IGN

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For other uses, see IGN (disambiguation).
IGN Entertainment, Inc.
Type Division of News Corporation[1]
Foundation date September 1996
Headquarters San Francisco, California, U.S.
Key people David Martin (President)
Peer Schneider (Senior Vice President for Content and Publisher)
Industry Video game journalism
Owner News Corporation
Employees 400
Parent News Corporation
Subsidiaries AskMen
GameStats
Website www.ign.com
Alexa rank Decrease 323 (March 2012)[2]
Registration Free
IGN Insider
Founder's Club
Available in English, German, Swedish, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Malay, Danish, Finnish
Current status Active

IGN (which formerly stood for Imagine Games Network) is an American entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment. Videogame-related channels include PC Games, Wii, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, Nintendo 3DS, iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad), Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii U, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation Portable, Xbox Live, Wireless, Retro, and Android games.

IGN's corporate parent is IGN Entertainment, which owns and controls separate sites, such as GameStats, VE3D, TeamXbox, Vault Network, FilePlanet and AskMen.

Contents

[edit] History

IGN Entertainment's former headquarters in Brisbane, California.

Created in September 1996 as the Imagine Games Network, IGN was founded by publishing executive Jonathan Simpson-Bint and began as five individual websites within Imagine Media: N64.com (later renamed ign64.com), PSXPower, Saturnworld, Next-Generation.com and Ultra Game Players Online. Additionally, Imagine contracted with several well established independent websites such as PSX Nation.com, Vidgames.com, Sega-Saturn.com and Nintendojo.com which gave its launch a significant user base to build on. 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; U.G.P.O. 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. Then-parent company Snowball.com held an IPO in 2000, which subsequently failed with the burst of the dot-com bubble.

In June 2005, IGN reported having 24,000,000 unique visitors per month, with 4.8 million registered users through all departments of the site. IGN is ranked among the top 200 most-visited websites according to Alexa.[3] In September 2005, IGN was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's multi-media business empire, News Corporation, for $650 million.[4] Currently, the IGN website contains categories that include games, music, TV and film-related topics. IGN celebrated its 10th anniversary on January 12, 2008.[5] IGN was headquartered in the Marina Point Parkway office park in Brisbane, California, until it relocated to a smaller office building near AT&T Park in San Francisco on March 29, 2010. On May 25, 2011, IGN sold its Direct2Drive division to Gamefly for an undisclosed amount.[6]

[edit] Subsidiaries and spin-offs

The role-playing video game interest website Vault Network was acquired by IGN in 1999.[7] GameStats, a review aggregation website, was founded by IGN in 2002. GameStats includes a "GPM" (Game Popularity Meter) rating system which incorporates an average press score, average gamer score as well as the number of page hits for the game.[citation needed] The Xbox interest site TeamXbox, and the PC game website VE3D were acquired in 2003.[8][9] In 2005 IGN Entertainment merged with GameSpy Industries,[10] the merger also brought the game download site FilePlanet into the IGN group; as of 2011 both FilePlanet, and the GameSpy website still operate as a video game related web sites. IGN Entertainment acquired the online male lifestyle magazine AskMen.com in 2005.[11]

[edit] Reviews

[edit] Scoring systems

[edit] Original scale

A member of the IGN staff writes a review for a game and gives it a score between 0.1 and 10.0, which is assigned by increments of 0.1 and determines how much the game is recommended. The score is given according to the "individual aspects of a game, like presentation, graphics, sound, gameplay and lasting appeal." Each game is given a score in each of these categories, but the overall score for the game is an independent evaluation, not an average of the scores in each category.[12]

[edit] 20-point scale

On August 3, 2010, IGN announced that the site would be changing to a new scoring scale. Instead of a 100-point scale, where games are scored in increments of 0.1, all future reviews will use a 20-point scale where games are scored in increments of 0.5. Under both systems, the maximum possible score a game can receive is 10.0. The scoring change is not retroactive: all scores on reviews written before the change will remain the same. This change also does not affect the scoring system for reader reviews.

