Explore the nominations for the 2021 British Academy Games Awards, celebrating the very best in games. The ceremony takes place on Thursday 25 March and will be streamed exclusively online.
IGN Entertainment has acquired the Gamer Network family of digital brands for an undisclosed sum. As a result of the acquisition, some redundancies have been made across the UK-based organisation.
Well this can only mean one thing... more job layoffs even in the publication industry.
“Layoffs occuring“
Yep. IGN now has a monopoly in the gaming media.
“As a result of the acquisition, some redundancies have been made across the UK-based organisation.”
“Gamer Network's publications are GamesIndustry.biz, Eurogamer (including six local language editions), Rock Paper Shotgun, VG247 and Dicebreaker. The business also holds shares in Outside Xbox, Digital Foundry and Hookshot (which operates Nintendolife, PushSquare, PureXbox and Time Extension).”
“IGN Entertainment is the division of Ziff Davis that includes IGN, MapGenie, HowLongToBeat, and Humble Bundle. It has acquired the websites from PAX and New York Comic-Con organiser ReedPop, which initially bought the Gamer Network business in 2018.“
Surprising news, also a little sad as the magazine era is over and the website era is slowly coming to an end. But it must be said that many of the bastards who work at these places have operated as a mafia to control opinion on not only what can be said about games, but who can be allowed to talk about them, and what can be allowed to feature in them or not. As said above, redundancies are coming, Eurogamer pays the highest salaries for a team of staff who for some their output is minimal. Eurogamer also campaigned against Hogwarts Legacy and refused to review it -, the site took a hit. PAX has probably thought to cut its losses. Some job layoffs? I know of some of these people and they took pride in excluding - I will shed no tears.
All this means is a collective hive mind when reporting the news
They’ll discuss with each other how to handle topics and what kind of headlines to go with so they can fire round after round of whatever point they want to make
And the sad thing is over the many years even to the old GameGate days they love making gamers look bad as a collective. Anything for a hit piece.
Narrative control. I don’t like this at all.
Independent reviewers will be more important than ever.
"They’ll discuss with each other how to handle topics and what kind of headlines to go with so they can fire round after round of whatever point they want to make."
You say this like it will be a new thing that they didn't already do.
Yea, I had actually just seen today on Linkedin that a GamesIndustry.biz guy was talking about being laid off. I didn't read all of his post, but I bet it's because of this. That's a shame to hear. :\
Probably Microsoft's fault!
They surely gave IGN the idea.
What's next IGN Pass?
But joke aside let's hope that this makes the news better compared to some of IGN branches
Microsoft and IGN work quite closely so it isn't a stretch to say this is a move to control the gaming press to get everyone singing from the Microsoft hymn sheet. Not a good look at all. It is transparent stuff like this which is backfiring in Microsoft's face. First they want control of all the games now the media.
While there's obviously a desire to preserve add revenue and early access to review copies, I doubt there's the level of conspiracy here that you imply. I mean there's no direct link between MS and IGN right?
You're probably right!!!!
Here's MS evil plan
1) Make sure that Hellblade 2 receives inflated reviews.
2) Fire all the ppl across UK who gave Starfield the justified 6/10 reviews
3) Make sure that Game industry.biz stops giving Sony's president a tribute to spew their lies and have them talk to Sarah Bonds and Todd Howard only.
4) Control the majority of players for the GOTY award so MS wins from now on.
PPL needs to know about this!
@crazyCoconuts The world has moved on from "direct links" as companies were easily caught doing that. These days corporations can merely operate as a cartel through shared mutual interest which is not strictly kosher either but is also more difficult to prove. It's the fundamental flaw with big corporations in the US economy today and no one in power is addressing it.
Is there proof to anything you're saying?
I've never heard of anything like this or is this N4G once again make believing stuff outta thin air again?
@jing if you have proof then I stand corrected.
Otherwise it seems like more conspiratorial thinking to explain what could otherwise be explained by natural forces of market economies.
Don't get me wrong, I believe there is bias all over and unsavory influences. I just don't think it's all centrally planned by evil villains in a smoke-filled room
I don't think anyone has proof but my personal experience corroborates what he is saying about IGN being in MS’s corner for whatever reason.
Granted, Last time I visited IGN regularly was years ago, I literally stopped once I realized the huge bias they showed in favor of xbox. Their pages for the two consoles were fundamentally different. When they would invite xbox president he was treated completely different than when Shuhei Yoshida was invited. The xbox pres was treated as one of their own. There was just too many examples, it wasn’t even much of a secret.
The embargo was to make sure IGN had time to finalize the deal and make sure Eurogamer gave this game a 5 stars instead of a 3.
Man, how devious and low can Microsoft go just to promote Gamepass
I heard that it costs a ton of money to MS and they will raise the price of Gamepass by a lot of money just to compensate
true story
Oh boy! If we've learned one thing about recent news, corporate shrinkage of an industry via buyouts from those at top only leads to good things for employees and consumers!
Aloy!
Yes, good credible websites, I agree, it is a good match.
