''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

and entertainment media

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of

Ziff Davis, Inc Ziff may refer to: People * Arnold Ziff (1927–2004), British businessman and philanthropist * Daniel M. Ziff (1973-), American investor and billionaire * Dirk Edward Ziff (1965-), American investor and billionaire * Morris Ziff (1914?-200 ...

. The company's headquarters is located in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

SoMa Soma may refer to: Businesses and brands * SOMA (architects), a New York–based firm of architects * Soma (company), a company that designs eco-friendly water filtration systems * SOMA Fabrications, a builder of bicycle frames and other bicycle ...

district and is headed by its former editor-in-chief, Peer Schneider. The ''IGN'' website was the brainchild of media entrepreneur

Chris Anderson Chris Anderson may refer to: Sports * Chris Anderson (baseball) (born 1992), American baseball player * Chris Anderson (cheese roller), 22-time winner of annual cheese rolling * Chris Anderson (footballer, born 1925) (1925–1986), Scottish footb ...

and launched on September 29, 1996. It focuses on

game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

, and other media. Originally a network of desktop websites, ''IGN'' is now also distributed on mobile platforms, console programs on the

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

and

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

FireTV Amazon Fire TV (stylized as amazon fireTV) is a line of digital media players and microconsoles developed by Amazon. The devices are small network appliances that deliver digital audio and video content streamed via the Internet to a connect ...

Roku Roku ( ) is a brand of hardware digital media players manufactured by American company Roku, Inc. They offer access to streaming media content from online services. The first Roku model, developed in collaboration with Netflix, was introduce ...

, and via

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

, and

Snapchat Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before the ...

. Originally, ''IGN'' was the flagship website of IGN Entertainment, a website which owned and operated several other websites oriented towards players' interests, games, and entertainment, such as

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1996 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for the game, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameS ...

, ''GameStats'', ''VE3D'',

TeamXbox ''TeamXbox'' was a gaming media web site dedicated to Microsoft's Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One platforms. While the majority of content was Xbox and Xbox 360 related, the site occasionally covered general technology and other video game news. ...

, Vault Network, FilePlanet, and

AskMen AskMen is a free online men's web portal, with international versions in Australia, Canada, the Middle East, the United Kingdom and the United States. It is owned by Ziff Davis and operates through the IGN Entertainment unit. History AskMen was ...

, among others. ''IGN'' was sold to publishing company

Ziff Davis Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. First founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology-oriented media websites, online shopping-related services, an ...

in February 2013 and now operates as a

J2 Global J2 Global, Inc. was an American technology holding company based in Los Angeles, California. The company provided Internet services through two divisions: Business Cloud Services and Digital Media. History J2 Global was founded in December 1995 ...

subsidiary.

History

Created in September 1996 as the ''Imagine Games Network'', the ''IGN'' content network was founded by publishing executive Jonathan Simpson-Bint and began as five individual websites within

Imagine Media Future US, Inc. (formerly known as Imagine Media and The Future Network USA) is an American media corporation specializing in targeted magazines and websites in the video games, music, and technology markets. Headquartered in New York City, ...

: ''N64.com'' (later renamed ''ign64.com''), ''PSXPower'', ''Saturnworld'', ''Next-Generation.com'' and ''Ultra Game Players Online''. Imagine expanded on its owned-and-operated websites by creating an affiliate network that included a number of independent fansites such as ''PSX Nation.com'', ''Sega-Saturn.com'', ''Game Sages'', and

GameFAQs GameFAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff Veasey and was bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by Fandom, Inc. since October 2022. The site has a databa ...

. In 1998, the network launched a new homepage that consolidated the individual sites as system channels under the ''IGN'' brand. The homepage exposed content from more than 30 different channels. Next-Generation and Ultra Game Players Online were not part of this consolidation; U.G.P.O. dissolved with the cancellation of the magazine, and Next-Generation was put "on hold" when Imagine decided to concentrate on launching the short-lived

Daily Radar ''Daily Radar'' was a news aggregator and portal site for Future US's male-oriented content, including sports, film and television, and video games. Daily Radar started as a gaming website like IGN, GameSpy and GameSpot, and was later renamed and ...

brand. In February 1999, ''

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...

