IGN and GameStop are teaming up which will combine the forces of the world’s largest online video games website and the world’s largest game’s retailer. In this agreement, IGN will provide editorial content to GameStop.com and IGN.com will contain e-commerce links back to GameStop. Sounds like a great plan — nothing could possibly go wrong.
GameStop will also be purchasing its advertisements on IGN. Together the companies reach 36 million consumers, with GameStop getting almost 7.2 million monthly unique visitors worldwide, and IGN services almost 28.9 million readers. Hooray for monopolies!
This shouldn’t slant their coverage in any way. There’s no way that any potential conflicts of interest could arise. I mean, IGN is the most read gaming website in the world. Their readers obviously trust their completely unbiased coverage, right?
In an industry that’s already under the microscope for nature that publishers and developers must reach out to online outlets and magazines, it’s good to know that GameStop now controls both Game Informer and IGN.
Published: Dec 8, 2010 02:24 am