73-498: GameSpot is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition to the information produced by GameSpot staff, the site also allows users to write their own reviews, blogs, and post on the site's forums. It has been owned by Fandom, Inc. since October 2022. In 2004, GameSpot won "Best Gaming Website" as chosen by
146-551: A flat design instead of the previous green-blue gradients. In February 2018, former AOL CEO Jon Miller , backed by private equity firm TPG Capital , acquired Fandom. Miller was named co-chairman of Wikia, Inc., alongside Jimmy Wales, and TPG Capital director Andrew Doyle assumed the role of interim CEO. In July, Fandom purchased Screen Junkies from Defy Media , and in December of that year, they had acquired Curse Media which included wiki farm Gamepedia and websites part of
219-404: A question and answer website named "Wikianswers" (not to be confused with the preexisting WikiAnswers ). In March 2010, Fandom re-launched "Answers from Wikia", where users could create topic-specialized knowledge market wikis based upon Fandom's own Wikianswers subdomain. Fandom communities have complained of inappropriate advertisements, resource-intensive advertisements, or advertising in
292-558: A Fandom community is to cover information and discussion on a particular topic in a much greater and more comprehensive detail level than what can be found in Misplaced Pages articles. Other examples of content that is generally considered beyond the scope of Misplaced Pages articles include Fandom information about video games and related video game topics, detailed instructions, gameplay details, plot details, and so forth. Gameplay concepts can also have their own articles. Fandom also allows wikis to have
365-486: A convention a few months after his firing. He claims one of the people he ran into said, "Yeah, Kane & Lynch wasn't a very good game." Gerstmann responded, "You should totally call up my old bosses and tell them that." Shortly after leaving GameSpot , Gerstmann started an online blog saying: "I'm mainly starting this site up to give people a centralized place to hear directly from me, as all these bits and pieces that have gotten out to game news sites via interviews and
438-481: A few wikis use a licence with a noncommercial clause (for instance Memory Alpha , Uncyclopedia and others ) and some use the GNU Free Documentation License . Fandom's terms of use forbid hate speech , libel , pornography , or copyright infringement . Other material is allowed, as long as the added material does not duplicate existing wikis. Wikis are also not owned by their founders, nor does
511-426: A jar while answering questions submitted via email from Giant Bomb users; over time the segment began to include various off topic inclusions such as showing off his video game and console collection, and discussing his own opinions on various non video game-related subjects. Giant Bomb was voted by Time Magazine as one of the top-50 websites of 2011. On March 15, 2012, the staff of Giant Bomb announced that
584-540: A new design similar to that of TV.com , now considered a sister site to GameSpot . GameSpot ran a few different paid subscriptions from 2006 to 2013, but is no longer running those. In June 2008, GameSpot ' s parent company CNET was acquired by CBS Corporation , and GameSpot along with CNET's other online assets were managed by the CBS Interactive division. A new layout change was adopted in October 2013. CNET
657-421: A new solo podcast, The Jeff Gerstmann Show , funded via Patreon . Gerstmann elaborated on the podcast's first episode that the decision to leave Giant Bomb was a result of feeling overly stressed and creatively stifled by the increasing bureaucracy and time spent on business and management while working under a corporation, coupled with a desire to spend more time focusing on the actual production of content and
730-634: A non- user-friendly site design, a lack of customizability and company cross-promotion which is often irrelevant to wiki content. Other communities, such as the Zelda Wiki and Minecraft Wiki, have named the increasing "corporate consolidation" of wikis, alleged censorship, Fandom's "degraded" functionality and the Grimace controversy among their reasons for migrating. Covering the Minecraft Wiki's departure for PC Gamer , Rich Stanton stated that most of
803-532: A point of view, rather than the neutral POV that is required by Misplaced Pages (although NPOV is a local policy on many Fandom communities). The image policies of Fandom communities tend to be more lenient than those of Wikimedia Foundation projects, allowing articles with much more illustration. Fandom requires all user text content to be published under a free license; most use the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, although