'' named ''IGN'' one of the hundred-best websites, alongside competitors

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

and

CNET Gamecenter ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...

. That same month, Imagine Media incorporated a spin-off that included ''IGN'' and its affiliate channels as Affiliation Networks, while Simpson-Bint remained at the former company. In September, the newly spun-out standalone internet media company, changed its name to Snowball.com. At the same time, small entertainment website The Den merged into ''IGN'' and added non-gaming content to the growing network. Snowball held an IPO in 2000, but shed most of its other properties during the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...

. ''IGN'' prevailed with growing audience numbers and a newly established subscription service called ''IGN'' Insider (later ''IGN'' Prime), which led to the shedding of the name "Snowball" and adoption of IGN Entertainment on May 10, 2002. In June 2005, ''IGN'' reported having 24,000,000 unique visitors per month, with 4.8 million registered users through all departments of the site. ''IGN'' has been ranked among the top 500 most-visited websites according to

Alexa Alexa may refer to: Technology *Amazon Alexa, a virtual assistant developed by Amazon * Alexa Internet, a defunct website ranking and traffic analysis service * Arri Alexa, a digital motion picture camera People * Alexa (name), a given name a ...

. In September 2005, ''IGN'' was acquired by

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

's multi-media business empire,

News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Ne ...

, for $650 million. IGN celebrated its 10th anniversary on January 12, 2008. ''IGN'' was headquartered in the Marina Point Parkway office park in

Brisbane, California Brisbane (pron. , unlike Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) is a small city located in California in the northern part of San Mateo County on the lower slopes of San Bruno Mountain. It is located on the southern border of San Francisco, on the ...

, until it relocated to a smaller office building near

AT&T Park Oracle Park is a Major League Baseball stadium in the SoMa neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Since 2000, it has been the home of the San Francisco Giants. Previously named Pacific Bell Park, SBC Park, and AT&T Park, the stadium's curren ...

in San Francisco on March 29, 2010. On May 25, 2011, ''IGN'' sold its

Acquisition of UGO, sale to Ziff Davis

In 2011, IGN Entertainment acquired its rival

UGO Entertainment UGO Entertainment, Inc. was a website that provided coverage of online media in entertainment, targeting males aged 18–34. The company was based in New York, New York, United States. History The company started in 1997 as Unified Gamers Onlin ...

(owners of '' 1Up.com'') from

Hearst Corporation Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, televis ...

. Ultimately, News Corp. planned to spin off IGN Entertainment as a publicly traded company, continuing a string of divestitures for digital properties it had previously acquired (including MySpace and Photobucket). On February 4, 2013, after a failed attempt to spin off ''IGN'' as a separate company, News Corp. announced that it had sold IGN Entertainment to the publishing company

, which was recently acquired by

. Financial details regarding the purchase were not revealed. Prior to its acquisition by UGO, 1UP.com had previously been owned by Ziff Davis. Soon after the acquisition, ''IGN'' announced that it would be laying off staff and closing

, 1UP.com, and UGO in order to focus on its flagship brands, ''IGN'' and AskMen.

Subsidiaries and spin-offs

The role-playing video game interest website Vault Network was acquired by ''IGN'' in 1999. GameStats, a review aggregation website, was founded by ''IGN'' in 2004. GameStats includes a "GPM" (Game Popularity Metric) rating system which incorporates an average press score and average gamer score, as well as the number of page hits for the game. However, the site is no longer being updated. The

interest site,

, and the PC game website VE3D were acquired in 2003. IGN Entertainment merged with GameSpy Industries in 2005. The merger also brought the game download site FilePlanet into the ''IGN'' group; as of 2011 both FilePlanet and the

website still operate as video game-related web sites. IGN Entertainment acquired the online male lifestyle magazine

in 2005. In 2004, ''IGN'' acquired

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

and in 2010, sold the website to

Flixster Flixster is an American social-networking movie website for discovering new movies, learning about movies, and meeting others with similar tastes in movies, currently owned by parent company Fandango. The formerly independent site, allows users t ...

