Video gaming blog
Joystiq
was a
video gaming
blog
founded in June 2004 as part of the
Weblogs, Inc.
family of weblogs, now owned by
AOL
. It was AOL's primary video game blog, with sister blogs dealing with
MMORPG
gaming in general and the popular
MMORPG
World of Warcraft
in particular.
[1]
[2]
[3]
After declining readership, it was announced that
Joystiq
would be shut down on February 3, 2015, as part of moves to
downsize
AOL's operations by shuttering its "underperforming" properties.
History
[
edit
]
Predecessors
[
edit
]
As of early 2004,
Weblogs, Inc.
was seeking to add a blog to its repertoire for the sole purpose of covering news related to video games, as evidenced by the now-defunct
The Video Games Weblog
, founded February 27, 2004. On March 12, Weblogs, Inc. CEO
Jason Calacanis
announced two spinoff projects:
The Unofficial Playstation 3 Weblog
and
The Unofficial Xbox 2
, both of which are now similarly retired, though they would set a precedent for the launching of Joystiq's Fanboy blogs in 2005. However, none of these three initial weblogs were ever aggressively marketed,
[
citation needed
]
and
The Video Games Weblog
made its final post on May 18, 2005, amassing 175 blog entries in total (a rather scant amount by Weblogs, Inc. standards). All three blogs are now listed as "On Hiatus/Retired" in the Weblogs, Inc. directory. David Touve, the primary contributor to these early blogs, would later act as
Joystiq
'
s features editor for a short time in late 2005 before resigning due to the birth of his child.
Formation
[
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]
Later that year, following 2004's
Electronic Entertainment Expo
(E3),
Peter Rojas
, the founder of and lead contributor to the company's flagship blog
Engadget
, formally introduced
[4]
Joystiq
to the masses, positioning the blog as an extension to Engadget's Gaming subdomain. However, being a separate and wholly video game-related entity,
Joystiq
allowed for much more in-depth analysis of the video game industry than the primarily consumer electronics-oriented Engadget. While
Joystiq
had featured content as early as April 2, the blog is not officially considered to have been launched until Rojas's public revelation on Engadget on Wednesday, June 16, 2004.
Changes in site format
[
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]
The first major shakeup in
Joystiq
'
s history occurred in June 2005, when senior editor Ben Zackheim, after being offered a position at
America Online
's Games division, announced his resignation
[5]
due to a conflict of interest. He was succeeded by Vladimir Cole, a blogger who had been hired February 2005 and who held the position of Editor-in-Chief until February 2007, when Christopher Grant took over after Cole took a job with Microsoft's Xbox division. Weblogs, Inc. was acquired in October 2005 by America Online.
On November 21, 2005, coinciding with the North American launch of the
Xbox 360
,
Joystiq
welcomed its first spinoff project:
Xbox 360 Fanboy
, a blog devoted solely to the in-depth coverage of its namesake hardware. For the next three weeks this trend would continue, with
PSP Fanboy
launching on November 28,
WoW Insider
on December 6, and
DS Fanboy
on December 12. On February 15, 2006, a sixth blog was introduced:
Revolution Fanboy
, (which was later renamed to
Nintendo Wii Fanboy
), while March 29 heralded the arrival of
PS3 Fanboy
, completing
Joystiq
'
s trifecta of specialized next-gen coverage. While some have criticized the practice of splintering off
Joystiq
'
s primary areas of expertise as nothing more than a thinly veiled bid to increase traffic, Jason Calacanis has justified these actions by asserting that as
Joystiq
grows so too does its potential audience, and thus separate blogs are necessary to fulfill these specialized niches.
[6]
On January 26, 2006,
Joystiq
coined the phrase "DS phat",
[7]
a nickname for the old-style
Nintendo DS
that helps differentiate between the old DS and the
DS Lite
.
On November 2, 2007,
Massively
was launched to cover MMOs in general.
