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Joystiq

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Not to be confused with Joystick.
Joystiq
Type of site
Computer and video game blog
Successor(s)Engadget Gaming
Massively Overpowered
Polygon
Country of originUnited States
OwnerWeblogs, Inc.
Editors
  • Ben Zackheim (2004-05)
  • Vladimir Cole (2005-07)
  • Chris Grant (2007-12)
  • Ludwig Kietzmann (2012-15)
URLjoystiq.com
LaunchedJune 16, 2004 (2004-06-16)
Current statusShut down on February 3, 2015 (2015-02-03)
See More

Joystiq was a video gaming blog which was part of the Weblogs, Inc. family later owned by AOL. It was active from 2004 to 2015, acting as the primary video game blog for the group, and operating alongside Engadget and sister blogs such as Massively.[1][2][3] From 2007 it hosted The Joystiq Podcast, which was hosted by editor-in-chief Chris Grant, reviews editor Justin McElroy and Ludwig Kietzmann. The website's staff also included Justin's brother Griffin McElroy as weekend editor. The original podcast was discontinued in 2011, but similar shows continued for the remainder of the site's lifetime in various formats.

Grant and the McElroy brothers left the site in 2012 to found the gaming website Polygon, with Kietzmann taking over as editor-in-chief. The site's readership declined through the following years, and Joystiq was shut down by AOL on February 3, 2015. The web address today redirects to Engadget Gaming, which hosts much of the site's old content.[4] Joystiq's Massively team branched off during the closure and launched Massively Overpowered.

History

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Zackheim era (2004-2005)

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In the early 2000s, the blog network Weblogs, Inc. was exploring their video game coverage. Peter Rojas, the founder and leader of Engaget, acknowledged that video games were too broad a subject to be covered by their flagship blog alone. Joystiq was therefore intended to cover that area. The site first began with a soft launch in April 2004, and Rojas formally unveiled the site on June 16.[5] Joystiq emerged at a time when gaming websites were limited to large corporate-owned entities. It emerged as a smaller player in the space, primarily competing with Kotaku, which launched around the same time.[6]

In June 2005 senior editor Ben Zackheim, after being offered a position at AOL's Games division, announced his resignation due to a conflict of interest.[7] He was succeeded by Vladimir Cole.

Cole era (2005-2007)

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Joystiq's E3 2006 crew

Joystiq saw major expansion over the period, as it broadened its coverage with dedicated blogs for different consoles. The move towards specialised blogs came shortly after Weblogs was acquired by AOL, which was announced in October 2005.[8]

The first of the new blogs launched in November 2005- coinciding with the North American launch of the Xbox 360. Joystiq launched Xbox 360 Fanboy, a blog devoted solely to the in-depth coverage of its namesake hardware.[9] New staff were hired that month, including Jennie Lees, Blake Snow and Chris Grant.[10] For the next three weeks Joystiq unveiled additional console-specific spinoffs, including PSP Fanboy on November 28, WoW Insider on December 6, and DS Fanboy on December 12. On February 15, 2006, a sixth blog was introduced: Revolution Fanboy, (which was later renamed to Nintendo Wii Fanboy), while March 29 heralded the arrival of PS3 Fanboy, completing Joystiq's trifecta of specialized next-gen coverage. While some criticized the practice of splintering off Joystiq's primary areas of expertise, Jason Calacanis justified these actions by asserting that separate blogs were necessary to fulfill these specialized niches.[11]

On January 26, 2006, Joystiq coined the phrase "DS phat",[12] a nickname for the old-style Nintendo DS that helps differentiate between the launch model DS and the DS Lite. The nickname remained in informal use for decades.[13]

Grant era (2007-2012)

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Cole moved to Microsoft's Xbox division in 2007, and Chris Grant became editor-in-chief for the website. He was also one of the inaugural hosts for The Joystiq Podcast, a weekly discussion show for video game news and culture. The other hosts for the show were Ludwig Kietzmann and Justin McElroy. The podcast would become an enduring feature that persisted in various forms for the remainder of the site's lifetime. Grant's tenure also saw one further blog launched, in the form of Massively. The new blog was designed to cover MMOs in general (as opposed to the World of Warcraft specific WoW Insider). It launched on November 2, 2007.[14]

From 2009 Joystiq underwent a period of consolidation, merging several of the spinoff blogs back into the main site. This began with the "Fanboy" pages that January, which were rebranded and integrated directly into the main Joystiq site. DS and Wii Fanboy were merged into Joystiq Nintendo, the PSP and PS3 Fanboy merged into Joystiq PlayStation, and Xbox 360 Fanboy became Joystiq Xbox. Until 2010, these sites continued to feature specialized posts in addition to relevant content from the main Joystiq site. The arrangement was ultimately only briefly in effect, as in June 2010 the site rebranded and folded all three back into the main site as part of the "Futurestiq" overhaul. The staff from those companion blogs were folded into Joystiq full-time.[15]

Kietzmann era (2012-2015)

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In January 2012, Ludwig Kietzmann became the editor-in-chief after Grant left to form a new video game news website with Vox Media, owners of The Verge, known as Polygon.[16] That April, the site cancelled The Joystiq Show to launch Super Joystiq Podcast, returning to the more conversational format used in the original show Kietzmann hosted with McElroy and Grant.

