Past Editors

IGN is a company that is a creature that changes as often as new games are launched. Our staff reflects the nature of the business, and as such, experience changes now and then.

The following is from the Jeremy Dunham and Greg Miller article, IGN Editors: Where Are They Now?

On Jan. 12, 2008, IGN celebrates its 10-year anniversary. What began as a collection of three console-specific websites in 1996 and officially became IGN in 1998 is now the world's largest destination for gaming-related news information and junk food eating contests. What has become of the famed editors from IGN's storied past? We'll tell you when we've sifted through all these police reports.</span>

Ten years ago this week, a handful of scrappy editors took a collection of gaming sites and transformed them into what became IGN.com. It was a landmark achievement, and it wouldn't have happened without the people who worked like fiends to start it. Along the way, IGN has drawn larger-than-life, hard-working editors to its hallowed halls like moths to a vulgar, alcoholic flame.

We've pulled some of those folks together and asked them to answer the simple questions: What are you up to now, and what do you remember most about your days at IGN? Their answers are below, edited for just about everything.

Aaron Boulding - IGN N64, XBX | 1999-2006'

Aaron Boulding, a college friend to Peer Schneider, originally hit the IGN scene as an editor on the Nintendo 64 a year after its launch. A sports fan above all else, Aaron hooked up with former Gamepro editor, Jon Robinson to head up the short-lived IGN site, NFL Under the Helmet before heading to the Xbox channel to helm it into the new millennium.

Aaron wore a few more hats before leaving IGN in 2006, including a stint in the IGN promotions department and as our TV Programming Manager. These days, Aaron works for ESPN2 and ESPN News as both channel's on-air videogame analyst.

"IGN was the first job I had where I was excited to drive into work every day," commented Boulding. "Everybody should have that in their lives and I did. I had some really good times there."

Adam Doublas - IGN PSX | 1996-2001

PSX Power's Launch Editor, Adam Douglas, helped lay the foundation for what would eventually become IGN and then worked on Daily Music and Daily Movies for the DEN (which itself eventually became "IGN for Men"). In 2001, Adam took off for greener pastures in Los Angeles to become Managing Editor for two magazines, Honda Tuning and Car Audio & Electronic. A career as a DJ was next, but currently Adam is back in college studying Japanese and preparing for an exchange student program in The Land of the Rising Sun.

When reflection on his tenure, Adam says, "Oh man, [I have so many memories of IGN]. Doug Perryeating an entire jar of pickled vegetables in like 5 minutes on a bet and then drinking the pickle juice; going straight from the club to the office at 2am to pass out under my desk and then wake up at 9am to start work the next morning. Chris Charlasinging, "His name was Adam, he was a showgirl," to the tune of Barry Manilow's "Copacabana." Getting drunk in the office and breaking into the earthquake emergency kits. Long hours at E3... oh, and that Playboy event I covered at a water park in Vegas. Yes, good times. Happy 10th Anniversary!"

Anthony Chau - IGN DC, XBX | 2000-2001

A pick-up from GameFan Magazine, "Dangohead," Anthony Chau came aboard IGN to join Brandon Justice on the highly-popular IGN Dreamcast channel, while also finding time to shower praise on anything Shenmue. In mid-2001, Anthony headed off to work in the PR field for Visual Concepts, which eventually became 2K Sports, before leaving for SEGA where he currently serves as a Public Relations Manager.

When recalling his IGN past, Chau noted, "There are so many [memories] -- working late nights and weekends, E3's, Tokyo events, and more. But the more I think about it, the one that clearly sticks out in my head was when 9/11 occurred -- I had just walked into the office around 9am and people were gathered around one of the big screens when the news reports came in. I think we all stood there for the next couple of hours just watching what happened. Outside of one person crying, everyone around the big screen was completely silent and shocked. It was the most surreal experience."

"I also remember how there was great debate in the office whether the IGN staff should continue updating the websites. In the end I think half the staff stopped work and half the staff continued to write that day. I also believe there was a bit of a huff with the readership on either (A) how lazy the IGN editors were in not working while something completely unrelated to videogames was going on or (B) how ignorant the IGN editors were for continuing to work on videogame editorial when there were more important things going on. In the end, I think it just depended on each editor's situation -- whether they knew people in New York that might be affected, whether they were comfortable working that day, and so on."

