IGN Entertainment, Inc.

180px
Type	Division of News Corporation[1]
Founded	September 1996
Headquarters	San Francisco, California, U.S.
Key people	Roy Bahat (President and General Manager) Peer Schneider (Senior Vice President for Content and Publisher)
Industry	Video game journalism
Owner	News Corporation
Employees	64
Parent	News Corporation
Subsidiaries	AskMen GameSpy Industries GameStats
Website	www.ign.com
Alexa rank	323 (March 2012[update])[2]
Registration	Free IGN Insider Founder's Club
Available in	English, German, Swedish
Current status	Active

IGN is an American global 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, 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 GameSpy, GameStats, VE3D, TeamXbox, Vault Network, FilePlanet and AskMen.

History[link]

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 Publishing: N64.com (later renamed ign64.com), PSXPower, Saturnworld, Next-Generation.com and Ultra Game Players Online. 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 bombed 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]

Subsidiaries and spin-offs[link]

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]

Scoring[link]

Original scale[link]

A member of the IGN staff writes a review for a game and gives it a score between 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 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]

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

Later scale[link]

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.

Other sections[link]

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. 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, Australia or Sweden, 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 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.

April Fools pranks[link]

On April 1, 2008, IGN released a movie trailer that parodied Halo (Xbox 360 exclusive) and has since been hated by the internet.

References[link]

External links[link]

	San Francisco Bay Area portal
	Companies portal

• Official website
• IGN Channel on YouTube

Seth Rogen
Rogen at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival
Born	(1982-04-15) April 15, 1982 (age 30) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Medium	Stand up, film, television
Nationality	Canadian
Years active	1996–present
Genres	Black comedy, blue comedy, satire, deadpan
Influences	Judd Apatow, Kevin Smith, Adam Sandler
Spouse	Lauren Miller (m. 2011–present)

Seth Rogen (pronounced /ˈroʊɡɪn/; born April 15, 1982) is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, producer, screenwriter, and voice artist. Rogen began his career doing stand-up comedy during his teen years, winning the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest in 1998. While still living in his native Vancouver, he landed a small part in Freaks and Geeks. Shortly after Rogen moved to Los Angeles for his role, Freaks and Geeks was canceled after one season due to poor ratings. He then got a part on the equally short-lived Undeclared, which also hired him as a staff writer.

After landing a job as a staff writer on the final season of Da Ali G Show, for which Rogen and the other writers received an Emmy nomination, he was guided by film producer Judd Apatow toward a film career. Rogen was cast in a major supporting role and credited as a co-producer in Apatow's directorial debut, The 40-Year-Old Virgin. After Rogen received critical praise for that performance, Universal Pictures agreed to cast him as the lead in Apatow's directorial feature films Knocked Up and Funny People. Rogen and his comedy partner Evan Goldberg co-wrote the films Superbad, Pineapple Express, and The Green Hornet. Rogen has done voice work for the films Horton Hears a Who!, Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs. Aliens, and Paul. He married fellow screenwriter Lauren Miller in October 2011.^[1]

Early life[link]

Rogen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia on April 15, 1982. His mother, Sandy (née Belogus), is a social worker, and his father, Mark Rogen, worked for non-profit organizations and as an assistant director of a Workmen's Circle.^[2][3][4][5] He has described his parents, who met at an Israeli kibbutz, as "radical Jewish socialists."^[3] He has one older sister, Danya.^[2] Rogen attended Vancouver Talmud Torah Elementary School and Point Grey Secondary School (although he never graduated), incorporating many of his classmates into his writing. He was also known for the stand-up comedy he performed at Camp Miriam, a Habonim Dror camp.^[2]

As a child, Rogen had no intention of pursuing any career other than comedy: "As soon as I realized you could be funny as a job, that was the job I wanted".^[4] He got his start in show business at age 12, after signing up for a comedy workshop class taught by Mark Pooley.^[2] His early comedy routines involved jokes about his bar mitzvah, his grandparents, and his camp counselors.^[2] During his teenage years he would perform stand-up comedy routines at places like bar mitzvahs and small parties before upgrading to bars.^[6][7] He was even paid to write jokes by a mohel.^[8] At the age of 13, he co-wrote a rough draft of Superbad with childhood friend Evan Goldberg, who he had met at bar mitzvah classes.^[4][8] Based on their teenage experiences,^[3] Rogen and Goldberg spent the rest of their time in high school polishing the script. They initially worried that the 1999 film American Pie had beaten them to the idea for the movie, but felt that it lacked "all honest interaction between characters, which is what [they]'re going for."^[3]

His mother was supportive of his comic endeavors and would often drive him to stand-up gigs at the comedy club Yuk Yuks.^[8] With his deadpan humor, he won the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest at 16 years old.^[6] Also at age 16, Rogen's father lost his job and his mother quit hers, forcing them to put their house up for sale and relocate to a significantly smaller apartment. Around this time, he landed a role on Judd Apatow's television show Freaks and Geeks after attending a local casting call.^[4][8] After dropping out of high school, he began working for Apatow^[9][10] and relocated with his family to Los Angeles. Rogen paid the bills and had become the main wage earner at just 16.^[4]

