Eurogamer.net gets a major overhaul

Eurogamer.net, GI.biz's sister site and the most popular videogames editorial website in the UK, has relaunced with a new design, new features and more marketing options.

The new site is designed to offer publishers greater flexibility and impact for their advertising, increasing response rates and brand awareness.

Eurogamer is the first UK games site to feature the new 'Half-Page' size advert on its homepage. There are now less ads per page, and it's possible to book all the ads in a specific section for better value for money.

In addition, smaller banners have also been replaced with full-sized 'Leaderboard' adverts. However, the volume of content accessible from the front page has been increased.

Eurogamer's homepage advertising packages, known as 're-skins', have also been redesigned to deliver more value and greater impact. The re-skins have proved extremely popular with advertisers since they were launched, selling out throughout 2005.

But the new site is not just designed to appeal to advertisers - Eurogamer says the reader community has been a "top priority" during the redesign process.

The Game Database has seen a complete overhaul, and users can now view all available information about a game on a single page. There's a new channel for next-generation consoles, and a mobile gaming channel will launch shortly.

A new partnership with Jolt offers readers an improved FTP archive, in addition to the existing BitTorrent-based Eurofiles service, plus community gaming servers.

Registered readers can now contribute their own reviews and scores for games, as well as posting on the comments boards and forum.

"We hope that new readers will find the website much more accessible than it has been in the past, whilst existing readers will be familiar with much we've kept over from the previous version of the site - and of course the same great content," said director of operations Rupert Loman.

"The response from the community has been very good so far," added Eurogamer deputy editor Tom Bramwell.

"Personally, I've never seen such a positive reaction to a site relaunch. You're never going to get 100 per cent positive feedback, but most people seem to get what we're trying to do.

"Hopefully those who aren't sold just yet will start to appreciate the benefits of what we've done as we start adding content day by day."

Eurogamer has made a large investment into new hardware and network technology in order to manage the new site effectively, and handle the expected increase in traffic. The new hardware will also speed up the delivery of both Eurogamer and GamesIndustry.biz

"It's brilliant to be at the very top of our game, and the re-launched site represents just how far we've come in the past few years," said Eurogamer editor Kristan Reed.

"We believe the readers will love what we've done with the site and have made all the right choices in order to grow traffic and better serve the consumer."

The Eurogamer redesign is one of several new launches planned for 2005. For more information about the Eurogamer Network, visit Eurogamer.biz. Anyone interested in meeting with Eurogamer at E3 this year should email business development manager Patrick Garratt at patrick@eurogamer.net.