Layoffs at IGN and 1UP, Gamespy and UGO closing

[Sledgstone 8,672]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/layoffs-at-ign-6404313
 

Less than a month after Ziff Davis parent company J2 Global purchased IGN from News Corp., the company is seeing layoffs. A company spokesperson confirmed with Joystiq today that in addition to editorial layoffs at IGN, sites including 1UP, UGO, and Gamespy will be closed.

"We are focusing on our two flagship brands, IGN and AskMen," the company said. "Unfortunately, as a result, we have made the decision to close sites and restructure our teams accordingly."

 

I remember looking at 1UP.com for years. I'm surprised they'll be shutting down.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I remember when IGN was king. I actually use to pay the yearly subscription for IGN premium to get the live stream of E3 before everyone started doing it for free. I mainly use Kotaku for my gaming news seeing as they take news from every gaming site and pool it into their page.

 

With less releases, there is less to cover. I can understand why this is happening. In fact I am feeling that the gaming industry has reached an apex and will start to decline or even crash hard in the coming years. Gaming is no longer the common man's hobby, its more geared towards the hardcore competitive gamer. Like casual gaming? You'll be stuck with phone apps and social media, console gaming is now limited to the massive blockbusters. Fewer and fewer people are willing to pay $60 for a game with no replay value, and I really dont understand why there hasnt been tiered prices for games like that. Greed I guess. In a way COD has brought gaming to its highest point, and will bring it to its lowest point. It will fade in popularly sooner or later just like Madden before it... the only question is what will take its place?

[Myk JL 1,731]

I remember having to sign up for IGN to get the Saints Row The Third Character Creator Demo that didn't work once the game came out. I still get their newsletter & most of what they talk about doesn't grab my interest.

 

Only one IGN article sticks out in my mind & that was one about Transgender Characters in gaming. Mainly complaining about Poison & Birdo being labeled Male instead of Female. I found that kind of pointless as it implied the best way to represent the Transgender Community was not to represent them at all. Or worse added to the joke about the "sexy surprise". It didn't even go anywhere near the more respectable Transgender Females such as certain Deadric Princes in Elder Scrolls. Or even the fact Tekken's Leo isn't suppose to have a specific gender.

 

I think I also had GameSpy for some PC Games but I forgot why it was important or if it was important at all.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

The history of my gaming news sources over the past 15-20 years
1. Game Informer Magazine
2. gamespot.com
3. IGN
4. Kotaku

Kotaku is starting to get a little too politcal and opinionated, keep that shit on Gawker. I'm thinking about jumping to Joystiq if I have to sort though more gun control articles on a gaming website. Ironic how they do that and then post articles about how awesome it is that laser cannons from such and such game are close to becoming reality.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I remember when IGN was king. I actually use to pay the yearly subscription for IGN premium to get the live stream of E3 before everyone started doing it for free. I mainly use Kotaku for my gaming news seeing as they take news from every gaming site and pool it into their page.

 

With less releases, there is less to cover. I can understand why this is happening. In fact I am feeling that the gaming industry has reached an apex and will start to decline or even crash hard in the coming years. Gaming is no longer the common man's hobby, its more geared towards the hardcore competitive gamer. Like casual gaming? You'll be stuck with phone apps and social media, console gaming is now limited to the massive blockbusters. Fewer and fewer people are willing to pay $60 for a game with no replay value, and I really dont understand why there hasnt been tiered prices for games like that. Greed I guess. In a way COD has brought gaming to its highest point, and will bring it to its lowest point. It will fade in popularly sooner or later just like Madden before it... the only question is what will take its place?

 

I like casual gaming and I think thats why I'm leaning more towards PC gaming and loosing more interest in the new consoles. I really like Steam and the variety of cheap quick games I can get my hands on. I like to do the occasional casual gaming and jump on Binding of Isaac, or a quick stage of Worms Golf. The fact that I got both of those games for under $5 a piece is also great. I can spend hours on some of these games and I don't feel the need to always pay $60 for the latest and greatest. I hate how most casual games by large developers are being pushed onto hand held systems or phone apps.

 

I like Final Fantasy, but did Square Enix release the remasted version of FFIII on PC? Nope. Just Nintendo DS and android. And no Square Enix, I do not want to pay $15.99 for a rpg that I have to play on my phone. If you had it for PC and released it on steam for half the price, I'd consider it. But I'd rather spend $10 on steam for KOTOR than $15 for a cell phone game that destroys my battery.

 

Oh, and they did re-release FFVII for PC, but I can't buy it because it was never released in North America. wtf.

 

http://finalfantasyviipc.com/en

 

So instead of me spending my money on big brand name games, I've been playing more and more indie games over the past year. I think all the big developers are loosing an entire market of casual gamers because they have their prices too high and they are not releasing their games on PC.