Digital Foundry has left the wings of IGN — the brand is now fully owned by the team

The Digital Foundry team has become completely independent of IGN. A separate website is planned to be launched in the near future.

In 2024, IGN acquired Gamer Network — and with it the share of DF previously owned by ReedPop. But now, as Digital founder Richard Ledbetter explained, they have accumulated funds to continue their journey on their own.

“It’s a highly volatile landscape for games media right now, but we firmly believe there’s a role for independents – experts in their fields – to make a difference. Independent media thrives on the support of its communities and I hope the audience is excited by the news and gets behind our plans and aspirations for the future”, — says the founder of Digital Foundry.

The team currently has seven members: Ledbetter, Will Judd, John Linneman, Oliver Mackenzie, Tom Morgan, Alex Battaglia, and Audi Sorley. They remain known primarily for their technical reviews of new releases, video analyzes of game performance, and the weekly Digital Foundry Direct podcast.

In addition, DF used to publish its articles on Eurogamer’s website, but was a separate entity. In return, the EU hosted their materials. According to the agreement, all old Eurogamer publications created by Digital Foundry now belong to DF itself. The main source of funding will be Patreon support, as well as a new website. The emphasis will be on retro games, PC analytics, and even more in-depth technical reviews.

Previously, Digital Foundry operated under the Gamer Network brand, which was partially owned by ReedPop. With the launch of the YouTube channel in 2015, the project received additional attention from developers and gamers, and became a kind of standard in the field of technical game analysis. The transition to full independence comes amid a general trend in the industry. After sales, restructurings and redundanciesMore and more gaming media are switching to audience support. Examples include Second Wind, Aftermath, Remap, and Giant Bomb, which recently bought itself back from Fandom.

Source: The Game Business