In recent years, major video game corporations have been acquiring numerous studios, often splurging on acquisitions, only to later undergo significant layoffs or shut down the studios entirely. I’m certain similar fate won’t befall our dedicated heroes who hide behind their keyboards.
IGN Entertainment, owned by Ziff Davis, has acquired the entire Gamer Network of brands, encompassing at least four of the most prominent gaming sites remaining in the industry, along with stakes in additional platforms.
The publications within the Gamer Network family include GamesIndustry.biz, Eurogamer, Rock Paper Shotgun, and VG247. Additionally, the business holds stakes in Outside Xbox, Digital Foundry, and Hookshot, which oversees Nintendolife, PushSquare, PureXbox, and Time Extension.
The transition has led to notable layoffs of esteemed journalists across the brands, as they are integrated into IGN’s expansive network, known for its progressive activism.
IGN Entertainment, a division of Ziff Davis, encompasses IGN, MapGenie, HowLongToBeat, and Humble Bundle. It has acquired the websites from ReedPop, the organizer of PAX and New York Comic-Con. ReedPop had initially purchased the Gamer Network business in 2018, and now their move to buy out their competitors appears to align with their own agenda.
For instance, IGN recently made an attempt to quote mine comments from the CEO of PocketPair, the small Japanese indie studio behind the popular Palworld video game. They twisted and distorted his words concerning clones of their hit title produced by Chinese developers.
IGN journalists also criticized Capcom, calling for a rewrite of Resident Evil 5, alleging it was racist due to its setting in Africa and portrayal of African characters as enemies.
In their article, they demanded the addition of a Black playable character, overlooking the fact that Resident Evil 5 was designed as a co-op game featuring Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar, an African female protagonist.
Today, IGN is seen engagement farming on Twitter by frequently posting about Assassin’s Creed Shadows and its attempt to subvert Japan’s richest historical period.
They are pushing the narrative that the alleged historical figure of “Yasuke” was the world’s first African samurai, despite the lack of sufficient historical evidence to support such claims.
Modern games journalism often revolves around a constant plea to label games as racist, sexist, or derogatory. Games like Stellar Blade are criticized for their supposed “unrealistic” portrayals of real-life women, despite legitimately being accurately modeled off actual actresses while games like Hades II are hypocritically praised for sexualizing female characters.
They’ve even gone so far as to gaslight readers and consumers into believing that these same journalists had no issues with the portrayal of other female characters in video games, such as Bayonetta and NieR: Automata.
In reality, these games sparked frantic meltdowns among journalists due to their portrayal of attractive protagonists, whom they deemed oversexualized.
The key distinction between the outrage regarding Stellar Blade and the praise of Hades II boils down to the fact that the latter game caters to the queer demographic, which seemingly makes the sexualization of female characters acceptable.
In recent times, games journalists have attempted to gaslight consumers concerning Sweet Baby Inc, a progressive ESG/DEI consultancy firm. An employee of theirs once tried to spark a cancel campaign against an individual for creating a Steam curator group that simply highlights games made in collaboration with Sweet Baby Inc.
They claimed that despite its affiliation with some of the most “woke” failures in the gaming industry, the company doesn’t actually wield much power and influence in game development. This is a lie.
Journalist outlets led by activists are facing closures, mirroring the struggles of game developers who prioritize integrating DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) values into their products to improve their ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) scores.
Kotaku, seemingly teetering on the edge of collapse, after G/O Media offloaded its sports-themed “DEADSPIN” after a Black author attempting to ruin a White child life for supposedly wearing “blackface’ at a sports game.
In today’s challenging climate, journalism struggles to generate significant revenue, with rage clicks and sponsored promotions being their primary income sources.
Rage clicks often stem from individuals noticing patterns, including the prevalence of leftist-leaning journalists who lack gaming expertise but are paid to cover, review, and discuss games.
They often critique games for sexism while praising titles with authentic LGBTQ+ representation, such as Baldur’s Gate 3 and The Last of Us Part 2, as the pinnacle of gaming.
Many consumers are growing tired of this subversive narrative, finding the articles filled with hatred and vitriol toward gamers and the gaming industry. However, nearly every publication relies on sponsorship deals and product promotion to stay afloat, even those considered more “based” like Nichegamer.
These outlets must navigate respectfully to secure exclusive coverage for upcoming games and sponsor promotional deals to remain financially viable.
So it comes as no surprrise that these failing outlets will eventually be absorbed into others, IGN now owns several major journalist brands, effectively holding a monopoly of sorts.
Many former game journalists have recently established their own independent ventures such as Aftermath. Others have recognized the necessity of becoming a “brand” with a significant social media presence, offering a paywalled newsletter, or creating their own YouTube/Twitch channels to maintain a consistent audience, then again such individuals are almost always grifters and clout chasers.
I’m just too much of a pussy to go digital.
The exact amount IGN paid to acquire the Gamer Network remains unknown. However, it’s evident that IGN, along with other outlets, whether owned or independent seems intent on controlling the narrative and discrediting gamers as racists and bigots.
IGN has long faced criticism for biased or skewed game reviews, often appearing to be influenced by publishers like Electronic Arts and Activision in exchange for favorable scores. Now, as the foundation of game journalism crumbles, IGN is effectively attempting to monopolize the industry.
A silver lining of this acquisition is the inevitable layoffs, with Jeffrey Rousseau announcing their departure from Games Industry. Bloomberg video game reporter Cecilia D’Anastasio added that YouTubers are eroding their audience share.
This shift is unsurprising, as few people care about traditional print media these days, especially younger audiences like myself who have minimal attention spans. Instead of reading a progressive hit piece on why Japanese games are sexist, we prefer watching YouTubers who share similar values to ourselves discuss the news directly.
I of course relish the thought that gaming journalists are being purged, it really has become a massive collusion awash with cancerous regressive agendas and ideologies that deserves to crash and burn, with all of those who participate should be on the streets.
There’s a large influx of YouTubers outpacing these pronoun pushers, providing us with more unfiltered, raw and unbiased information as they usually lack actual knowledge on the particular subject itself.
Of course, we can attribute their reporting on such topics to their efforts to gain a following and ad revenue. Nevertheless, these individuals aren’t just puppets of corporate overlords. Their growing influence is rapidly overshadowing traditional journalists I find quite satisfying.
What I don’t appreciate is that IGN is buying out their competition, which allows them to secure the future of these outlets, at least in the short term. This enables them to continue pushing certain narratives on their audience.
IGN has been overt in supporting the narrative of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which features a Black protagonist, Yasuke. This is the first time the franchise has used a historical figure as a playable character, only for Ubisoft to overlook historical evidence and fantasize about Yasuke as a samurai.
The first Gamergate revealed collusion between journalists and game developers, with some indie developers providing sexual favors in exchange for press coverage and the spotlight, so they could push the narrative that video games and gamers are sexist and racist.
IGN and similar outlets have consistently condemned games they deem racist. For example, while Resident Evil 4, featuring a White protagonist fighting infected Spaniards, is considered acceptable, Resident Evil 5, with a White man or Black woman battling infected Africans in West Africa to thwart a global bioweapon attack, is seen as crossing the line.
IGN’s agenda, whether it involves positive press coverage and rave reviews for games with progressive themes, will likely be echoed by their newly acquired outlets. These outlets, struggling financially, have seen numerous journalists laid off to cut costs.
However, with IGN buying out their competition and essentially monopolizing game journalism, they can enforce specific narratives and temporarily keep sites like Eurogamer and VG247 afloat until their eventual downfall. IGN’s actions are poised to become even more blatant and egregious as other outlets increasingly parrot their narratives and viewpoints.
