54-605: First Expedition is a 1988 video game published by Interstel Corporation . First Expedition is a game in which a nautical simulation involves a quest to find three sun spheres that were stolen from the island of Shandola. Dennis Owens in Computer Gaming World stated of First Expedition , "Not recommended for adventure gamers unless they are interested in intricate navigational techniques". Jerry Pournelle said in BYTE that it "manages faithfully to simulate all
108-499: A guest appearance by Erik Wolpaw , formerly of Old Man Murray . For many years, CGW never assigned scores to reviews, preferring to let readers rate their favorite games through a monthly poll. Scores were finally introduced in 1994, but beginning in April 2006, CGW stopped assigning quantifiable scores to its reviews. In May of the same year, CGW changed the name of its review section to "Viewpoint", and began evaluating games on
162-514: A machine to write articles, and for using human bylines on some AI-generated content until caught by independent investigators. CNET reviewed those articles in January 2023 after many were found to contain serious errors and plagiarized material. CNET reporters said Red Ventures pushed them to give more favourable coverage to advertisers and work on sponsored content. Subsequently, 10% of CNET staff were laid off. Employees unionized in response to
216-528: A more diverse combination of factors than a its content. Elements considered include the communities' reaction to a game, developers' continued support through patches, and whether a game's online component continued to grow. The reviews were formerly based on a simple five-star structure, with five stars marking a truly outstanding game, and one star signalling virtual worthlessness. Three games, Postal² by Robert Coffey, Mistmare by Jeff Green, and Dungeon Lords by Denice Cook "...form an unholy trinity of
270-456: A new user interface and the renaming of CNET TV as CNET Video. Red Ventures announced in September 2020 that it would acquire CNET from ViacomCBS for $ 500 million. The transaction was completed on October 30, 2020. In November 2022, CNET began publishing articles written with artificial intelligence and edited by humans. CNET was criticized for failing to disclose that it was using
324-593: A result of the dot-com crash, the company ended the Gamecenter Alliance network in January 2001. On February 7, Gamecenter itself was closed in a redundancy reduction effort, as GameSpot was the more successful of the two sites. Around 190 jobs were cut from CNET during this period, including "at least 20" at Gamecenter , according to the San Francisco Chronicle . Discussing the situation, Tom Bramwell of Eurogamer reported, "It
378-532: A robust reviews section that it was led by Juan Garzon. After Red Ventures' acquisition, the company announced the closing of CNET en Español on November 11, 2020, leaving the largest tech site in Spanish in the US out of the market. In March 2014, CNET refreshed its site by merging with CNET UK and vowing to merge all editions of the agency into a unified agency. This merge brought many changes, foremost of which would be
432-550: A sister magazine to Computer Gaming World , entitled PC Gaming World , in the United Kingdom. It was the region's third-largest computer game magazine by August 2000. In 1998, journalist Stuart Campbell described PC Gaming World as a publication with a predominantly American bent, thanks to its "sober, serious, text-heavy style". He considered it to be out of step with the British game audience. Campbell later called
486-641: A time when print magazines were struggling with the growing popularity of the Internet. Jones had been the editor-in-chief of CNET Gamecenter , and had before that been a staffer at CGW between 1994 and 1996. He was replaced by Jeff Green in the summer of 2001. On August 2, 2006, Ziff Davis and Microsoft jointly announced that CGW would be replaced with Games for Windows: The Official Magazine . The new magazine replaced CGW as part of Microsoft's Games for Windows initiative. In their press release, Ziff Davis indicated that much of CGW's core content and
540-741: A total of 7438 pages covering 11 years of gaming. The archive was created by Stephane Racle, of the Computer Gaming World Museum, and is available in PDF format . Every issue was processed through optical character recognition , which enabled the creation of a 3+ million word master index. Although Ziff Davis has taken its CGW Archive site offline, the magazines can be downloaded from the Computer Gaming World Museum. CGW featured reviews, previews, news, features, letters, strategy, and columns dealing with computer games . While console games are occasionally touched on, these are primarily
594-466: A year's subscription of six issues. These early bimonthly issues were typically 40–50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings (SSI), Dan Bunten (Ozark Software), and Chris Crawford . Also, early covers were not always directly related to the magazine's contents, but rather featured work by artist Tim Finkas. In January/February 1986 CGW increased its publication cycle to nine times