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#1732851054465876-458: A publication that was perceived as having caved in to advertiser pressure. In 2012, when CBS Interactive , which owned CNET, acquired Gerstmann's Giant Bomb site, the non-disparagement agreement between Gerstmann and CNET was nullified. During a 2012 GameSpot "On the Spot" interview with Gerstmann, Gerstmann was able to talk of the terms of his dismissal in 2008. Gerstmann revealed that his firing
949-637: A rate. The averaging also resulted in a rate that was roughly equivalent to the most comparable space in the running. The overall parent company, Fandom, Inc., is headquartered at the Hallidie Building on 130 Sutter Street in San Francisco, California . The company was incorporated in Florida in December 2004 and re-incorporated in Delaware as Wikia, Inc. on January 10, 2006. Fandom has technical staff in
1022-472: A review of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men . In 2012, Complex magazine named Gerstmann in their top 25 biggest celebrities in the video game industry. Gerstmann began work in video game journalism in the early 1990s, having been involved with the game industry since age 17 doing freelance work as well as working for a print magazine for under a year. He was hired as an intern for GameSpot in 1996, eventually becoming editorial director. Gerstmann appeared in
1095-635: A segment on Good Morning America with Diane Sawyer and Sega product analyst Dennis Lee in September 1999 to talk about the release of the Sega Dreamcast , playing NFL 2K and Ready 2 Rumble Boxing , notable for the Dreamcast crashing while live on national television in one of its first TV demonstrations. Gerstmann personally notes in an episode of the Giant Bombcast that he believes his appearance on
1168-541: A sister site, VideoGameSpot , was launched on December 1, 1996. Eventually VideoGameSpot , then renamed VideoGames.com , was merged into GameSpot . On January 6, 1997, SpotMedia and publisher Ziff Davis announced a $ 20 million agreement allowing the publisher to run content from Computer Gaming World and Electronic Gaming Monthly on SpotMedia's websites. By the following month, Ziff Davis's substantial financial infusion enabled GameSpot to grow to 45 employees. In February 1999, PC Magazine named GameSpot one of
1241-488: A specialized forum, local reviews, special features, local pricings in Australian dollars , Australian release dates, and more local news. Jeff Gerstmann , editorial director of the site, was fired on November 28, 2007 as a result of pressure from Eidos Interactive, a major advertiser; Eidos objected to the 6/10 review that Gerstmann had given Kane & Lynch: Dead Men , a game they were heavily advertising on GameSpot at
1314-514: A startup called ChalkDrop.com. At the end of November 2012, Wikia raised $ 10.8 million in Series C funding from Institutional Venture Partners and previous investors Bessemer Ventures Partners and Amazon.com. Another $ 15 million was raised in August 2014 for Series D funding, with investors Digital Garage, Amazon, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Institutional Venture Partners . The total raised at this point
1387-463: Is a wiki hosting service that hosts wikis mainly on entertainment topics (i.e., video games, TV series, movies, entertainers, etc.). The privately held , for-profit Delaware company was founded in October 2004 by Misplaced Pages co-founder Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley . Fandom was acquired in 2018 by TPG Inc. and Jon Miller through Integrated Media Co. Fandom uses MediaWiki , the same open-source wiki software used by Misplaced Pages . Unlike
1460-474: Is an American video game journalist . Former editorial director of the gaming website GameSpot and the co-founder of the gaming website Giant Bomb , Gerstmann began working at GameSpot in the fall of 1996, around the launch of VideoGameSpot when GameSpot split PC and console games into separate areas. He shared his thoughts on a variety of other subjects every Monday on his GameSpot blog before his controversial dismissal from GameSpot in 2007 following
1533-616: The RuneScape wiki in 2018, the Zelda and Terraria wikis in 2022, the Minecraft, Fallout and Hollow Knight wikis in 2023, and the South Park and League of Legends wikis in 2024. Some wikis have received support from the creators of their topic areas during migration. There is no easy way for individual communities to switch to conventional paid hosting, as Fandom usually owns
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#17328510544651606-603: The GNU General Public License , version 2 or later, which is a free and open-source software license . The source code is hosted on the Wikimedia Foundation 's web servers and mirrored to the popular source code hosting platform GitHub . Wikia, Inc. initially proposed creating a copyleft search engine ; the software (but not the site) was named "Wikiasari" by a November 2004 naming contest. The proposal became inactive in 2005. The "public alpha" of
