Support NeoGAF

[tommib]

And everyone will get fired…

 

[MrRibeye]

Alternative media is the new norm, stuff like Last Stand

The legacy stuff is just going to continue dying

What is Last Stand, never heard of it.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

OK, this might actually be anticompetitive. Isn't Eurogamer alone a major weight in Metacritic scores? So now them, VG247, RPS and some of these others are all owned by the same entity.

And if you thought their reviews were already similar before, we haven't seen shit yet. Reviews and discourse around them are about to get significantly worst, as if that were even possible :/

Horrible. A single master controlling information is never a good sign.
Gaming journalism is already a joke.

Yeah. This is, like, dangerously bad. MetaCritic is already heavily flawed; this is going to break it unless they change their aggregate process.

 

[Represent.]

So IGN owns Digital Foundry now?

 

[Chuck Berry]

Don't care, anything of relevance is on GAF.

 

[Loomy]

Are they really irreplaceable?

Probably. Almost everyone is. But they won't be. That's the redundant part.

 

[DenchDeckard]

More consolidation.

 

[bender]

So IGN owns Digital Foundry now?

Pretty sure they are independent.

 

[Shadowstar39]

Consolidation and buyouts suck on all levels every time, except for the ceos and main company doing the buying.

That being said, these sites usually all think in group think with their woke cult shit anyway. Nothing of value will be lost, outside of Digital foundry (those guys better not get the chomping bock) although if they do, they have the audience they could split and go independent on youtube/rumble easily.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

I remember when DailyRadar used to be the laughing stock of online gaming journalism. By 2024 standards they would tower over the competition.

 

[NickFire]

Yeah the legacy gaming media has proven their total irrelevance. It’s amazing they even lasted this long.

Some people better start learning to code.

I somewhat disagree with legacy media being irrelevant. The reason is that it all looks self-inflicted to me and something that could potentially be reversed.

I was not being facetious when I asked how many of the companies that were acquired failed to review Hogwarts. Some of these outlets have completely lost touch with the actual gaming audience. Just think about the absurdity involved when a gaming news outlet decided to boycott the biggest game of the year (one of the biggest ever). If the gaming media cuts ties with these dumb as rocks yet holier than thou types, there is plenty of money to be made covering games. Of course, there will be growing pains because they will also need to condition the companies paying for advertisements that normal people are ok again. But they can get through it if they have a spine.

 

[Quantum253]

Did he mean to say Alice Bell's reviews were thought dulling?

 

[kingpotato]

So that's why all those RPS staffing changes happened in the last few weeks.

 

[Shadowstar39]

I was employee number four at Eurogamer back when we just ran LAN events, they already "sold out" and the founders left about 8 years ago in the traditional sense, so this is just it being passed around to someone else.

To me the site died when they ditched the forums because they didn't want to migrate it from PHP5, but I do hope this doesn't impact digital foundry too much. Ideally John would take his retro show solo and start a Patreon or something.

Are they owned by eurogamer? I see conflicting reports in this thread. They definitely have the audience to do an independent run, and it would be for the better.

 

[Harlock]

I only care about Digital Foundry.

Hope they don´t end with a blue-haired fat women giving every game a 120fps score.

 

[SnapShot]

Bruh, basically acquired their competition

 

[Zathalus]

I wonder if Digital Foundry content will be shown on the main IGN channel now.

 

[lughnasadh123]

I've been watching Podcast Unlocked, NVC, Gamescoop, and (far less of) Beyond and hooo boooi is it about to get a whole lot more fucking awkward during the daily discussions of layoffs.

 

[FunkMiller]

Of course, we all know how well big buyouts and consolidations go in the video games industry.

 

[Last Hearth]

Oh goodness. I know IGN is far and away the largest publication in the industry, but I don’t see anything positive about this acquisition. The video game industry is in a really weird, bloated, and upside down state right now.

Video game journalism industry is a completely redundant industry and should just go out of business.
Have not read an article or watched a video from them in a decade, there are enough indie outlets on YouTube and other outlets and gives all the coverage that I need, and their coverage is almost always superior to the official stuff. Because they generate revenue through viewers and need to cater to the taste and concerns of the viewer, who are the consumers. Whereas places like IGN generate revenue through ads and have to please the corporations paying those advertising fees.

 

[winjer]

I wonder if Digital Foundry content will be shown on the main IGN channel now.

Yeah. And isn't nxgamer already working with IGN?

 

[Puscifer]

I wonder if Digital Foundry content will be shown on the main IGN channel now.

I hope they breakout and leave. Some of their measuring tools they engineered themselves and I'd be damned if I let some global conglomerate take what I created.

 

[Zathalus]

I hope they breakout and leave. Some of their measuring tools they engineered themselves and I'd be damned if I let some global conglomerate take what I created.

I'm not even sure what the exact relationship is between Eurogamer and Digital Foundry. Other then Digital Foundry content getting posted on Eurogamer they appear to have nothing to do with each other.

 

[proandrad]

IGN could use more opinions outside of their small bubble.

 

[Alebrije]

So IGN has almost everything media-related to videogames lmao

IGN Once there is nothing more to eat ....

 

[onQ123]

What will come of Digital Foundry?

 

[twilo99]

Sony consolidating their media outlets?

jk

 

[cormack12]

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Gamesindustry as well?

Well, they are gone

Them too?

