From an outsiders perspective I suppose it would look more like an alliance. They share news, link to each others content, etc… but it starts to get more than that. GameSpy and IGN now have one integrated Customer Support centre. Also, they share the same community manager, so the person who directly oversees the IGN community (message boards and such) also oversees that of GameSpy’s now. So internally the changes were quite sgnificant. That was also shown with some staff layoffs…

The communities don’t move because there is not enough of an external change to justify them doing so. The editors on each site remain, so there is still unique content on each. I suppose that because I have more insight as to what goes on inside (as I’m friends with moderators, and am a veteran in the community), I can see how the internal changes affect things more than most. I can say that thus far the changes in GameSpy’s community has not been good, but it’s really more of a testament to the dedication of the mods that the community has not been overly affected despite the changes with the powers that be. Without going into detail, IGN taking over has lead to some heated discussions regarding policy changes and stupid staff appointments.

It’s not just about communities though. IGN buying all these sites means it’s overall number of pageviews increases substantially. IGN puts their ads on the newly acquired sites, and turns those extra pageviews into more ad revenue. Plus, as I said, the proceeds from software sales and any relevant online stores and subscription services all go towards IGN. In that respect, I guess it is a lot like your average commercial takeover.

Essentially I am just wondering whether buying a competing web site can be viewed in the market dominance that buying competing consumer companies can be, or whether the Internet communities are so fickle and easily mobile that they’ll just go elsewhere? Is there any business benefit from buying a competing web site as an aim to capturing a bigger market? On this topic I am not sure. Certainly the communities are mobile, but I wonder whether the owners of IGN consider this or whether they do have a different goal in mind (the previously mentioned acquisition of skills/infrastructure/IP).

Anyway, just me rambling on again.

On the other hand if they gave me a lump sum and said they didn’t want me around anymore, then yeah, I’d give it to them, take the money, and start another blog somewhere else with all the cash. No problem there. I could then get a domain name that’s easier to pronounce first time.

Looking over the TeamXbox site, I see nothing that would give IGN much of an income aside from the site store, which doesn’t have that much in it. RottenTomatoes doesn’t seem to having anything except for a shop, where it sells movie posters and DVDs/Soundtracks.

IGN already had a Gaming network with Vault sites, so they didn’t need the GameSpy Network with the Planet sites. It does make sense, however, that they wanted FilePlanet and the software, because I dare say that’s where the money is. That’s fair enough. But having TeamXbox and RottenTomatoes doesn’t make sense to me. IGN already has it’s own Xbox stuff, and they also have FilmForce, which seems to compete quite directly with RT. Like TeamXbox and RottenTomatoes, 3D Gamers has nothing to offer IGN except compeition, as far as I can see.

I’m sure that there are legitimate business decisions behind these acquisitions, but then I’d say the same thing for all of EA’s as well.