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GameFly Acquires Shacknews
by Shack Staff, Feb 03, 2009 6:15pm PSTOnline rental hub GameFly today announced that it has acquired independent video game website Shacknews.
As part of the deal, GameFly has purchased all related Shacknews destinations, including FileShack. The company plans to maintain the Shacknews editorial staff and direction, and pledged to bolster the site with additional resources.
"GameFly has demonstrated a true understanding of and commitment to Shacknews' gaming culture," said Shacknews founder Steve Gibson, who added that the decision to sell the company was not based on financial problems.
"We are confident GameFly will protect the legacy and community we've established, while at the same time providing much needed resources to expand into new and exciting areas that would not otherwise be possible."
Shacknews was founded in 1995, and has since grown to become one of the largest homes for video game enthusiasts on the internet. Shacknews has more than doubled its readership year over year, while launching a new multimedia site Shackvideo.
"We purchased Shacknews because it's a great site," said GameFly co-founder Sean Spector. "We believe we can help expand its reach--we're not looking to twist and turn the site into something else."
"With its avid, engaged community and commitment to providing an independent voice for gamers seeking the most accurate and up-to-date news and information, it goes to the core of our vision as a company, which is to be the ultimate resource for the entire gaming community," added GameFly CEO David Hodess.
Comments
Can anybody else remember the reeeaaaly old Shugashack weekly features? If I Was King is the only one I can clearly remember, but I remember liking another one better that was something like "Stuff That Sucks" or something close to that.
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Im not going anywhere till I see a good Kane and Linch Review..
<3 Shacknews <3
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I don't care if Gamefly aquired Shacknews as long as nothing changes. As long as the Latest Chatty doesn't go away, I'll be okay. Also, I fear a huge influx of douchebags that aren't used to the Shack chatties. So as LONG AS WE STICK TOGETHER we can keep those idiots out and keep shit the same.
You sit there and act like Gamefly is going to reach into your computer and steal your packets. No, they have the time and money to actually grow this site and the Shacknews brand. If Gibson doesn't give a fuck, why do you? It's not your site. You're just unreasonably obsessed with the Internet and everything on it.
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So sad.
LONG LIVE THE CHICK HUNTS (the first one was called a chick hunt!)
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Problem is.. I don't want to risk seeing that site die a slow death.. So I'm wondering whether I should leave now or what. Maybe wait until the first change come in.
Love this site, and I'd hate to have it turn into something that isn't Shacknews by heart.
Having said that, Steve and Maarten does indeed deserve the success that this purchase surely must be.
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So besides low availability in the games you want to play, you should expect to see an overall downgrade in their customer service as well.
This site has always been awesome, and I hope it stays that way. That being said...I doubt it will.
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/4925/shackadfy4.png
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There are so many things that worry me about this, however they can can be summed up in one worry = Change
There are two groups on the Shack: Lurkers who read the site for news and the comments for interesting things. Latest Chatty's goers who very rarely venture away. The perception of some (if not most) is that the core Shacknews fan is in the latter group. Front page content, profile customization, and the game library are occasional diversions, but are not what they spend most of their time on the site doing.
So my question to Steve or Maarten is: What is Gamefly bringing to the table that will make a difference to the "Shacknews' gaming culture"? We are told that their resources will allow the site to expand in ways that they couldn't before. What things are core Shackers missing out on? Other than improving some odds and ends with the comments (fixing search), the core crowd does not want to see change in this area. I could be TOTALLY wrong about this and find out that Shacknews get's most of it's traffic from unique hits, but I have a hard time believing that this is what has kept the site going over the years.
I am probably the most worried when I ponder this question: What is Gamefly getting out of this deal? Their goal is obviously to grow their business, even if they have a very complex path of getting their. While they may want to be the "ultimate resource for the entire gaming community" they are not going to be making money if Shacknews does not drive up the subscriptions on their site. I am most worried about how they will do this.
end o' rant
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tl;dr?
<numbah 5> It's all cool baby. </numbah 5>
If there's something horrible like fry not being able to say dongs or conandan not being able to rail against the smelly hippy democrat machine, we'll let you know but I think that's about as likely as people not making pop tart or wooden shoe jokes towards Maarten. Frankly, there are plenty of Big Corporate Websites that have online communities that discuss more than just games, and I'm going to be my usual inelegant, blunt person and say we have something special over those places.
Furthermore, I think it's just silly to assume that the Gamefly Powers That Be wouldn't know what they were getting into in buying this place, as opposed to some homogenized boring bunch of plebeians, and they are fine, if not better than fine about having Shackers. I in fact truthfully think this will present us with even bigger and better opportunities for our community, as long as we can both keep sucking as much as we do, and more importantly not sucking as we do so much better.
Just keep doing what you were doing. We share your concerns--we don't want drastic changes in the comments either. I've been coming here since high school when GLQuake, ISDN and hand-written IP lists were cutting edge, have seen so many years pass since then, just got married a bit more than a month ago, and really hope to keep being a part of this amazing community till... well, those are bridges far in the future and hopefully ones we'll cross together. Steve and Maarten have done right by us in the past, and we're confident that they're still doing what's best.
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Thanks for all that you did.
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For those of you who hate GameFly or hate what GameFly might mean for this place, who would you have rather purchased Shacknews? What company do you think would have been a good fit to purchase Shacknews? Pretend that Shacknews staying independent is not an option.
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grats to steve and maarten.
god help me if Valve gets bought by the man...
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fuuuuuuuuuuu
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End of an era, I swear to god. Been coming to this site for so long - It's a shame to hear of something like this happening to the site that's been my homepage for so many years. The Shack has always had that underground/independent vibe. Now it has completely sold out.
Sad panda! :(
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