Top 3 Video Game Websites

Let's Play Those

Gamespot.com

GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which purchased CNET Networks in 2008, is the current owner of GameSpot. GameSpot.com is currently one of the 200 highest-trafficked websites according to Alexa

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. The forums are partially shared with those on GameFAQs, another website owned by CNET.

In 2004, GameSpot won "Best Gaming Website" as chosen by the viewers in Spike TV's second Video Game Award Show and has won Webby Awards for several years. Other gaming websites such as IGN, 1UP.com, and GameSpy have been its biggest rivals. The domain gamespot.com attracted at least 60 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com study.
GameSpot's main page has links to the latest news, reviews, previews, and portals for the following current platforms: Wii, Nintendo DS, PC, Xbox 360, PSP, PS2, and PS3. It also includes a list of the most popular games on the site and a search engine for users to track down games of interest. GameSpot also covers the following platforms to a lesser extent: Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Xbox, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, Neo Geo Pocket Color, N-Gage, and mobile games, among others.

#2. IGN.com

IGN (an abbreviation for the former Imagine Games Network) is a multimedia news and reviews website that focuses heavily on video games. Its corporate parent is IGN Entertainment, which owns and controls separate sites such as GameSpy, GameStats, Rotten Tomatoes and AskMen. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites, or "channels", each occupying a subdomain on IGN and covering a specific area of entertainment. Game-related channels include PC Games, Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox Live, Wireless, Retro, and iPhone games. In addition, IGN has channels covering movies, music, gear and technology, sports, comic books, television and more. Founded in September 1996 as Imagine Games Network, IGN began as five individual websites within Imagine Pu blishing: N64.com (later renamed IGN64.com), PSXPower, Saturnworld, Next-Generation.com and Ultra Game Players Online. In 1998, the network consolidated the individual sites as system "channels" under the IGN brand. Next-Generation and Ultra Game Players Online were not part of this consolidation; UGPO dissolved with the cancellation of the magazine, and Next-Generation was put "on hold" when Imagine decided to concentrate on launching the short-lived Daily Radar brand. Then-parent company Snowball.com held an IPO in 2000, which subsequently bombed with the dot-com bomb. As of June 2005, IGN claimed 24 million unique visitors a month, with 4.8 million registered users through all department s of the site. IGN is ranked among the top 200 most-visited websites according to Alexa.In September 2005, IGN was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's multi-media business empire, News Corporation.

GameFAQS.com

Game FAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff "CJayC" Veasey and was bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by CBS Interactive. The site has a database of video game information, cheat codes, reviews, game saves, and screenshots, almost all of which is submitted by volunteer contributors. The systems covered include the 8-bit Atari platform through modern consoles, as well as computer games. Submissions made to the site are reviewed by the site's current editor, Allen "SBAllen" Tyner.

GameFAQs hosts an active message board community, which has a separate discussion board for each game in the site's database, along with a variety of other boards. Since 2004, most of the game-specific boards have been shared between GameFAQs and GameSpot, another CNET/CBS website. The site also runs a daily opinion poll and tournament contests.

GameFAQs has been positively reviewed by The Guardian and Entertainment Weekly. As of 2009, GameFAQs.com is one of the 300 highest-trafficked English-language websites according to Alexa.

GameFAQs was started as the Video Game FAQ Archive on November 5, 1995,by Jeff Veasey, who says he wanted to collect the numerous online guides and FAQs into one centralized location.Hosted on America Online, it originally served as a mirror of Andy Eddy's FTP FAQ archive.The initial version of the site had approximately 10 pages and 100 FAQs.In 1996, the site moved to its current domain at gamefaqs.com and changed its name to GameFAQs.At this time, GameFAQs listed less than 1000 FAQs and guides and was updated on an irregular basis.

During the following months, the site grew in content and in design; two different styles were introduced in early 1997 to accommodate the support of tables in web browsers (or the lack thereof). Two key features of the site—the game search engine and the contributor recognition pages—were planned at this time.