[edit] 100-point scale

On September 13, 2012, IGN revealed that as part of their new review format all future reviews would now follow a 100-point scale again, but this time without using decimals, meaning a score of 79 or 85 would be used instead of 7.9 or 8.5. Unlike the previous conversion to the 20-point scale, this latest scoring system change will be retroactive and all previous IGN review scores will be updated to follow the new system. However, despite the announcement, the article included a short addition, post release. It stated that after much discussion, they have decided to retain the decimal point in all upcoming scores.[13]

[edit] Perfect scores

IGN rarely gives a game a score of 10. Since the 1990s, IGN has awarded 10s to the following games:

  1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64, 1998)[14]
  2. Checkered Flag (Atari Lynx, 1999)
  3. Joust (Atari Lynx, 1999)
  4. Shanghai (Atari Lynx, 1999)
  5. Pokémon Red and Blue (Game Boy, 1999)[15][16]
  6. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (Game Boy Color, 1998)[17]
  7. Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (Game Boy Color, 1999)[18]
  8. Soulcalibur (Dreamcast, 1999)[19]
  9. Pokémon Yellow (Game Boy, 1999)[20]
  10. Mario Golf (Game Boy Color, 1999)
  11. Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure (NeoGeo Pocket Color, 1999)[21]
  12. SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium (Neo Geo Pocket Color, 2000)
  13. Magical Tetris Challenge (Game Boy Color, 2000)
  14. Metal Gear Solid (Game Boy Color, 2000)
  15. Pokémon Gold and Silver (Game Boy Color, 2000)[22][23]
  16. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages (Game Boy Color, 2001)[24][25]
  17. Dragon Warrior III (Game Boy Color, 2001)[26]
  18. Grand Theft Auto IV (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, 2008)[27]
  19. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PlayStation 3, 2008)[28]
  20. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii, 2010)[29]
  21. Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, 2010)[30]
  22. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, 2010)[31]
  23. Chrono Trigger (Wii Virtual Console, 2011)[32]
  24. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (PlayStation 3, 2011)[33]
  25. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii, 2011)[34]
  26. Infinity Blade II (iOS, 2011)[35]

[edit] Other sections

In 2000, Snowball.com purchased an E-federation called the Internet Wrestling Organization (IWO).[36] 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 officially closed down 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 For Men 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 Sci-Fi site.

In 2002, IGN launched a dedicated videogame FAQs site specifically designed to host user-submitted guides.[37] This was launched following the cancellation of affiliation with GameFAQs.[38] In 2004, IGN launched GameStats, which serves as a more unbiased rating network, as it takes in scores from every corporately owned game rating site and averages them all into one score to give a general idea of the quality of a game. IGN also launched Direct2Drive.com in 2004. Its primary focus is selling digital downloads of full PC and Mac video games, as well as anime, comics and game guides. In 2005, IGN launched its comics site, which is devoted to not just the staple Marvel and DC titles, but also manga, graphic novels, statues and toys.

In 2006, IGN launched its television site. It provides interviews with various television celebrities, in addition to a TV schedule, TV trivia and TV news. Akin to IGN FilmForce, IGN's TV section has a variety of exclusive clips from upcoming television shows.

On May 30, 2006, IGN Dreamcast was restarted; however, none of the Dreamcast updates were posted on the main IGN webpage.

In 2007, IGN launched its anime site. It provided features on anime and manga, including trailers and free episodes. It also included reviews of manga and anime from other sections of IGN, such as IGN Comics and IGN DVD. The anime channel was dropped after IGN redesigned the site. In 2008, IGN launched its Retro channel to mark IGN's 10th anniversary.[39] 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. IGN subsequently launched a similar website called GTA 'Hood on April 29, 2008, for Grand Theft Auto IV.

