The End of 1-Up, Gamespy and UGO?
2/22/13 5:00pm
It look slike 1-up, Gamespy and UGO are shutting down. Yesterday, IGN laid off a substantial amount of editorial employees. It seems that new parent company Ziff Davis is wasting no time making changes. An IGN memo read
"Our goal is to do fewer things and to do them exceptionally well. In that vein, we want to direct all of our energy and work behind our two flagship brands: IGN and AskMen."
In addition to the likely demise of its subsidiaries, IGN is also looking to sell IPL , their e-sports network as the "new" plan is to cover ALL e-sporting events.
Below is a quote from Ziff Davis CEO Vivek Shah reguarding the layoffs.
Today, we took some difficult but important actions that will ensure the continued growth and health of IGN and AskMen. Before I go into more details about the changes, you should know that they resulted in the elimination of jobs at IGN. It's always upsetting to say goodbye to colleagues and let's do what we can to help these employees as they seek new opportunities.
If you're one the the employees effected by the layoffs, best of luck!
» Source: http://kotaku.com/5986027/ziff-davis-shuts-1up-gamespy-and-ugo
» Tagged In: #1-up, #Gamespy, #IGN, #IPL, #Layoff, #UGO, #Ziff Davis
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g1 DISCUSSIONS
They Call Me The Fizz
But what about the GameSpy servers?
Meteo Dragoon
IGN doing something stupid... I'll continue IGNoring them...
Kaibaman41
Chuggaaconroy would probably be proud of that pun. Nice one
Meteo Dragoon
Well my rage for IGN was with their IGNorant review of one of the best games of '06. Huge hint avatar.
McKnackus I
I'm not too surprised by this. Gamespy and 1up were mostly just second fiddles to IGN anyway. They were all sites that did the exact same thing under the exact same company but with different people, While It's sad to see people losing their jobs, it makes sense to just cut out anything that's not needed. I'm sure those people will be able to find places to go though. Games journalism is pretty far reaching nowadays.
Insomniac138
Didn't IGN sell GameSpy to Glu Mobile?
RiaraTan
I wonder why these are closing, I mean I can understand that magazines ran into issues but I guess with a few credibility being lost entire websites get hit? I get all my news from screwattack and some youtube accounts but this is the most proactive I've been in my life with gaming news.
MadHero15
While it sucks for everyone involved, the closures make a unfortunate ammount of sense. IGN running 3 other sites that focus on nearly the exact same material isn't exavtly a great business strategy. While there are people who prefer those sites over IGN, it doesn't make sense for IGN to fund those sites just for that niche audience.
This is still really bad news, especially regarding 1UP, who had some really talented writers. I wish all the people who were fired good luck in finding a new job.
BIGMercenary
Now I can continue to NOT use IGN! Even with Destin being there I have absolutely no reason to go to it. 1UP and Gamespy are being shuffled out of my browser bookmarks to make room for Polygon. Its sad to see game sites go, especially ones that have been in business for so long.