Ok, so what are the "rumored" other gaming sites about to fall? Anything UGO is suspect I guess. I wonder if any of the big content sites are about to drop such as ign, gamecenter, Daily radar, CGO, Gamespy and the like?

Rob Merritt -- www.moonbasetycho.com

The rumor I was referring to isn't about any of those you named. I'd rather wait a bit before posting the name.

About those you mention, here's what I know:

Gamecenter and Gamespot now share offices, so there may be some overlap there they will eliminate. CNET is going to announce results in a few days, so that's typically when companies make changes.

IGN is having that non-ad banner deal. They have money in the bank, but they're a content site so they're feeling the heat from the advertising droppoff too. I doubt they will go out of business, but their affliates may be left hanging. The big issue is owner Snowball. When you're stock's under a dollar, you begin to lose control of your destiny.

Daily Radar I have no idea about. They're part of Imagine, which is profitable. They're obviously tightening their belt, but they have good traffic so I'd suspect Imagine will try to keep them afloat and ride out this downturn.

CGO is wedded to the magazine and Chips and Bits, so they bring value beyond advertising dollars to TGLO. TGLO is in the same boat as Snowball as far as stock price.

Gamespy I hear little about, which is probably good.

My guess is Games Domain.

Do you guys know if firing squad is felling any heat? Are they in trouble financially? I would hate to see them go!

Firing Squad is probably ok because hardware sites are doing much better with advertisers.

Ok, my next guess is Adrenaline Vault. If it isn't them, it can't be anyone significant.

I can't really say because I've been asked not to. It turns out it's a bit different anyway. The site will continue for the time being, but they're making cutbacks.

Regarding alternative revenue streams for websites I noticed something the other day when surfing DailyRadar and that's the link at the bottom of every article saying:

"Want to use this article? Click here for options"

which takes you to a site where you have the option of licensing their articles.

Is this something new?
And who the hell would want to "use" a dailyradar article anyway?

Well, USA Today reprints Happy Puppy articles. There's some money to be made in syndication, but I have no clue who to approach.

AVault might not be such a bad guess Rob, they've already made a few cost-cutting measures as of late.

Or perhaps a site affiliated with Theglobe.com, since they've been losing their share of bank recently. Games Domain (Kids & Console), CGO or Happy Puppy?

Speaking of which, what's the deal with Gamecenter Alliance? Wasn't it supposed to sink on Thursday? I noticed Stomped has rid the site of all things Alliance, but sites like this one and Gamers Depot are still sporting the duds. Is there still hope for the Alliance, or is it just laziness on the part of the webmasters?

Steve Riach
Game Over Online
http://www.Game-Over.net

I think Stomped took down the ads a day early by mistake. I was told midnight February 1st Pacific time. CNET had to give us 30 days notice, and they didn't get the notice out until January 2nd or so.

Ok, now I'm going to change the ad banner.

game-over? Isn't that the site where games are reviewed as soon as they download the ISOs from your favorite web sites?

Great job guys. Keep up the good work.

Any tips on best warez sites?? I want to become a so-called "reviewer" too.

Thanks!

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

You really should educate yourself Wumpus before you make derogatory statements/judgements like that. It's nothing less than ignorance.


Steve Riach
Game Over Online
http://www.Game-Over.net

>>Or perhaps a site affiliated with Theglobe.com, since they've been losing their share of bank recently. Games Domain (Kids & Console), CGO or Happy Puppy?

Nah, theglobe.com already went through a round of layoffs before it became a daily occurrence. It was back in October, I believe.

Games Domain saw some cutbacks as they had a ludicrously sized staff (more than 50 people). Kids Domain only has a couple of people running the whole site and it's incredibly successful. And CGO/CGM just added two full-time editors.

Steve/CGM

Who'd you guys add as editors?

"You really should educate yourself Wumpus before you make derogatory statements/judgements like that. It's nothing less than ignorance. "

I've read all your site's reviews for the past two years. The correlation between the review date and the release date on http://www.isonews.com is nearly perfect.

I'm sorry you guys are a pirate "review" site, but hey, whatever works for you.

http://www.ltech.net/links/games.htm

"Game Over A former pirate review site gone legit. Still maintains that rough edge in its reviews."

If you want to prove otherwise, feel free to scan in purchase receipts and/or press CDs you've received for each review, and post them alongside. Otherwise, don't waste my time. I know who you guys are, and so does everyone else.

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

>Who'd you guys add as editors?

Someone local to handle a lot of webwork (some news stories, first looks, crud like that) and Tricia Gray (formerly with Eidos and Rockstar PR, and who helped launch gamers.com before bailing a couple of months ago), who's in San Francisco and finally gives us someone in the area who can go to all of the press events we miss out on because we don't want to fly across the country.

"A former pirate review site gone legit. Still maintains that rough edge in its reviews."

You just made my point Wumpus. I'm not denying anything that happened in years past, but GO has been legit for a very long time now. Considering you've been visiting our site for the past 2 years, I'm surprised you haven't come to realize that yourself. The person you quoted certainly has.

That's enough about that though, I'm sure Mark doesn't want to hear or see this.

Wow -- a one person office in San Fran going to all the press parties? Sounds like a nice job. She'll be busy, though.

Do you think some of the companies who do the San Francisco press tours will just want to show Tricia the game and not fly out to Vermont now?

>>Do you think some of the companies who do the San Francisco press tours will just want to show Tricia the game and not fly out to Vermont now?

They haven't been flying out to Vermont much in the last couple of years... we've either been missing out or having people go to them. If there's a compelling reason for them to come to us (i.e. a cover story pitch, or a cover story period), they'll still come see us.

Cnets game center is the next to go. Guess thats why mark is so mum. I really didn't expect them tp go anywhere.

http://www.voodooextreme.com/comments.taf?postID=11107

"Cnets game center is the next to go."

I just talked to Mark and this was news to us. The story traces back to Duane Pemberton at Gamers Depot, but he doesn't list his source.

-Tom

And now it's confirmed. Gamecenter is closing. Man, this is bad news for us freelancers.

>>And now it's confirmed. Gamecenter is closing. Man, this is bad news for us freelancers.

It's only bad news for the mediocre freelancers and those that wait for assignments and aren't aggressively pitching publications stories.

Yeah, but there are only three magazines and Gamespot left as paying markets. Well, Daily Radar and IGN are paying markets, but they're using fewer freelancers these days.

Plus, the magazines have been shrinking, except for CGM and it's ability to ignore that edit pages to ad pages ratio that seems like an immutable law to other publications.

>>Plus, the magazines have been shrinking, except for CGM and it's ability to ignore that edit pages to ad pages ratio that seems like an immutable law to other publications.

Yeah, but that's a normal seasonal change. Every year the magazines shrink March-July or so. We are too.

And while we don't ignore that ad/edit ratio thing, the only reason we can do what we do is that much maligned "bonus/freebie" split. I can assure you that if everyone was getting the same issue it would be closer to the freebie size (which still regularly has 50 or more edit pages) instead of the other.