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IGN acquires pay-what-you-want game and book retailer Humble Bundle
Media conglomerate IGN has acquired Humble Bundle, the pay-what-you-want gaming, book and software collection retailer that raises money for charitable causes. In a blog post, Humble Bundle cofounder and CEO Jeffrey Rosen noted that his company will "keep our own office, culture, and amazing team with IGN helping us further our plans." Aside from noting that the retailer will get additional resources and help out of the deal, no details were disclosed.
Twitter to stream live coverage of Wimbledon and Comic-Con
Twitter's livestreaming efforts have been well documented, and today we have news that the microblogging service is expanding it further. Variety writes that next month Twitter will broadcast the opening preview night from San Diego Comic-Con as part of a deal with entertainment publication IGN -- much like what the pair did with E3 earlier this month.
Majesco creates Midnight City label to handle indie games
Majesco Entertainment (Cooking Mama, Zumba) has created an indie publishing label called Midnight City. The division is headed by former IGN Editor-in-Chief Casey Lynch and Doug Kennedy, former president and CEO of public relations firm Reverb Communications. The pair had previously worked together (before Lynch took the IGN gig) at Reverb Publishing, a division of the PR firm that helped streamline and support the publishing process for indies on various digital distribution platforms. "Over the years we have seen tons of really great games coming from smaller independent studios and our vision at Midnight City is to offer these games and development teams a wide range of services and support," said Lynch. "We're here to help with everything from first-party relations, QA, promotion and community building and to put a spotlight on the titles while freeing the development teams to focus 100 percent of their energy on building the best games possible." Midnight City has announced an initial lineup of ten games, which the company will show off at this weekend's PAX Prime in Seattle.
Blizzard purchases IGN Pro League
Blizzard has bought the technology and other assets related to the IGN Pro League. The future of IPL was up in the air due to IGN layoffs back in February with 1UP, UGO, and Gamespy closing shop. Now we know what the fate of IPL will be. Some members of the team will be moving over to San Francisco to work on "high-quality web and mobile content in support of Blizzard games" but it appears that the actual operations of IPL will be coming to a close. Other members will be joining Blizzard's existing eSports team and possibly assisting them with the recently announced Starcraft 2 World Championship Series. Personally, I've enjoyed watching the League of Legends and Starcraft 2 tournaments that IPL held. I'm quite sad to see them go as I was impressed by the level of quality in their productions. Best of luck to everyone involved!
Blizzard acquires IGN's Pro League tech, staff
Blizzard has purchased the IGN Pro League (IPL) technology and assets from IGN. The developer has also hired members of the IPL staff to create high-quality content in support of Blizzard's eSports. IGN will now go "agnostic" in its competitive gaming coverage, seeking to partner "with multiple organizations" to cover the events."This is a team of passionate gamers with a proven track record, and we're looking forward to now leveraging their expertise and technology to support a variety of online efforts," said Itzik Ben-Bassat, Blizzard's EVP of publishing.The IGN ProLeague 6 event, scheduled for late March, was officially canceled early last month. IGN is currently going through a review of resources following its acquisition by Ziff Davis.
Dissecting the newest DUST 514 video for goodies
With the integration of EVE Online and DUST 514 now detailed by CCP, a new trailer has been released on IGN to show off some of the goodies we can expect, including the infamous orbital strike mechanic that we've been hearing about since DUST 514's initial announcement. This video shows off the Battle for Caldari Prime, which is said to be the pivot point for integration into both games. Dust514Base.com dissected the video, pointing out several new undocumented shinies, including the scrambler rifle, a possible first look at the Gallente Assault dropsuit, a redesigned wrist neocom, and a logi with a plasma cannon. Check out the video in its entirety, along with the observation notes to see what you think.
IGN cancels IPL6 eSports tournament
The IGN ProLeague 6 event – intended to take place at the end of the month from March 28-31 – has officially been canceled, following rumors of its demise last week."Now there are more tournaments than ever before competing for people's time and attention, so we're no longer in a position to commit the resources required to run another major independent event," IGN explained in its official statement. "You should also know that we are working on finding a new home for the IPL team and IGN will continue to broadcast partner tournaments in the future."Full refunds for the event and for reservations made at IPL6's intended venue at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas are available. Those with non-refundable plane tickets still have someplace to go, but nothing to see. It's Vegas, we're sure there's something to do.The cancellation follows a review of resources at IGN after its acquisition by Ziff Davis. The organization experienced layoffs a couple weeks ago.
Rumor: IGN's IPL6 eSports tournament canceled
The IGN ProLeague 6 event scheduled for later this month in Las Vegas has reportedly been canceled. GameSpot has been putting the pieces together, which include sponsors receiving products back that had been shipped for the event, links being removed on the IPL site for hotel reservations and certain international qualifiers being canceled.The news isn't exactly surprising following the acquisition of IGN by Ziff Davis, which has already led to layoffs and reorganization of editorial. IPL is currently in the process of being sold to interested buyers.IGN has not responded to our request for comment by this writing. We'll update if we receive official word.