Acting, writing and producing career[link]

Early work and friendship with Judd Apatow[link]

Rogen's acting debut was in Apatow's 1980s-set cult hit series Freaks and Geeks as Ken Miller, a cynical, acerbic "freak".^[4] Revolving around a group of teenagers' lives, Freaks and Geeks first aired in 1999. Although well-reviewed, the show was NBC's lowest-viewed program and was canceled after one season due to poor rating.^[9][11] Very impressed with Rogen's improvisational skills,^[8] Apatow then chose him as the lead in another of his shows, Undeclared. Rogen was originally set to play a fairly popular but nerdy college freshman, but the network did not think he was leading male material. Apatow opted not to go along with the show but, after facing the risk of getting sued, he hired him for a small role.^[8] Rogen also served as a staff writer to the short-lived production.^[12][13] Following the show's 2002 cancellation, Rogen did not get many auditions, which was not upsetting to him as he always thought he would achieve better success as a writer.^[14] He would soon be a part of Apatow's "frat pack", a close knit group that includes Steve Carell and Paul Rudd.^[6] Of the awkwardness of a grown man spending so much time with a teenaged Rogen, Apatow said: "I'm such a comedy fan that even though he's 16, I know I'm hanging out with one of the guys who's going to be one of the great comics."^[8] Around this time Apatow would come up with odd requests for Rogen and Goldberg to pass, such as: turn an idea of his into a movie in 10 days and come up with 100 one-page-long ideas for films.^[14] Regarding Apatow's professional effect on Rogen, the actor said in 2009, "Obviously, I can't stress how important Judd's been to my career".^[6]

Next, he had brief parts in the Drew Barrymore-produced Donnie Darko (2001) and Apatow's Will Ferrell-starring 2004 film Anchorman.^[15] A big career point for him was becoming a staff writer for Sacha Baron Cohen's last season of Da Ali G Show in 2004.^[10] Along with the show's other writers, Rogen received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.^[16] He became familiar to audiences as one of the main character's witty co-workers in Apatow's well-reviewed buddy comedy directorial debut feature The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005).^[17][18] Rogen also co-produced it and improvised all his dialogue.^[10][19] "[Rogen] hadn’t done any screen work that indicated he could carry as memorable and convincing a performance as he does with the character Cal," MTV's John Constantine wrote.^[15] Boston Globe reviewer Wesley Morris wrote that Rogen, along with co-stars Rudd and Romany Malco, were each hilarious in their own right^[20] and Orlando Sentinel's Roger Moore believed that Rogen had his moments in the film^[21] whereas Moira Macdonald of the Seattle Times said the actor was a "droopily deadpan."^[22] He followed this with a small role in You, Me and Dupree, a critically panned 2006 comedy also featuring Michael Douglas.^[23]

Breakthrough[link]

Rogen (far right) at San Diego Comic-Con in 2010

His breakthrough came when Universal Studios greenlit him for the lead in yet another Apatow production: Knocked Up (2007), a dramedy that follows the repercussions of a drunken one-night stand between his slacker character and Katherine Heigl's just-promoted media personality that results in an unintended pregnancy. Upon completing The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Apatow had approached Rogen about potential starring roles, but the actor suggested many high-concept science fiction ideas. After Apatow insisted that he would work better in real life situations, the two agreed on the accidental pregnancy concept of this production.^[24] Rogen called shooting sex scenes with Heigl "nerve racking" and found comfort with the supporting cast since, even though he played the lead, the focus was not all on him.^[25][26] Made on a $30 million budget and released on June 1, Knocked Up was a critical and commercial box office hit, garnering an approval rating of 90 percent on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and grossing $219 million.^[27][28] Rogen also received favorable reviews.^[29][30] Later that year he played a supporting part as an irresponsible police officer in Superbad, which he had written with his writing partner and was co-produced by Apatow. Michael Cera and Jonah Hill originate the main roles, two teenage best friends whose party plans go wrong, based on them.^[3] The film and their writing was praised, with critics finding it to be very authentic.^[31] It topped the US box office for two weeks in a row.^[32] Rogen hosted Saturday Night Live on October 6, 2007 and again on April 4, 2009.^[33][34]

2008 was a busy year for the actor. Among his projects were Jimmy Hayward's Horton Hears a Who!, an animated film based on the Dr. Seuss book, that Rogen voiced a character in.^[35] Rogen additionally co-wrote Drillbit Taylor, a starring Owen Wilson as the homeless titular character that is also produced by Apatow.^[36] He based the screenplay on a 70-page scriptment done by John Hughes.^[37] The movie was panned by critics who thought its plot – a grown man becoming three kids' bodyguard and beating up their bullies – had no focus and was drawn out. "If Superbad were remade as a gimmicky Nickelodeon movie, it would probably look something like Drillbit Taylor" Josh Bell wrote in the Las Vegas Weekly.^[38] He again lent his voice to another animated movie, this time Kung Fu Panda, with Jack Black and Angelina Jolie.^[39] It did exceptionally well in theaters, making more than $630 million.^[40] Rogen, Goldberg and Apatow were behind the stoner action comedy Pineapple Express directed by David Gordon Green at Columbia Pictures. Apatow produced it while Rogen and Goldberg wrote the script.^[41] The actor chose to play the film's protagonist, a 25-year-old who accidentally witnesses a murder while delivering a subpoena. James Franco was cast as his hippie pot dealer that he goes on the run with. When asked about its inspiration, Rogen said he wrote what he knew.^[42] Pineapple Express was released to theaters on August 6 and made $101 million in ticket sales against its $27 million production budget.^[43] Movie critics lauded it, appreciating their performances and its humor.^[41][44]

Rogen in 2007.

