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IGN is a multimedia news and reviews website that focuses heavily on video games. It should not be confused with IGN Entertainment; IGN's corporate parent company, which owns and controls separate sites such as GameSpy, Rotten Tomatoes and AskMen. Founded in September of 1996 as Imagine Games Network, IGN began as three individual websites within Imagine Publishing (now Future Publishing): N64.com, PSXPower, Saturnworld. 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 eventually became Daily Radar. 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, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, GameCube, Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy, Wireless, N-Gage, PlayStation, N64, 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, Cars, Babes, Sci-Fi Brain, Horror Brain, 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. 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.•
Corporate details IGN originally stood for Imagine Games Network. However, IGN spun off from Imagine Media on February 1, 1999, to form an independent, online-only business. At one time, Peer Schneider, VP of Publishing, said it stood for Internet Generation Network. • Its corporate name, Affiliation Networks, was changed to Snowball.com and became a public company soon after the break from Imagine Media. IGN runs on a combination of advertising and subscriptions. IGN Insider is IGN's premium subscription service for approximately $US 20 a year, although it has been known to fluctuate. Subscribers, who are also known as "Insiders", get special benefits, such as higher resolution videos and full access to the message boards. IGN relies mostly on advertising to generate income. Each page on the network has at least one ad, typically a "banner" or the smaller "billboard." There are also interstils between some pages. IGN also uses tracking cookies from both itself and partners such as DoubleClick, Overture, Tribal Fusion and Claria Corporation. IGN has substantially grown due to the various mergers and buyouts it has conducted. While still known as Snowball, IGN acquired the Vault Network and its message boards in 1999. In March 2004, IGN Entertainment acquired GameSpy Industries. For three months it was called IGN/GameSpy before formalizing their corporate name as IGN Entertainment. In June, IGN bought the popular movie review site Rotten Tomatoes. For a short time, IGN Entertainment was the only major independent gaming website in the stock market (IGNX). However, its stock is no longer publicly traded. In February 2005, they acquired the popular download site, 3D Gamers. IGN announced on March 4, 2004 that they had completed the acquisition of GameSpy. In June, they acquired AskMen.com. On September 8, 2005, News Corporation announced that it had bought 92.3% of total stock of the company for US$650 million, giving it a controlling stake in IGN. • It is now a division of Fox Interactive Media (FIM), which includes MySpace.com, foxnews.com, and several other properties owned by News Corp. FIM is not to be confused with "Fox Interactive," which is the (functionally discontinued) video game publishing branch of 20th Century Fox. In legal affairs: in May 2006, IGN filed a motion to shut down former employee Ashkan Karbasfrooshan's company, WatchMojo.com. The judge sided with Karbasfrooshan; the case is ongoing. Site editors Message boards IGN is also known for its active message boards. They were created in late June 2000 and originally intended for video game discussion. However, like many other popular message boards, it has since expanded to forums for discussion about cars, movies, politics, photography, and various other interests. Insider Community Board The Insider Community Board, often shortened to ICB, opened shortly after the opening of IGN's premium Insider site. During its heyday, the ICB was a thriving community spurring a hundred or more topics per day. It dwindled somewhat in popularity following the enforcement of forum rules requiring content be kept at a "PG-13" level, with many frequent posters migrating to the superior ICB2 board system. IGN Community Board The IGN Community Board, often shortened to IGNCB, opened on September 11, 2000, for "non-video game related content" that was beginning to appear on the video game discussion boards. The Community Board used to feature the highest moderators-normal users ratio, primarily because users of the IGNCB have generally been around longer than others, but today the IGNCB no longer has a pulse. The Vestibule Often shortened to "Vesti", this board is known among its users as "Teh Vesti", playing off of one of the more popular message board spelling errors. It was originally created on March 8, 2002, as a trial board for new users. Since then, over 2,000,000 threads and 30,000,000 replies have been posted on The Vestibule, making it by far the busiest board on IGN. No longer used as a trial board, it is now the main community board of the IGN Boards. Any topic may be discussed on it, so long as threads and replies abide by IGN's board rules. However, The Vestibule is often criticized for having low quality content, and due to its quick speed, the forum moderators often miss threads that are against the terms of service (TOS) or have been causing harassment. However new moderators have been recently appointed to punish posters for violation of TOS regulations or even posting on The Vestibule at all. More in depth information about The Vestibule can be found at The Vesti Wiki. Wrestling Although IGN stopped its wrestling coverage, the wrestling forums remained popular and well kept. The main wrestling boards are the Wrestling General Board, a subscriber-only board, and its free video game board for the SmackDown! game series. Sports IGN is also known for its active sports boards, mainly the Basketball and Football board. Although the sports video games are technically sports-related, they are not grouped in with the sports boards, but rather with the gaming boards. The sports included in the sports board section of IGN include: rugby, basketball, baseball, bowling, boxing, Canadian Football League, college baseball, college basketball, college football, extreme sports, fantasy sports, football, golf, hockey, martial arts, NASCAR, soccer, tennis, and paintball. MU An MU (Member Update) is a weekly post found on some boards at IGN that track the participating members' post count, post count increase, WUL count, WUL increase, the weekly top spammers, and other such details. Other sections | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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