Nintendo WiFi Connection is brought to you by GameSpy, Rupert Murdoch, and the letter Q.In the latest gaming media acquisition, the Associated Press is reporting that News Corp intends to purchase IGN Entertainment for $650 million. Last year, IGN swallowed GameSpy Networks, and Nintendo recently announced that the upcoming Nintendo WiFi Connection service will use technology from IGN's GameSpy division, similar to the GameSpy matching service for online PC games.
News Corp is a media conglomerate run by Australian businessman Rupert Murdoch, who has openly expressed an interest in entering the video game industry. News Corp already owns Fox Interactive, a game division known for such titles as No One Lives Forever. Fox Interactive currently licenses all of its games over to Vivendi Universal Games, which publishes them under its own labels such as Sierra Entertainment. Some of these games have been released on Nintendo systems, including games based on The Simpsons and Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series.
This deal will probably not directly affect the relationship between Nintendo and GameSpy, but we'll let you know if it anything changes.
Thanks to Josh Hogan for the tip!