1679-702: The GameSpot user community. Due to the size and massive quantity of boards and posts on GameSpot , there is a "report" feature where a normal user can report a violation post to an unpaid moderator volunteer. In addition to the message board system, GameSpot has expanded its community through the addition of features such as user blogs (formerly known as "journals") and user video blogs. Users can track other users, thus allowing them to see updates for their favorite blogs. If both users track each other, they are listed on each other's friends list. Fandom (website) Fandom (formerly known as Wikicities and Wikia )
1752-592: The United States Navy hired Fandom to manage and promote esports tournaments and streams on Twitch. With Fandom's acquisition of Curse Media , the Curse Entertainment YouTube channel was renamed to Fandom Games . Fandom Games publishes Honest Game Trailers , which was previously published on the Smosh Games YouTube channel until Screen Junkies was acquired by Fandom. OpenServing
1825-426: The Wikimedia Foundation , the nonprofit organization that hosts Misplaced Pages, Fandom, Inc. operates as a for-profit company and derives its income from advertising and sold content, publishing most user-provided text under copyleft licenses. The company also runs the associated Fandom editorial project, offering pop-culture and gaming news. Fandom wikis are hosted under the domain fandom.com , which has become one of
1898-776: The Wikimedia Foundation . Wales' original idea was to use his Misplaced Pages idea for a place where people from the same city or other geographical place could come together. The project's name was changed to Wikia on March 27, 2006. In the month before the move, Wikia announced a US$ 4 million venture capital investment from Bessemer Venture Partners and First Round Capital . Nine months later, Amazon.com invested $ 10 million in Series B funding. By September 2006, Wikia had approximately 1,500 wikis in 48 languages. Over time, Wikia has incorporated formerly independent fan wikis such as LyricWiki , Nukapedia , Uncyclopedia , and WoWWiki . Gil Penchina described Wikia early on as "the rest of
1971-603: The top 50 most visited websites in the world , rapidly rising in popularity beginning in the early 2020s. It ranks as the 50th as of October 2023, with 25.79% of its traffic coming from the United States , followed by Russia with 7.76%, according to Similarweb . Fandom was launched on October 18, 2004, at 23:50:49 (UTC) under the name Wikicities (which invited comparisons to Yahoo's GeoCities ), by Jimmy Wales , co-founder of Misplaced Pages , and Angela Beesley Starling —respectively chairman emeritus and advisory board member of
2044-508: The Curse Network such as D&D Beyond , Futhead, Muthead, and StrawPoll.me. In February 2019, former StubHub CEO Perkins Miller took over as CEO, and Wikia fully changed its domain name to fandom.com . Various wikis had been tested with the new domain during 2018, with some wikis that focused on "more serious topics" having their domains changed to wikia.org instead. In June, Fandom began an effort to rewrite its core platform, which
2117-454: The Fandom website. The parent company Wikia, Inc. remained under its then-current name until 2019, and the homepage of Wikia was moved to wikia.com/fandom and later to fandom.com . In December, Wikia appointed Dorth Raphaely, former general manager of Bleacher Report , as chief content officer . On May 18, 2017, Fandom updated their branding with a refreshed logo, all-uppercase lettering, and
2190-632: The Monobook skin instead of the default custom skin was removed on May 25, 2018, alluding to GDPR compliance. In August 2016, Fandom announced it would switch to a service-oriented architecture . It removed many custom extensions and functionality for specific wikis, and has created certain replacement features to fill those needs. In 2016, Wikia launched Fandom, an online entertainment media website. The program utilizes volunteer contributors called "Fandom Contributors" to produce articles, working alongside an editorial team employed by Wikia. In contrast to
2263-549: The Trek Initiative, a Fandom hosted wiki community site that features video interviews, promotions, and other material about Star Trek to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Fandom made similar partnerships with 2K Games during the launch of Civilization: Beyond Earth and Warner Bros Interactive for Shadow of Mordor . Fandom also has partnerships with Lionsgate Media to promote Starz and Film franchises through wiki content, fandom articles, and advertisements. In 2021
GameSpot - Misplaced Pages Continue