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#1732775604236648-406: A year, and the editorial staff included popular writers such as Scorpia , Charles Ardai , and M. Evan Brooks. CGW survived the video game crash of 1983 , which badly hurt the market; by summer 1985 it was the only survivor of 18 color magazines covering computer games in 1983. In autumn 1987 CGW introduced a quarterly newsletter called Computer Game Forum (CGF), which was published during
702-420: Is deleted on its website, CNET creates an internal copy and another to Wayback Machine . The writer, if still employed by CNET, is also alerted 10 days in advance. Google said deleting articles to optimize for search engine rankings is not a good practice. In January 2024, Axios reported that Red Ventures was exploring a sale of the website, with a goal of attaining at least $ 250 million for it. The site
756-403: Is free of spyware , but independent sources have confirmed that this is not the case. While Download.com is overall a safe place to download programs, precautions should be taken before downloading from the site, as some downloads do contain malware. In January 2023, Misplaced Pages editors began the process of downgrading CNET's reliability rating as a source following the revelation that CNET
810-399: Is thought [...] that very few if any of the website's staff will move sideways into jobs at GameSpot , now the company's other gaming asset." The Washington Post later noted that Gamecenter was among the "popular video-game news sites" to close in 2001, alongside Daily Radar . In January 2013, CNET named Dish Network 's "Hopper with Sling " digital video recorder as a nominee for
864-619: The CES "Best in Show" award (which is decided by CNET on behalf of its organizers), and named it the winner in a vote by the site's staff. However, CBS abruptly disqualified the Hopper, and vetoed the results because the company was in active litigation with Dish Network. CNET also announced that it could no longer review any product or service provided by companies that CBS are in litigation with (which also includes Aereo ). The new vote subsequently gave
918-658: The Clear Channel -owned KNEW (910) in the San Francisco Bay Area , WBPS (890) in Boston , and XM Satellite Radio . CNET Radio offered technology-themed programming. After failing to attract a sufficient audience, CNET Radio ceased operating in January 2003 due to financial losses. In July 1999, CNET, Inc. acquired the Swiss -based company GDT, later renamed to CNET Channel. In 1998, CNET, Inc. granted
972-466: The Origins Award for Best Professional Adventure Gaming Magazine of 1987 . The New York Times repeatedly praised CGW, placing it as one of the premier computer game publications of its time. In 1997 the newspaper called it "the leading computer game magazine", In 1999 "the bible of computer game purists", and in 2005 "one of the top computer game magazines". Ziff Davis also published
1026-575: The 2000 sale of Ziff Davis to SoftBank , a publicly traded Japanese media and technology company. In April 2001, CNET acquired TechRepublic , which provides content for IT professionals from Gartner , for $ 23 million in cash and stock. In May 2002, CNET Networks acquired Smartshop, an automated product catalog and feature comparison technology company, for an undisclosed amount. On July 14, 2004, CNET Networks announced that it would acquire photography website Webshots for $ 70 million ($ 60 million in cash, $ 10 million in deferred consideration), completing
1080-524: The Best in Show award to the Razer Edge tablet instead. Dish Network's CEO Joe Clayton said that the company was "saddened that CNET's staff is being denied its editorial independence because of CBS' heavy-handed tactics." On January 14, 2013, editor-in-chief Lindsey Turrentine addressed the situation, stating that CNET's staff were in an "impossible" situation due to the conflict of interest posed by
1134-507: The CEA, stating that "making television easier to watch is not against the law. It is simply pro-innovation and pro-consumer." Shapiro felt that the decision also hurt the confidence of CNET's readers and staff, "destroying its reputation for editorial integrity in an attempt to eliminate a new market competitor." As a result of the controversy and fearing damage to the show's brand, the CEA announced on January 31, 2013, that CNET will no longer decide
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#17327756042361188-583: The CES Best in Show award winner due to the interference of CBS (the position has been offered to other technology publications), and the "Best in Show" award was jointly awarded to both the Hopper with Sling and Razer Edge. With a catalog of more than 400,000 titles, the Downloads section of the website allows users to download popular software. CNET's download.com provides Windows , Macintosh , and mobile software for download. CNET claims that this software