[edit] Regional websites

Since 2006, IGN Entertainment began launching regional versions of the website for various countries and pan-regions. Initially, IGN began opening new offices outside the United States in order to support those regional websites, but later IGN began franchising its brand as a more cost-effective means of globalization, wherein it licensed various media publishers in many countries to use the IGN brand and manage regional websites on their own. When visiting www.ign.com from an IGN-supported region, the site automatically redirects visitors to their localized version using geolocation software, based on their countries' IP addresses. Each version of the site has a modified logo with their country's/region's respective flags near the IGN logo. However, it is still possible to access the original American website using a navigation bar on top or below (depending on regional website) the page's master template.

IGN opened its first offices in the UK and Australia in 2006, which both share the same information as the American site but with added content authored from editors within each respective region. Other licensed regional publishers work on their own servers, albeit can link to IGN's HQ database, where they can import and/or translate articles, and use videos uploaded on IGN's servers that use IGN's own hosted video player.

On May 16, 2012, in collaboration with the Emirati-based company t-break Media, IGN Middle East was announced for the MENA gaming community. The site replaces t-break Media's own ME Gamers website, which was formerly one of the largest Middle Eastern-based gaming media outlets that was originally launched in 2006. ME Gamers' entire staff converted their duties to IGN Middle East, importing and/or translating many of IGN's English articles, whilst writing up their own articles, especially for Middle Eastern-specific events. IGN Middle East is available in both English and Arabic languages.[40] Whilst the site was initially launched to cover only video games, t-break Media announced in September 2012 that they started posting movie-related articles under the IGN brand as IGN Movies Middle East, merging most of the duties from their own ME Movies website, which was originally established in 2009, under a similar manner to their video game content.[41] Unlike video games, however, most movie-related content will be in English only.

In September 2012 the Italian edition of IGN launched, managed by a local team, providing both original and translated contents.[42]

On October 9, 2012, in collaboration with the Spanish-based media company Marca, IGN Spain was announced. The site effectively replaces Marca's own Marca Player gaming news website. Marca Player's editors converted their duties to IGN Spain, translating many of IGN's English articles, whilst writing up their own Spanish articles as well, covering various topics including video games, movies, TV series and comics.[43] Marca also plans in the long run to eventually release another Spanish IGN website specifically for the pan-regional, Spanish-speaking gaming community in Latin America.[43]

[edit] IGN Pro League

IGN runs the IGN Pro League, a professional e-sports league that runs tournaments for StarCraft II and League of Legends. Starting in 2013, they will be holding tournaments for Dead or Alive 5,[44] Street Fighter X Tekken v.2013 and Super Street Fighter IV.[45]

