IGN (formerly Imagine Games Network ) is an American video game and entertainment company operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Ziff Davis. The company is located in the SOMA district of San Francisco, and is headed by former chief editor, Peer Schneider. The IGN site is the brainchild of media enthusiast Chris Anderson and launched on 29 September 1996. It focuses on games, movies, television, comics, technology, and other media. Originally a desktop website network, IGN is now also distributed on mobile platforms, console programs on Xbox and PlayStation, FireTV, Roku, and through YouTube, Twitch, Hulu and Snapchat.
Initially, IGN is the main property of IGN Entertainment's parent company, which owns and operates several other websites that are oriented to the interests, games and entertainment of players such as Rotten Tomatoes, GameSpy, GameStats, VE3D , TeamXbox, Vault Network, FilePlanet, and AskMen, among others. IGN was sold to the publishing company Ziff Davis in February 2013 and now operates as a j2 Global subsidiary.
Video IGN
History
Created in September 1996 as Imagine Games Network, the IGN content network was founded by publishing executives Jonathan Simpson-Bintan and started as five individual websites in Imagine Media: N64.com (later renamed ign64.com), PSXPower, Saturnworld, Next- Generation.com and Ultra Online Game Players. Imagine being extended on a website owned and operated by creating an affiliate network that includes a number of independent fans like PSX Nation.com, Sega-Saturn.com, Game Sages, and GameFAQs. In 1998, the network launched a new homepage that consolidated individual sites as a system channel under the IGN brand. The homepage exposes content from over 30 different channels. Next-Generation and Ultra Game Players Online are not part of this consolidation; U.G.P.O. dissolved with magazine cancellations, and Next-Generation was "on hold" when Imagine decided to concentrate on launching the short-lived Radar Daily brand.
In February 1999, PC Magazine named IGN one of the hundreds of best sites, along with GameSpot competitors and CNET Gamecenter. That same month, Imagine Media included a spinoff that included IGN and its affiliate channel as Affiliate Network, while Simpson-Binti remained in the company before. In September, an independent internet media company, changed its name to Snowball.com. At the same time, the small entertainment website The Den merged into IGN and added non-game content to the growing network. Snowball held an IPO in 2000, but relinquished most of the other properties during the dot-com bubble. IGN won with an ever-growing number of viewers and a recently subscribed service called IGN Insider (later IGN Prime), which resulted in the loss of the name "Snowball" and the adoption of IGN Entertainment on May 10, 2002.
In June 2005, IGN reported having 24 million unique visitors per month, with 4.8 million registered users through all departmental sites. IGN is ranked among the 200 most visited websites according to Alexa. In September 2005, IGN was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's multi-media business empire, News Corporation, for $ 650 million. IGN celebrated its 10th anniversary on January 12, 2008. IGN is headquartered in Marina Point Parkway office park in Brisbane, California, to move to a smaller office building near AT & amp; T Park in San Francisco on March 29, 2010. On May 25, 2011, IGN sold its Direct2Drive division to Gamefly for an undisclosed amount.
UGO acquisition, sold to Ziff Davis
In 2011, IGN Entertainment acquired rival UGO Entertainment (owner of 1UP.com) from Hearst Corporation. In the end, News Corp plans to release IGN Entertainment as a public company, continuing a series of divestitures for previously acquired digital properties (including MySpace and Photobucket).
On February 4, 2013, after unsuccessful attempts to separate IGN as a separate company, News Corp announced that it had sold IGN Entertainment to its publishing company Ziff Davis, which was recently acquired by J2 Global. Financial details of the purchase were not disclosed. Before being acquired by UGO, 1UP.com was previously owned by Ziff Davis. Immediately after the acquisition, IGN announced that they will lay off staff and close GameSpy, 1UP.com, and UGO to focus on its flagship brand, IGN.com and AskMen.
Subsidiaries and spin-offs
The Vault Network video game interest interest website was acquired by IGN in 1999. GameStats, the review aggregation website, was founded by IGN in 2004. GameStats includes a "GPM" rating system that combines average press scores and scores the average game player, as well as the number of page clicks for the game. However, this site is no longer updated. The Xbox interest site, TeamXbox, and VE3D PC game website were acquired in 2003. IGN Entertainment merged with GameSpy Industries in 2005. The merger also brings downloading FilesPlanet games to the IGN group; in 2011, both FilePlanet and GameSpy sites still operate as video games-related websites. IGN Entertainment acquired men's online lifestyle magazine AskMen.com in 2005. In 2004, IGN acquired collaborator movie reviewer Rotten Tomatoes and in 2010, sold the website to Flixster. In October 2017, Humble Bundle announced that it was acquired by IGN.