Brandon Justice - IGN DC, XBX | 1999-2001

As a replacement for the departing Randy Nelson, Brandon Justice came to IGN from GameFan (where he was known as "Big Bubba," in 1999 as the Launch Editor for IGN Dreamcast -- the highly-popular, through short-lived IGN destination for SEGA's last system. Before Brandon left in 2001, his position had been switched to Editor-in-Chief and his aim had turned towards game development.

Justice's first gig was as a Designer and Producer for Visual Concepts on multiple basketball and football games, then he moved over to EA Tiburon for awhile to work on Madden, before settling into his current job as a Lead Designer for 7 Studios. Currently, he's working on an unannounced game that nobody knows about yet.

Brandon's most distinct memory? "That's easy," he says. "It was laughing my ass off in a champagne room at Vegas strip club circa 2001 at the site of editor Anoop Gantayat falling asleep amongst three strippers after leading them in a chorus of the Backstreet Boys "I Want It That Way." That little number cost him $250, but to me, the memory is absolutely priceless. Oh wait... I mean celebrating the launch of the best system ever on 9.9.99…Woo! Dreamcast!

Brennan Ieyoub - IGN Insider | 2004-2007

Brennan came to IGN in late 2004 with a film-editing background to work with Fran Mirabella on IGN's Insider service. Eventually, as Fran moved out of editorial and into video, it was obvious where Brennan would end up next -- off of insider and to the video team to become one of our key video producers (forever losing his moniker of "Supple Hide," taken from the most bizarre TGS video in IGN history). Still, it was Brennan's earliest days that stick out most for him:

"I'll never forget the day I interviewed. I realized that Fran wasn't a woman for the first time, saw Jeremy Dunham bodyslam Craig Harris after Craig accidentally kicked a soccer ball into Dunham's schlong, and then a bunch of us went out to Ryoko's Sushi House for fish and Sake bombs afterwards. It was definitely unique"

Brennan left the company last year to pursue his dream of game development and took a job at Flagship Studios where he serves as the team's Video Production Manager. His first project was Hellgate: London, where he produced the extensive bonus DVD content for the "Collector's Edition" version of the game.

Chris Charla - IGN.com | 1996-1998

One of IGN's founding fathers, Chris was the original site's "Launch Editor", which meant that he was the guy who ran the entire editorial department. Before IGN's first full year as "IGN," however, Charla left to become the new editor-in-chief of Next Generation Magazine until its end in 2001; following that stint, Chris headed off to Backbone Entertainment to enter the games-making biz and was recently promoted from Director to Vice President of Business Development.

When asked what he remembers most about IGN, Chris replied, "The day we launched IGN64.com. We were up all night working, fell asleep on the floor, woke up groggy and saw just how much traffic we were getting. It was huge... and it sextupled what we originally expected in our first three hours of going live."

Cory D. Lewis - IGN Cube | 2002-2004

Cory Lewis was a long-time Nintendo fan who freelanced for Matt Casamassina for several years before finally landing a full-time gig at IGN to work on our old PDF downloadable magazine, "IGN Unplugged." Luckily, the planets aligned for Cory and he got the GameCube editor position he craved so badly not too long afterwards. Always an up and comer, Cory was too fast for his own good, moved into promotions with ambition in his eyes and then headed off into the world of PR. Currently, he's the lead Public Relations honcho for the newly-bought Pandemic Studios.

Cory's fondest best memories are short and simple: "Battlefield nights at the office, Dunham going for chicken-wing eating records and our Rocky tournament -- particularly my awesome 1-point match with Fran."

Dan Adams - IGN PC | 2000-2008

One of the longest-serving editors that IGN has ever had, Dan had been a staple of IGN's PC team for eight years. Like several of the industry's early entries, though, Dan has always had a desire to get into game development himself and as coincidence would have it, today, the day that this article has published, is his last with IGN -- he's decided to leave games journalism altogether, travel the world with his wife for six months (hitting places like Costa Rica, Africa, and yes, even Kentucky) before trying his luck with a clean slate in the second half of the year.

"Some of these guys are like my brothers," mentioned Dan, eyeing the going-away cake we bought him. "I'll always have fond memories of the events we covered and the games we played -- especially during our Battlefield-crazy era when we were playing the game every night. We'd just sit there in the office, bring our PCs in, hook them up to office computers and have LAN Parties all night long. It was great."

Dave Zdyrko - IGN PSX, PS2 | 1998-2002

Ask any PlayStation reader from the early part of the decade and they'll tell you, "Dave Z is the man.' To this day, we still get emails about him and his popular RPG and sports reviews years after he left. Where did he go? He went to Visual Concepts to work on the 2K football franchise and other sports products. And he has recently re-launched (after closing it for fear that the internet might be at its saturation point of content about hot chicks) his personal site,DaveZdyrko.com. What does he remember about his time at IGN?

