Origins (2004-2006) 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
. 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. 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. He was succeeded by Vladimir Cole.
Joystiq broadened its coverage with dedicated blogs for different consoles from late 2005. The move towards specialised blogs came shortly after Weblogs was acquired by AOL, which was announced in October 2005. 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. New staff were hired that month, including Jennie Lees, Blake Snow and Chris Grant. 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
Joystiqs trifecta of specialized next-gen coverage. While some criticized the practice of splintering off
Joystiqs primary areas of expertise, Jason Calacanis justified these actions by asserting that separate blogs were necessary to fulfill these specialized niches. crew On January 26, 2006,
Joystiq coined the phrase "DS phat", 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.
Grant era (2007-2012) 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. 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.
Kietzmann era (2012-2015) In January 2012, the website lost several key staff members. The editor-in-chief Chris Grant, along with managing editor Justin McElroy and reviews editor Griffin McElroy left to form their own gaming website. The three were co-founders of
Polygon under
Vox Media. Ludwig Kietzmann replaced Grant as editor-in-chief, moving from South Africa to the United States to take the role. 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. 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. Readership of
Joystiq had seen sharp declines, falling by at least 18% over the previous year. 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." == Legacy ==