. In October 2017,

Humble Bundle Humble Bundle, Inc. is a digital storefront for video games, which grew out of its original offering of Humble Bundles, collections of games sold at a price determined by the purchaser and with a portion of the price going towards charity and t ...

announced that it was being acquired by ''IGN''.

Scoring systems

Original scale

A member of the ''IGN'' staff writes a review for a game and gives it a score between 0.1 and 10.0, which is assigned by increments of 0.1 and determines how much the game is recommended. The score is given according to the "individual aspects of a game, like presentation, graphics, sound, gameplay and lasting appeal". Each game is given a score in each of these categories, but the overall score for the game is an independent evaluation, not an average of the scores in each category.

20-point scale

On August 3, 2010, ''IGN'' announced that the site would be changing to a new scoring scale. Instead of a 100-point scale, where games are scored in increments of 0.1, all future reviews would use a 20-point scale where games are scored in increments of 0.5. Under both systems, the maximum possible score a game can receive is 10.0. The scoring change is not retroactive: all scores on reviews written before the change will remain the same. This change also did not affect the scoring system for reader reviews.

100-point scale

On September 13, 2012, ''IGN'' revealed that as part of its new review format all future reviews would now follow a 100-point scale again, but this time without using decimals, meaning a score of 8.5 would now be an 85. Unlike the previous conversion to the 20-point scale, this latest scoring system change was retroactive and all previous IGN review scores were to be updated to follow the new system. However, despite the announcement, the article included a short addition, post-release; it stated that after much discussion, they have decided to retain the decimal point in all upcoming scores.

Re-review policy

In early 2014, ''IGN'' introduced a new policy, in which a game's review score can be re-reviewed and improved, provided that continuous updates form a significant change in the game compared to how it was at launch. Examples of games that have been re-reviewed were ''

League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for War ...

'', ''

Heroes of the Storm ''Heroes of the Storm'' is a crossover multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It was released for Microsoft Windows and macOS on June 2, 2015. The game features various characters from Bli ...

Warframe ''Warframe'' is a free-to-play action role-playing third-person shooter multiplayer online game developed and published by Digital Extremes. First released for Windows personal computers in March 2013, it was later ported to PlayStation 4 in ...

'', and the pocket edition of ''

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before being ...

''.

10-point scale

In January 2020, ''IGN'' revealed that reviews would be reverted to a 10-point scale, from 1 to 10, finding that the finer distinction of the 100-point scale was difficult to maintain, whereas a 10-point scale would still be truthful to its reviews and would be easier to promote.

''IGN'' 'Best of' awards

''IGN''s 'Best of' is an end-of-year event to annually honor the year's best games, films, television shows and comics. Winners of each award category are selected by ''IGN'' staff from a list of nominees, while readers are able to cast their own votes online to determine the 'People's Choice' award for each category.

Other sections

In 2000, Snowball.com purchased an E-federation called the Internet Wrestling Organization (IWO). Since Snowball owned both IWO and ''IGN'', IWO would go on to become ''IGN''s first official E-Fed, even doing a column on the website. The ''IGN'' For Men section officially closed down on October 2, 2001, and is no longer updated. ''IGN'' has sites such as ''IGN'' Stars and AskMen.com that fulfil much of the function of the old ''IGN'' For Men site. ''IGN'' Wrestling met its end in early 2002 when many of the staff departed. Interviews with