2336-1161: The US, but also has an office in Poznań, Poland , where the primary engineering functions are performed. Fandom derives income from advertising. The company initially used Google AdSense but moved on to Federated Media before bringing ad management in-house. Alongside Fandom's in-house advertising, they continue to use AdSense as well as Amazon Ads and several other third-party advertising services. Fandom also gains income from various partnerships oriented around various sweepstake sponsorships on related wikis. Fandom has several other offices. International operations are based in Germany, and Asian operations and sales are conducted in Tokyo . Other sales offices are located in Chicago, Latin America, Los Angeles (marketing programming and content), New York City, and London. Jeff Gerstmann Jeff Gerstmann (born August 1, 1975)
2409-550: The Wikia Search web search engine was launched on January 7, 2008, from the USSHC underground data center. This roll-out version of the search interface was roundly panned by reviewers in technology media. The project was ended in March 2009. Late in 2009, a new search engine was established to index and display results from all sites hosted on Fandom. In January 2009, the company created
2482-422: The blog on my MySpace account aren't really the best way to communicate. So if you're interested in what I plan to do from here, this is the place. I'll also be sharing my thoughts on games and the business that surrounds them, perhaps with an occasional video or two." On the first episode of IGN 's "GameSages" podcast , Gerstmann stated that he was talking with "old friends" - later revealed to be Shelby Bonnie,
2555-419: The blogging feature of individual wiki communities, Fandom focuses on pop culture and fan topics such as video games, movies, and television shows. The project features fan opinions, interviews with property creators, reviews, and how-to guides. Fandom also includes videos and specific news coverage sponsored or paid for by a property creator to promote their property. In the same year, it was also announced that
2628-511: The body text area. Users have also complained that the advertisements are so resource-intensive and hindering, that they have no choice but to use an ad-blocker to continue using the website. In June 2023, McDonald's paid Fandom an undisclosed amount to temporarily replace the McDonald's Wiki's main page and exhaustive article on Grimace into an advertisement promoting the Grimace Shake and
2701-403: The character's 52nd anniversary. The article's primary contributor, Nathan Steinmetz, complained that the decision undermined his research and efforts and considered Fandom to have set a "really bad precedent" of IP holders' ability to suppress user-generated content with press releases. A number of wikis have migrated away from Fandom, citing issues such as intrusive advertising and branding,
2774-436: The discussion of games and the industry. Gerstmann elaborated further in an October 2022 episode of the podcast, stating that he "got fired three weeks before [he] was going to quit"; while uncertain as to the exact circumstances surrounding his dismissal, he noted that he had become disillusioned at that time, as it had become clear that his goals for the website would not be possible under Red Ventures , their parent company at
2847-425: The entire Wikia platform would be rebranded under the Fandom name on October 4, 2016. A leak from Fandom's Community Council was posted to Reddit's /r/Wikia subreddit in August 2018, confirming that Fandom would be migrating all wikis from the wikia.com domain, to fandom.com in early 2019, as part of a push for greater adoption of Fandom's wiki-specific applications on both iOS and Android's app ecosystems. The post
2920-535: The entirety of long games, "Quick Looks" that spend about 20–30 minutes playing through new titles, and the "This Ain't No Game" segment reviewing movies based on video games. They also produced a podcast, the "Giant Bombcast", which continues today with a different cast. The site includes video game reviews and covers video game news. Gerstmann also personally produced a regular premium-content video segment called "Jar Time with Jeff", hour long broadcasts often themed around jar related puns, in which Gerstmann drinks from
2993-524: The former CEO and co-founder of CNET, along with other former GameSpot people who left shortly in the wake of Gerstmann's dismissal and founded Whiskey Media - in regards to his future plans. Gerstmann and Davis announced their new venture Giant Bomb in March 2008 under the Whiskey Media brand, with the website going live on July 21, 2008. The staff produced videogame-related content with multiple video series including "Endurance Runs" playing through
GameSpot - Misplaced Pages Continue
3066-668: The foundation's board of directors also served as employees, officers, or directors of Wikia. In January 2009, Wikia subleased two conference rooms to the Wikimedia Foundation for the Misplaced Pages Usability Initiative . According to a 2009 email by Erik Möller , deputy director of the Wikimedia Foundation: We obtained about a dozen bids... We used averaging as a way to arrive at a fair market rate to neither advantage nor disadvantage Wikia when suggesting