[edit] April Fools pranks

On April 1, 2008, IGN released a movie trailer for the hit video game series The Legend of Zelda that prompted many Zelda fans to believe that a live-action motion picture was on the way. Other movie websites reported that IGN was showing the world premiere of the Zelda trailer that day. The supposed release date of the film was April 1, 2009. The trailer had 3.5 million views that day. IGN released a statement the following day stating that the trailer was an elaborate April Fools joke. IGN was flooded with calls and e-mails about the joke but said it was done with good intentions, and to show Nintendo that a Zelda movie could be made and that fans would go see it.[46] In a behind-the-scenes documentary posted the following day, a camera operator stated that they could have cut together a small mini-series with all the footage shot. On April 1, 2010, IGN made a mock trailer for a possible movie based on the Halo video game series but with an Indian Bollywood theme, which gave away the prank.[47] On April 1, 2011, another mock trailer was made for a television spin-off of Harry Potter.[48] On April 1, 2012, another mock trailer was made for a Saturday Cartoon show based on the Mass Effect trilogy.[49]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "About — IGN Entertainment". IGN Entertainment. http://corp.ign.com/about/. Retrieved 2010-08-19.
  2. ^ "ign.com — Traffic Details from Alexa". Alexa Internet, Inc. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/ign.com. Retrieved 2011-07-14.
  3. ^ Doe, Johnny (2009-08-21). "ign.com — Site Information from Alexa". Alexa. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/ign.com. Retrieved 2009-08-26.
  4. ^ "News Corp. Acquires IGN for $650 Million". Bloomberg Businessweek. September 11, 2005. http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/sep2005/id20050911_550700.htm. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
  5. ^ Geddes, Ryan. "IGN: Origins: The History of IGN". Retro.ign.com. http://retro.ign.com/articles/845/845097p1.html. Retrieved 2009-08-26.
  6. ^ "Gamefly, Inc. Acquires Direct2Drive from IGN Entertainment" (PDF). http://gamefly.gameflycdn.com/press/11.05.25_GameFly_Acquires_Direct2Drive.pdf. Retrieved 2011-10-24.
  7. ^ Robert Lemos (28 September 1999), "IGN.com will buy the Vault Network", www.zdnet.com, http://www.zdnet.com/news/igncom-will-buy-the-vault-network/103354
  8. ^ "IGN Entertainment acquires TeamXbox website (Press Release)", corp.ign.com (IGN), 21 October 2003, http://corp.ign.com/articles/455/455718p1.html
  9. ^ "IGN Acquires VE3D Gaming Site; Premier Gaming News Site Joins IGN Network", www.allbusiness.com (AllBusiness.com), 15 April 2003, http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing-advertising/marketing-advertising/5753683-1.html
  10. ^ "IGN/Gamespy merger creates one of the internet's largest game and internet-focused company (Press Release)", corp.ign.com (IGN), 5 March 2004, http://corp.ign.com/articles/496/496842p1.html
  11. ^ "IGN Entertainment acquires Askmen.com(Press Release)", corp.ign.com (IGN), 1 June 2005, http://corp.ign.com/articles/620/620643p1.html
  12. ^ "IGN Ratings and Reviews Policy". IGN. http://games.ign.com/ratings.html. Retrieved 2009-05-25.
  13. ^ by jbendickson (2012-09-13). "Reviews 2.0 - The Future of Reviews Starts Now — Blog by kamicasey". IGN. http://www.ign.com/blogs/kamicasey/2012/09/13/ign-reviews-20-the-future-of-reviews-starts-now/. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  14. ^ Schneider, Peer (1998-11-25). "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time — Nintendo 64 Review". IGN. http://ign64.ign.com/articles/150/150437p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  15. ^ Harris, Craig (1999-06-23). "Pokemon Red — Game Boy Review". IGN. http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/159/159846p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  16. ^ Harris, Craig (1999-06-23). "Pokemon Blue — Game Boy Review". IGN. http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/166/166708p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  17. ^ Cleveland, Adam (1999-09-17). "Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX — Game Boy Color Review". IGN. http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/160/160683p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  18. ^ Harris, Craig (1999-07-21). "Super Mario Bros. Deluxe — Game Boy Color Review". IGN. http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/166/166206p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  19. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (1999-09-20). "Soul Calibur — Dreamcast Review". IGN. http://dreamcast.ign.com/articles/160/160953p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-25.
