Das Imagine Games Network (IGN) breitet sich weiter aus. Nun ist Giga.de in den Firmenbesitz übergegangen. Giga als einziger Fernsehsender über Computerspiele, das ist seit einiger Zeit Geschichte. Nun gibt es nicht zwei oder drei, sondern gleich gar keinen Sender mehr zu diesem Thema. Nachdem der Fernsehbetrieb am 31. März diesen Jahres eingestellt wurde, hat nun auch die Internetpräsenz den Besitzer gewechselt und arbeitet für IGN.
In einer Pressemitteilung lies das Gaming Netzwerk verkünden, dass der deutsche Markt der größte in Europa sei, und ein "riesiges Potential besitzt, der eine ganz natürliche Wahl" für IGN war. Wie auf VG247 berichtet wird, hat die Firma seit Jahren darauf gewartet, in den deutschen Markt einzusteigen. IGN hat Giga.de gekauft, dessen Unique User alleine bei 700.000 im Monat liegen. Zur Firma mit Sitz in Kalifornien, USA gehören auch Seiten wie GameSpy, FilePlanet und 3D Gamers. Wie auf Wikipedia zu lesen ist hatte IGN im Jahr 2005 alleine 23 Millionen Besucher. Das Netzwerk gehört zur Mediengruppe News Cooperation, die wiederum im Besitz des Medienmoguls Rupert Murdoch liegt.
IGN ENTERTAINMENT CONTINUES INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION
Top German Gaming Community, GIGA.DE Joins the IGN Entertainment Network
London, 20th April 2009 - IGN Entertainment, an online leader in the world of gaming and entertainment, today announced that it has acquired the award winning German gaming community site GIGA.DE, the online arm of the GIGA television channel, and welcomed it as part of the wider IGN Entertainment family.
This marks IGN Entertainment’s first entry into the German market and will give the established GIGA.DE community of enthusiastic, articulate and highly engaged users access to some of the highest quality and most trusted gaming related content on the web.
GIGA.DE is one of the most popular and highly trafficked gaming Internet sites in Germany, with over 697,000 unique visitors each month (Source: comScore, February 2009). They have built an enviable reputation for featuring the best of community driven content, where users take full advantage of forums, blogs and voting mechanisms to create their own articles and decide what appears on the site. IGN plans to continue the excellent GIGA.DE brand reputation by building on the site’s ethos by offering existing and new users the opportunity to vote and comment on the content they would like to feature on the site from IGN’s extensive global network of news, reviews and videos.
“We are extremely excited about welcoming GIGA.DE as part of IGN Entertainment and continuing our international expansion by entering the German market for the first time” said Chris Ellis, IGN Entertainment, senior vice president and managing director international. “As gamers ourselves we’re passionate about the industry and are always looking for ways to support the local gaming industry and fans. The German gaming market is one of the biggest in Europe, and the massive potential it offers made it a natural choice for us. ”
“This is a huge opportunity to give even more to our users by offering IGN’s world class content, whilst maintaining our trademark GIGA.DE touch and feel,” commented Michael Schlieper, editor in chief at GIGA.DE. “It’s a natural fit for both brands and we’re looking forward to engaging the GIGA.DE community to create the best and most vibrant video game site in Germany.”
The best aspects of the IGN family of sites will be integrated into GIGA.DE’s content over the coming months, with the majority of it chosen and driven by the existing community, and delivering an essential and popular resource for German computer and video gamers.