Shamelessly pilfered from RPGCodex:

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/02/21/ign-layoffs/?a_dgi=aolshare_facebook

IGN hit with layoffs; 1UP, Gamespy and UGO shutting down

IGN was hit with editorial layoffs today, with sites 1UP, UGO and Gamespy expected to be shut down.

"We are focusing on our two flagship brands, IGN and AskMen. Unfortunately, as a result, we have made the decision to close sites and restructure our teams accordingly," a company spokesperson confirmed to Joystiq.

The news comes less that a month after IGN was purchased by j2 Global through its Ziff Davis subsidiary:
http://www.joystiq.com/2013/02/04/ign-acquired-by-ziff-davis/

Sweet sweet justice guys, all those paid reviews, all that corruption, all those 9's and 10's for shitty Call of Duty and Gears of War likes. No more Doritos and mountain dew for these guys

Awh 1UP was good for nintendo games... and IGN was good for trailer and important news...oh well now to use use a less corrupt/mainstream site

If anything, from the dead carcasses of these sites will sprout new ones that will do the exact same things. Corrupt or not, you will still get the same reviews coming in.

Well, UGO I'm not familiar with but I don't think they had much of a user base did they? I'd guess probably not if they are getting canned. Gamespy has sucked for years. Maybe it always did. I forget now. 1UP I have never liked. I guess nobody else did either. I wouldn't think the future looks very bright for IGN either really but I guess they may still have their fans.

Personally, I like Gamespot although they are not perfect either. Generally speaking, their reviews give me adequate information to make my own call about whether the game suits me personally or not. I've been on Gamespot for a decade now and seen some ups and downs there but on the whole I like the site. It has a nice feature too for maintaining a list of your owned games, games you wishlist and games you are following news on along with whatever you happen to be playing at the moment if you like to keep it current. There's also a lot of good content in the way of guides for older games (as well as new), etc. I've never felt much need to stray from there although I do occasionally follow links from metacritic to specific reviews.

Trying to decide: Destructoid or Kotaku?
Anyone know these sites better?

EDIT: On second thought, I don't know much about Destructoid.

Kotaku is a blog.

Sometimes it seems like Kotaku is out to troll.

I use RPS but they're PC-based and don't post a whole lot collectively.

Damn I forgot about RPS, that's usually good for indie games.

thank god gamespy died :X they ruined so many games with their crappy multiplayer servers

Well ... will multiplayer be available for these games at all afterwards?

no they closed down the multiplayer servers , which means the game purely dependent on gamespy for multiplayer aka no lan option games will not work

http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/12/07/2250252/gamespys-new-owners-begin-disabling-multiplayer-without-warning

Don't use any of these really. Checked out Gamespy a few times when Dan Stapleton took over and it went PC only, it seemed alright but not worth checking everyday.

Thanks for the quick clarification. Humm. It doesn't really affect me personally (as I practically never play multiplayer anyway), but it's still sad to see that option go for the people who appreciate it and had fun with it.

This reinforces my stance that it's a bad idea to have to rely on third party services ...

If I want game opinions, I normally look for Chris Kohler's take. He sounds sane and reasonable. I do not listen to anybody for reviews.

Yeah, fuck IGN and their community wikis, and detailed walkthroughs, and collectible guides, and their... wait what?

Seriously, don't read their reviews if you don't like them. I can't say they're great, but pretty much everyone in the game review industry is a glorified fanboy. Seriously, almost every bad review really is a case of fanboyism, not even shitting here.

Anyway, I don't know what you might think this will improve, I suspect nothing.

Thanks for the recommendation, I actually go to Wired for technology news but never noticed his stuff
Gee I dunno, the sites obviously became unprofitable for a reason, and the fact that they are funded by ad revenue probably means less traffic was the reason. Meaning less people were reading their reviews, why do you think less people were reading IGN reviews? Think carefully.