard. Also, their articles are not always well written. Not from a subjective "I don't agree with their review" thing, but in a "this article does not have any consistent flow" and "some major editing needed to be done to this preview" sort of way. All that said, Murdoch wanting to sell off IGN probably has nothing to do with any of that. It's just that video game reporting sites are sort of losers. Since you can't do any sort of actual investigative work or "hard" journalism or whatever so much of your content is out of their hands. They are at the mercy of publishers. If a website wanted to do things without help from publishers they would end up way behind on everything. They couldn't get previews or early review copies. They wouldn't have access to developers or be able to get help from PR people on any sort of issues. On top of that the way people consume info is different and some of the major gaming sites might just be a bit too big. If most of your content is just previews and reviews maybe you don't need so many staffers and so much money. You're just publishing videos the publishers sent you anyway. So it's never really surprising when these sites go down a bit.
Well said. I agree with all o this. I would also get a kind of sick glee out of seeing a few IGN staffers get shitcannned because the parent company realized they don't actually do anything but post regurgitated content.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: CM30 on October 19, 2012, 07:44:45 PM
I think the reason the site's being sold is that it wasn't particularly profitable, I've heard some people say it cost a fortune to run and didn't make enough of it back from advertising.
Of course, much of that's probably due to them trying to expand too quickly and hiring too many people who don't know what they're doing. Maybe if they cut back a bit the site might both improve the quality of its content and manage to turn a decent profit.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: ShyGuy on October 19, 2012, 11:58:35 PM
Poor 1up. Those guys can't win for anything. IGN has been a disaster for a while. They market to a weird segment of gamers and definitely hit the lowest common denominator thing super hard. Also, their articles are not always well written. Not from a subjective "I don't agree with their review" thing, but in a "this article does not have any consistent flow" and "some major editing needed to be done to this preview" sort of way. All that said, Murdoch wanting to sell off IGN probably has nothing to do with any of that. It's just that video game reporting sites are sort of losers. Since you can't do any sort of actual investigative work or "hard" journalism or whatever so much of your content is out of their hands. They are at the mercy of publishers. If a website wanted to do things without help from publishers they would end up way behind on everything. They couldn't get previews or early review copies. They wouldn't have access to developers or be able to get help from PR people on any sort of issues. On top of that the way people consume info is different and some of the major gaming sites might just be a bit too big. If most of your content is just previews and reviews maybe you don't need so many staffers and so much money. You're just publishing videos the publishers sent you anyway. So it's never really surprising when these sites go down a bit.
Since when has NewsCorp had any desire to do real journalism?
Since when does the rule enforcer think he is above the law?
DIRTY INSANOLORDS DON'T THINK THE RULES DONT APPLY TO THEM
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: NWR_insanolord on October 20, 2012, 12:26:07 AM
1. The rules don't apply to me. 2. I didn't break the rules. I criticized the journalistic integrity of a so-called news outlet. That's fair game, especially since I didn't go into any politically charged specifics. They may essentially be an arm of the Republican party, but as long as they're claiming to be a news organization it's completely fair to criticize them for not living up to that.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: shingi_70 on October 20, 2012, 08:44:34 AM
But isn't every news outlet somewhat biased. I mean when i watch fox news or read the WSJ i already know its going to have a conserative slate. The same goes for the times and msnbc having a liberal one.
Also while I do like Giant bombs video content i have to say i'm really dissapointed that they dont do more focus on written content. But that whole somewhat pretentious edge/polygon/RPS well written feature isnt really giant bombs wheel house.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk 2
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: BranDonk Kong on October 20, 2012, 09:02:19 AM
We REALLY need a political thread, or at least a FAUX NEWS vs MSNBC thread, where politics can be allowed as long as they pertain to the two.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: Sundoulos on October 20, 2012, 09:54:51 AM
But isn't every news outlet somewhat biased. I mean when i watch fox news or read the WSJ i already know its going to have a conserative slate. The same goes for the times and msnbc having a liberal one.
Totally this. It's pretty obvious that the majority of the major news outlets are partisan. It's no wonder that Gallup polls found that trust in the media is at a record low. https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/21-6 (https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/21-6)
Quote
Gallup found that Republicans are the least trustful of the news, followed by those who consider themselves independents. Democrats exhibit the most confidence in the media, but even their level of trust topped out at less than 60%.
Especially taking into consideration the things that have been happening in the recent debates, it's pretty difficult to argue that the other news outlets are not partisan. Some news personalities are worse than others, however.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: Fatty The Hutt on October 20, 2012, 09:59:13 AM
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: S-U-P-E-R on October 20, 2012, 10:04:42 AM
Let's have a political gangbang in the chat and maybe this thread can go back to being about IGN
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/chat.cfm
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: oohhboy on October 23, 2012, 09:23:22 AM
How the hell is IGN worth $100 Million let alone $650 Million? Once in a blue moon I watch one of their videos and it always comes down to how long you can endure before you close it. The hosts are always obnoxious, idiotic, and have no fucking idea what they are doing. I have seen drunken Let's Play contain more coherent, insightful content.
I rather see IGN die than have somebody spend another dollar on it.
American News media is generally just outright terrible whether or not they are partisan hacks.
But isn't every news outlet somewhat biased. I mean when i watch fox news or read the WSJ i already know its going to have a conservative slate. The same goes for the times and msnbc having a liberal one.
Everyone else in the world sees it as right and more right.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: Ceric on October 23, 2012, 09:41:40 AM
But isn't every news outlet somewhat biased. I mean when i watch fox news or read the WSJ i already know its going to have a conservative slate. The same goes for the times and msnbc having a liberal one.