IGN hit with layoffs; 1UP, Gamespy and UGO shutting down
IGN was hit with editorial layoffs today, with sites 1UP, UGO and Gamespy expected to be shut down."We are focusing on our two flagship brands, IGN and AskMen. Unfortunately, as a result, we have made the decision to close sites and restructure our teams accordingly," a company spokesperson confirmed to Joystiq.The news comes less that a month after IGN was purchased by j2 Global through its Ziff Davis subsidiary.
IGN acquired by Ziff Davis
IGN and its related sites have been acquired by j2 Global through its Ziff Davis subsidiary. Although the sale price was undisclosed, Bloomberg cites sources who claim it was less than the $100 million News Corp was asking for the bundle. Ziff Davis will now take over IGN, UGO, 1UP and AskMen.com. According to j2, these sites have over 600 advertisers and 53 million global monthly unique visitors.The historical context for all this gets crazy and incestuous, so strap in, we'll try to make this easy. The zombie Ziff Davis at the heart of this current deal was acquired by j2 Global for $167 million in late 2012, after Ziff's years of financial difficulty and bankruptcy.The incarnation of Ziff Davis that game industry watchers probably remember is the one that once upon a time ran 1UP and EGM. Those properties were sold in 2009 to the Hearst corporation, which had also acquired UGO earlier. This led to the death of EGM and reinterpretation of 1UP.Two years later, News Corp., which owned IGN, took over the Hearst properties and, thusly, the former Ziff Davis site 1UP and Hearst's UGO.So, now, here we are, with the reincarnated Ziff Davis taking over IGN. We think we got all that right.
Neverwinter gets a new trailer
Raise your hand if you like Neverwinter. Raise another hand if you like lore. If you've got both hands up, go ahead and clap a bit because we've got news of a lore trailer for Neverwinter's mysterious Chasm. Or don't. You could put your hands down and just watch the trailer and that'd be just fine. The Chasm came about after the eruption of Mount Hotenow and an ensuing earthquake. According to the lore, the Chasm "began vomiting out foul creatures," and you know what has to happen when the earth itself begins upchucking baddies: Heroes have gotta go fight 'em. Skip below the cut to feast your eyes. [Thanks to groovy webizen Paul for the tip.]
The Summoner's Guidebook: IPL's League of Legends a paragon of tournaments
I feel a bit tuckered out from League of Legends tournaments. I love the game, and I love the pro scene, but sometimes I'm just not in the mood to watch hours and hours of gameplay and then try to digest it all. As a columnist, I have to watch tournaments with a different eye than a normal spectator, which can be exhausting, so I wasn't really looking forward to IPL 5. My favorite team (Dignitas) wasn't playing, and all my tournament hype was spent watching the Season 2 finals. However, IPL did a lot to keep my interest. Normally, I'm not really into IGN's LoL coverage, as it's heavy on entertainment and presentation value and low on information. This time, not only were the matches interesting, but the format was excellent, the commentary was good, and the space between matches was filled with tons of informative content. I really couldn't have asked for a better LoL tournament to end the year. Every other tournament this year paled in comparison.
Ouya names Roy Bahat chairman of the board, hires leadership staff
Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman announced Roy Bahat as chairman of the board Friday. Bahat served as president of IGN Entertainment for five years before joining Ouya.Uhrman also revealed that Steve Chamberlin will lead Ouya's engineering division while Raffi Bagdasarian is in charge of the software side of operations, including services for developers and user experience. Chamberlin previously was Senior Development Director for Trion Worlds, developers of Rift. Bagdasarian spent over five years working with Sony on its Crackle streaming service.Uhrman added that "over a thousand" game developers have been in contact with Ouya since its Kickstarter campaign ended in August, and that more than 50 distributors have applied to carry the system when it launches.
Newscorp app adds Fox, IGN, the Wall Street Journal and Fox News to Xbox 360 in 2012
Microsoft's Craig Davison had some surprise news during the company's CES 2012 keynote this evening, bringing out word that Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp is developing an application for the Xbox 360. Several Newscorp content providers will be pushing out news and commentary via the free application, including the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and IGN. Beyond "2012," Davison didn't allow any more specific a date to slip out.
Blizzard's not talking about its unannounced MMO at BlizzCon this year, either
Remember that one time when Blizzard accidentally leaked some info stating that it's working on a new MMO (codenamed "Titan"), and we all got excited? And then BlizzCon happened, and we all thought the studio would tell us more, but it didn't? And then remember when that happened the next year, too? Well, it's happening again this year. In a clarification statement to IGN, Blizzard has confirmed that it will not be discussing the "unannounced MMO" during BlizzCon 2011. This follows a VentureBeat interview with M2 Research senior analyst Billy Pidgeon, who predicted that news of Titan must be breaking at this October's event. Oh well, we still have emote dance contests and the Foo Fighters, right?