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

personalities and coverage of wrestling games have been folded into ''IGN Sports'', currently headed by Jon Robinson. ''IGN Sci-Fi'': Largely dead since 2002, this section of the site included movie news, comic book reviews, anime coverage and other associated items. It has since been discontinued. The site, ''SciFI.ign.com'', now redirects to the recently created ''SciFiBrain.ign.com'', which covers some of the content of the old Sci-Fi site. In 2002, ''IGN'' launched a dedicated video game FAQs site specifically designed to host user-submitted guides. This was launched following the cancellation of affiliation with

. In 2004, ''IGN'' launched ''GameStats'', which was intended to be a more unbiased rating network, as it takes in scores from every corporate-owned game rating site and averages them all into one score to give a general idea of the quality of a game. ''IGN'' also launched ''

Direct2Drive Direct2Drive (commonly D2D) is an online game store offering PC games via direct download. On May 25, 2011, GameFly acquired Direct2Drive from IGN Entertainment, Inc. and renamed the service to GameFly Digital.anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

and game guides. In 2005, ''IGN'' launched its comics site, which is devoted to not just the staple Marvel and DC titles, but also

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

s, statues and toys. In 2006, ''IGN'' launched its television site. It provides interviews with various television celebrities, in addition to a TV schedule, TV

trivia Trivia is information and data that are considered to be of little value. It can be contrasted with general knowledge and common sense. Latin Etymology The ancient Romans used the word ''triviae'' to describe where one road split or forke ...

and TV news. Like the film section, ''IGN''s TV section has a variety of exclusive clips from upcoming television shows. On May 30, 2006, ''IGN'' Dreamcast was restarted; however, none of the

Dreamcast The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, N ...

updates were posted on the main ''IGN'' webpage. In 2007, ''IGN'' launched its anime site. It provided features on anime and manga, including trailers and free episodes. It also included reviews of manga and anime from other sections of ''IGN'', such as ''IGN Comics'' and ''IGN DVD''. The anime channel was dropped after ''IGN'' redesigned the site. In 2008, the ''IGN Retro'' channel was launched to mark ''IGN''s 10th anniversary. To coincide with the release of ''

Super Smash Bros. Brawl ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' is a 2008 List of crossovers in video games, crossover fighting game, fighting video game developed by Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Wii. The third installment in the Super Smash Bros., ''Super Smash ...

'', ''IGN'' created the ''Super Smash Bros. World'' site. On the site, people can submit their user-created stages from the game and download ones made by other people. ''IGN'' subsequently launched a similar website called ''GTA 'Hood'' on April 29, 2008, for ''

Grand Theft Auto IV ''Grand Theft Auto IV'' is a 2008 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the sixth main entry in the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2004's '' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'', and the e ...

''. Along with its popular website content, ''IGN'' also publishes many different

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

s on both its website and on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

. Some of its podcasts include console-oriented shows like the PlayStation-focused "Podcast Beyond" and the Xbox-oriented "Podcast Unlocked", the Nintendo-oriented "Nintendo Voice Chat", and ''Game Scoop!'', a podcast where a variety of editors discuss news and topics surrounding the video game industry.

Regional websites

''IGN'' has 28 editions in 25 languages, as of 2021. The ''US & Canada'', ''UK & Ireland'', and ''Australia & New Zealand'' editions are operated by Ziff Davis subsidiaries, with all others being franchised publishers. Since 2006, IGN Entertainment began launching regional versions of the website for various countries and pan-regions. Initially, ''IGN'' began opening new offices outside the United States in order to support those regional websites, but later ''IGN'' began

franchising Franchising is based on a marketing concept which can be adopted by an organization as a strategy for business expansion. Where implemented, a franchisor licenses some or all of its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its busine ...

its brand as a more cost-effective means of globalization, wherein it licensed various media publishers in many countries to use the ''IGN'' brand and manage regional websites on their own. Licensed regional publishers work on their own servers, albeit can link to ''IGN''s HQ database, where they can import or translate articles, and use videos uploaded on ''IGN''s servers that use ''IGN''s own hosted video player. When visiting www.ign.com from an ''IGN''-supported region, the site automatically redirects visitors to their localized version using

geolocation software In computing, Internet geolocation is software capable of deducing the geographic position of a device connected to the Internet. For example, the device's IP address can be used to determine the country, city, or ZIP code, determining its geogr ...

