A Brief History of Gaming Update

A Brief History of Gaming Update

Our website -- www.gamingupdate.com -- unofficially began in the Summer of 1999, at a time when the World Wide Web was still in its infancy; it was a time when the idea of covering video games and gaming on the Web was more speculative than it was an established industry, and despite the excitement that was rampant in that era for all things Internet, seeing that segment for what it was destined to become required a crystal ball and a bit of luck.

There were still people high-up in tech at that time who viewed the web as little more than a novelty or a fad, and who were convinced that it -- like the MUD, Veronica, Archie, and Jughead -- would eventually run its course and disappear into obscurity.

To put this in perspective for you, sites like GameFaqs and GameSpot -- two major players in the industry today -- were barely two years old at the time, both having been established in 1996, while IGN was less than a month old! The Web itself only existed in its modern form since 1995, though a case can be made that technically 1993 should be the official kick-off year; the fact that so few ISP's existed at that time and with the lion's share of users of the early web coming from institutions, the corporate side, and the military, well, it really does require adjustment, with 1995 being a more realistic year.

If you point your browser to the Wayback Machine you can take a look at the very first version of the site whose splash page introduced it as a part of the Video Gamer Network, and declared:

"The aim of this site is bring together users of many popular gaming sites that are interested in exchanging information with others. This is good because it allows users to exchange messages with people from many sites rather than just one. "

That's right, Gaming Update started out as a chat board hosting site serving games news and community sites, not the news and features site that it is today!

Its origins as a resource give it a place in the history of gaming media online that is both impressive and relevant, because before it was a destination for gaming information, it was a destination for the discussion of games and gaming -- a facet to the jewel that is Gaming Update that we are particularly proud of!

Over the course of the following decade the site expanded to include Chat Rooms and a Gaming Search Engine, before refocusing upon the community spirit and service that was its raison d'etre for most of the first decade of the 21st Century.

A snapshot of the site taken on July 28th, 2005 -- a full seven years ago today -- reveals our coverage of the important platforms at the time, those being the PC, PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube -- and the important games -- like Need for Speed Most Wanted, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Forza Motorsport, and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Sites like SuperCheats, XVGN, PSXGamer, and XboxHero were part of the community that was served under the UGO banner at Gaming Update, and in addition to providing the communities there and at other sites with a unified chat community, we also provided direct access to demo downloads.

LatestScreens was added to the community as were blogs, and Gaming Update continued to provide the services of community until late in 2009, when the site was placed on hiatus while a new plan was formulated for it. During the interim the site served as a news aggregation portal, until the new and improved Gaming Update was launched in the Fall of 2010, and our current format and focus was established.