System scoring
Original scale
An IGN staff member writes reviews for the game and scores between 0.1 and 10.0, which is set with an addition of 0.1 and determines how many games are suggested. Scores are awarded according to "individual aspects of the game, such as presentations, graphics, sounds, games, and long-lasting appeal." Each game is scored in each of these categories, but the overall score for this game is an independent evaluation, not the average score in each category.
20-point scale
On August 3rd, 2010, IGN announced that the site would change to a new appraisal scale. Instead of a 100-point scale, in which the game is scored 0.1, all future reviews will use a 20-point scale in which the game is scored 0.5. Under both systems, the maximum acceptable score for games is 10.0. The assessment change is not retroactive: all scores on reviews written before the change will remain the same. This change also does not affect the rating system for reader reviews.
100-point scale
On September 13, 2012, IGN revealed that as part of the new review format all future reviews will now follow a 100-point scale again, but this time without using decimals, which means the score of 8.5 would be 85. Unlike previous conversions to scale 20 -points, this latest rating 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 brief addition, a release post. It states that after much discussion, they have decided to keep the decimal point in all future scores.
Re-review policy
In early 2014, IGN introduced a new policy, in which game review scores can be reviewed and upgraded, as long as continuous updates make significant changes in the game compared to its release. Examples of games in which they are reviewed are League of Legends and pocket editions Minecraft .
Maps IGN
IGN 'Best of' awards
IGN's 'Best of' is the year-end event for each year honoring the best games of the year, movies, television shows and comics. Winners from each award category are selected by IGN staff from the list of nominees, while readers can vote their own online to determine the 'Choice of People' award for each category.
Other sections
In 2000, Snowball.com purchased an E-federation called the Internet Wrestling Organization (IWO). Since Snowball has IWO and IGN, IWO will become the official IGN E-Fed, even do a column on the website. The IGN For Men section officially closed on October 2, 2001 and is no longer updated. IGN has sites like IGN Stars and AskMen.com that fulfills most of the functionality of the old IGN For Men site . IGN's wrestling ended in early 2002, when many staff left. Interviews with professional wrestling personality and coverage of the wrestling games have been folded into IGN Sports, currently headed by Jon Robinson. IGN Sci-Fi: Most have died since 2002, parts of this site include movie news, comic book reviews, anime coverage and other related items. It has since been stopped. The site, SciFI.ign.com , now redirects to the newly created SciFiBrain.ign.com, which includes some content from the old Sci-Fi site.
In 2002, IGN launched a dedicated videogame FAQ website specifically designed to host user-submitted guides. It was launched after the cancellation of affiliation with GameFAQs. In 2004, IGN launched GameStats, which serves as a more unbiased network of ratings, as it scores from each of its own game rating sites and averages all of them into one score to give a general idea of ​​the quality of a games. IGN also launched Direct2Drive.com in 2004. Its main focus is selling digital downloads of PC PC and Mac games, as well as anime, comics, and game guides. In 2005, IGN launched its comic site, which is devoted to not only the title staples of Marvel and DC, but also manga, graphic novels, sculptures and toys.
In 2006, IGN launched its television website. It provides interviews with various television celebrities, in addition to TV schedules, TV trivia and TV news. Akin to IGN FilmForce, TV section IGN has an exclusive range of clips from upcoming television shows.
On May 30, 2006, the IGN Dreamcast restarted; However, no Dreamcast updates are posted on the main IGN webpage.
In 2007, IGN launched its anime site. It provides features in anime and manga, including free trailers and episodes. It also includes manga and anime reviews from other parts of IGN, such as IGN Comics and IGN DVD . The anime channel was removed after IGN redesigned the site. In 2008, the Retro IGN channel was launched to mark the 10th anniversary of IGN. Coinciding with the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl , IGN created the site Super Smash Bros. World . On the site, people can submit their users create stages from the game and download made by others. IGN then launched a similar website called GTA 'Hood on April 29, 2008, for Grand Theft Auto IV .
In 2011, IGN launched IGN Pro League, a professional e-sports circuit that runs tournaments for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, ShootMania Storm and League of Legends . On March 6, 2013, just a few weeks before the event, IGN suddenly canceled the final round of IPL 6 - to be held in Las Vegas from 28 to 31 March, and stop the league. IGN shows that it is no longer in a position to commit to compete with the increasing number of e-sports events currently underway. On April 8, 2013, Blizzard Entertainment announced that it has acquired IPL staff and assets from IGN; his former staff was reassigned to work on the production of e-sports at home.
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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