3139-670: The founder's opinion carry more weight in disagreements than any other user's opinion. Consensus and cooperation are the primary means for organizing a community on Fandom. However, Fandom may make decisions affecting the community even if there is no consensus at all. As of May 2023, Fandom uses a heavily modified version of the MediaWiki software, based on the version 1.39 of MediaWiki. It has several custom extensions installed to add social features like blogs, chat, badges, forums, and multimedia, but also remove features like advanced user options or skins. The personal choice of using
3212-486: The hundred best websites, alongside competitors IGN and CNET Gamecenter . On July 19, 2000, CNET announced its acquisition of ZDNET , putting GameSpot and Gamecenter under the same parent company. That December, The New York Times declared GameSpot and Gamecenter the " Time and Newsweek of gaming sites". In February 2001, GameSpot was spared from a redundancy reduction effort by CNET which shuttered Gamecenter . In October 2005, GameSpot adopted
3285-447: The information on the new wiki. Fandom allows only a message directing viewers to a discussion about whether to fork for as long as the discussion is active before the message is removed, and any administrators involved in the new wiki have their rights on the Fandom wiki removed. In the 2000s, Fandom, then called Wikia, was accused of unduly profiting from a perceived association with Misplaced Pages . Although Fandom has been referred to in
3358-459: The library and magazine rack" to Misplaced Pages's encyclopedia. The material has also been described as informal, and often bordering on entertainment, allowing the importing of maps, YouTube videos, and other non-traditional wiki material. By 2010, wikis could be created in 188 different languages. In October 2011, Craig Palmer, the former CEO of Gracenote , replaced Penchina as CEO. In February 2012, co-founder Beesley Starling left Wikia to launch
3431-418: The media as "the commercial counterpart to the non-profit Misplaced Pages", Wikimedia and Fandom staff call this description inaccurate. In 2006, the Wikimedia Foundation shared hosting and bandwidth costs with Wikia, and received some donated office space from Wikia during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006. At the end of the fiscal year 2007, Wikia owed the foundation $ 6,000. In June 2007, two members of
3504-441: The migrations began after the 2018 acquisition and Gamepedia's move to Fandom. He noted that the Minecraft Wiki would have to compete with Fandom's better search engine optimization (SEO) and would have a struggle to establish a wider audience after moving. In 2023, Fandom CEO Perkins Miller told The Verge that he takes wiki migration "very seriously". Some of the more high-profile wikis which have migrated from Fandom include
3577-460: The non-binary artist Robin Pronovost. In response to the deadnaming controversy, Fandom also introduced new LGBT guidelines across its websites in late June 2021 which include links to queer-inclusive and trans support resources. In June 2021, Fandom began to roll out FandomDesktop , a redesigned theme for desktop devices, with plans to retire its legacy Oasis and Hydra skins once the rollout
3650-427: The purchase was made, the former owners applied ArmchairGM's architecture to other Fandom sites. However, Wikia had "dropped support" for the custom software innovations by ArmchairGM by January 2010. From September 2010 to February 2011, Fandom absorbed ArmchairGM's encyclopedia articles and blanked all of its old blog entries, effectively discontinuing ArmchairGM in its original form. The software powering ArmchairGM
3723-594: The regular GameSpot layout. In accordance with California state law and CNET Networks policy, GameSpot could not give details as to why Gerstmann was terminated. Both GameSpot and parent company CNET stated that his dismissal was unrelated to the negative review. However, a subsequent interview with Gerstmann in 2012 countered this statement, with Gerstmann claiming that management gave in to publisher pressure. Following Gerstmann's termination, editors Alex Navarro, Ryan Davis, Brad Shoemaker, and Vinny Caravella left GameSpot , feeling that they could no longer work for
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#17328510544653796-411: The relevant domain names. When a community leaves Fandom for new hosting, Fandom typically continues to operate the abandoned ("forked") wiki using its original name and content for advertising revenue as long as editing and viewership remains. This can adversely affect the new wiki's search rankings, potentially also resulting in outdated or incorrect information being present and viewed more often than