, based on their countries' IP addresses. Each version of the site has a modified logo with their country's/region's respective flags near the ''IGN'' logo. However, it is still possible to access the original American website using a navigation bar above or below (depending on the regional website) the page's master template. * In 2006, ''IGN'' opened its first offices in the UK and Australia, which both shared the same information as the American site but with added content authored from editors within each respective region. * On May 16, 2012, in collaboration with Emirati-based company t-break Media, ''IGN Middle East'' was announced for the

MENA MENA, an acronym in the English language, refers to a grouping of countries situated in and around the Middle East and North Africa. It is also known as WANA, SWANA, or NAWA, which alternatively refers to the Middle East as Western Asia (or a ...

gaming community. The site replaced t-break Media's own ME Gamers website, which was formerly one of the largest Middle Eastern-based gaming media outlets that was originally launched in 2006. ME Gamers' entire staff converted their duties to ''IGN Middle East'', importing or translating many of ''IGN''s English articles, whilst writing up their own articles, especially for Middle Eastern-specific events. ''IGN Middle East'' is available in both English and Arabic languages. While the site was initially launched to cover only video games, t-break Media announced in September 2012 that it would begin posting movie-related articles under the ''IGN'' brand as ''IGN Movies Middle East'', merging most of the duties from its own ME Movies website, which was originally established in 2009, under a similar manner to its video game content. Unlike video games, however, most movie-related content will be in English only. ''IGN Middle East'' organized

IGN Convention IGN Convention (IGN Con) is a video games, movies, comics and pop culture convention held in various cities in the Middle East. The event generally includes celebrities, video game tournaments, table top games, card games, movie previews, com ...

from 2013 to 2016. * In September 2012 the Italian edition of ''IGN'' launched, managed by a local team, providing both original and translated contents. * On October 9, 2012, in collaboration with the Spanish-based media company Marca, ''IGN Spain'' was announced. The site effectively replaces Marca's own Marca Player gaming news website. Marca Player's editors converted their duties to ''IGN Spain'', translating many of ''IGN''s English articles, whilst writing up their own Spanish articles as well, covering various topics including video games, movies, TV series and comics. * In March 2013, ''IGN Russia'' was launched. The Russian version is managed by ''Gameland'' publishing house, and its staff was initially completed by former editors and writers from

Strana Igr ''Strana Igr'' (russian: Страна игр, Gameland) was a Russian magazine focused on video games. It was published by Gameland between January 1996 and November 2013 when the magazine was suspended due to financial problems. History and pro ...

, ''Gameland's'' printed video game magazine that was closed later that year. ''IGN Russia'' was closed without prior notice by American owners in 2022 after Russian-Ukrainian war began on February 24, effectively wiping out years of work of local editors.. * On December 2, 2013, ''IGN Africa'' was launched. * On December 17, 2013, in collaboration with

Times Internet Times Internet is an Indian internet technology company, based in Gurgaon, which owns, operates and invests in various internet-led products, services and technology. It is the digital arm of the Times Group, the largest media conglomerate in I ...

, '' IGN India'' was launched. The Indian edition takes AAA game reviews from its US counterpart and focuses more on coverage of gaming news and events in the country, apart from writing about comics, movies, technology. In November 2016, Fork Media Group partnered with Ziff Davis to operate ''IGN India.'' The Indian edition has since then expanded its coverage to pop culture and mainstream entertainment news and events in the country, as well as doing its own reviews for AAA games, TV series, and movies from both India and abroad. * On September 1, 2014, ''IGN Latinoamérica'' was launched in collaboration with

Publimetro Metro International is a Swedish global media company based in Luxembourg that publishes the ''Metro'' newspapers. Metro International's advertising sales have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 41 percent since launch of the first news ...

and cover the whole Latin American region (except Brazil) with content in Spanish. * On November 11, 2014, ''

IGN Israel ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and Mass media, entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San ...

