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The Internet Entertainment Games

IGN/GameSpy Tries Hitpoints, Lusts Non-Gaming Market 32

Posted by simoniker from the gleaming-the-cube dept.
Thanks to Washington Post/MSNBC for its fairly hagiographic profile of the merged IGN/GameSpy website/game matchmaking network. Among the more interesting comments: "IGN/GameSpy is letting some subscribers download entire games instead of just patches. Firaxis's Civilization III: Play the World is one of the debut titles under the program, called HitPoints... [which] gives away games on a frequent-flier-style basis, determined by how many and what kind of GameSpy subscription programs a user has signed up for." It's also revealed: "Chief executive Mark A. Jung would not mind the company being a Best Buy Co. or Circuit City Stores Inc. He cites Viacom Inc., the vast entertainment and publishing conglomerate, as an example of the multi-brand company he wants IGN/GameSpy to be, one that builds on his core audience." Does IGN/GameSpy accurately represent the mainstream?
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IGN/GameSpy Tries Hitpoints, Lusts Non-Gaming Market More

IGN/GameSpy Tries Hitpoints, Lusts Non-Gaming Market

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  • the company being a Best Buy Co. or Circuit City (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Grand ( 152636 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @12:18AM (#9449079)
    Id rather drive to the store, stand in line, and drive back home instead of sitting through a bunch of flash ad's on their site.

  • Hardly worth it. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ykant ( 318168 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @12:35AM (#9449146)
    Points to download games. Not a bad idea in and of itself, but I have a problem with how much you have to purchase in order to get the points. It's an annual $24.95 (which will automatically renew every year) in order to use their software(GameSpy 3d) without being interrupted by (very annoying when you just want to get on with playing a game) ads. This is their base products, and I would imagine that this is their biggest seller.

    The average game seems to cost around 600 points. How many points do you receive for the $24.95 annual subscription? Goose egg. Zero.

    Now, they really push the $79.95 package - no ads anywhere on the GameSpy network (and you must admit, they've got some obnoxious ads), a newsletter, and some magazine subscriptions which will likely get you goodness-knows-how-many more additional junk mails and telemarketer calls at home.

    For an extra $10, you get a membership on IGN. And for your $89.95 subscription, you get 1,200 points. To get the "best" deal, 3000 points (which will get you 5 games on par with Prince of Persia SoT or Civ 3), you've got to sign up for the $89.95 subscription for two years. Maybe this is a good deal for someone, but it's not me.

    • "To get the "best" deal, 3000 points (which will get you 5 games on par with Prince of Persia SoT or Civ 3)"

      This doesn't even take into consideration that not all game makers are going to want in on this "deal." If you pay $90 for two years expecting to get five great games, well, all you might get are a couple of expansions and a game that was released what, three months ago? I don't see them making any money on this business model. Ykant, great post, BTW.

    • I don't know; 5 games for $36 a game isn't a horrible deal, especially if you actually can get games on the same quality level of Prince of Persia SoT, etc. I guess as a bonus you get full access to a bunch of sites and some extra stuff. I don't really care for gamespy and ign (although fileplanet can be useful at times) so this isn't terribly attractive to me. For actual fans/current subscribers of the sites, however, this might wind up being a decent deal. Though in either case, I wouldn't go as far a

    • Re:Hardly worth it. (Score:2, Informative)

      by tvalley000 ( 410933 )
      which will get you 5 games on par with Prince of Persia SoT or Civ 3

      And so you spend all that money on games that will likely be reduced in price within that year's time to levels that don't even compare with your subscription fee.

      For example: Civ 3 latest expansion (which includes the original game, and all expansions to date) was selling for 9.95 from Amazon recently. As they use that as an example, I find it very hard to understand how'd you end up getting a value out of this as a player.
    • Am I the only person who actually enjoys owning the packaging and instructions?

      The deal sounds mediocre to me, but definitely not something to fork over my credit card right now. Like the guy a few threads up said, I'd rather drive to the store, stand in line, and drive home with the game in my hands.

  • Gamespy IGN, Two great tastes (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cgenman ( 325138 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @12:45AM (#9449176) Homepage
    Gamespy does one thing right: It's online matchmaking service is both very convienient and (now that inline clients are common) well done. On the other hand, Fileplanet is reviled pretty much universally. IGN, on the other hand, has never been accused of objectivity, but it is generally associated with great sites such as GameFaqs and the excellent and now deceased Daily Game News (I might be remembering the name wrong).

