GameSpy - Site To Be Shut Down

Gamespy's Editor-in-Chief, Dan Stapleton, announces that the Gamespy site is to be shut down. He gives this reason:

Why is this closure happening, then? It's a business thing, and like most business things it's not easy to explain or understand unless you spend all day crunching numbers and paying bills. Which I don't. So here's the simple version that even I can comprehend: Ziff Davis wants to run an efficient, focused company, and managing several different sites that all cover videogames isn't exactly the model of efficiency. Even though GameSpy had its own unique voice that was separate and distinct from those of our sister sites, and there has always been value in that, it's hard to argue with that logic. Even if it does totally suck. The silver lining is that the value of all of the voices and opinions of our staff and writers won't just go away. We'll still be out there talking and writing about the great things happening in the world of PC gaming, both at IGN and other places around the internet, because it's what we love to do. It's why we wanted to work at GameSpy in the first place. We hope you'll keep reading and watching and talking about PC games with us.

More information.

Bye Gamepsy, UGO and 1up.

Although, I always expect this to happen when the guy bought all those gaming website. Now IGN is the one left standing.

That sux

Yeah, it does.

Wait, wasn't Gamebanshee somehow affiliated with UGO?

The closure of gamespy feels like an end of era. I haven't visited there much for some time, but I recall fondly how I used gamespy to search for quake 1 servers back in the 1996-1997.

I don't know how many times it has changed ownership from those days, but still it reminds me of thoe golden days of pc gaming.

Gamespy was long beyond it's hayday. It used to be influental and with newest info once, but in recent years it was mostly uninformed, slow and crappy.

But I agree to Dez: Gamespy was part of a golden era, indeed.

I wonder what is going to happen to the content of the old sites once they are shut down? I am often behind the curve on games, many times waiting until a long time after release before making a purchase, so often I am looking at some pretty dated reviews. It would be a shame if all those old reviews and articles just disappeared instead of being absorbed on the IGN site.

I doubt they will bother with migrating much data. It would take time and energy it sounds like the owner is out of when it comes to gamespy. That was one of a small handful of sites I checked for info. Looks like downsizing has hit the net now.

never been to the site. i will go there now just to say I have.

Originally Posted by Kostaz
Wait, wasn't Gamebanshee somehow affiliated with UGO?

Now that you mention it, they used to have the UGO network stuff on top, but it's not there anymore…

Really hope gamebanshee isn't part of this. Its a great site for looking up game info, especially for slightly older ones.

And don't forget all the -Planet sites that used to be part of GameSpy.

Originally Posted by Caidh
Really hope gamebanshee isn't part of this. Its a great site for looking up game info, especially for slightly older ones.

Apparently UGO never owned GameBanshee, they just took care of the ads that ran on GameBanshee:

http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/th…anshee.118976/

I guess ever since the UGO banner disapeared (post IGN acquisition) they've been handling the adspace themselves.

We've never been owned by UGO, and our only affiliation with the network used to be them handling our ads. Hope that clarifies things.

Good to hear.

So is this just the gamespy news site, or the whole gamespy service / system? I haven't used them in ages since I largely withdrew from online gaming, but I assume a lot of older games still rely on the server matching service?

IMO gamespy was always a crap site.
I won't cry it's finally being removed.

Originally Posted by GhanBuriGhan
So is this just the gamespy news site, or the whole gamespy service / system? I haven't used them in ages since I largely withdrew from online gaming, but I assume a lot of older games still rely on the server matching service?

Pretty sure that software you're talking about died years ago. Doesn't look like it's received an update in over 6 years, and the download links on the official site don't even work anymore: http://www.gamespyarcade.com/

What sucks is that the Neverwinter Vaults will go down.

That is really really bad.