4Players

4players is a major German online magazine which provides news and reviews of video games and related content.

4player
Type of site
Video game website
Owner4Players GmbH
URLwww.4players.de
LaunchedMay, 2000
Current statusActive

History

4players was founded in May 2000 by the active newmedia GmbH agency in collaboration with the Freenet AG. It was created to provide reviews and news in the video gaming world. The new online portal was then put under the ownership of the freeXmedia GmbH. In December 2014, the portal was bought by the Computec Media GmbH, which already owns a gaming and PC network with outlets like PC Games, Buffed or Golem.de.[1][2]

As of June 2016, general chief is Mathias Oertel and editor in chief is Jörg Luibl.[3]

Features

4players provides news, reviews and downloads for various video games platform. The mainpage is split into sections for every platform the portal covers: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, VR and handhelds. Additionally 4players providers coverage around the general video games community, eSports, a tips section, an internet forum as well as a video section with video reviews.[4] The portal also provides additional features such as an iPhone and android app as well as a teamspeak server service.[5][6]

Reception

As of February 2016, 4players.de was one of the largest German online video gaming portals, with about 7 million page impressions and 801.000 unique visits per month.[7]

In 2008, 4Players was one of the main reviewers of Atari's new game Alone in the Dark which were threatened with legal action after they gave the game a mediocre rating. 4Players was accused of obtaining an illegal version of the game before it was released and Atari wanted to force 4Players to pull the review from their webpage. At the same time Atari also cancelled an advertising campaign on the 4Players website, which was interpreted as applying further pressure on the online portal. This garnered an enormous media echo nationally and internationally, which forced Atari to row back on its demands and both 4Players and Atari were able to settle differences out of court.[8][9][10]

References
  1. Volker Briegleb. "Freenet trennt sich von zwei Töchtern". heise.de (in German). Heise Online. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  2. Rene Heuser; André Peschke. "4Players.de - PC Games-Verlag Computec übernimmt Website". gamestar.de (in German). Gamestar. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  3. "4players.de team". Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  4. "4players.de mainpage". Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  5. "4players.de teamspeak service". Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  6. Barczok, Achim (October 2014). "Der digitale Kiosk". c't – Magazin für Computertechnik (in German). Verlag Heinz Heise. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  7. "AGOF digital facts: website statistics February 2016" (PDF). agof.de. Arbeitsgemeinschaft Online Forschung. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  8. Sarina Märschel. "Spieleriese gibt klein bei". sueddeutsche.de (in German). Süddeutsche Zeitung. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  9. Luke Plunkett. "Legal Mess Over Euro Alone In The Dark Reviews". kotaku.com. Kotaku. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  10. Christian Stöcker. "Spieleindustrie setzt Fachpresse unter Druck". spiegel.de (in German). Spiegel Online. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
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