"I've been super busy finishing up All-Pro Football 2K8, which has pretty much been all I've had time for these past 3-4 months," commented Z. "But I look back at the IGN days very fondly. I miss the people, miss the interaction with the readers (both the sane and the not so sane), and miss getting firsthand looks at good games. I don't miss having to play and review the crap ones, though."

David Adams - IGN News | 2003-2006

Originally hired to head up "IGN Downloads" (which was eliminated and absorbed into FilePlanet when IGN and GameSpy merged in 2003), David Adams spent most of his IGN tenure as the first News and Features editor -- who among other things -- began the IGN Game Scoop podcast with Kathleen Sanders and convinced the entire office to go eat Thai Food at least once per week. What does he remember most about IGN?

"Honestly, there are so many. Was it Jeremy Dunham scarfing up 73 buffalo wings in one sitting (true story)? The soft, comforting plod of former DVD editor Jeremy Conrad's sandaled feet? Was it a particularly sonorous and admirable Tal belch? The 342 cumulative hours Daemon Hatfield and I spent playing every version of Bust-a-Move on the office Ultracade? Mary Jane Irwin's thoughtful Dr. Peppers? The chortle of Steve Butts? The sheer, gasp-inducing height of Charles Onyett? Yes, indeed, it was none of these things, and so much

David Smith - IGN PSX, PS2 | 2000-2003

"The Reverend," is still one of the most asked-about editors from the site's early days (thanks to his decidedly unique tone, large vocabulary and extensive knowledge of Japanese culture in anime and videogames). Dave left the team at the start of 2003, and has been grabbing freelance gigs for Animerica Magazine, X-Play, Newtype USA and even IGN Anime to pay the bills for his Chapel Hill, North Carolina residence. Ever since.

Dave's fondest memory? "A lot of the really memorable stuff is libelous, vulgar, or both," he says, "But here's one bit that sticks out from the last day of E3 in 2001: We were at Sony's after-party, at one of those god-awful ultra-hip club/hotels in West Hollywood, and I got it in my head to fall in the pool. (Blame Dave Z -- he'd done it at the same party at the Standard the previous year.) So I shucked off my shoes, stood at the edge of the pool on the patio there, said something unprintable, and fell backwards. Landed in the middle of the pool, turned 90 degrees, and did the backstroke out."

"Keep in mind that I didn't drink at the time. I did this completely sober. Then they told me I had to leave, and I left."

Douglass C. Perry - IGN N64, PSX, PS2, XBX | 1996-2007

"Doug Insano" started his 11-year run as an IGN personality by helming the N64.com website before moving on to run the PlayStation side in '99. Four years later, Doug took over the Xbox site, thereby making him the only editor in IGN history to run three different console sites without dying. Many an IGN employee can tell you stories of "Crazy Doug Perry" and his perilous adventures in driving, but nothing was crazier than the day Doug announced that he was leaving the site to become Editorial Director for GameTap.com's new editorial site, "GameTap Read."

Doug's fondest memory? "Attending the Atari Games Event in Cabo San Lucas with Steve Butts and Aaron Boulding," he says. "...breaking a pool, interviewing those two guys on videotape about the state of life in Cabo (Butts said, 'On no, my life was screwed up way before videogames were a part of it' and Boulding asks America, 'America: How to you break a pool?'), and having an enormous amount of fun. Also a close runner-up was seeing Marc Nix's fantastic cardboard tribute to Fran Mirabella the III with FRAN's PHORT! (No girls allowed!)."

Ed Lewis - IGN PS2 | 2003-2005

"Mister Lewis," was one of the quietest and nicest guys to ever grace an IGN office, but working full time in videogames just wasn't his passion. After a year and then some in "the biz," Ed moved on to finish his master's degree in engineering -- which he'll no doubt use someday to earn a zillion dollars. In the meantime, he's currently the Content Manager at Instructables.com, which is a "how-to" website where people share instructions and tips and it's known as "the world's biggest show and tell."