In January 2015, co-owned blog TechCrunch reported that AOL was planning to shutter underperforming content properties, particularly in the technology and lifestyle verticals, to focus on its stronger properties, video, and advertising sales.[17] On January 27, 2015, Re/code reported that Joystiq was among the sites that were "likely" to be shut down as part of this restructuring plan.[18] Readership of Joystiq had seen sharp declines, falling by at least 18% over the previous year.[17] On January 30, 2015, various Joystiq staff members, and eventually the site itself, confirmed that the site, along with its spin-offs Massively and WoW Insider, and fellow AOL property TUAW, would cease operations after February 3, 2015. Gaming-oriented coverage was assumed by Engadget.[19][20][21] The closure drew an outpouring of sympathy from the wider sector. Kotaku called for "A moment to reflect on what would have been had not Joystiq helped usher in this age of gaming and coverage."[6]

Legacy

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Griffin and Justin McElroy, along with their brother Travis McElroy, started the podcast My Brother, My Brother and Me in 2010, around a year before the discontinuation of The Joystiq Podcast. The podcast gained popularity quickly at launch, "largely on the back of their existing Joystiq podcast base".[22][23] Grant and the McElroy's departure from Joystiq in 2012 allowed them to found the games journalism website Polygon, which is active as of 2025.[16] The McElroys ultimately retired from journalism in 2018 to focus on their podcasting careers.[24] Grant remained editor-in-chief of Polygon until 2019, and now serves as its publisher.[25]

On February 10, 2015, the staff of Joystiq's former Massively column launched their own successor site. Massively Overpowered is dedicated to the continuation of their MMO coverage, and remains active as of 2025.[26]

Kietzmann briefly became U.S. Editor-in-Chief for GamesRadar+, and then retired from journalism in 2016 to become the editing director for Assembly Media.[27]

Editors

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The final configuration of Joystiq staff included editor-in-chief Ludwig Kietzmann, managing editor Susan Arendt, feature content director Xav de Matos, reviews content director Richard Mitchell, news content director Alexander Sliwinski, senior reporter Jess Conditt, and contributing editors Sinan Kubba, Danny Cowan, Mike Suszek and Earnest Cavalli. Thomas Schulenberg and Sam Prell maintained the blog on the weekends as the weekend editors and Anthony John Agnello served as community manager.[28]

Previous Joystiq staff members included editor-in-chief Chris Grant, managing editor James Ransom-Wiley, features editor Kevin Kelly, reviews editor Justin McElroy, editors Griffin McElroy, J.C. Fletcher, and Mike Schramm, East Coast Editor Andrew Yoon, and West Coast Editor Randy Nelson.

Podcast

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The Joystiq Podcast
Presentation
Hosted byChris Grant, Justin McElroy, Ludwig Kietzmann
GenrePodcast
UpdatesWeekly
Production
Opening themeGravity (Don't Let Me Go) - Jon Black
Ending themeRed Eye - Ben Kweller
No. of episodes178
Publication
Original releaseFebruary 6, 2007 –
June 8, 2011
The Joystiq Show
Presentation
Hosted byChris Grant, Xav de Matos
GenrePodcast
UpdatesWeekly
Production
No. of episodes29
Publication
Original releaseJune 17, 2011 –
April 13, 2012
Super Joystiq Podcast
Presentation
Hosted byXav de Matos
GenrePodcast
UpdatesWeekly
Production
No. of episodes128
Publication
Original releaseMay 4, 2012 –
January 16, 2015

The Joystiq Podcast launched in 2007 and was hosted by Chris Grant, Ludwig Kietzmann and Justin McElroy. The three would discuss various gaming-related news stories. Segments included, 'What Have you Been Playing?', 'Brush With Fame', 'The Big Three', 'The Do It Line!' and 'Reader Mail'. It would sometimes featured guests from other gaming websites such as CheapyD, Chris Remo, and Stephen Totilo. Some special episodes were also produced for industry events such as Game Developers Conference (GDC). Griffin McElroy would also appear occasionally as a guest host.[29]

The Joystiq Show launched in June 2011 as a replacement for the podcast,[30] promising a more serious, academic format, with a multifaceted examination of Duke Nukem Forever including an interview with voice actor Jon St. John and a review roundtable. Over time, the show's format evolved to include more off-the-cuff discussion, while maintaining the topical nature.

