I've been hinting at this for a few weeks now on the forum, but I think it's time to officially announce it. In a few weeks, Xboxyde and Playsyde will merge into Gamersyde, where we will also support the Wii. More explanations inside.
The reasons why we've decided to merge our sites are many and I'm going to try to explain them to you:
- First and foremost, we've always wanted our forums and threads to be as open-minded as possible and we've always encouraged any serious discussion about the different platforms. So why would we continue to segregate?
- Both communities (Xboxyde and Playsyde) are not so different anyway when it comes to the visitors so it forces them to visit the two sites when there's really no true justification for that.
- Another problem is that focusing on one machine only makes it more difficult to work with the publishers because we're not taken as seriously as we'd wish. For them we're merely a fan(boy) site, which doesn't help us at all.
- We (Snoopers and I) intend to work on Gamersyde.com full time so to make a living out of it. Hence we need some less constraining advertising space, which is just impossible on the current sites. To redesign the two sites completely would mean twice as much work, obviously. Let me assure you however that the new site will be as easy to read and access as before and that's our top priority. We wouldn't want the site to suffer from its new advertising space.
- Our plan is also to add new community features (blogs, image and video hosting) soon after the site is launched. It would have been hard to implement all this on the current sites.
I'd completely understand if some of you guys were disappointed by the news. I admit I'm having a hard time myself letting go of Xboxyde and its design (which I think is still really good). However, I think it'll be for the best in the end.
Needless to say that our content, the tone of the news as well as the moderation will remain identical. We'll still be encouraging people to be open-minded, even if it has to mean fewer messages on the forums.
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All comments (124)
Commented on 2007-04-23 13:12:13
Commented on 2007-04-23 13:17:44
Commented on 2007-04-23 13:18:23I'm sure you'll make it a great success.
Commented on 2007-04-23 13:19:16
Commented on 2007-04-23 13:21:19Sounds like a solid explanation!
Can't wait to see what you got in store for us!
Commented on 2007-04-23 13:21:30
Commented on 2007-04-23 13:22:49
Commented on 2007-04-23 13:25:45
Commented on 2007-04-23 13:41:54I brought the subscriber issue up with Blim some time ago and it seemed the vast majority of people were willing to pay some amount of money to access all the great content Xboxyde and Playsyde have gathered thus far.
Personally I prefer the option to have advertisments or make a payment to remove them, I'm sure you've thought about the monetary issues though :)
Commented on 2007-04-23 13:43:14
Commented on 2007-04-23 13:44:57 In reply to rupbertI brought the subscriber issue up with Blim some time ago and it seemed the vast majority of people were willing to pay some amount of money to access all the great content Xboxyde and Playsyde have gathered thus far.
Personally I prefer the option to have advertisments or make a payment to remove them, I'm sure you've thought about the monetary issues though :)
Commented on 2007-04-23 13:53:34
Commented on 2007-04-23 13:56:36I do hope you will keep the torrents though and the typical "10 mins of ...". This makes your site unique from the rest. Without these "touches" I'd go to 1up, IGN, etc.
Keep the personal touch and you should do fine. Good luck ...
Commented on 2007-04-23 13:57:28 In reply to romeolivesI do hope you will keep the torrents though and the typical "10 mins of ...". This makes your site unique from the rest. Without these "touches" I'd go to 1up, IGN, etc.
Keep the personal touch and you should do fine. Good luck ...
Commented on 2007-04-23 14:03:22 In reply to BlimBlim
Commented on 2007-04-23 14:03:28I have no real interest in the PS3 but for the good of the site I can see it working really well... as long as I still have a 360 only rss feed :)
Commented on 2007-04-23 14:06:50
Commented on 2007-04-23 14:10:21does this news also mean we get more gamersyde video shows in the future?
Commented on 2007-04-23 14:15:58
Commented on 2007-04-23 14:16:48Good luck!
Commented on 2007-04-23 14:26:14
Commented on 2007-04-23 14:27:36
Commented on 2007-04-23 14:34:04I'm sorry to see Xboxyde go, it was one of the best places to go to read XBOX news/content without all the ads etc.
Commented on 2007-04-23 14:36:12We already started cleaning up and perma-banning is being used more and more...
Commented on 2007-04-23 14:55:41Are we going to see separate RSS feeds for each system? That would be handy, as would a filtering system for news.