"The atmosphere of being there with everybody was the funniest thing," reminisces Ed. "We could make fun of each other and it was still okay. If you ask me what I remember most about IGN, it has to be the time I put the Prince of Persia statue in Fran's desk. It looked just like him and so many people didn't notice at first it was hilarious. Overall, it reminded me of my coffee shop days when I was in college. The pay wasn't very good, but it was a lot of fun." Ivan Sulic - IGN PC, PS2 | 2001-2003, 2004-2006

"Ivan the Terrible" is how Mister Sulic is remembered by those who favored crappy budget games and self-punishment via gaming. Fans loved it, as they seemed to take a certain joy in watching Ivan tackle some of the worst games imaginable. Why? Because he reviewed them with such humor and honesty that it felt like a disservice to our readers not to let him. Great writer that he was, we couldn't keep him for long -- first, he headed off to 1up.com to help get the site off the ground, and then after his return, he left a second time for Flagship Studios where he wrote the story for Hellgate: London.

"I remember our big-ass lunch trains that we used to assemble at noon for our trips to the mall," said Ivan. "It was that camaraderie, that ability to go out and each lunch, race back to the office and throw food at each other along the way that made it nice. We were a close-knit group in those days."

Jason Allen - IGN Cheats | 2005-2007

A former Ziff-Davis intern, the chipper young man, Mr. Jason Allen managed to break into the paycheck zone when he was offered a job with our always-popular Cheats, FAQs and Guides sites. Learning the "dark ways" Stephen Ng and growing ever-more protective of Sony's PlayStation 3, Jason put in his time with his IGN brethren before heading over to Gametap.com's "Read" section early last year.

Though Jay headed GameTap's PS3 section during the site's inception, he recently made the move to public relations and now works at Capcom Entertainment representing products like Devil May Cry 4 and Lost Planet.

Jason's best memory was that of office legend -- "When Marc Nix grew a mullet specifically to celebrate E3 2005, which was crazy."

Jay Boor - IGN PSX | 1997, 1999-2000

Jay was hired out of the mailroom to work as Adam Douglas' first editor, went to GameFan, and then came back for another IGN stint after things didn't quite work out over there. After that, Jay took jobs in PR at Midway, Codemasters, 2K, and SEGA (where he is now). When we asked him about his yesterdays, he said...

"I miss the camaraderie at IGN. I miss working with those original guys -- I mean, I grew up with them. I was working in the industry before I was legally old enough to drink, and they were my roommates and best friends. We shared some hard-working nights and some hard nights that weren't about the work. They're like family to me. Those were fun times and you can't replace memories like that with anything. Though to be honest, on some days I can't believe I'm still alive. Thank god! There were some close calls there for sure."

Jon Robinson - IGN Guides, Sports, XBX 2000-2001, 2002-2007

Formerly "Johnny Ballgame" at Gamepro Magazine, Jon Robinson came to IGN as its resident sports expert when he co-published the briefly-alive "NFL Under the Helmet" website, before taking a one year sabbatical. Jon returned in 2002, first as a Guide's writer, then an Xbox editor (where he reunited with Aaron), but ultimately he landed a gig as the originator and lead editor of the still-kicking athletics site, IGN Sports.

Jon took off with Doug Perry in 2007 to help launch the new editorial section of Gametap.com known only as "Read," and currently serves as their Sports guy there as well. In his spare time, Jon also writes a recurring column for ESPN: The Magazine.

Jon shares this interesting story: "When I met Tiger Woods and he told me: 'Man, you have a cool job.' He was right, although I would have traded places with him any day if he'd like (or at least bank accounts)."

Juan Castro - IGN Cube, PS2, PSP, PS3, 2004 - 2007

Mr. Castro was one of our many interns who eventually became an editor. His first gig was a short stint on the GameCube channel, and then he moved to the PSP channel, and ultimately ended up as PlayStation Team member when we consolidated several of the teams in 2006. In 2007, Juan headed off for the world of public relations to work for ONE PR, where he represents products from Warner Bros. Interactive, Super-Ego Games and Eidos Interactive. And what does Juan remember most?

"I remember my first gaming event with THQ more than anything else. It was the first open bar scenario I had ever been in. Needless to say, I tried to jump out of a moving limousine, solicited people for Krispy Kreme donuts and I don't remember any of it -- Everyone had to tell me about it after the fact.

Publicist at ONE PR for the last year -- works with Warner Bros. Interactive, Super-EGO Games, and Eidos Interactive.

Kaiser Hwang - IGN PS2, XBX | 2003-2004

After starting as an intern who flew out to San Francisco from Austin, Texas, Kaiser worked on the PlayStation 2 channel for a little over a year before moving over to the Xbox side ("because of my love for shooters and Xbox Live's potential," he says). After that, it was off to PSM (much like Randy Nelson) where he eventually became Deputy Editor-in-Chief.