Yeah, it's all done. This is a disaster in the making.

Yeah. And isn't nxgamer already working with IGN?

Now would be a good time for him to leave. He's better than IGN anyway.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Alternative media is the new norm, stuff like Last Stand

The legacy stuff is just going to continue dying

No, alternative media as everywhere is a code word for “I’m too crazy to be employed by a regular company, let me try to grift of my imaginary persecution complex”.

Gaming media has a big problem - I don’t think the business model is sustainable or companies are interested into having impartial opinion. There is a reason you cannot name anyone the size of Roger Ebert reviewing videogames, and he was not alone. So you end up with grift aka paid marketing.

 

[captainnapalm]

Traditional gaming outlets have largely abandoned traditional gamers, who have to go to Youtube to get news and views they like. Totally unsustainable situation.

And it's not just gaming websites, there's this entire online infrastructure of media sites that have dwindling audiences, employing the kind of people no one wants to listen to anymore. Look at the engagement sites like Wired and Rolling Stone get now.

 

[Last Hearth]

Traditional gaming outlets have largely abandoned traditional gamers, who have to go to Youtube to get news and views they like. Totally unsustainable situation.

And it's not just gaming websites, there's this entire online infrastructure of media sites that have dwindling audiences, employing the kind of people no one wants to listen to anymore. Look at the engagement sites like Wired and Rolling Stone get now.

It’s a vicious cycle, as readership dwindles, the publications are increasingly dependent on advertising instead of copies sold to generate revenue, which forces them to parrot the voice the advertisers want to have said, which leads to further erosion of the audience. Until the audience is so small the advertisers loses interest and the publication dies.
The solution is that when readership drops, figure out why so you can bring them back up again, that’s how things used to work. Now they go for the easy solution by trying to make it up by catering to advertisers.

 

[Dacvak]

I'm not even sure what the exact relationship is between Eurogamer and Digital Foundry. Other then Digital Foundry content getting posted on Eurogamer they appear to have nothing to do with each other.

Fwiw, I recently sold a design to DF, and I had to register as a contractor through ReedPop, who is at the center of this current sale.

So it’d be my understanding that IGN does own DF now, but my evidence is anecdotal at best.

 

[WhamBamThankYouMaam]

I would really prefer this not to be the case, but ok.

I still prefer sites as indie as possible.

 

[alphachino]

You can't spell ignorant without IGN.

 

[Kssio_Aug]

For me that's alright. It just means they're putting all the trash in the same dump.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Keep glorifying and making threads about game reviews gaf, im sure they are legit and not owned by big corpos and made to garner clicks and attention. If it were up to me id ban review discussions. Just like politics its a cesspool of console warriors and whatnot.

 

[Spyxos]

When will Ign buy gamespot?

 

[KaiserBecks]

Already happening:

View: https://x.com/ethangach/status/1792950149532037581

Fuck RPS. I've been ignoring them for so long that I can't even remember why, but fuck 'em. Same goes for Eurogamer. Now most of the rotten eggs are in the same basket.

 

[Saber]

Now its easy to call them all turd since they are all one now.
Honestly I just wish DF disassociate from them sooner. They either do that or they gonna be fired regardless.

 

[AJUMP23]

Just fire all the ugly people. Hire some AIs.

 

[diffusionx]

I stopped reading RPS and Eurogamer years ago, and don't know what IGN saw in them (although going by the layoffs, not much).

I know people may think this is a bad take but I think IGN in general is pretty good overall, their game reviews are decent and they report on the news. I just avoid most of their non-game stuff because it's mostly pretty embarrassing. It's like they gone full circle. Anyway considering how long they've survived and thrived I fully expect IGN to survive a nuclear war along with the cockroaches.

 

[yazenov]

I stopped reading RPS and Eurogamer years ago, and don't know what IGN saw in them (although going by the layoffs, not much).

Must have bought all of them for peanuts.

 

[Plague Doctor]

Just think, Kotaku is now the last pub standing against IGN. Wow.

This is truly the Silent Hill joke ending for gaming journalism.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Terrible buys Terrible

 

[nush]

Kotaku is now the last pub standing against IGN.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

IGN is the MS of gaming media

 

[Zadom]

Dead internet theory in action.


@EviLore, seriously, thanks for keeping this place open even if I disagree with some of the stuff people say it's still great to see open dialog that isn't fed and moderated through an algorithm.

 

[Bilu]

All the companies gathered in one place to suck Sony's balls. AMAZING.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

I somewhat disagree with legacy media being irrelevant. The reason is that it all looks self-inflicted to me and something that could potentially be reversed.

I was not being facetious when I asked how many of the companies that were acquired failed to review Hogwarts. Some of these outlets have completely lost touch with the actual gaming audience. Just think about the absurdity involved when a gaming news outlet decided to boycott the biggest game of the year (one of the biggest ever). If the gaming media cuts ties with these dumb as rocks yet holier than thou types, there is plenty of money to be made covering games. Of course, there will be growing pains because they will also need to condition the companies paying for advertisements that normal people are ok again. But they can get through it if they have a spine.

There’s plenty of money to be made covering games, but I’ve give up hope for the legacy gaming media long ago. The future is independent YouTubers and podcasts.

Nowadays an independent reviewer/journalist can connect directly with their audience, the successful ones can develop an audience of millions. No middleman needed.