[8]
On January 27, 2009, the Fanboy sites were rebranded and integrated directly into the main
Joystiq
site. DS and Wii Fanboy were merged into
Joystiq Nintendo
, as were PSP and PS3 Fanboy merged into
Joystiq PlayStation
, and Xbox 360 Fanboy became
Joystiq Xbox
. Until 2010, these sites continued to feature specialized posts in addition to relevant content from the main
Joystiq
site.
On June 11, 2010, as part of the new "Futurestiq" iteration of the site, the three platform-specific sites shut down, with staff folded into
Joystiq
full-time.
[9]
In January 2012, Ludwig Kietzmann became the editor-in-chief after Grant left to form a new video game news website with
Vox Media
, owners of
The Verge
, known as
Polygon
.
[10]
Shutdown
[
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]
In January 2015, co-owned blog
TechCrunch
reported that AOL was planning to shutter underperforming content properties, particularly in the technology and lifestyle verticals, to focus on its stronger properties, video, and advertising sales.
[11]
On January 27, 2015,
Re/code
reported that
Joystiq
was among the sites that were "likely" to be shut down as part of this restructuring plan.
[12]
Readership of
Joystiq
had seen sharp declines, falling by at least 18% over the previous year.
[11]
On January 30, 2015, various
Joystiq
staff members, and eventually the site itself, confirmed that the site, along with its spin-offs
Massively
and
WoW Insider
, and fellow AOL property
TUAW
, would cease operations after February 3, 2015. Gaming-oriented coverage was assumed by
Engadget
.
[13]
[14]
[15]
After the shutdown, on February 10, 2015, the staff of
Massively
launched a successor site,
Massively Overpowered
, dedicated to the continuation of their MMO coverage.
[16]
Editors
[
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]
The
Joystiq
staff before the closure included editor-in-chief Ludwig Kietzmann, managing editor Susan Arendt, feature content director Xav de Matos, reviews content director Richard Mitchell, news content director Alexander Sliwinski, senior reporter Jess Conditt, and contributing editors Sinan Kubba, Danny Cowan, Mike Suszek and Earnest Cavalli. Thomas Schulenberg and Sam Prell maintained the blog on the weekends as the weekend editors and Anthony John Agnello served as community manager.
[17]
Previous
Joystiq
staff members include editor-in-chief Chris Grant, managing editor James Ransom-Wiley, features editor Kevin Kelly, reviews editor
Justin McElroy
, editors
Griffin McElroy
, J.C. Fletcher, and Mike Schramm, East Coast Editor Andrew Yoon, and West Coast Editor Randy Nelson.
Podcast
[
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]
Podcast
Super Joystiq Podcast
|
---|
|
Hosted by
| Xav de Matos
|
---|
Genre
| Podcast
|
---|
Updates
| Weekly
|
---|
|
Original release
| May 4, 2012 ?
September 11, 2014
|
---|
The original format for the Joystiq Podcast was hosted by Chris Grant, Ludwig Kietzmann and
Justin McElroy
. The three would discuss various gaming-related news stories. Segments included, 'What Have you Been Playing?', 'Brush With Fame', 'The Big Three', 'The Do It Line!' and 'Reader Mail'. Various podcasts have included guests from other gaming websites such as
CheapyD
,
Chris Remo
, and Stephen Totilo.
The first episode of the subsequent Joystiq Show, posted on June 17, 2011,
[18]
promised a more serious, academic format, with a multifaceted examination of
Duke Nukem Forever
including an interview with voice actor
Jon St. John
and a review roundtable. Over time, the show's format evolved to include more off-the-cuff discussion, while maintaining the topical nature.
The latest iteration of the podcast, the Super Joystiq Podcast, was announced at
Joystiq
'
s PAX East 2012 panel and officially released on May 4, 2012. This podcast features every editor, grouped together in a different configuration every week, each participating in an intro, news, preview, or "Joystiq Research Institute" segment.
Awards
[
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]
While Joystiq has been nominated for several awards in the category of technology-related weblogs, it has consistently been overshadowed in this regard by blogs representing a far wider spectrum of technology, including
Slashdot
,
Gizmodo
, and its ubiquitous sibling
Engadget
.