    Where does this leave the two companies? Grasping. While both have lost the edge in terms of either timely reporting of events or accurate, believable reviews, they could concievably team up in a Cnet Zdnet paradigm, whereby both sites get all of the content and neither lose out. Of course, Cnet is notorious for doing things like declaring every new cellular phone that comes out the "world's first internet phone!" Then again, Gamespy declares every year that the latest Madden is "Only for the PS2!"

    Good luck you two. At least you don't have high expectations to live up to.

    • Re:Gamespy IGN, Two great tastes (Score:4, Funny)

      by Snowmit ( 704081 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @09:44AM (#9451805) Homepage
      It's GameSpot, not IGN that's involved with GameFAQs. If it was IGN, then every now and then GIANT HAMBURGERS would dance all over the screen while you desperately tried to figure out how to see more of the DOA girls' breasts.
    • " IGN, on the other hand, has never been accused of objectivity, but it is generally associated with great sites such as GameFaqs and the excellent and now deceased Daily Game News (I might be remembering the name wrong)."

      I think you misspelled "was".

      IGN used to be a good gaming site. They had extensive reviews and previews. Then came the ads. Alright, I can sit through some ads for this great free content.

      Then came the subscription. Alright, I won't subscribe, and I may not be able to see ALL the vide

  • The answer is... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MMaestro ( 585010 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @12:52AM (#9449201)
    Does IGN/GameSpy accurately represent the mainstream?

    No.

    Judging someone's preferences to video games based on what they subscribe to is like judging someone's preferences on food based on what they buy. Sure a college student LOGICALLY likes instant ramen if he buys a Costco sized 48 pack of the stuff every week. But when you take other factors into consideration (budget, time, lazyness, want something to eat a 4 AM while studing for your final, etc) obviously you noticed the data is slanted.

    Same with video games. When you're in college and you're stuck in a small room with 2-4 other guys you've never met until 2 months ago, you're not gonna 'break the ice' with a game like Xenosaga or Final Fantasy. No you're gonna reach for a game like Goldeneye, Halo, or Quake. But when College Calvin goes back home, he MIGHT keep playing those games, or he might go back to his old singleplayer friendly games like turn-based strategy games.

    • uh, and most people actively try to stay off from gamespy.

      it's not enough for them that they bundle their crap with games? they want their crap to be bundled with some games as well?

  • Gamespy and IGN (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I really can't wait until these bastards fold and go under. I just want to see them bankrupt and weeping. It's a sad thing that you can make a business out of plagarism and a crappy, nonexistant product.
    • Precisely - the only reason we need them is because they make it so they're needed. It's like building a dam to stop the flow of water to a town, then sell them the water they had. They add an extra level of effort that never needs to exist.

  • hagiograpic (Score:2, Informative)

    by peripatetic_bum ( 211859 )
    Sorry Just had to look up the definition for Hagiographic [reference.com].

    Sounds like they are using the second meaning of the word here
  • Why are they focusing on this expansion? Its over a year old and the newer Expansion "conquests" has a much better multiplayer experience anyway (as long as you have a spare 15 sequential hours to play a game...)
  • OK, GameSpy is retarded. Their TCP stack in Arcade is HORRIBLE! Crash crash crash! I wouldn't trust their code any farther than I could shlep the psychotic price tag IGN seems to think it merits.

    Steam's showed that this sort of plan can work, but GameSpy IGN is NOT the company we want behind the code involved in implementing ANYTHING, let alone streaming game software to our home machines.

  • GameSpy has been online since 1996, the Stone Age of Internet gaming.

    1996? Is he on crack? Perhaps he means the "Stoned Age".

    Internet gaming has been around a hell of a lot longer than that.
  • "Does IGN/GameSpy accurately represent the mainstream?"

    Does IGN accurately represent anything? their writting has become horribly boring over the last few years, and the publication lacks any personality. when i am talking about something as meaningless as videogames, i tend to like a little fun, attiude and bombastic editorializing. gamespy is a lot better than IGN in this respect, but i fear tht it has been purchased (oh, sorry, merged) just for its subscriber base and technology, not for its culture or
    • They will give at least 8/10 for any half-decent PC game, making their reviews utterly useless for any kind of discriminating purchaser.

      Worse, however, is the fact that they routinely use the same reviews for multiple platforms. I invite anyone who is interested to go and read their Deus Ex 2 reviews for PC and XBox, they are identical for about 3/4 of the review.

      www.gamerankings.com - this is the way to get accurate information about games.

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