1242-562: The GFW Radio Penny Arcade Expo reunion, Jeff Green claimed that the deal with Microsoft allowed CGW/GFW to continue operating, and that if it had not occurred, Ziff Davis would have shut down CGW . Simultaneously with the release of the final CGW issue, Ziff Davis announced the availability of the CGW Archive, which features complete copies of the first 100 issues of CGW , as well as the two CGF issues, for
1296-502: The acquisition brought both GameSpot and Gamecenter under CNET, Inc.'s ownership. Later that year, The New York Times described the two publications as the " Time and Newsweek of gaming sites". The paper reported that Gamecenter "seem[ed] to be thriving" amid the dot-com crash , with its revenue distributed across online advertising and an affiliate sales program with CNET's Game Shopper website, launched in late 1999. Following an almost $ 400 million loss at CNET as
1350-479: The acquisition that same month. In October 2007, it sold Webshots to American Greetings for $ 45 million. In August 2005, CNET Networks acquired Metacritic , a review aggregation website , for an undisclosed amount. In 2005, Google representatives refused to be interviewed by all CNET reporters for a year after CNET published Google's CEO Eric Schmidt 's salary and named the neighborhood where he lives, as well as some of his hobbies and political donations. All
1404-456: The entire staff will be transferred to the new magazine. Because of these announcements, Ziff Davis' actions appeared more on the order of a rebranding of CGW , rather than an actual cancellation. The final CGW -labeled issue was November 2006, for a total of 268 published editions. On April 8, 2008, 1UP Network announced the print edition of Games for Windows: The Official Magazine had ceased, and that all content would be moved online. At
1458-473: The first half of 2001; Computec moved the publication's subscribers to PC Gameplay , which nevertheless struggled to grow its base. The company "relaunched" PC Gameplay as PC Gaming World in 2003, but did not release the new publication's subscriber count through the Audit Bureau of Circulations during the first half of that year. Writing for GamesIndustry.biz , Kristan Reed noted that this decision
1512-533: The information had been gleaned from Google searches. In September 2006, CNET acquired Chowhound , an online food community. On October 10, 2006, Shelby Bonnie resigned as chairman and CEO , in addition to two other executives, as a result of a stock options backdating scandal that occurred between 1996 and 2003. This would also cause the firm to restate its financial earnings over 1996 to 2003 for over $ 105 million in resulting expenses. The Securities and Exchange Commission later dropped an investigation into
1566-433: The information that you've been having to dig out of three or four or five (or six...). Get it." Page 6 reviewed Computer Gaming World and stated: "Quite apart from being an interesting read, you will get more out of your existing games and will have a much better idea of what to buy as your next piece of software. No other computer magazine that I can think of will give you reviews of such depth." In 1988, CGW won
1620-476: The largest dedicated video game magazines, reaching around 500 pages by 1997. In the early 2000s its circulation was about 300,000, only slightly behind the market leader PC Gamer . But, like most magazines of the era, the rapid move of its advertising revenue to internet properties led to a decline in revenue. In 2006, Ziff announced it would be refocused as Games for Windows , before moving it to solely online format, and then shutting down completely later
1674-426: The long boring aspects of sailing ... I can't imagine that anyone at the company ever played this turkey". Computer Gaming World Computer Gaming World ( CGW ) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983 , it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through the 1990s and became one of
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1728-591: The magazine an "oddity" that was "clearly aimed primarily at a 40-something audience and beyond", in comparison to more youthful rivals such as PC Gamer UK and PC Zone . In July 2000, Ziff Davis sold its publishing arm in Europe to Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen (VNU), including three magazines in Germany, three in France and four in the United Kingdom. PC Gaming World migrated with these publications. At
1782-464: The magazine to Ziff Davis —by then the magazine was so thick that a reader reported that the December issue's bulk slowed a thief who had stolen a shopping bag containing it —but continued on as publisher until 1995. The magazine kept growing through the 1990s, with the December 1997 issue weighing in at 500 pages. In January 1999, Wilson left the magazine and George Jones became editor-in-chief, at
