Game On: MSN Partners With IGN

IGNMSN has tapped News Corp.'s gaming news and information hub IGN.com to run its new video game "channel" Game On.

Game On will attempt to offer visitors a custom experience that features IGN's editorial and video content, along with original gaming information.

The new site adds to MSN's existing properties, including celebrity news and gossip site Wonderwall and the food-focused Delish.

"Video game media is gaining ground among mainstream audiences, and is a category that has great growth opportunity," said Adam Berliant, a director at MSN.

For Roy Bahat, president of IGN Entertainment, the distribution deal was a no-brainer. "By partnering with MSN, we're able to extend our video game content to a much broader audience," he said.

IGN will be responsible for all ad sales for the channel, which will include a range of content that hopefully appeals to a broad swath of gamers -- including related news stories, video game previews and reviews, "cheats," gaming tips, video content, and top 10 lists.

IGN presently syndicates its video offerings to external partners including Xbox Live, Yahoo, Hulu, and sister network MySpace.

IGN's network of video game-related properties include IGN.com, GameSpy, FilePlanet, TeamXbox, and Direct2Drive, among others. IGN also owns and operates the movie-related Web site Rotten Tomatoes and male lifestyle Web site AskMen.com.

In October, the properties reached more than 47.5 million unique users worldwide, the network claims, citing comScore Media Metrix data.

Along with rivals AOL and Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN has spent the past year making its case as a digital content leader.

A year in the making, MSN debuted a refurbished home page last month that places the focus on Bing-powered search, local content, in-line video, and the social networks that are consuming an ever-greater share of consumers' digital lives.

Significantly, the Microsoft unit also launched a new MSN Local Edition, which will exist as a stand-alone Web site, but will also feature prominently on the relaunched MSN home page.

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