Announcing Joystiq's newest sibling: Big Download (beta!)

by Barb Dybwad { May 8th 2008 at 12:00PM }

What's been missing from the Joystiq family? The console fans all have their homes, handhelds too, and even MMO enthusiasts and WoW players have a corner to call their own. Today we're happy to give PC gamers a place to call home at our new sister site, Big Download. In partnership with our good friends at GameDaily, we're taking the wraps off the beta version of a full-fledged, fast and free PC downloads engine married to a news and features blog powered by Joystiq -- chock full of all the Special Goodness ^TM our writers bring to you daily.

At Big Download you'll get all the news and views fit to print about PC gaming, a file tracking system that remembers your favorite titles, and no waiting, no fees access to demos, patches, mods, trailers and more. We're inviting you to come on in, make yourself at home and start poking everything with sticks. Like any modern web product we're launching in beta version -- there may be kinks and rough edges to be worked out, so bear with us, mind the dust and be sure to send us any feedback you have so we can make all the final fixes. Unlike certain products that stay in beta forever we hope to remove the beta tag with all due swiftness and come out with guns blazing. Big guns.

We hope to see you at Big Download, where all the news is big and all the downloads are above average!

Tags: big-download, bigdownload, breakingnews, pc, pc-gaming

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Curtis the Claw:XBL - supapaypamawio @ May 8th 2008 12:04PM

Sounds pretty good, I was wondering when PC gamers would have their own site.

Haggard @ May 8th 2008 12:17PM

Yeah, I thought it was a bit unfair that PC gaming (15% of the market) didn't have a site, but since it was all reported on joystiq anyway I didn't really mind :P

Matthew @ May 8th 2008 12:05PM

Let me be one of the firsts to thank you.

I'm so sick of trying to download demos on my pc these days, having to register and sign up to demo a game I might not even be interested in buying. Thank you, thank you!

-m.

PojoMofo @ May 8th 2008 12:08PM

that logo dude is so cute!! LBP-esque

TheHuntIsOn @ May 8th 2008 12:10PM

What a cute, limited view on art and design in general!

Lars @ May 8th 2008 2:23PM

Is that Strong Sad?

TheHuntIsOn @ May 8th 2008 12:10PM

Good idea!

Curtis the Claw:XBL - supapaypamawio @ May 8th 2008 12:10PM

Where will it go on the bottom of the page though? Right now there are the fanboy sites, and WoW Insider, it would look weird if there was a 7th set of links there!

Fernando Rocker @ May 8th 2008 12:11PM

We all know what link is unnecesary in there...

=p

Fernando Rocker @ May 8th 2008 12:10PM

I'm a little late, but nice comment on the Yamauchi thread.

=p

Cyro @ May 8th 2008 12:14PM

A new web page for a dying format.. :/

Haggard @ May 8th 2008 12:18PM

If by dying you mean "growing slower than the others" then of course.

Shadow Hog @ May 8th 2008 12:15PM

As sponsored by Strong Sad!

Jonah Falcon @ May 8th 2008 12:20PM

Why not call it "PC Fanboy"? "Big Download" could mean anything.

Xav de Matos @ May 8th 2008 12:28PM

I think it was taken but also, we're more than just news we're also about PC Downloads.

Big Download is about everything. You'll get used to it.

marauder800 @ May 8th 2008 12:29PM

That's awesome. I've been looking for PC game content to add to my news page for ages. Nothing has been on par with Joystiq, 360fanboy and ps3faboy. WOOT WOOT thanks guys.

FSK405K @ May 8th 2008 12:34PM

Uh, cute but botched Garrison Keillor reference?

jhrf89 @ May 8th 2008 12:42PM

Woohoo!

At last. I was just pondering over the inustice of not having a PC fanboy.

Thanks Joystiq

Macroy @ May 8th 2008 12:48PM

The Special Goodness? I love that band!

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ May 8th 2008 5:02PM

Add some demon horns onto your avatar, and you could be Devil Macroy. =D

Nate @ May 8th 2008 12:49PM

Honestly, that main page is horribly cluttered and hard to read. There's something like 80 links on the front page all just in tables.

The blog section is nice, and I really think that should be the front page. Joystiq's strength is blogging, and that should be in the forefront. Let the downloads section draw off that. Having the blog, which I'm sure will be top notch, relegated to a "news" link at the top really deadens its worth, in my opinion.

Christopher Grant @ May 8th 2008 1:04PM

Keep in mind you can always bookmark news.bigdownload.com and the main page will be actively promoting the blog's top stories. At the end of the day, it's a downloads engine with a blog component – maybe we could set a user toggle so you could opt to have the blog page load first. Hrm ...

Nate @ May 8th 2008 4:28PM

I understand it's a download engine, but if it's "powered by Joystiq" that means "gamer blog" to me. Bookmarking is nice and all, but when every link on the web goes to the main page, and the blog is hidden behind a "news" link, you're going to lose a *lot* of traffic that just bounces off the wall of links on that front page.

When I see a "news" link, I think of the PR links on most companys' websites that get a self-aggrandizing newswire post once every 5 months... not a hip, up to date, awesome blog about the latest in PC gaming (which I presume it'll be).

A toggle to switch between the two would be cool for regulars, but again, I'm thinking random joe surfer coming in from the other Joystiq sister sites. Obviously you guys get a huge amount of traffic and fans to these gamer blog sites, and that kind of person is going to be most likely to return to another similar site.

Xav de Matos @ May 8th 2008 9:27PM

Thanks for the feedback. I think the what we're aiming for at BigDownload.com is a download engine with a blog powered by the staff here in the Joystiq Network. It's not a blog with a download engine.

Since we'll be adding a ton of content we won't be able to write a story about every piece that goes up, so we have the download engine in place where you can select your faves to focus on in the front and the blog in the back end.

But! I think the idea of choosing your homepage is a great one.

Again, Beta. Anything can change.