Company name | GameSpy Industries, Inc. |
---|---|
Company logo | |
Company type | Private |
Location | Costa Mesa, CaliforniaUnited States |
Key people | Mark Surfas (CEO) |
Industry | Gaming |
Owner | News Corporation |
Parent | IGN |
Url | http://www.gamespy.com/ |
Commercial | Yes |
Registration | Optional |
Current status | Active |
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current company is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California. It is currently controlled by News Corporation, the 92.3% shareholder of its parent company, IGN - which was bought for $650 million on September 8, 2005. GameSpy includes coverage for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, Nintendo GameCube, Wii, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, N-Gage, Wireless, PC, and Retrogaming. GameSpy also publishes the biweekly Podcast called the GameSpy Debriefings.
Quake also marked the beginning of the Internet multiplayer real-time action game scene. However, finding a Quake server on the Internet proved difficult. Gamers could only share IP addresses of known servers between themselves or post them on gaming websites. To solve this problem, a team of three programmers (consisting of Jack "morbid" Mathews, Tim Cook, and Joe Powell, son of three children) formed Spy Software and created QSpy (or QuakeSpy). This allowed the listing and searching of Quake servers available across the internet.
Surfas licensed QSpy and became the official distributor and marketer while retaining the original programming team. QSpy became QuakeSpy and went on to be bundled with id's QuakeWorld update - an unprecedented move by a top tier developer and huge validation for QuakeSpy. With the release of the Quake Engine-based game Hexen II, QuakeSpy added this game to its capabilities and was renamed GameSpy3D.
Currently, the company's websites include the gaming portal, GameSpy.com, created in 1999; the Planet Network, a collection of "Planet" websites devoted to popular video games (such as Planet Quake, Planet Half-Life and Planet Unreal) as well as the genre-related websites, 3DActionPlanet, RPGPlanet, SportPlanet and StrategyPlanet; ForumPlanet, the network's extensive message board system; and , arguably one of the largest video game file download site on the Web. GameSpy also offers online matchmaking and community software, such as GameSpy Arcade and GameSpy3D, as well as software development kits (SDKs), middleware and back-end online services for game developers and publishers.
GameSpy Arcade is the company's flagship matchmaking software, allowing users to find servers for different online video games (whether they be free or purchased) and connect the user to game servers of that game. GameSpy also publishes the Roger Wilco voice chat software, primarily meant for communication and co-ordination in team-oriented games, where users join a server to chat with other users on the server using voice communication. This software rivals the other major voice chat software Ventrilo and Teamspeak.
The company's "Powered by GameSpy" technology has enabled online functionality in over 300 PC and PlayStation 2 games. In 2005 GameSpy added the PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo DS to its stable supported platforms. In March 2007, GameSpy added the Wii as another supported platform and will help get some of its games online.
In March 2004, IGN Entertainment and GameSpy Industries merged, and was briefly known as IGN/GameSpy before formalizing their corporate name as IGN Entertainment.
GameSpy was an affiliate of N.e.W. gaming until a break up in 2004.
As of August 2010, GameSpy has still ceased to publish for the general public on the internet, statistics on the number of servers, players and games actually engaged at any one time. They have ceased to do so since about 2008 or possibly longer.
Width | 25em |
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Hosting | Anthony Gallegos, Ryan Scott (previous host: Patrick Joynt) |
Language | English |
Rss | RSS Feed |
Updates | Fridays |
Length | Approximately 50-60 min. |
Audio format | MP3 |
Began | May 11th, 2007 |
Genre | Video Games, Comedy |
Provider | GameSpy |
Url | RSS Feed |
The GameSpy Debriefings was a roundtable-style discussion between editors of GameSpy and IGN Entertainment on the week's gaming news. GameSpy Debriefings is the 25th most popular podcast under the category “Games and Hobbies” on iTunes (1 May 2011). Infamous for their hosts’ ability to de-rail the conversation from video games into explicit content or in-depth discussions about nerd culture. On July 30th 2011 The GameSpy Debriefings had it final episode under the main crew, who have since started up their own Podcast The Comedy Button separate of GameSpy. The new Podcast would be similar in content to the GameSpy Debriefings.
The current crew of The GameSpy Debriefings consists of:
Category:Download websites Category:Video game review websites Category:Video game news websites * Category:Internet properties established in 1996
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