Crispy Gamer lands $8.25 million
Crispy Gamer, a video game site that has emerged from beta with 1 million unique visitors, said Monday it has raised $8.25 million from Constellation Ventures.
Crispy Gamer's executives have their sights set on attracting video game junkies. The site features the basics: news, reviews, and previews. But it boasts a unique revenue model. According to the company, it won't run any advertising from video game publishers.
Instead of going with such ads, Crispy Gamer will use its predominantly male demographic, ages 18 to 49, to attract advertisers outside the video game industry, such as tech and fast food companies. According to Crispy Gamer, the plan will allow it to establish a significant ethical barrier between game editorial and game makers.
Whether Crispy Gamer's strategy will work remains to be seen. The company is competing in a space dominated by two major players--GameSpot and IGN--that take game publishers' advertising dollars. To snub such money could be considered radical, given the interests of its readers. But Crispy Gamer wants to convince potential readers that it's taking great strides to be as independent as possible.
Disclosure: Both GameSpot and CNET are published by CBS Interactive, a unit of CBS.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