IGN is one of the most trusted gaming sites, weather you like it or not, but I know because they don't fit the N4G goofiness bubble, they can't be good.
I left ign years ago. Used to be on the ign forums all the time. I left there and found here. Not sure if you remember but this place used to be pretty bad for Sony fans. 360 was king for a few years. Anyone I don't quite remember but ign changed. Whatever the fk it was it seemed for the worse.
Ummmm not sure that’s a good thing that all these review sites are under the same umbrella. There’s no guarantee that they will maintain a non-bias opinion not paid for by the highest bidder.
You can go much farther back than that. Never forget the Kane and Lynch 2 review drama
Edit: wait that was GameSpot. Still though - don't trust these websites for anything. Find YouTubers like who's opinions you agree with and watch them instead. GaminylGames, Minimme, Digital Foundry, GMan, whatever. All better than these ad-filled "reviews" from people who are forced to play games and score with an arbitrary number
@Amplitude
Digital Foundry has lost my trust ever since they got that MS money, but other than that, I'm with you.
If I'm on the fence of a game, I wait till the reviewers that share my taste has given their opinion.
Ouch, that does not sounds good for Eurogamer.
With so much of the industry media that will more or less follow the same editorial line, it will be harder and harder to distinguish PR from actual journalism in a couple of years.
Thinking about it, may it explain their review score for Hellblade 2?
***harder and harder to distinguish PR from actual journalism in a couple of years. ***
The age of gaming advertorials.
You're right all of this is just to promote Hellblade 2 and inflate the score.
Also the why cuts are indeed coming to Eurogamer and other UK branches because they only gave Starfield an average score.
Shed the non US assets that are not favorable to Xbox keep the US assets that are. Microsoft are going to deliver crap and they are going to tell you their crap is good and you are going to buy it. That seems to be the strategy. At this point I just want them out of gaming as they are operating like cancer.
Exactly right. No more journalists. Just 1 take regurgitated & paraphrased down the chain. Smh.
Ghost of Tsushima has made its debut on PC, and here's how well it holds up.
Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut is now available on PC, and here's how it stacks up against the PS5 version.
To me RDR2 still is the most detailed game ever made.. everything is better in that game.
Disagree. TLoU Pt2 was more detailed, at least when compared on console hardware.
TLOU2 was head and shoulders above. But I’m not sure why we are even comparing these top notch games when they all offered us a level of excellence not common in gaming.
@Cacabunga
Which console is RDR2 running on in your link? It doesn't actually say. Also TLoU Pt2 is visually more detailed even in that video.
RDR2 has much more simulation than TLOU II and is a much bigger and dynamic world than TLOU II.
CP2077 also looks ridiculous with a big simulated world.
Alan Wake II is another recent looker with incredible graphics and detail.
Sorry that you did miss out on it. Console gamers were eating well on the PS4 and on PS5. At least you get to experience some of these games now.
People even get downvotes for saying they play on PC. LOL. Same boat as you man. It's fantastic on PC.
As a PC gamer, the difference is negligible for a $2500+ machine vs a $500 PS5 and considering its part of PS+ the $70 price tag is crazy
So what you're actually saying is that the PS5 and PS+ are a great value, right?
Yea I should have clarified that I have both and PS+ is really great value when most of these games run at 4k60fps, It was more a comment on "if you've already played it, should I bother with the PC version" and the answer is clearly no
its $60 on PC and runs great on a $300 gpu (a $700 PC runs it perfectly w/ higher settings than PS5 and still 4k 60fps), no need for something even close to $2500 for this one. Also, this isn't the game to measure the difference between $2500 pc and ps5, its an updated ps4 game. Try Cyberpunk 2077 w/ path tracing or Alan Wake 2 to see the real difference.
Where do you get such a PC for $700?
As for Cyberpunk I'd say that was poorly optimized for console hardware.
Exactly, even DF showed Alan Wake 2 running on a 3080 with a 2x performance increase (over 100FPS) vs a PS5 at similar settings.
You are 100% right 5yr old pc can easily match the god tier ps5 console everyone jerks off too.
The game also has no intrusive drm runs great on pc another dam good port job.
Now I've gotten into PC gaming I've noticed it is. The difference between ultra and console settings is something you'd only really notice much side by side. Certainly not when in full flow playing. (Apart from proper RT games) The only proper advantage is the frame rate, which when you go above 60 its very negligible anyway.
Exactly. I've come to notice the difference between Ultra/High, and even medium settings sometimes can be hard to notice unless you're deliberately looking for the differences as well. A lot of folks seem to think you need a $2000 GPU to enjoy pc gaming when a midrange card that costs similar to a new console can perform exceptionally well for years.
Depends on the game. Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Alan Wake 2, Avatar Frontiers of Pandora, Helldivers 2, and many others are substantially better on PC if you have the computer to run them at max settings.
Bought BG3 again on my Laptop because I loved it that much, honestly it's barely different. Obviously higher frame rates. But a CRPG is certainly not something you need over 60 on. CP2077 I'd agree because the full RT and PT on that is awesome. And AW2 on console is stunning anyway. Like I said it's mostly about frame rates not how the game actually looks
60 -> 90+ FPS is not a negligible difference, many people can see and feel the extra smoothness, but each to their own.