Joystiq
has, however, been included in a number of listings of outstanding weblogs, including Forbes.com's Best of the Web
[19]
and the Feedster 500.
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
- ^
"Game trailers prompt pixel wars"
.
BBC News
. July 17, 2007.
Archived
from the original on 2020-12-05
. Retrieved
2008-02-04
.
- ^
Vargas, Jose (May 14, 2006).
"What Press Pass? At E3, a Convergence of Card-Carrying Bloggers"
.
Washington Post
.
Archived
from the original on 2020-06-26
. Retrieved
2008-02-04
.
- ^
Terdiman, Daniel (November 1, 2005).
"Xbox 360 game marketing gone wild"
.
CNET
. CNET Networks.
Archived
from the original on 2020-12-05
. Retrieved
2008-02-04
.
- ^
Rojas, Peter (June 16, 2004).
"Introducing Joystiq"
.
Engadget
.
Archived
from the original on 2017-09-23
. Retrieved
2012-11-03
.
- ^
Zackheim, Ben (2005-06-03).
"If a game blog fell in the forest would anyone listen?"
. Joystiq. Archived from
the original
on January 28, 2015
. Retrieved
2012-11-03
.
- ^
Jason Calacanis, December 21, 2005,
The Joystiq Network
Archived
2020-12-06 at the
Wayback Machine
calacanis.com
- ^
Quilty, Conrad (2006-01-26).
"DS lite vs. DS comparison"
. Joystiq. Archived from
the original
on July 16, 2012
. Retrieved
2012-11-03
.
- ^
Dybwad, Bob (November 2, 2007).
"Joysitq presents: Massively"
.
Weblogs inc
. Archived from
the original
on May 25, 2011.
- ^
Grant, Christopher (2010-06-11).
"Welcome to the latest Joystiq (we call it 'Futurestiq')"
.
Joystiq
. Archived from
the original
on March 16, 2015
. Retrieved
2022-04-29
.
- ^
Solomon, Brian (October 24, 2012).
"The Inside Story Of Polygon, The Verge's New Gaming Sister-Site"
.
Forbes
.
Archived
from the original on July 31, 2014
. Retrieved
August 3,
2014
.
- ^
a
b
Lunden, Ingrid (19 January 2015).
"Aol Is Restructuring, Layoffs And Site Closures Likely"
.
TechCrunch
.
AOL
.
Archived
from the original on 5 December 2020
. Retrieved
April 29,
2022
.
- ^
Swisher, Kara (January 26, 2015).
"AOL Likely to Shutter Gaming Site Joystiq in Larger Content Cleanup"
.
Vox
.
Archived
from the original on 30 May 2022
. Retrieved
27 January
2015
.
- ^
Futter, Mike (January 30, 2015).
"AOL Closes Gaming Site Joystiq"
.
Game Informer
.
Archived
from the original on 8 November 2020
. Retrieved
2 February
2015
.
- ^
Mccracken, Harry (February 1, 2015).
"Farewell to TUAW - And To A Whole Era of Tech Blogging"
.
Fast Company
.
Archived
from the original on 3 September 2020
. Retrieved
2 February
2015
.
- ^
Wawro, Alex (January 30, 2015).
"Joystiq and Massively shut down amid AOL downsizing"
.
Game Developer
.
Archived
from the original on 30 May 2022
. Retrieved
3 February
2015
.
- ^
"About"
.
Massively Overpowered
.
Archived
from the original on 2020-11-13
. Retrieved
2016-12-30
.
- ^
"About"
. Joystiq. Archived from
the original
on March 16, 2015
. Retrieved
2012-11-03
.
- ^
Downin, Jonathan (2011-06-17).
"The Joystiq Show - 001: Duke Nukem Forever"
.
Engadget
.
Archived
from the original on February 4, 2015
. Retrieved
2022-04-29
.
- ^
"Video Game Blogs"
.
Forbes
. Archived from
the original
on 2007-03-18.
External links
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]