In April 2008, Empire reported that the actor and Goldberg would write an episode for the animated television series The Simpsons.^[45] He also voiced a character in the episode,^[46] entitled "Homer the Whopper", which opened the twenty-first season.^[47] Kevin Smith's romantic comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno rounded out 2008 for the actor. He and Elizabeth Banks portrayed the title roles: Pennsylvania roommates who try to make some extra cash by making an adult film together. After having difficulty trying to secure an R rating, Rogen commented to MTV, "It's a really filthy movie" but complained "It's really crazy to me that Hostel is fine, with people gouging their eyes out and shit like that... But you can't show two people having sex — that's too much".^[48] The picture was distributed on Halloween by The Weinstein Company and disappointed at the box office.^[49] Along with Reese Witherspoon, he voiced a character in the animated science fiction Monsters vs Aliens (2009), did well commercially, with a total of $381.5 million.^[50] He then starred in the Jody Hill-directed mall cop comedy Observe and Report,^[51] in which he portrayed bipolar mall security guard Ronnie Barnhart. The film opened in theaters on April 10. Critics noted a departure in Rogen's acting style from playing laid-back roles to playing a more sadistic character; Wesley Morris from the Boston Globe opined that "Often with Rogen, his vulnerability makes his coarseness safe...Ronnie is something altogether new for Rogen. Vulnerability never arrives. He's shameless."^[52] Later in 2009, Rogen starred in Apatow's third directorial feature, Funny People, with Adam Sandler. Rogen played a young, inexperienced comic while Sandler played a mentor of sorts to his character; the film had more dramatic elements in it than Apatow's previous efforts.^[53] Funny People was a commercial failure, coming short of its $75 million budget, but has a "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.^[54][55]

Recent work[link]

After years of development, a feature film adaptation of The Green Hornet was handled by Rogen and Goldberg, with a theatrical release in January 2011. Rogen chose to do a re-imagining of the titular character.^[6] Besides executively producing the movie, he also cast himself as the main part. Rogen later admitted to having been overwhelmed by handling its $120 million budget. "It's insane. But it's not so much the specific amount of money that's stressful, it's all the things that go along with making a movie of that size."^[56] The actor also went on a strict weight-loss diet to play the slim crime fighter.^[6] The Green Hornet was a critical disappointment; Adam Graham of the Detroit News called it "a big, sloppy, loud, grating mess of a movie"^[57] and the Arizona Republic's Bill Goodykoontz found its story to have fallen apart.^[58] Nonetheless it still opened at number one at the box office, making $33 million in its opening weekend before going on to gross more than $225 million.^[59]

He reprised his voice role in Kung Fu Panda 2,^[60] as well as produced and took a supporting role in 50/50, from Mandate Pictures. The dramedy about cancer was based on an autobiographical script by screenwriter Will Reiser,^[61] and was released in September 2011. In mid-2010, Rogen shot scenes for another upcoming film, Take This Waltz, with Michelle Williams.^[62] Another of his movies, Paramount Pictures's road movie The Guilt Trip, also starring Barbra Streisand, is due out in cinemas in 2012. The film is about an inventor (Rogen) who invites his mother (Streisand) on a road trip as he attempts to sell his new product while also reuniting her with a lost love.^[63]

Personal life[link]

Rogen began dating writer Lauren Miller in 2004. The two met while he was working on Da Ali G Show.^[10] The couple became engaged in September 2010,^[64] and married on October 2, 2011 in Sonoma, California.^[1] Miller has had minor on-screen roles in a few of Rogen's films.^[65]

His favorite music artists are Led Zeppelin and the Wu-Tang Clan.^[66]

Rogen has spoken out about awareness of Alzheimer's disease. No one in his biological family has it but it runs in his wife's side, and has affected her mother for several years. "I think until you see it firsthand, it's kind of hard to conceive of how brutal it is," Rogen said to CNN. "Until I saw it, you just don't get kind of how heartbreaking it can be."^[67] During the interview, Rogen talked about how he tries to be emotionally supportive and around as much as he can for Miller's mother. Both he and Miller spoke to Larry King for A Larry King Special, Unthinkable: The Alzheimer's Epidemic, which aired in April 2011.^[67]

Filmography[link]

Films[link]

Rogen at the premiere of Observe and Report at the 2009 South by Southwest Festival

Television[link]