The third and final iteration, Super Joystiq Podcast, was announced at Joystiq's PAX East 2012 panel and officially released on May 4, 2012. This podcast featured every editor, grouped together in a different configuration every week, each participating in an intro, news, preview, or "Joystiq Research Institute" segment. The intention was to move the format back towards that of the original, with conversations about the industry from the staff.[31] The final episode, discussing The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D, aired on January 16, 2015, several weeks before the site's closure.[32]

Awards

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In 2005, Joystiq was listed at #19 of the Feedster 500.[33] In 2007, it was also listed in Forbes.com's Best of the Web.[34]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Game trailers prompt pixel wars". BBC News. July 17, 2007. Archived from the original on 2020-12-05. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
  2. ^ Vargas, Jose (May 14, 2006). "What Press Pass? At E3, a Convergence of Card-Carrying Bloggers". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2020-06-26. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
  3. ^ Terdiman, Daniel (November 1, 2005). "Xbox 360 game marketing gone wild". CNET. CNET Networks. Archived from the original on 2020-12-05. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
  4. ^ "Yahoo and AOL are part of Verizon's new 'Oath' brand (updated)". Engadget. 3 April 2017.
  5. ^ Rojas, Peter. "Introducing Joystiq". Archived from the original on 23 September 2017.
  6. ^ a b Crecente, Brian (2015-01-30). "Joystiq is closing and I'll miss them like hell". Polygon. Retrieved 2025-04-14.
  7. ^ Zackheim, Ben (2005-06-03). "If a game blog fell in the forest would anyone listen?". Joystiq. Archived from the original on January 28, 2015. Retrieved 2012-11-03.
  8. ^ Arrington, Michael (6 October 2005). "AOL Acquires Weblogs, Inc". TechCrunch.
  9. ^ "Joystiq introduces Xbox 360 Fanboy". Engadget. 21 November 2005.
  10. ^ "Meet the Joystiq Team (part II)". Engadget. 20 November 2005.
  11. ^ Jason Calacanis, December 21, 2005, The Joystiq Network Archived 2020-12-06 at the Wayback Machinecalacanis.com
  12. ^ Quilty, Conrad (2006-01-26). "DS lite vs. DS comparison". Joystiq. Archived from the original on July 16, 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-03.
  13. ^ "Poll: Was The Nintendo DS Prototype Really So Ugly?". Nintendo Life. 21 November 2024.
  14. ^ Dybwad, Bob (November 2, 2007). "Joysitq presents: Massively". Weblogs inc. Archived from the original on May 25, 2011.
  15. ^ Grant, Christopher (2010-06-11). "Welcome to the latest Joystiq (we call it 'Futurestiq')". Joystiq. Archived from the original on March 16, 2015. Retrieved 2022-04-29.
  16. ^ a b Solomon, Brian (October 24, 2012). "The Inside Story Of Polygon, The Verge's New Gaming Sister-Site". Forbes. Archived from the original on July 31, 2014. Retrieved August 3, 2014.
  17. ^ a b Lunden, Ingrid (19 January 2015). "Aol Is Restructuring, Layoffs And Site Closures Likely". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on 5 December 2020. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
  18. ^ Swisher, Kara (January 26, 2015). "AOL Likely to Shutter Gaming Site Joystiq in Larger Content Cleanup". Vox. Archived from the original on 30 May 2022. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  19. ^ Futter, Mike (January 30, 2015). "AOL Closes Gaming Site Joystiq". Game Informer. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  20. ^ Mccracken, Harry (February 1, 2015). "Farewell to TUAW - And To A Whole Era of Tech Blogging". Fast Company. Archived from the original on 3 September 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  21. ^ Wawro, Alex (January 30, 2015). "Joystiq and Massively shut down amid AOL downsizing". Game Developer. Archived from the original on 30 May 2022. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  22. ^ "The McElroy Brothers Discuss Their New Graphic Novel". UPROXX. 18 July 2018.
  23. ^ "TRANSCRIPT MBMBaM 420: Funeral For a Friend". Maximum Fun. 20 April 2021.
  24. ^ McElroy, Justin; McElroy, Griffin (24 April 2018). "It's a Departure". Polygon. Archived from the original on June 24, 2018. Retrieved July 3, 2018.
  25. ^ https://www.polygon.com/2012/11/14/3642156/playgrounds-chris-grant
  26. ^ "About". Massively Overpowered. Archived from the original on 2020-11-13. Retrieved 2016-12-30.
  27. ^ "Articles by Ludwig Kietzmann | GamesRadar+". gamesradar. 8 October 2020.
  28. ^ "About". Joystiq. Archived from the original on March 16, 2015. Retrieved 2012-11-03.
  29. ^ "Joystiq Podcast 040 - Over the Hill edition". Yahoo! Autos. 7 March 2008.
  30. ^ Downin, Jonathan (2011-06-17). "The Joystiq Show - 001: Duke Nukem Forever". Engadget. Archived from the original on February 4, 2015. Retrieved 2022-04-29.
  31. ^ "Super Joystiq Podcast 001: Black Ops 2, Elder Scrolls Online, The Walking Dead | Joystiq". Joystiq.com. 4 May 2012. Archived from the original on 26 Mar 2013. Retrieved 13 April 2025.
  32. ^ "Super Joystiq Podcast 128: Reviews, New Nintendo 3DS, Majora's Mask 3D". Engadget. 16 January 2015.
  33. ^ "Joystiq at #19 in Feedster's top 500 blogs for August". Engadget. 19 August 2005.
  34. ^ "Video Game Blogs". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2007-03-18.
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