1UP, UGO, and GameSpy Shut Down, IGN Sees Several Layoffs

[MikeWehner]

1UP, UGO, and GameSpy Shut Down, IGN Sees Several Layoffs

Layoffs confirmed as several gaming websites approach their last days.

According to several posts on Twitter from employees who have been affected, as well as confirmation from Joystiq with a company spokesperson, several videogame websites associated with IGN will be shutting down completely in the coming days. 1UP, GameSpy, and UGO will all be going dark, and several writers and other staff have been laid off as today.

"We are focusing on our two flagship brands, IGN and AskMen," the representative told Joystiq. "Unfortunately, as a result, we have made the decision to close sites and restructure our teams accordingly."

IGN and its partner sites were recently purchased by Ziff Davis, which originally owned the brand before letting it go in 2009. Now it seems the saga has come full circle, with IGN's former owners re-purchasing the suite of gaming sites, and hitting the switch on three out of the four.

Source: Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2013/02/21/ign-layoffs/?a_dgi=aolshare_twitter]

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[irishdude]

dont mind ign so much and hate that people are losing there jobs but i hate 1up

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

Whoa. I guess there's a point where there's so much redundancy, especially when all of them trace back to the same building. I couldn't really say what necessitated there being all three of those, but I was never a visitor.

 

[Frezzato]

Holy crap in a pita, this is bad. And big. I'm actually more concerned about UGO, who was hosting X-Entertainment for a while, but it seems that's moved on to Dinosaur Dracula. It's...hard to explain.

Actually no, the guy who started X-Entertainment, Matt, celebrated everything from his childhood and still does. In a way I guess that's what GameSpy and 1UP did as well.

 

[Sylveria]

I didn't know GameSpy and 1Up were even still around.

 

[Frostbite3789]

GameSpy has been a mess for years now. It used to be the site I went to for gaming news, and it just slowly deteriorated, I'm shocked this didn't happen sooner to be honest.

 

[The_Craig1986]

It too bad that people are losing their job, but I think that was definitely a smart business move. I don't know of anything that still uses those sites. I also don't get why the same company would need multiple sites of the same nature.

 

[Slash2x]

It too bad that people are losing their job, but I think that was definitely a smart business move. I don't know of anything that still uses those sites. I also don't get why the same company would need multiple sites of the same nature.

It is called the EA business model. Why work harder to become better than the competition when you can buy them and break them into pieces you are not good at and fire everyone else. Gamestop did the same with all the other major game stores in the USA. Like poor Rhino Games. RIP Rhino RIP.

 

[Remus]

Good riddance. 1up was a cesspool of trolls who sucked the teets of the forum mods. I stopped visiting when I was suspended for disagreeing with one of the longstanding brown nosers there. Escapist is a much better community by leaps and bounds.

 

[Aussie502]

Where am I going to play Age of Empires 2: The Conquerors now!? D:

 

[oldtaku]

Wait, these things were still in existence?

 

[ShermTank7272]

IGN. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

I don't frequent any of those sites. I actively loathed IGN previous to this news. I remember Jeremy Parish as being with 1up I think? He was ok if I recall. That aside, I had never heard of the other sites.

 

[Strazdas]

i actually liked 1up.
Gamespy was a dead horse already and it was time to shut it down. altrough now some of those games that forcibly install game-spy on your pc may loose some fucntionality? i neverl et them connect to anything though and they work fine so maybe not.
dont know what UGO is so cant cooment there.
As a lurker of IGN im sad to see them lay off work, but frankly the site seems good for reviews and thats it, the rest is a ghosttown.

 

[Your Fearless Captain]

UGO still existed? Well it was a bloated shitty network anyway.

 

[thespyisdead]

Where am I going to play Age of Empires 2: The Conquerors now!? D:

there's a thing called GameRanger, which creates VPNs for play

OT:as sad as it might be, some things just have to go the way of the dodo :/

 

[Frybird]

A bit sad over 1up, they still delivered nice Articles from time to time.

Then again, they have already died in my eyes when budget cutbacks forced them to cancel the 1up Show.

Man, i still miss the 1up Show. It's scripted stuff was pretty stupid from time to time, but they still had great interviews, a few interesting segments and most of all, i loved the way they tackled reviews.
For me, it was the best Internet TV Show about games evarr.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

I hope everyone with talent can find jobs at other sites soon. Though, I wish IGN was restructured with them. I stopped visiting that site 'cause all the flash ads popping up slowed my comp to a crawl for a few minutes, the previews and reviews started to bother me for some reason, and I was so often distracted by their bikini model "articles" that I forgot I went there to look up news and previews not ogle Sports Illustrated's latest swimsuit model. Hmmm... Now I know why IGN and Askmen is owned by the same company.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

IGN. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

High Five. I stopped going there when one of their reviewers gave God Hand a 3/10 because he thought the game was "too hard" and "looked weird".

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

I hope that the trolls of the 1UP and Gamespot communities don't flood the forums here. That would be hard to stomach for this site as a whole.