  20. ^ Harris, Craig (1999-10-19). "Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition — Game Boy Review". IGN. http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/162/162045p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  21. ^ Harris, Craig (1999-12-07). "Sonic Pocket Adventure — NeoGeo Pocket Color Review". IGN. http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/166/166206p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  22. ^ Harris, Craig (2000-10-16). "Pokemon Gold — Game Boy Review". IGN. http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/162/162865p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  23. ^ Harris, Craig (2000-10-16). "Pokemon Silver — Game Boy Review". IGN. http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/166/166709p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  24. ^ Carle, Charles (2001-05-14). "Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons — Game Boy Color Review". IGN. http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/166/166042p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  25. ^ Carle, Charles (2001-05-14). "Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages — Game Boy Color Review". IGN. http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/166/166041p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  26. ^ Sellers, Peter (2001-07-20). "Dragon Warrior III — Game Boy Color Review". IGN. http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/166/166206p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  27. ^ Goldstein, Hilary (2008-04-25). "Grand Theft Auto IV Review". IGN. http://ps3.ign.com/articles/869/869541p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  28. ^ Haynes, Jeff (2008-06-12). "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Review". IGN. http://ps3.ign.com/articles/881/881472p5.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  29. ^ Harris, Craig (2010-05-20). "Super Mario Galaxy 2 Review". IGN. http://wii.ign.com/articles/109/1091239p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  30. ^ Steimer, Kristine (2010-10-27). "Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare Review". IGN. http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/113/1130683p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  31. ^ Hatfield, Daemon (2010-11-30). "Pac-Man Championship Edition DX Review". IGN. http://ps3.ign.com/articles/113/1137513p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  32. ^ Thomas, Lucas M. (2011-05-25). "Chrono Trigger Review". IGN. http://wii.ign.com/articles/117/1170454p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  33. ^ Miller, Greg (2011-10-24). "Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Review". IGN. http://ps3.ign.com/articles/121/1210241p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  34. ^ George, Richard (2011-11-11). "The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Review". IGN. http://wii.ign.com/articles/121/1212220p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  35. ^ Davis, Justin (2011-11-30). "Infinity Blade II Review". IGN. http://wireless.ign.com/articles/121/1213605p1.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  36. ^ "Internet Wrestling Organization". Archived from the original on 2000-05-19. http://web.archive.org/web/20000519215622/http://www.iwo-online.com/fed_history.shtml.
  37. ^ "Get the FAQs". IGN. 2002-07-09. http://pc.ign.com/articles/364/364331p1.html.
  38. ^ "GameFAQs homepage". 2001-01-09. Archived from the original on 2001-01-18. http://web.archive.org/web/20010118211300/http://gamefaqs.com/.
  39. ^ "IGN: Playing With the Past: IGN Retro". Uk.games.ign.com. 2008-01-11. http://uk.games.ign.com/articles/845/845125p1.html. Retrieved 2009-08-26.
  40. ^ Jaffar Ali, Abbas (2012-05-16). "IGN Entertainment and T-Break Media launch IGN Middle East". IGN Middle East. http://me.ign.com/en/news/879/IGN-Entertainment-and-T-Break-Media-launch-IGN-Middle-East. Retrieved 2012-11-17.
  41. ^ Hashmi, Faisal (2012-09-02). "ME-Movies Has Now Merged With IGN Middle East Movies". IGN Middle East. http://me.ign.com/en/news/3718/ME-Movies-has-merged-with-IGN-Movies-. Retrieved 2012-11-17.
  42. ^ "Videogiochi, trucchi, recensioni, notizie, anteprime, video e trailer da IGN". It.ign.com. http://it.ign.com. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  43. ^ a b Sanz, David (2012-10-09). "Bienvenidos a IGN España" (in Spanish). IGN Spain. http://es.ign.com/static/122/Bienvenidos-a-IGN-Espa-a. Retrieved 2012-12-03.
  44. ^ Co, Franz (2012-11-28). "Dead or Alive 5 Joins IGN Pro League". SRKX Productions. http://shoryuken.com/2012/11/28/dead-or-alive-5-joins-ign-pro-league/. Retrieved 2012-11-30.
  45. ^ Walker, Ian (2012-11-30). "IGN Pro League Announces Partnership With Capcom, Street Fighter x Tekken ver. 2013 and Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition ver. 2012 to Be Included in 2013 Season". SRKX Productions. http://shoryuken.com/2012/11/30/ign-pro-league-announces-partnership-with-capcom-street-fighter-x-tekken-ver-2013-and-super-street-fighter-iv-arcade-edition-ver-2012-to-be-included-in-2013-season/. Retrieved 2012-11-30.
  46. ^ Casamassina, Matt. "IGN: Editorial: Zelda on the Big Screen". Uk.wii.ign.com. http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/864/864098p1.html. Retrieved 2011-10-24.
  47. ^ http://au.ign.com/videos/2010/04/02/halo-video-ign-original-halo-bollywood-movie-trailer-april-fools
  48. ^ "The Aurors Trailer (Harry Potter TV Show) - April Fools' Video". IGN. 2011-04-01. http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/04/01/harry-potter-the-aurors-tv-show-trailer. Retrieved 2011-10-24.
  49. ^ "Mass Effect Cartoon — Debut Trailer". YouTube. 2012-04-01.

[edit] External links

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