IGN’s Sweden launch is first of many in 2012 – aka “why I’ve been too busy to blog”

Earlier this week, a somewhat touching comment was left on this site by a reader named Betablocker who said he has been following my work since SegaWeb (i.e. a long, long time ago) and is sad that I do not blog as much as I used to. So I wanted to take this timely opportunity to talk about why that is, and what I’m actually working on these days, and why it’s so exciting.

The more eagle-eyed among those still passing by this humble corner of the web may have noted that six months ago, Kikizo took a bit of a new direction and started a super-cool deal with IGN Entertainment — our one-time ‘rival’ (and, if we go way back, one-time partner) company.

At the time, some reacted with some surprise to this news, but to me the opportunity was pretty much a no-brainer. When we ‘repositioned’ this site last summer as more of a general interest entertainment/lifestyle blog (versus the dedicated site for hardcore gamers it used to be), it was with the knowledge that our focus as a small media owner would soon be changing for a whole host of reasons - not least of which was the acquisition of The Huffington Post by AOL, which led to the end of our six-year deal with AOL which had essentially part-funded Kikizo’s team for years.

I love publishing and media, and to me that means more than just blogging — it’s also about making a difference on a bigger scale, if we have the chance, and it doesn’t come much bigger than IGN.com, by far and away the market leading games media brand for 15 years now (along with the market leading men’s lifestyle site, AskMen.com, which is part of the IGN roster).

Or at least, it’s the market leader in the US. And in the UK and in Australia. But the world’s a big place. And - at least in theory! - that’s why IGN brought me in: to make the biggest games media brand accessible and relevant to lovers of games and entertainment all over the globe. Who could pass up an opportunity like that?!

It’s a hugely exciting challenge and the first six months have been quite a thrill. Up till now I have not really been able to talk about it publicly, and there is obviously still a lot that I can’t discuss. But what is now public, is the fact that we just launched IGN Sweden…

Now, the nation that brought us Battlefield, Riddick, The Darkness, World in Conflict, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and of course, IKEA, quite deservingly gets its own edition of IGN, thanks to a partnership I was very pleased to sign with Reset Media, Sweden’s most respected games media group.

And it’s no secret that IGN Sverige, as it is known locally, is just the start of this new expansion effort. I am excited to be discussing similar plans all over the place, and the fruits of much of this will be coming very soon.

World domination for the best known gaming site is all well and good, but where does this leave Kikizo? Well, who knows… but look, it’s still here! I’m still blogging about random crap. I’ve done more than my fair share of pestering game industry personalities, and I’m sure many of them (not to mention their friendly PRs!) have had quite enough of me for 3 or 4 console generations.

So, Betablocker, please continue to drop by and find out what I’m up to and what random things have caught my interest — who knows what direction Kikizo may take in future? But in the meantime… if you’re after in-depth games coverage and developer interviews, why not give a dedicated gaming site a look? Say, just for example, like IGN?

Please find me on LinkedIn to get in touch.