Videogames megasite IGN.com has been spun-off from Fox Media and sold to former EGM/1-UP owner Ziff Davis, the company announced today via blog post and twitter. Along with the flagship site, Ziff now owns the likes of UGO, 1-UP and gaming events like the IGN Pro League.
It has long been rumored that IGN was preparing to either be sold off to a new owner, spun-off into their own entity or worse case auctioned off entirely. Reportedly News Corp spent part of 2011 looking for a new buyer for the site before working with investment bank Allen & Co to auction off the company for around $100 million.
Long time readers may remember the Ziff Davis name, as they once owned the print version of Electronic Gaming Monthly, and formally 1-UP.com before that was sold to IGN Entertainment many years ago. According to IGN’s Casey Lynch (via blog post) the new owners of Ziff Media have every intention of supporting IGN Entertainment and their endeavors, due to a new executive management team in place over at Ziff.
It’s no secret that several former Broken Joysticks writers & editors, including founders Rae Michelle Langdon and Jesse Lord previously worked on several IGN properties. We wish them all of the best with their new overlords.
Check out a quote summing everything up below.
In short, IGN now has a new parent company. Other than that, not a whole lot changes about who we are. Our voice and our focus on games and entertainment coverage will remain the same. We’ll still post dozens of news stories, videos, reviews, features and previews every day. In fact, you probably won’t even notice a difference.
Sources: Official IGN Blog with Addition Information