1836-544: The magazine would both review games and serve as a trade publication for the industry. The first issue appeared in November, about the same as rivals Electronic Games and Softline (Sipe's religious background led to " Psalm 9:1–2 " appearing in each issue. His successor as editor, Johnny L. Wilson, was an evangelical Christian minister). The first issues of Computer Gaming World were published from Anaheim, California , and sold for $ 2.75 individually or $ 11 for
1890-485: The off-months of CGW . The newsletter never became popular; only two issues were published before it was cancelled. Some of CGF's content became part of CGW , which became a monthly. The magazine went through significant expansion starting in 1991, with page counts reaching 196 pages by its 100th issue, in November 1992. During that same year, Johnny Wilson (who started as a contributor in 1983), became editor-in-chief, although Sipe remained as publisher. In 1993, Sipe sold
1944-621: The only games in CGW history to receive zero-star reviews." According to MDS, CGW had a circulation slightly above 300,000 as of 2006. In this regard, it was slightly behind industry arch-rival PC Gamer . Bruce F. Webster reviewed the first issue of Computer Gaming World in The Space Gamer No. 48. Webster commented that "I strongly recommend this magazine to computer gamers, and just one reason alone will (in my opinion) suffice: You can now start getting from just one publication
1998-537: The practice. Neil Ashe was named as the new CEO. In December 2006, James Kim , an editor at CNET, died in the Oregon wilderness. CNET hosted a memorial show and podcasts dedicated to him. On March 1, 2007, CNET announced the public launch of BNET, a website targeted towards business managers. BNET had been running under beta status since 2005. In 2008 programmer Chris Wanstrath , who worked on GameSpot and Chowhound, left CNET to start GitHub . On May 15, 2008, it
2052-463: The right to Asiacontent.com to set up CNET Asia and the operation was brought back in December 2000. In January 2000, the same time CNET, Inc. became CNET Networks, it acquired comparison shopping site mySimon for $ 736 million. In October 2000, CNET Networks acquired ZDNET for approximately $ 1.6 billion. In January 2001, Ziff Davis reached an agreement with CNET Networks to regain the URLs lost in
2106-630: The same year. In 1979, Russell Sipe left the Southern Baptist Convention ministry. A fan of computer games, he realized in Spring, 1981 that no magazine was dedicated to computer games. Although Sipe had no publishing experience, he formed Golden Empire Publications in June and found investors. He chose the name Computer Gaming World ( CGW ) instead of alternatives such as Computer Games or Kilobaud Warrior because he hoped that
2160-429: The scandal and layoffs, saying AI-generated content posed a danger to their professional reputations. A former staffer demanded that her byline be removed from the site, in order to protect her reputation if her articles were revised by AI. In August 2023, CNET had deleted thousands of old articles from their website in an effort to raise the search engine optimization rankings on Google Search . Before an article
2214-614: The site received between 50,000 and 75,000 daily visitors by late 2000. In May 2000, CNET founded the Gamecenter Alliance network to bring Gamecenter and four partner websites, including Inside Mac Games , under one banner. Nielsen//NetRatings ranked Gamecenter the sixth-most-popular gaming website in the United States by mid-2000. On July 19, 2000, CNET, Inc. made public its plan to buy Ziff-Davis and its ZDNet Internet business for $ 1.6 billion. Because ZDNet had partnered with SpotMedia—parent company of GameSpot —in late 1996,
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2268-546: The site's owner, had its initial public offering (IPO) in July 1996. In 1998, CNET, Inc. was sued by Snap Technologies, operators of the education service CollegeEdge, for trademark infringement relating to CNET, Inc.'s ownership of the domain name Snap.com, due to Snap Technologies already owning a trademark on its name . CNET produced another television technology news program called News.com that aired on CNBC beginning in 1999. From 2001 to 2003, it operated CNET Radio on
2322-499: The situation, and promised that she would do everything within her power to prevent a similar incident from occurring again. The conflict also prompted one CNET senior writer, Greg Sandoval, to resign. The decision also drew the ire of staff from the Consumer Electronics Association , the organizers of CES; CEO Gary J. Shapiro criticized the decision in a USA Today op-ed column and a statement by
2376-409: The territory of CGW's sister magazine. Electronic Gaming Monthly . In 2006, two of the most popular features were "Greenspeak", a final-page column written by editor-in-chief Jeff Green, and "Tom vs. Bruce", a unique "duelling-diaries" piece in which writers Tom Chick and Bruce Geryk logged their gameplay experience as each tried to best the other at a given game. "Tom vs. Bruce" sometimes featured
