IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Joystiq Gobbles Up GameDaily

Posted June 7, 2010 by James Brightman

IndustryGamers has confirmed today with AOL that GameDaily (this editor's former employer) is going to retire its brand. An exact date for the website's closure was not provided, but from what we understand, it's going to happen very soon (this month). Basically, the GameDaily team and the site's content will be merged with Joystiq, as Joystiq becomes the main outward facing games brand for AOL. A Joystiq relaunch is also being planned as part of the merger. Both teams mutually agreed to the decision to merge.

Joystiq Editor-in-Chief Chris Grant told us, "We're really excited about what we've been working on over the last several months and, though I can't offer much in the way of the 'how' and 'when,' I can offer this for a 'why': We're going to be directing the GameDaily site and staff over to Joystiq as AOL's premier video game destination."

John Benyamine, AOL Games' Senior Product Manager added, "We're doing what should have been done on day one of being part of the AOL network, which is consolidate the GameDaily brand into Joystiq.  We  have the best video game coverage already, and we look forward to making Joystiq the most trafficked video game blog on the Internet once the consolidation is complete later this month."

With the relaunch, Benyamine will continue to serve as Senior Product Manager while GameDaily EIC Chris Buffa will be the main editor making the move to Joystiq. Chris Grant will remain EIC of Joystiq as a whole. 

GameDaily was acquired by AOL in August 2006. However, AOL had already purchased Weblogs (which owned Joystiq) in October 2005. It seemed the Internet giant for the longest time had great difficulty in reconciling its two top gaming website brands (something this editor witnessed first-hand). Now, however, it seems that AOL is making a wise decision in consolidating and focusing its resources on one top gaming destination. 

It's sad to see the venerable GameDaily brand being retired after all these years (the website started out as the leading industry newsletter in 1995), but we're equally excited to see Joystiq push forward with its relaunch, and we wish the team the best of luck. 

James Brightman has been covering the games industry since 2003 and has been an avid gamer ever since the days of Atari and Intellivision. He was previously the EIC of GameDaily Biz.