In early 2007, Kaiser dropped editorial altogether to head into the world of game development. Currently, he's Senior Community Manager for Flagship Studios and talks up the recently-released Action/ RPG, Hellgate: London.

"What do I miss most about IGN?" Kaiser waxes, "I miss 'Mall Tuesdays,' IGN Unplugged, and most importantly, the relentless sarcasm."

Kathleen Sanders - IGN News | 2006

Another Ziff-Davis intern, Kathleen officially became a professional when she came to IGN as our second News and Features editor. Always accompanied by her dog Minnie, Kathleen helped fellow news editor David Adams launch IGN's flagship podcast, "Game Scoop."

A diehard Ziffer at heart, Kathleen left IGN to grab a video producer position at 1up.com less than a year after joining the staff. These days, she lives in Seattle and works as a key member of the startup community site Fyreball.

One memory that sticks out for Kathleen: "...Trying to get all these silly boys to come and do podcasts, because while they'd tried a few -- no one wanted to do them on a regular basis. In a short amount of time we had to turn folks away at the door -- word had gotten out that we were having a good time with it."

Mary Jane Irwin - IGN Cube | 2003-2004

Fans of our little website will remember Mary Jane Irwin fondly. Aside from being one of the many intern-to-editor success stories, Mary Jane has the distinction of being the Nintendo Team's first -- and only unless we're counting Fran -- female editor. Yes, during the age of GameCube, MJ wrote with a fury for all things Mario and eventually left our holy halls to return to school and polish off a degree in journalism. Today, the lovely Miss Irwin lives in the Bay Area and continues to rock keyboards as a freelance videogame/tech/Silicon Valley writer.

What's she miss most about IGN?

"I guess the camaraderie, pranks and inappropriate comments," she said with a laugh. "I miss having my only job duty be to play Baten Kaitos."

Trent Ward - IGN PC | 1998-2000

Dig deep into your gigs of memories, IGN fans -- we're talking about Trent Ward, a man who left GameSpot to become the very first EIC of IGN PC. Yes, before Dan, Charles and Steve were wading though boxes and boxes of strategy titles and solitaire sims, Trent was the man if your weapon of choice was a two-button mouse.

When he shuffled off his IGN coil, Trent went to work with an Australian game development house doing business development and communications. Nowadays, you'll find him Sasquatch's backyard -- Canada! Trent's a creative director with Ubisoft in Montreal.

"It's hard to pick," Trent said as he was asked about his favorite times in front of an IGN monitor. "Tal's audio-enhanced reviews of the 'Extreme' series, staying up for days during the Everquest launch, getting caught playing Samba De Amigo when I thought no one was looking or Vinny telling people he was going to, 'Shoot them in the face,' are all happy memories. I also remember Monday nights and Tuesday mornings as being very, very hard."

Vincent Lopez - IGN PC | 1999-2001

When he wasn't threatening to shoot people in the face, Vincent Lopez served as a faithful member of the IGN PC Team where he played dozens of genre-defining games such as The Sims and Animaniacs. When his time here was up, Lopez moved south to LA to pursue film but ended up working at someplace called G4. When that well went dry, he headed to the city so nice they named it twice -- New York, New York. He's never looked back and is now a senior writer/director at VH1 and claims "you can blame me for those I Love New York 2 promos."

What stands out from his time with us?

"The time that I took allergy medication on the way to work... and then discovered too late that it wasn't," he said. "At least everyone was nice enough to take me to the park for four hours. At least I understand what house music is all about."

Of course, those aren't all of the editors who have worked at IGN over the years. Below is a list of even more folks who have worked at IGN within the last decade. Sorry we couldn't get to you all, but know you're all missed!

• Alex Castle
• Blake Norton
• Chris Sabga
• Christian Svensson
• Clayton Wolfe
• Dan Egger
• David Craddock
• Den Shewman
• Ian Ross
• Jason Bates
• Jason Michaels
• Jason Montez
• Jeff Chen
• Jeremy Conrad
• Johnny Newlin
• Jon Miller
• Julian Rignall
• Leah Reich
• Micah Seff
• Mike Morrissey
• Mike Wiley
• Nick Nunziata
• Noah Massey
• Randy Nelson
• Sarah Kuhn
• Steven Horn

To anyone we may have forgotten, our apologies. It's been a long ten years, and old age has made our minds weak and feeble. Now where are our pills?

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