True everyone's different but it certainly is to me. There's only a small difference visually to me at 144. Every single day if the week I'd be pushing the settings to max to play at 60 locked rather than drop fidelity for over 60 fps.
Sorry but native 4k 120hz on a 58ich screen maxed out no dlls/fsr shit is way better than a glorified tablet aka ps5 using every upscale crap tech out there.
I was with you tbh until you said glorified tablet. That tablet produces stunning games for it's price. Forbidden West Burning Shores is still the best looking game I've ever played. Native 4K doesn't suddenly make a game worlds above anything. It's a massive waste of resources. I play in 1440 on my monitor and it looks just as good as my TV with the screen size.
@vincentvanbro Serious question, why are all pc gamers pretending that every PC gamer owns a high-end rig? Literally all my friends and family on PC still game at 1080p.
You do not need a $2500 machine to run this PS4 game originally made around ancient hardware. It's minimum requirement is a freaking GTX 960, by january next year that'll be a ten year old gpu. It's mind boggling just how purposefully out of touch a lot of people on this site are in terms of tech, like a mid 2000s time warp.
Yea, you run this at 4k60 like the PS5 on a GTX 960 and let me know how that goes
My comment clearly didnt say "whats the minimum to run this" it was the option of the same fidelity of PS5 to PC ratio having already played the PS5 version and is it worth playing this one, the answer is no the difference is negligible
you aint getting 4k60 with anything less than a RTX 4070 or 3080 which is $1000+ straight away depending on where you live, so I was correct
@Nittdarko
I mentioned 960 for the sake of range in how low the hardware can go in regards to this particular game, of course you're not going to get 4K60, the PS4 barely managed 1080p with less. You're the one making it seem like you need thousands of dollars to run a PS4 game originally built on hardware already outdated by it's launch. The fidelity comparison between either makes zero difference as this game is not stressing either most modern or even previous gpu series configurations.
@Nittdarko
Also the 3080 is by no means a $1000+ card it's not 2021 anymore, try less than half that. You could even go as far as a 3060ti and maintain a locked 4K60 with say a Ryzen 5 3600.
This was a game released on pretty old PS4 hardware. I'd hope it'd come close to PC parity. I waited for the PC port before playing it on PS+ on the ps4 and I'm glad. This game may be the most optimized out of the box day one pc release I've played in a long time. So happy Sony is bringing their top quality games to PC. Even if some time later.
Sorry. I don't pay attention to the PS5, only console of theirs I've decided to skip. Not for any particular reason. Just between the PC, and old ps4 pro I can't validate getting one. Even better that the PS5 version runs perfectly (for me) out of the box without waiting for patches. Still, the system requirements are quite low, and that's what made me assume. Just very well optimized then. Must have learned a lesson from the terrible state The Last of Us launched on PC.
This game is effortless for even a cheap PC to run though. 4060 ti runs the game max settings in 4k at roughly 60 fps and is only $300 on sale, processor and everything you're talking no more than $600-$700, so definitely not even close to 4x cost. A pc that is 4x the cost of PS5 will run Cyberpunk 2077 path tracing and Alan Wake 2 path tracing at over 100 fps, try doing that on PS5. Another example is how awful the Helldivers 2 PS5 version looks compared to max settings on a good PC. I think you are overestimating the cost of the PC equivalent of a PS5.
Building a PC that will run 4k at ultra settings at 60fps for $700 is a myth. It cost about $1600 if the price is right. If not, it will be another $400 on that.
The PC they used for this is top-shelf.
it is a ps4 game though, directors cut just added improved lighting and 60fps for ps5,
when got:2 comes out and runs still efortlessly on ps5, we will see the value perhaps;
Lemme get this straight... $300 just for the CPU. And $400 for the OS ($99), motherboard ($109), case ($74), SSD ($84), RAM ($64), and GPU ($-30? Um...) combined (excluding the price of a the game, and human interface devices like TV/monitor, KB/M, and mic/speakers). Yeah, I mean if you make a gaming PC with no GPU and even cheaper components than I listed the prices for, it could come in at $700. Otherwise it will cost at least $1,100 to run modern games including PS4 games updated for PS5 like Ghost of Tsushima: Directors Cut.
lol, this can run on a potato just about. No need to disseminate that idea you need an uber PC to game on a pc. Far from in fact. People that spend that much on their PC like to brag that they got the latest tech. I've got a "19-1400k, 4090, and 64gigs of ram, and everything runs perfect for me you console peasants". Of course everything should, at least one would hope. These are a vocal minority of PC players that like to bust the bank for all the latest gear, and brag about it. You don't see nearly as many people bragging about their systems built around a 4060, or any other mid range cards. We aren't all building machines that cost $2000 +.
Almost 50 nominations for Sony between TLOU2, GoT, Miles Morales, Astro, Sackboy, and Demon's Souls. What an incredible year for them.