'' was launched. * On January 30, 2015, ''IGN Hungary'' was launched. * On February 23, 2015, ''IGN Brazil'' was launched. * In June 2015, ''IGN Romania'' was launched. * On November 6, 2015, ''IGN Poland'' was launched. * On January 4, 2016, ''IGN Adria'' was launched. ''IGN Adria'' covers countries of ex Yugoslavia region: Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and North Macedonia. * On April 11, 2016, in collaboration with Sankei Digital, the online publishing arm of Japanese newspaper publisher

Sankei Shimbun The (short for ) is a daily newspaper in Japan published by the It has the seventh-highest circulation for regional newspapers in Japan. Among Japanese newspapers, the circulation is second only to ''Yomiuri Shimbun'', Seikyo Shimbun, ''Asa ...

, ''IGN Japan'' was publicly launched, and was expected to have a full-scale release by summer 2016. The launch of ''IGN Japan'' is considered a critical development: In addition to translation of English articles, ''IGN Japan'' is hoping to also contribute much original content for other ''IGN'' editions from the Japanese end of the gaming industry, one of the world's largest video game markets with little mainstream journalism for Western media. * On April 12, 2016, in collaboration with Pakistani-based Express Publications, ''IGN Pakistan'' was publicly launched. Pakistan originally shared some media coverage with ''IGN Middle East'', and later ''IGN India'', before spinning off to a completely independent ''IGN'' edition with focus on local gaming and pop culture events in Pakistan. ''IGN'' Pakistan is initially only available in English, but an

Urdu language Urdu (;"Urdu"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ur, , link=no, ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, In ...

version was expected to launch later in 2016. * On August 7, 2019,

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

n media giant

Media Prima Media Prima Berhad, doing business as Media Prima and stylised as media prima, is a Malaysian media company based in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. It is Malaysia's largest media and entertainment conglomerate with business interests in television, pr ...

partnered with

to launch the

Southeast Asian Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

version of ''IGN'' for the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

an,

Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

ese and the

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

markets * In September 2020, ''IGN China'' was launched as an "editorially independent" outlet of

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the w ...

''IGN'' Pro League

In 2011, ''IGN'' launched IGN Pro League, a professional

e-sports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

circuit that ran tournaments for '' StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty'', ''

ShootMania Storm ''ShootMania Storm'' is a first-person shooter video game by Ubisoft and Nadeo. Just like its sister games ''TrackMania 2: Canyon, TrackMania 2'' and the yet-unreleased ''QuestMania'', it features 3 different environments, of which two have so ...

'' and ''

''. On March 6, 2013, only weeks prior to the event, ''IGN'' abruptly canceled the finals of IPL 6which were to be held in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

from March 28 through 31, and discontinued the league. ''IGN'' indicated that it was no longer in a position to commit to competing with the increased number of e-sports events that were now being held. On April 8, 2013,

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three graduat ...

announced that it had acquired the staff and assets of the IPL from ''IGN''; its former staff were reassigned to work on in-house e-sports productions.

Controversy

Plagiarism

In August 2018, the owner of YouTube channel Boomstick Gaming accused ''IGN'' reviewer Filip Miucin of plagiarizing his video review of the game ''

Dead Cells ''Dead Cells'' is a 2018 roguelike-Metroidvania game developed and published by Motion Twin. The game was released for Linux, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on August 7, 2018. A mobile port for iOS was released ...