2430-582: The time, The Register reported that VNU saw PC Gaming World as a poor match for its business model, which left the magazine's future uncertain. The publisher sold PC Gaming World to Computec Media a month after the purchase, citing its lack of synergy with VNU's existing brand. This transition was set to be completed in October 2000. According to Golem.de , Computec planned to fold PC Gaming World together with its own PC Gameplay magazine, which it launched in 2000. PC Gaming World had closed by
2484-634: Was "never a healthy sign". Computec sold its entire British game magazine branch to competitor Future Publishing in late 2003. CNET Gamecenter CNET (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. CNET originally produced content for radio and television in addition to its website before applying new media distribution methods through its internet television network, CNET Video , and its podcast and blog networks. Founded in 1992 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it
2538-506: Was acquired by Ziff Davis . After leaving PepsiCo , Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie launched c/net, a 24-hour cable network about computers and technology in 1992. With help from Fox Network co-founder Kevin Wendle and former Disney creative associate Dan Baker, CNET produced four pilot television programs about computers, technology, and the Internet. CNET TV was composed of CNET Central , The Web , and The New Edge . CNET Central
2592-510: Was announced that CBS Corporation would buy CNET Networks for US$ 1.8 billion. On June 30, 2008, the acquisition was completed. Former CNET Networks properties were managed under CBS Interactive at the time. CBS Interactive acquired many domain names originally created by CNET Networks, including download.com , downloads.com, upload.com, news.com, search.com, TV.com , mp3.com , chat.com, computers.com, shopper.com, com.com, and cnet.com. It also held radio.com until CBS Radio
2646-590: Was completed in the third quarter of 2024. France websites: Japan websites: CNET launched a website to cover video games , CNET Gamecenter , in the middle of 1996. According to the San Francisco Chronicle , it was "one of the first Web sites devoted to computer gaming news". It became a leading game-focused website; in 1999, PC Magazine named it one of the hundred-best websites in any field, alongside competitors IGN and GameSpot . According to Gamecenter head Michael Brown,
2700-565: Was created first and aired in syndication in the United States on the USA Network . Later, it began airing on USA's sister network Sci-Fi Channel along with The Web and The New Edge . These were later followed by TV.com in 1996. Media personality Ryan Seacrest first came to national prominence at CNET, as the host of The New Edge and doing various voice-over work for CNET. CNET online launched in June 1995. CNET, Inc.,
2754-463: Was introduced, claiming that CNET and CBS Interactive knowingly distributed LimeWire. On September 19, 2013, CBS Interactive launched a Spanish language sister site under the name CNET en Español. It focuses on topics of relevance primarily to Spanish-speaking technology enthusiasts. The site offered a "new perspective" on technology and is under the leadership of managing editor Gabriel Sama. The site not only offered news and tutorials, but also had
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#17327756042362808-517: Was profitable at the time. The approximate halving of CNET's value under Red Ventures' ownership is attributed to interest rates, a slower ad market, and the reputational damage to CNET caused by the AI scandals. On August 6, 2024, the New York Times reported that Red Ventures had reached an agreement to sell CNET to Ziff Davis for $ 100 million, subject to regulatory approval. The acquisition
2862-467: Was sold to Entercom in 2017. In 2011, CNET and CBS Interactive were sued by a coalition of artists (led by FilmOn founder Alki David) for copyright infringement by promoting the download of LimeWire , a popular peer to peer downloading software. Although the original suit was voluntarily dropped by Alki David, he vowed to sue at a later date to bring "expanded" action against CBS Interactive. In November 2011, another lawsuit against CBS Interactive
2916-578: Was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through that unit's acquisition of CNET Networks in 2008. Following acquisition by Red Ventures on October 30, 2020, the website faced criticism for the decline in quality of its editorial content and its factual unreliability due to the use of generative AI in the creation of its articles, as well as concerns over its journalistic integrity after it began increased publication of biased reviews and sponsored content to benefit its advertising partners. On October 1, 2024, CNET
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