The crowded gaming content market made room for another competitor Monday, as Imagine Publishing, the creators of numerous popular gaming magazines, officially launched its content network. Although Imagine plans to leverage its magazines and community focus, it faces an established industry that is becoming increasingly competitive.
"Do I see it as being a big deal? No." says Mike Hanley, director of audience development for SpotMedia. "They're coming into a crowded field and it's an uphill battle against brands like GameSpot and Happy Puppy, and CNET."
Imagine would like to think otherwise. The new Web site, which has been in beta since November, contains seven professional sites (including four that are linked to the print magazines) and 10 "affiliate" sites - prominent fanzines created by avid gamers that have been picked to join the Imagine fold. The site is also pushing the community angle with chat rooms.
"Gamers feel there's something very democratic at IGN - they can actually have input into it," says Jonathon Simpson-Bint, VP of publishing at Imagine. He continues, "One of the biggest differences is that we have a presence on the newsstand. That gives us a real credibility with gamers. SpotMedia and GameCenter have to start from scratch."
But Imagine won't be the first to leverage its publications online. Ziff-Davis recently moved into the market by aligning its magazines with SpotMedia's popular gaming sites - bringing along its advertising base. Meanwhile, sites like Happy Puppy and GameCenter are emphasizing their Net-born readership.
The combined circulation of Imagine's top four magazines - boot, Next Generation, PC Gamer, and Ultra Game Players - is 620,000. And in the game of Internet numbers, Imagine is claiming ABVS audit numbers of 93,000 visitors per day during its third month in beta, January. Happy Puppy, conversely, is generating 70,000 daily visits as the Web's largest publication, while its newly acquired sister publication, Games Domain, claims 50,000 gamers a day.
"Not being a magazine is a real advantage for us," says Curtis Giesen, VP of sales and marketing at Attitude Networks, the creators of Happy Puppy. "We were born and executed on the Web, and users and advertisers respond to that.... It is a competitive space, but we have a comprehensive plan to remain the MTV of that space."
That market competitiveness has been ramping up in recent months. Alliances like the recent Happy Puppy/GamesDomain and Ziff/SpotMedia deals have created megasites in order to draw in advertising dollars. Jupiter projects that the online gaming industry will be worth more than $1.6 billion by 2000, and industry insiders claim that the games business is now generating more money than the film and music industries.
Which is why Imagine doesn't mind taking a piece of a pie that seems to be already well divided. Says Simpson-Bint, "The games business is not something that lends itself to the big companies. That's our advantage ... we're small and dedicated and we can adapt to the rapidly changing market."
