GI.biz to relaunch in UK and US, drop forced registration

Trade side GamesIndustry.biz will drop its requirement for registration this month, and is to relaunch with editorial and sales in both the US and UK.

GI will merge with IndustryGamers.com, recently bought by GI-owner Eurogamer Network, "to create the world's largest website for the games trade," it was claimed in a press release today.

In addition, Melissa Brown has joined the site as US Sales Manager. Melissa joins from GameSpy Technology and will oversee the site's advertising and sponsorship business for North America.

The new website will, according to Eurogamer, "unite the 90,000 registered industry professionals, freelancers and students who read GamesIndustry.biz with the massive US audience of IndustryGamers.com and attract over 500,000 unique users per month."

Verified industry professionals will be able to use exclusive features on the site, such as industry-only discussion areas and a redeveloped global company directory, but the editorial will be open for all: GI is currently registration-only.

Current GI editor Matt Martin and IG's James Brightman will take on the roles of European Editor and US Editor respectively.

"We're tremendously excited to be relaunching GamesIndustry.biz as a global site with dedicated editorial and sales support in Europe and the US," said Rupert Loman, Eurogamer MD.

"The site has an unrivalled global audience of industry professionals and is the perfect outlet for any business looking to recruit or promote their products or services to the games industry."

Melissa Brown commented: "This is a fantastic opportunity to join an incredible team with a ground-breaking site. I can't wait to help GamesIndustry.biz relaunch and position itself at the core of the US games industry."