According to their website:
<< To Our Trusted Readers,
Well, the waiting is over. Over the past several months, our staff has worked literally thousands of hours behind the scenes to bring you the most compelling, comprehensive, and complete gaming information service on the Internet. Today, GameSpot launches GameSpot Complete. We're proud of what we've built, and we hope that you too will enjoy the depth, quality, and convenience of our new no-compromise gaming information service. (If you're unfamiliar with details of the GameSpot Complete offering, please take a moment to learn more about it here.)
Remember "version 3.0"?
As our loyal readers will surely agree, no GameSpot launch is complete without some dust and broken glass (remember version 3.0?). I want to be the first to encourage you to send us feedback about any aspects of the service that you find confusing or (say it ain't so) broken. Please send us an e-mail with your comments and concerns. While we're on the topic, let me advise you beforehand of a few items that I know have some kinks to be ironed out.
Kink 1: Screenshots
Our rule for screenshots is that the last eight screenshots for each game are freely available through GameSpot Basic. Also, as is the case with our reviews, previews, and news stories, the last seven days' worth of screens is also intended to be free. Unfortunately, due to a technical glitch, currently only the last eight screens are available through the Basic service (even if additional screens were posted in the last seven days). We know what the problem is, and we'll be addressing it a few days after launch.
Kink 2: Message Boards
We planned to have our newly revamped message boards available for testing by those who signed up for GameSpot Complete's free trial month of May. Unfortunately, they're not ready quite yet, but they should be by the end of the week. And once you see them, we think you'll find that they were definitely worth the wait.
Kink 3: Special Features
Like every other story type on GameSpot, special features--like our Behind the Games series--will be available for everyone for seven days after they're posted and then will be available only for GameSpot Complete users. Due to the fact that we've created these features for so many years, we use a number of different templates when coding them. This has led to some strange behavior when making sitewide changes. Worst-case scenario: You'll find that some of our older features will still be available through GameSpot Basic for free. And we call that a kink--for shame! One more note: Due to popular demand, we are pleased to announce that our GameSpotting columns will be included in the Basic service and be accessible to all users at all times.
Kink 4: Videos
This actually isn't a kink, but it's worth mentioning anyway. Again based on your feedback, we have decided to make a dramatic change to our video encoding process, resulting in much higher-quality videos than we have ever offered before. This new process will be applied to all future videos on the site--for a jaw-dropping free sample, click here. (Note: We will offer this alongside our GameSpot Live streaming video service and will continue to offer .mpg movie downloads as well.)
Kink 5: Advertisements on GameSpot Hardware and GameBuyer (mySimon)
You'll notice that as a subscriber, you will not see the horizontal and vertical ads on our GameSpot pages. However, if you browse our hardware section or check prices through GameBuyer (mySimon), you will see these fixed placement ads. Both GameSpot Hardware and mySimon are hosted on different servers, and we're working to change those over as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience!
Over the course of the month of May, we'll be working feverishly to sort out all of these outstanding issues and any others that you bring to our attention. You can expect that once our free trial period is up, we'll have everything working like a well-oiled machine.
And while I have a moment, I want to give a personal thank you to the literally tens of thousands of users who wrote to us during these past few weeks. We appreciate your candor, your thoughtful feedback, and, most of all, your kind words regarding our site.
Without your support and your loyalty, GameSpot never could have made it this far. And rest assured that whether you choose GameSpot Basic or GameSpot Complete, we will do everything in our power to keep you here and happy for many years to come.
Thanks for reading and for visiting GameSpot.
Sincerely,
Vince Broady
Cofounder, GameSpot
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