3869-460: The retailer behind Fanatical , an e-commerce platform that sells digital games, ebooks and other products related to gaming. In late March, Fandom updated its terms of use policy to prohibit deadnaming transgender individuals across their websites. This policy was in response to a referendum on the Star Wars wiki Wookieepedia to ban deadnaming, which triggered a debate around an article about
3942-511: The same building. As part of this announcement, Gerstmann revealed that the firing was indeed related to threats of Eidos pulling advertising revenue away from GameSpot as a result of Gerstmann's poor review score, which was confirmed by GameSpot's Jon Davison. GameSpot ' s forums were originally run by ZDNet, and later by Lithium . GameSpot uses a semi-automated moderation system with numerous volunteer moderators . GameSpot moderators are picked by paid GameSpot staff from members of
4015-571: The show wearing a FUBU Jersey contributed to the clothing company's fall from popularity. The segment was also notable for the Sega product analyst's many falsehoods, stating "You can actually see the snow slowly blanketing the ground, as the game goes on, the snow will blanket the field" features which were not present in the product. Gerstmann was dismissed from his position at GameSpot as editorial director on November 28, 2007. Immediately after his termination, rumors circulated proclaiming his dismissal
4088-551: The site had been acquired by CBS Interactive , owners of CNET, meaning that Gerstmann would be working alongside his former employer, GameSpot . The site was later purchased by Red Ventures in September 2020, and Fandom in October 2022. Along with Gerstmann and Davis — who died in 2013 — Brad Shoemaker and Vinny Caravella also contributed to Giant Bomb , with both departing alongside fellow contributor Alex Navarro in 2021. Gerstmann announced his departure from Giant Bomb on June 6, 2022. The following day, Gerstmann announced
4161-432: The site was initially US-based but sought to improve its links to sports associated with Britain over its first year. Its MediaWiki-based software included a Digg -style article-voting mechanism, blog-like comment forms with "thumbs up/down" user feedback, and the ability to write multiple types of posts (news, opinions, or "locker room" discussion entries). In late 2006, the site was bought by Fandom for $ 2 million. After
4234-448: The site. Gerstmann went on to lay the blame on a new management team that was unable to properly handle tension between the marketing and editorial staff, laying additional blame on the marketing department, which he claimed was unprepared in how to handle publisher complaints and threats to withdraw advertising money over low review scores. Gerstmann also stated he ran into a few members of [Kane & Lynch] developer IO Interactive at
4307-454: The time. In 1997, Gerstmann was interviewed on Electric Playground after winning an NFL Blitz tournament. Gerstmann was a regular guest on Bonus Round , which was a panel topic discussion show on the video game industry presented by Geoff Keighley on GameTrailers . Gerstmann became engaged in the summer of 2015. He announced that he became married on February 16, 2016, on the Giant Bombcast . On July 22, 2019, Gerstmann announced
4380-436: The time. Both GameSpot and parent company CNET initially stated that his dismissal was unrelated to the review. However, in March 2012, the non-disclosure agreement that forced Gerstmann to withhold the details of his termination was nullified. Not long after, Giant Bomb (a site Gerstmann founded after leaving GameSpot ) was being purchased by the same parent company as GameSpot , and that they moved their headquarters into
4453-529: The viewers in Spike TV 's second Video Game Award Show , and has won Webby Awards several times. The domain GameSpot.com attracted at least 60 million visitors annually by October 2008 according to a Compete.com study. In January 1996, Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein quit their positions at IDG and founded SpotMedia Communications. SpotMedia then launched GameSpot on May 1, 1996. Originally, GameSpot focused solely on personal computer games, so
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#17328510544654526-501: Was $ 39.8 million. On March 4, 2015, Wikia appointed Walker Jacobs, former executive vice-president of Turner Broadcasting System , to the new position of chief operating officer . In December 2015, Wikia launched the Fan Contributor Program. On January 25, 2016, Wikia launched a new entertainment news site named Fandom. On October 4, Wikia itself was rebranded as "Fandom powered by Wikia", to better associate itself with
