IGN and GameStop Combine Online Resources

This one’s a little scary. IGN and GameStop have reached an agreement to combine their online presences. GameStop will now run editorial content from IGN directly, and IGN will carry more ads and cross links for GameStop.

IGN will also now be the sales representative for GameStop online, creating branded ads that advertisers will be able to purchase on the website. The traffic for both sites will be combined as well for advertising purposes – GameStop currently pulls in 7.2 million unique IPs per month while IGN nets 28.9 million.

Outlets generally want to separate themselves as much as possible from any conflicts of interest when it comes to critiquing and criticizing products – IGN is now in the deep end of that pool. It’s possible that this deal won’t change the editorial veracity of the site, but probably unlikely.

At the very least, maybe now we can snake the IGN moniker. That’s right, IGN now stands for Inside Gaming News. All the cool kids are saying it.

[via All Things Digital]