IGN
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| IGN | |
|---|---|
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| URL | http://www.ign.com/ |
| Commercial? | Yes |
| Type of site | Gaming & Entertainment |
| Registration | Free, IGN Insider, Founder's Club |
| Owner | News Corporation |
| Created by | Imagine Media |
| Launched | 1996 |
| Current status | Active |
IGN (abbreviated and formerly known as International Gaming Network) is a multimedia news and reviews website that focuses heavily on video games. Its corporate parent is IGN Entertainment, 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, Retro, 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.
Contents |
[edit] History
Founded in September of 1996 as Imagine Games Network, IGN began as six individual websites within Imagine Publishing: IGN64.com, PSXPower, Saturnworld, Happypeople.com, 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.[1]
IGN celebrated their tenth year on the 12th of January, 2008.[2]
[edit] Site editors
Notes
- (F) stands for an IGN Founder
[edit] Management Team and Editorial Managers
- Senior Vice-President and Publisher (F) (Blog)
- Vice-President, Games Content (F) (Blog)
- Chris Carle
- Editorial Director, Entertainment (Blog)
- Editorial Manager, Games (Blog)
- Chief Video Producer (Blog)
- Justin Keeling
- IGN UK Director
- Teddy Pierson
- IGN Boards Administrator
[edit] Senior Editorial Staff and Editors-in-Chief
- Jason Ocampo
- IGN PC Team
- Chris Roper
- IGN PlayStation Team (Blog)
- Hilary Goldstein
- IGN Xbox Team (Blog)
- IGN Nintendo Team (F) (Blog)
- David Clayman
- IGN Insider (Blog)
- Mark Ryan Sallee
- IGN Guides, Cheats, FAQs (Blog)
- Marc Nix
- Games Database Manager
- Narayan Pattison
- IGN Australia
- Alex Simmons
- IGN UK
- Brian Zoromski
- IGN TV
- Todd Gilchrist
- IGN DVD
- Gerry Block
- IGN Gear (Blog)
- Justin Kaehler
- IGN Cars
- Spencer A. Abbott
- IGN Music
- Eric Moro
- IGN Movies
[edit] Editorial Staff
IGN Nintendo
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- Craig Harris - Executive Editor (F) (Blog)
- Mark Bozon - Associate Editor (Blog)
- Daemon "The Dirty Bird" Hatfield - Associate Editor (Blog)
IGN PC
IGN Xbox
IGN Playstation
News and Features
-
- (No longer exists)
IGN Cheats, Guides & FAQs
Video Production Team
IGN Database Team
IGN Wireless & IGN Retro
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- Levi Buchanan - Editor (Blog)
IGN Insider
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- Michael Thomsen - Associate Editor (Blog)
IGN Movies
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- Brian Linder - IGN Movies (Blog)
- "Stax" - IGN Movies
IGN TV
IGN DVD
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- Christopher Monfette - IGN DVD
- Michelle Zoromski - IGN DVD
IGN Sports
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- Bill Barnwell - Editor (Blog)
IGN Australia
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- Cam Shea - IGN Australia
- Patrick Kolan - IGN Australia (Blog)
IGN Japan
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- Anoop Gantayat - IGN Japan
- John Tanaka - IGN Japan
IGN UK
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- Matt Wales - IGN UK
- Martin Robinson - IGN UK
- Alec Meer - IGN UK
- Chris Tilly - IGN UK
- Orlando Parfitt - IGN UK
- Martin Korda - IGN UK
IGN Comics
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- Dan Phillips - IGN Comics
- Jesse Schedeen - IGN Comics
- Richard George - IGN Comics
- Bryan Joel - IGN Comics
- Daniel Crown - IGN Comics
- Brian Ewing - IGN Comics
Other
[edit] Scoring
A member of the IGN staff writes a review for a game and gives it a score between 0.0 and 10, which is assigned by increments of 0.1 and determines how much the game is recommended. The score is given according to individual aspects like presentation, graphics, sound, gameplay and lasting appeal. Some of the games that received a 10/10 score are Soul Calibur for Dreamcast[4], Pokémon Red and Blue for Game Boy Color[5][6], and four games from The Legend of Zelda series: Ocarina of Time for Nintendo 64[7], Link's Awakening DX for Game Boy Color[8], Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons for Game Boy Color[9][10] and Tornado Mania. In April 2008, Grand Theft Auto IV http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/869/869381p7.html Grand Theft Auto IV Review</ref>. IGN UK also gave GTA IV a 10 (this was the first 10 given by IGN UK to a game [11]). To date, they have given a total of 24 games (including cross-gen ports) a rating of 10 out of 10 [12].