4599-399: Was a result of external pressure from Eidos Interactive , the publisher of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men , which Gerstmann had previously given a Fair rating, which is relatively undesirable, along with critique. This was at a time when Eidos had been putting heavy advertising money into GameSpot , transforming the entire website to use a Kane & Lynch theme and background instead of
4672-475: Was a short-lived Web publishing project owned by Fandom, founded on December 12, 2006, and abandoned, unannounced, in January 2008. Like Fandom, OpenServing was to offer free wiki hosting, but it would differ in that each wiki's founder would retain any revenue gained from advertising on the site. OpenServing used a modified version of the Wikimedia Foundation 's MediaWiki software created by ArmchairGM , but
4745-594: Was complete. Two months later on August 3, Fandom rolled out a new look, new colors, new logo, and introduced a new tagline, "For the love of fans." In late November/early December, all remaining wikis under the wikia.org domain migrated to the fandom.com domain. On April 13, 2022, Hasbro announced that it would acquire D&D Beyond from Fandom. Fandom shut down StrawPoll.me in August. On October 3, Fandom acquired GameSpot , Metacritic , TV Guide , GameFAQs , Giant Bomb , Cord Cutters News, and Comic Vine from Red Ventures . The main purpose of articles in
4818-408: Was in fact related to the low review score he had given to Kane & Lynch , though his explanation cited other similar events that led up to the termination, including a 7.5 (good) rating given to Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction by Aaron Thomas, then an employee under Gerstmann. Events such as these led to him being "called into a room" several times to discuss reviews posted on
4891-602: Was incrementally open-sourced starting in February 2008 with the public release of the SocialProfile MediaWiki extension . This process was complete by August 2011, when the original ArmchairGM codebase (internally codenamed wikia- ny ) was released in full. Since 2008 the ArmchairGM innovations, nicknamed "social tools" , have been developed by volunteer developers of the MediaWiki community and they are available under
4964-485: Was intended to branch out to other open source packages. According to Fandom co-founder and chairman Jimmy Wales , the OpenServing site received several thousand applications in January 2007. However, after a year, no sites had been launched under the OpenServing banner. ArmchairGM was a sports forum and wiki site created by Aaron Wright, Dan Lewis , Robert Lefkowitz, and developer David Pean. Launched in early 2006,
5037-438: Was later deleted. Fandom has created several official partnerships to create wikis, vetted by the corporation as being the "official" encyclopedia or wiki of a property. In 2012, Fandom partnered with Sony Online Entertainment to create the first "Wikia Official Community" for PlanetSide 2 , with the game's wiki slated to receive exclusive content and support. In 2014, Fandom partnered with Roddenberry Enterprises to create
5110-453: Was merged with the main US site. On April 24, 2006, GameSpot UK was relaunched. In a similar fashion, GameSpot AU (Australia) existed on a local scale in the late 1990s with Australian-produced reviews. It ceased in 2003. When a local version of the main CNET portal, CNET.com.au was launched in 2003, GameSpot AU content was folded into CNET.com.au. The site was fully re-launched in mid-2006, with
5183-476: Was oriented for the British market that often differed from that of the U.S. site. During this period, GameSpot UK won the 1999 PPAi (Periodical Publishers Association interactive) award for best website, and was short listed in 2001. PC Gaming World was considered a "sister print magazine" and some content appeared on both GameSpot UK and PC Gaming World . Following the purchase of ZDNet by CNET , GameSpot UK
5256-443: Was sold to Red Ventures in October 2020. Two years later, Fandom acquired GameSpot , along with Metacritic , TV Guide , GameFAQs , Giant Bomb , Cord Cutters News, and Comic Vine from Red Ventures. In January 2023, 40-50 employees were affected by a round of layoffs. More layoffs at GameSpot took place in January 2024. GameSpot UK (United Kingdom) was started in October 1997 and operated until mid-2002, offering content that
5329-627: Was written based on MediaWiki version 1.19, to base it on a newer version of the software. On March 11, 2020, Fandom released the Unified Community Platform (UCP), based on MediaWiki 1.33, for newly created wikis. In 2020, Fandom sold Curse Network properties to Magic Find which includes communities and news websites. In November, Fandom began to migrate Gamepedia wikis to a fandom.com domain as part of their search engine optimization strategy, with migrations continuing into 2021. In February 2021, Fandom acquired Focus Multimedia ,
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