I-Magic Picks Up Another Site

Almost two weeks after Interactive Magic announced it would acquire The Wargamer, one of the Internet's largest sources for strategy and war games, I-Magic officially announced on Tuesday that it also intends to acquire The Gamers Net, another popular web site centered around war and strategy games.

"Interactive Magic has done an excellent job positioning itself as the leader within the Internet entertainment community management business," said David Heath, director of operations for The Gamers Net. "With our award-winning content and iEN's tremendous traffic, we are convinced this will be a very successful Internet community partnership.

"In the upcoming months, we will complete a series of alliances and content acquisitions to further build our growing Internet entertainment communities," said J.W. "Wild Bill" Stealey, I-Magic CEO. "The acquisition of The Gamers.Net is a perfect fit for our company and will immediately add new customers, advertising impressions, and community content to the iMagic Entertainment Network and all of our Internet communities."

It may seem strange to acquire two sites that have been very competitive and even somewhat controversial at times. I-Magic believes that the two web sites' separate and unique styles provides different points of view, and sees no real conflict of interest. It is believed that I-Magic is trying to corner the admittedly niche wargaming site market, while working on acquiring other web sites to round out its gathering of gaming-related content for the iMagic Entertainment Network. Reportedly, I-Magic's "feelers" are spread throughout the Internet in an effort to acquire some of the better independent web sites still available.

GameSpot News has also learned that I-Magic's deal to lease Online Golf Challenge has hit a rut, although the deal could go through sometime this week or next.

In other related I-Magic news, the company recently held a Developer's Summit in Raleigh, N.C., for various Warbirds trainers and other enthusiasts. Many summit attendees came away with a positive reaction to many of the things I-Magic had in the works, including the upcoming version 2.7 (which is now in Open Beta), and other game improvements.