''. On August 7, ''IGN'' replaced its review with a statement saying it took plagiarism seriously and was investigating the claim. Later that day, ''IGN'' stated that it had found "substantial similarities" between the reviews, apologized, and announced that it had dismissed Miucin. On August 10, ''IGN'' published a new review by Brandin Tyrrel, which included an editor's note apologizing again and stating that "this review (and its score) represents solely the opinion of the new reviewer". In a subsequently unlisted video, Miucin responded that while he took "complete ownership over what happened", the similarity was not intentional. Website ''

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

'' found similarities between Miucin's other reviews and reviews on ''

Nintendo Life Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British mass media company based in Brighton. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and other ...

'' and ''

Engadget ''Engadget'' ( ) is a multilingual technology blog network with daily coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. ''Engadget'' manages ten blogs four of which are written in English and six have international versions with independent editori ...

'', and material posted on the games discussion forum '' NeoGAF''. On August 14, ''IGN'' announced that it would remove all of Miucin's work pending further review. On April 19, 2019, Miucin admitted plagiarism and issued an apology on his YouTube channel.

Retracted article supporting Palestinian aid

During the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, the main ''IGN'' site posted an article on May 14 urging readers to donate to charities helping Palestinian civilians such as the

Palestine Children's Relief Fund The Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF) is a registered 501(c)(3) non-governmental organization established in 1991, by, according to its website, "concerned people in the U.S. to address the medical and humanitarian crisis facing Palestinian y ...

and linked to relevant news reporting. A

Palestinian flag The flag of Palestine ( ar, علم فلسطين) is a tricolor of three equal horizontal stripes (black, white, and green from top to bottom) overlaid by a red triangle issuing from the hoist. This flag is derived from the Pan-Arab colors and ...

was also added besides the ''IGN'' logo. Shortly after the article went up ''IGN Israel'' made statements on social media condemning the article. The Palestinian flag was soon replaced with a

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

. On May 16, the article was deleted and a statement was made on the ''IGN''

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account saying that it was wrong to only highlight one side of the conflict. A reposted version on South Africa-based ''IGN Africa'' was also removed. On May 17, over 60 members of ''IGN''s staff signed an open letter condemning the article's removal for going against the site's editorial freedom and policies for retracting or correcting articles, as well as the lack of communication with ''IGN'' staff. ''IGN'' reinstated the article on August 24 under a new headline alongside a statement of newly formalized editorial policies.

Television and films

* ''Gamer Nation'' (2003–) * ''Bill Fillmaff's Secret System (2006 Video)'' * ''Game Scoop!'' (2006–) * ''IGN Originals'' (2008–) * ''IGN Daily Fix'' (2009–) * ''Up at Noon with Greg Miller'' (2012–) * ''Cheap Cool Crazy'' (2012–) * ''IGN Presents'' (2012–) * ''Castlevania: Hymn of Blood'' (2012–) * ''IGN Live'' (2012–) * ''Project: SERA'' (2013–) * ''Not Another Zombie Apocalypse'' (2013–) * ''Dave Gorman: Modern Life Is Goodish: Badgers Don't Vote'' (2013) * ''Assassin's Creed 4: Making Black Flag'' (2013–) * ''9 Reasons We're Excited for Destiny'' (2013 Video) * ''Optimus Prime in Titanfall (2014 Video)'' * ''Making Assassin's Creed Unity: A New Beginning'' (2014) * ''Fast to the Future (2015 Video)'' * ''Star Wars on Netflix (2016 Video)'' * ''IGN Access NYCC Cosplay (2016–2017)'' * ''The 20th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards (2017 TV Special)'' * ''IGN Now'' (2019-)'' * ''Developers React to Speedruns'' (2019-)''

Notes

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, San Francisco Bay Area, Companies, Journalism, Video games 2000 initial public offerings 2005 mergers and acquisitions 2013 mergers and acquisitions Blog hosting services Companies based in San Francisco English-language websites Former News Corporation subsidiaries Internet properties established in 1996 Multi-channel networks Video game Internet forums Video game news websites