Everyone else in the world sees it as right and more right.
I agree with this and I live in the US. I would consider myself more a centralist in the world view but, here in the states I'm a bleeding liberal on the edge of socialism.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: TJ Spyke on October 23, 2012, 10:46:35 AM
How the hell is IGN worth $100 Million let alone $650 Million? Once in a blue moon I watch one of their videos and it always comes down to how long you can endure before you close it. The hosts are always obnoxious, idiotic, and have no fucking idea what they are doing. I have seen drunken Let's Play contain more coherent, insightful content.
I rather see IGN die than have somebody spend another dollar on it.
American News media is generally just outright terrible whether or not they are partisan hacks.
But isn't every news outlet somewhat biased. I mean when i watch fox news or read the WSJ i already know its going to have a conservative slate. The same goes for the times and msnbc having a liberal one.
Everyone else in the world sees it as right and more right.
Wow, u must be watching and reading the WRONG media outlets then because I watch some really good and fair news outlets. And your world view is wrong too.
As for IGN, their Daily Fix videos are usually good. I also love their IGN Digigods, Channel Surfing, and Nintendo Voice Chat podcasts.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: oohhboy on October 23, 2012, 10:55:37 AM
As for IGN, their Daily Fix videos are usually good. I also love their IGN Digigods, Channel Surfing, and Nintendo Voice Chat podcasts.
Digigods is fantastic. I don't really consider those guys part of IGN, they just have a deal with IGN to host and distribute their podcast. They existed before IGN involvement and will exist after I am sure.
Wade Major and Mark Keizer (the Digigods) are serious L.A. film critics with several years experience. They have been doing their Digigods podcast, which covers mainly DVD and Blu Ray releases but occasionally has cookie recipes, for years. They are smart and funny and have a good dynamic with each other. Highly recommended.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: TJ Spyke on October 23, 2012, 01:39:26 PM
It seems he is saying that he's saying the world knows best on who should be president for the good of the United States and none of those people getting polled in those countries have any bias at all and are only thinking of the good of the USA for the USA as if they were USA Citizens. None of them could possibly be having a bias towards who they want as president for the USA so their country can benefit. Also none of it has to do with if they've even heard of Romney before.
BTW, IGN will not get anywhere near $100 million for its sale. Just won't happen.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: nickmitch on October 24, 2012, 11:38:07 PM
There was a time when web sites were perceived as being these big, lucrative ventures, but those days are looooong gone. Social Networking gave them a rise, but MySpace's decline and FaceBook's inability to make actual money is proving that to be a fools' gold. IGN, as a news outlet, still probably would never rake in the big bucks. Most people want free news. Paying a website for that stuff seems almost silly. And quite honestly, I don't think ad revenue is what it used to be either. You almost can't trust ad banners, and most tech savvy people (ie, IGN's demo) know how to replace them with cats.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: shingi_70 on October 25, 2012, 01:38:02 AM
I rarely go to ign.com. I usually use their youtube channel to watch up at noon, or listen to nintendo voice chat on my podcasts. All other news is usually tweeted by rich or audery anyway.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: Spak-Spang on October 25, 2012, 01:48:34 AM
Well the problem is how do you keep your news premium.
Newspapers and television News and Magazines and such used to make money because they had the market cornered. where else could you get reliable information. But now that the internet exists. I can read something on any site and post it anywhere. Even if your site is a premium, you can't stop me from writing about something I have already read...specially since there is no copyright or anything on factual events.
Any pay news sight is going to fail because I can easily just read it else where and get the details. And unless all the sources of that information are charging there is no reason for me not to just get it else where...specially if only I have to do is wait a day or less for the information.
I find it really interesting, because media is changing, and not necessarily for the better. In the end, the only thing you can hope for is to create a trust within your readers that they keep coming back and have a desire to read your news and thoughts on the news...and not someone else's opinion.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: toddra on October 28, 2012, 11:55:58 PM
I never really cared for IGN myself. I used to read EGM back in the 90's but then they went through so many changes I kind of lost interest. Actually to be even more honest this is still the only video game site I ever visit, which isn't that often anymore.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: TJ Spyke on February 04, 2013, 01:47:57 PM
News Corp. has sold IGN to Ziff Davis Media. The price was not announced, but apparently it was less than the $100 million that News Corp. was looking for. This means Ziff Davis will get IGN, 1UP (which Ziff Davis used to own until they sold it to UGO in 2009, who themselves were bought by IGN in 2011), GameSpy, Vault Network, AskMen, and GameStats
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: BranDonk Kong on February 04, 2013, 05:27:27 PM
They could have sold IGN to a bum for $0.13 and it would still be more respectable once it left the News Corp umbrella.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: smallsharkbigbite on February 15, 2013, 12:36:25 AM
I liked IGN when they had Matt Casamassina. I thought he did a great job for the Nintendo channel and was relatively fair. When he left, I couldn't really get into any of their other content.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: ShyGuy on February 15, 2013, 01:19:48 AM
Casamassina, Bozon, and Craig were the Triforce of Nintendo coverage back in the day.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: NWR_insanolord on February 15, 2013, 01:37:05 AM
We should set up a Kickstarter so we can make IGN a subsidiary of Nintendo World Report.
EDIT: As usual, I apparently came up with the same idea as Aaron, then put it on a time-delayed post to make it appear like he got it first.
Title: Re: IGN up for sale
Post by: Caliban on February 15, 2013, 12:15:43 PM