[edit] Other sections
- In 2000, Snowball.com purchased an E-federation called the Internet Wrestling Organization (IWO).[13] 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.[14] This was launched following the cancellation of affiliation with GameFAQs.[15]
- 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.
- In 2007 IGN launched their anime site. It provided features on anime and manga including trailers and free episodes. It also included reviews of manga and anime from other section of IGN, such as IGN Comics and IGN DVD.
- In 2008 IGN launched their Retro channel to mark IGN's 10th anniversary.[16]
- To coincide with the release of Super Smash Bros Brawl IGN created Super Smash Bros World Site. On the site people can submit their user created stages from the game and download ones made by other people.
- On April 1, 2008, IGN pulled an April Fools Day prank: They announced the release of a live-action Legend of Zelda movie, set to be released on April 1, 2009, along with an exclusive trailer. After much speculation, it was revealed later in the day that the trailer was, in fact, a fake. Several days later they released a "making of" video. They also featured an interview with the makers in the following Game Scoop Podcast. This prank was similar to an April Fools Day joke they pulled in 2005, when they "announced" a live action Metroid movie which would supposedly star Michelle Rodriguez. This prank was also revealed to be a hoax soon after.
[edit] Podcasts
IGN has offered audio podcasts since 2005 and video podcasts (IGN Weekly) since 2006. Examples of the audio podcasts include:
- Nintendo Voice Chat (formerly Wii-k in Review)
- Nintendo Voice Chat (formerly Wii-k in Review) is a podcast dedicated to the Nintendo Wii and DS consoles.(Weekly - Monday)
- Three Red Lights
- Three Red Lights is a podcast dedicated to the Xbox 360 console.[17] (Weekly - Wednesday) The Podcast now has an official tagline of "What games do you game?", and its own fan created website at www.whatgamedoyougame.com. Features 'Jeff Bell' - a bell, called Jeff, that is rung when ever anyone uses marketing speak or male banter .eg. 'dawg'. Recently it has begun to be rung when one of the cast refers to the 'King's Crusade'; set up in the wake of Don King's appearance on the podcast.
- Podcast Beyond
- Podcast Beyond is a podcast dedicated to all things PlayStation. This podcast's catch-line is yelling "BEYOND"! (Weekly - Thursday)
- Game Scoop
- Game Scoop is a podcast reviewing the week in video games news. This podcast also has a catch-line, yelling "SCOOP" (Weekly - Friday) (Blog)
An Ign Gamescoop PC game is currently in production by Garage Developer Harris Foster and Graphics artist Javi Rodriguez (Blog)
- Command Prompt
- Command Prompt a podcast dedicated to PC gaming. Used to be named Alt+Tab. (Bi-Weekly - Tuesday)
- IGN is AFK
- IGN is AFK is 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 (Cancelled)
- To Catch an Editor Video Podcast
- To Catch an Editor video Podcast is the new IGN Insider video podcast (replacement for the 'Don't Tase Me, Bro!' podcast) (Weekly)
- Tech Fetish
- Tech Fetish is a podcast dedicated to tech and gear. (Weekly - Wednesday)
- Keepin' it Reel
- Keepin' it Reel is a podcast dedicated towards movie news and events. (Weekly - Thursday)
- GameSages Podcast
- GameSages Podcast is the replacement and spiritual successor to IGN is AFK. The podcast gets people from the games industry to talk about the latest trends, influences and software in the industry. [18] (Ireggular)
- Channel Surfing
- Channel Surfing is a podcast about news and events in television. (Weekly - Friday)
- RetroCity
- RetroCity is a podcast hosted by Levi Buchanan which talks about retro games and developers. (Bi-weekly - Tuesday)
[edit] References
- ^ ign.com - Site Information from Alexa
- ^ IGN: Origins: The History of IGN
- ^ IGN: Game Scoop! Podcast, Episode 71
- ^ IGN: Soulcalibur Review
- ^ IGN: Pokemon Red Version Review
- ^ IGN: Pokemon Blue Version Review
- ^ IGN: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Review
- ^ IGN: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX Review
- ^ IGN: The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages Review
- ^ IGN: The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons Review
- ^ IGN: Grand Theft Auto IV Review
- ^ Search Results for "" on IGN
- ^ 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.
- ^ IGN: Playing With the Past: IGN Retro
- ^ IGN: Three Red Lights Podcast: Episode 25
- ^ IGN: GameSages Podcast, Episode 2
[edit] External links
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