Tom Chilton suggests Mists of Pandaria "wildly overhyped"
Maybe Mists of Pandaria isn't quite as likely as we all thought. IGN PC had a chat with Game Director Tom Chilton about the rumors of the upcoming expansion, as well as the upcoming patch 4.3 and the possibility of WoW moving to a free-to-play model. Chiming in on the subject of transmogrification was Art Director Chris Robinson, who explained a little about the details behind the feature and its restrictions. Robinson clarified that protecting class integrity was an important factor in both armor design and the upcoming transmogrification feature: "When you see those demon wings you know 'Okay that's a warlock,' you know you can apply that to his tier twenty-one armor but it's still a warlock." So what about free-to-play? Chilton confirms that it's "definitely a possibility," but for those of you looking for an immediate free-to-play version of WoW, you're going to have to wait. Chilton clarified that the change would be a dramatic departure from Blizzard's current business model, and it would take quite a bit of convincing to switch models. As to the subject of Pandaren ... Speculation swirled recently regarding Blizzard's decision to trademark "Mists of Pandaria," as many thought it may indicate the name of the next World of Warcraft expansion. Pandaria, in Warcraft lore, refers to the home of the Pandaren, basically humanoid war pandas you may remember making an appearance as neutral heroes in Warcraft III. Chilton said the speculation was, "wildly overhyped." He added, "if you look at traditionally how we've handled that race it's been in those secondary products because we haven't realized it in the world. Most of the time when we do anything panda-related it's going to be a comic book or a figurine or something like that." Comic books, figurines, or a new expansion? Time and undoubtedly BlizzCon will tell. Check out the full article over at IGN PC.
GameFly to launch 'Unlimited PC Play' download service, offer less incentive to leave the house
GameFly hasn't wasted any time jumping into the digital download waters after acquiring IGN's Direct2Drive platform a little over two months ago. Set to launch September 8th in beta form, its new "Unlimited PC Play" service will offer subscribers access to 100-plus downloadable PC and Mac titles, with hundreds more expected in time for the official end of year launch. Fans of the video game rental outfit's snail mail subscription service don't have to worry about a shift to digital only, as the company has no plans to abandon its "unique combination of console and digital PC game offerings." Interested in getting an early peek at the new platform? If you live in the Los Angeles area, you can look forward to a planned beta launch party next month, where access codes for the new, invite-only service will be distributed. The rest of you PC gaming warriors will just have to settle for a sign-up page at the source.
Firefall blows up bugs in the new gameplay trailer
Gamers have asked for an FPS that they can play with friends in a persistent world, and Red 5 Studios is delivering. Firefall, the free-to-play brainchild of Mark Kern, showcases a world with hundreds of players contesting for resources in the virtual space of Fortaleza, Brazil 222 years in the future. IGN granted us a glimpse into this world of kill-or-be-killed with the Firefall gameplay trailer. The two minutes of pure action starts with dynamic squad missions, continues past player gear and abilities, and then launches you into epic world events. Blast past the break to experience the trailer for yourself, and don't forget to sign up for the beta on the official FireFall website. [Thanks, Dylan, for the tip]
GameFly acquisition of Direct2Drive official
Today, game rental service GameFly confirmed last week's rumor that it will acquire the digital game retailer Direct2Drive from IGN. The acquisition of Direct2Drive will add more than 3,000 PC and Mac games to GameFly's existing library of console titles. While terms of the deal are not disclosed in the announcement, IGN will gain a minority equity stake in GameFly but have no direct role in its operations or governance. "Only GameFly can offer a complete library of physical and digital games for the PC, Mac and consoles in one place." David Hodess, CEO of GameFly gloats. Although Direct2Drive currently offers a small handful of downloadable game rentals, no plans for including PC and Mac rentals through GameFly are discussed in the announcement; however, Joystiq confirmed with David Hodess that the option is being explored. "We know that consumers are interested in PC/Mac rentals and intend to investigate this opportunity thoroughly," Hodess told us. He also confirmed that Direct2Drive promotions like IGN membership discounts and the refer-a-friend program will continue after the acquisition is complete.
Rumor: IGN selling Direct2Drive to Gamefly
IGN's Direct2Drive is allegedly being sold to GameFly, MCV reports. An official announcement is expected next week. Direct2Drive does offer a limited selection of game rentals, which fits in directly with GameFly's business model. Sources, while unable to confirm the sale, do tell us that IGN has been looking to unload D2D for some time. This would be the second major announcement out of News Corp's IGN in under a month. The company announced in early May it was merging with UGO, and reports indicated that the company would spin off from News Corp. IGN and GameFly told Joystiq in perfect harmony that neither company will "comment on rumors or speculation."
