IDG To Launch Family-Focused Gaming News Site

Representatives from online and print publisher IDG (GamePro magazine) have announced that the company has created and will soon launch a new gaming website, GameProFamily.com. IDG says GameProFamily will be a family-oriented gaming news and review site which will give parents information, both on ratings and content, about the games their children are playing. Central to the new site will be a blog based on a "simulated family unit" with seemingly fictional parental units providing readers with a motherly and fatherly perspective on the appropriateness of various games, along with a child's perspective to "advocate on behalf of the game." In addition to the blog, IDG has said GameProFamily will provide feature-length pieces on game ratings issues and otherwise. The company has also stated it is seeking advertisers who aren't as yet well represented across a number of IDG's other game-related sites, including GamePro.com and Games.net. Speaking to MediaPost Publications' Online Media Daily, IDG editorial director George Jones said the site plans to take content reviews above and beyond what the ESRB currently provides, but that the site would be "using the ESRB ratings as a jumping-off point in our content."