13 Sep, 2011
That’s what IGN is saying: Gaming Media should go big. Really big. President Roy Bahat of IGN said in an interview with MCV that it should be just as big as sports or movies. Whatever the end goal, it’s all up to IGN to make it happen.
“We have this vision of a new kind of media company that makes games media a mainstream form of entertainment in the same way as sport and film,” said Bahat. “Despite the enormous number of people playing games, it has still to reach that degree of success.”
It might have something to do with that pervasive (and erroneous) attitude that all gamers live in their parents’ basement and live unproductive lives. Bahat says that his approach is to get celebrities involved, in a bid to make pop culture accept gaming. “We have a long way to go in becoming mass market, so we need to redefine this category,” said Bahat. “That means getting celebrities involved and making it clear how many of them play.
“It means reaching people on every platform, whether that’s YouTube, mobile or games consoles. We think the category is just too small relative to its extraordinary potential. We need to grow it.”
By growth, Bahat intends on creating a better media outlet for casual gamers and also the big name games that have already made a nice niche for themselves, like Call of Duty. “Nobody has created a great media service for mobile and social,” said Bahat. “We’d like to. …You have people who are not necessarily gamers, but they are FIFA or Call of Duty gamers. We need to serve the hyper fans of these gigantic franchises.”
To serve or not to serve? That is the question. Do you think the gaming media should remain with its own techno-crowd, or do you think it should push itself alongside Hollywood, ESPN, and into pop culture? Tell us what you think in the comments, or better yet head over to our forums and discuss it.
Via MCV.
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