Joystiq is a video gaming website founded in June 2004 that has since become one of the most successful sites within the Weblogs, Inc. (WIN) family of weblogs. It is the centerpiece of WIN's own network of video gaming blogs, that also includes blogs devoted to specific gaming hardware (such as Xbox 360 Fanboy), as well as a blog dealing with the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft.

History

Predecessors

As of early 2004, Weblogs, Inc. was seeking to add a blog to its repertoire for the sole purpose of covering news related to video games, as evidenced by the now-defunct The Video Games Weblog, founded 2004-02-27. On March 12, WIN CEO Jason Calacanis announced two spinoff projects: The Unofficial Playstation 3 Weblog and The Unofficial Xbox 2, both of which are now similarly retired, though they would set a precedent for the launching of Joystiq's Fanboy blogs in 2005. However, none of these three initial weblogs were ever aggressively marketed, and The Video Games Weblog made its final post on May 18, 2005, amassing 175 blog entries in total (a rather scant amount by Weblogs, Inc. standards). All three blogs are now listed as "On Hiatus/Retired" in the Weblogs, Inc. directory. As an interesting bit of trivia, David Touve, the primary contributor to these early blogs, would later act as Joystiq's features editor for a short time in late 2005 before resigning due to the birth of his child.

Formation

Later that year, following 2004's Electronic Entertainment Expo, Peter Rojas, the founder of and lead contributor to WIN's flagship blog Engadget, formally introduced Joystiq to the masses, positioning the blog as an extension to Engadget's Gaming subdomain. However, being a separate and wholly video game-related entity, Joystiq allowed for much more in-depth analysis of the video game industry than the primarily consumer electronics-oriented Engadget. While Joystiq had featured content as early as April 2, the blog is not officially considered to have been launched until Rojas's public revelation on Engadget on Wednesday, June 16, 2004.

Since then, Joystiq has experienced continuous steady growth and consistently ranks in the top 40 blogs on the internet according to Technorati.

Current Trends

The first major shakeup in Joystiq's history occurred in June 2005, when senior editor Ben Zackheim, after being offered a position at America Online's Games division, announced his resignation due to a conflict of interest. He was succeeded by Vladimir Cole, a blogger who had been hired five months earlier and who held the position until July 2006, when current editor Christopher Grant took over. Interestingly, only months later, Weblogs, Inc. would go on to be acquired by none other than America Online, although Zackheim has not reprised any involvement with the blog.

On November 21, 2005, coinciding with the North American launch of the Xbox 360, Joystiq welcomed its first spinoff project: Xbox 360 Fanboy, a blog devoted solely to the in-depth coverage of its namesake hardware. For the next three weeks this trend would continue, with PSP Fanboy launching 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 have criticized the practice of splintering off Joystiq's primary areas of expertise as nothing more than a thinly-veiled bid to increase traffic, Jason Calacanis has justified these actions by asserting that as Joystiq grows so too does its potential audience, andthereforeseparate blogs are necessary to fulfill these specialized niches.

On January 26th, 2006, Joystiq coined the phrase "DS phat": a nickname for the old-style Nintendo DS that helps differentiate between the old DS and the new DS lite. The usage of the word "phat" is a reference to both the DS' chunky design and Nintendo's intentional misspelling of the word "light" in the DS lite.

Historically, Joystiq's primary competitor and pseudo-rival has been Gawker Media's video gaming blog Kotaku. However, this is due in no small part to the rivalry between WIN CEO Jason Calacanis and Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker Media, as this relationship holds true for a number of blogs residing in each camp, including Autoblog and Jalopnik, as well as Engadget and Gizmodo.

Bloggers

Joystiq's E3 2006 crew

Since its inception, Joystiq has had a number of bloggers who now contribute both to the main website and to its spunoff sibling blogs. Among them are Christopher Grant, Joystiq's Senior Editor and James Ransom-Wiley, Joystiq's most prolific blogger. Additionally, Joystiq has a number of contributors, including Game Politics' Dennis McCauly ("The Political Game"), Bonnie Ruberg ("Playing Dirty") and Scott Jon Siegel ("Off the Grid").

Podcast

Also notable is the Joystiq podcast, which has quickly become one of the more popular gaming podcasts on iTunes. It is hosted by Chris Grant, Ludwig Kietzmann and Justin McElroy. The three discuss various gaming-related news stories. Segments include, 'What Have you Been Playing?', 'Brush With Fame', 'The Big Three' and 'Reader Mail'. Various podcasts have included guests from other gaming websites such as CheapyD, Chris Remo, Steven Totilo, Rocco Botte, and Shawn Andrich.

Awards

While Joystiq has been nominated for several awards in the category of technology-related weblogs, it has consistently been overshadowed in this regard by blogs representing a far wider spectrum of technology, including Slashdot, Gizmodo, and its ubiquitous sibling Engadget. Joystiq has, however, been included in a number of listings of outstanding weblogs, including Forbes.com's Best of the Web and the Feedster 500.

During the 2005 Spike TV Video Game Awards, one of the rare occasions when a category has existed to acknowledge weblogs specializing in video games, Joystiq finished last behind Kotaku and Games.Slashdot, who tied for first place. However, due to the dubious public perception of the awards (particularly amongst "hardcore" gamers), Joystiq declared this to be an honor of the highest order and presented themselves with the award for Least Association With the Most Egregiously Farcical Event of 2005.