Twitch has decided to rid itself of Curse, which it originally acquired only two years ago. Just to be clear, that’s Curse Media, the network of several community-run gaming websites such as D&D Beyond, Futhead, Muthead, Hearthpwn, MMO-Champion, as well as a collection of over 2,000 gaming wikis known as Gamepedia. That last one is what this acquisition seems to be about.
Fandom, formerly known as Wikia – and Wikicities before that –, will be the new owner of Curse, and intends to “combine” Gamepedia with its own offerings, as reported by Kotaku. In a statement to the site, a Fandom representative stated:
"We've signed a definitive agreement to acquire Curse Media from Twitch, Inc; including all media assets and employees.”
A Twitch representative also confirmed the sale of Curse Media to Fandom:
"We've signed an agreement for Fandom to acquire Curse Media and make it part of their offering to gamer communities. We believe Fandom will be a great home for the Curse Media teams and give them the opportunities and support they need to ensure their business continues succeeding and growing. Twitch will continue to focus on our priorities supporting streamers' ability to earn a living educating and entertaining fans."
Fandom doesn’t limit its focus to gaming, however, and thus has a network of over 300,000 wiki communities, many of which will overlap with Gamepedia.
That’s worth noting because, as per a report from September, quite a few major Fandom communities began abandoning that platform in favor of Gamepedia due to the former’s newly-implemented auto-playing video advertisements, which began appearing on their articles. RuneScape’s wiki was one of the first to abandon Fandom’s platform with support from the game’s developers – Jagex. In a statement announcing their migration, they said:
“We’ve signed an agreement with Jagex, allowing us to use their trademarks properly and form a partnership with them to host the wikis. We all, including Jagex, want to be transparent with the community about what this partnership entails.”
Fandom, at the time, didn’t seem concerned with that announcement, telling Kotaku:
“We’re sorry to see the RuneScape Wiki leave Fandom, but understand the unique opportunity they have with Jagex. We continue to be committed to creating the best experience possible for fans, inclusive of non-disruptive ads and content that helps them connect even more with the entertainment that they love.”
RuneScape wiki had its escape supported by the game’s developer, which, as admitted by Fandom, was a unique opportunity. Unfortunately, the several hundred other wiki communities that had already, were in the process, or were intending to move to Gamepedia, will now find themselves in trouble of finding a new home; perhaps, self-hosting will prove to be the only option at the end.
A price for this sale remains unclear at the moment, but as Fandom told Kotaku, it expects the acquisition to close by early 2019.
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