Now, I know it's been awhile (three years) since our last announcement. Since then, a lot has changed.

For starters, Gaming Rant is no longer a social network of any kind. While we provided a ton of innovations back in the day, the unfortunate truth is that Steam eventually caught up to us. Sure, it took Steam a fair while to actually start doing what we did ages ago, but the fact remains; Steam won, Gaming Rant lost.

And yet, we never truly went offline. In fact, Gaming Rant still receives hundreds of visits every single month, which considering the general inactivity of our site, that's a pretty impressive (and baffling) feat. So, we decided to revive the site, and shift our focus to cover the indie side of the video game industry.

The website is almost now entirely dedicated to writing quality articles and editorials, as well as original interviews of leading (and rising) indie developers. Ultimately, our new goal is to shine a light onto the lesser known indies of this industry, or to otherwise provide free promotional coverage of rising stars.
So if you haven't already, we highly recommend checking out some of our latest articles. http://gamingrant.com/

As for our Steam community, and our general presence here? Honestly, it's all still generally undecided, though the current plans for our Steam community, is to highlight indie talent as a curator. We'll also add any games we review, or write about, to our curator list.

Well, that's it for today's announcement. Hopefully the next one won't take us three years to publish. :)


Oh, and if you know of, or if you are, an indie developer, please get in contact with us. (comment below, or email ty@gamingrant.com)
We'd like to freely write an article about your game, or perhaps even do a quick interview of your experiences as a video game developer.

Obviously, things have changed a bit since we've last posted an announcement.
Gaming Rant is no longer a social networking website, but rather an open community for gamers. I guess you could compare us to 4chan in some weird ways, or possibly even Facepunch.
Obviously we are better than both of those websites, so that isn't a fair or accurate comparison, but it should get the general idea across; Things Are Different.

Since none of you will probably even bother to read this entire announcement, Gaming Rant has essentially become a website where gamers can talk about games. A large social community that takes a unique spin on the traditional forum-based communication.


So, from now on, Gaming Rant is


-A Giveaway Hub
-A Community Hub
-A Trading Hub
-A Cult


So, come and join us. We'll be sure to provide the punch.

http://gamingrant.com/

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Keep an eye out for our Giveaway Announcement.

Do anything and everything you want on the new Gaming Rant Stories website, now in Open Beta - http://gamingrant.com/stories/


Gaming Rant Stories - Open Beta Information;

Post anything you want, and annoy the living hell out of your friends. That's what Gaming Rant Stories is all about. It's as if 4Chan had a demented baby with Twitter.
Post anything. Say anything. Do anything.

This announcement aims at shining a dim light at what we're cooking up our digital sleeves.

We're redesigning the entire Gaming Rant experience by completely recreating everything we've got to offer from the ground up. Lets face it, this isn't 2011 anymore, and Gaming Rant is due for a tuneup!

Here's what we've been working on. We're always open to any suggestions, so if you want to see something else added, just post a comment on this announcement.

Gaming Rant Blogs -
Unlike other blogging services, Gaming Rant Blogs was created specifically with the gamer in mind. It's simple, it's flexible, and it's 100% exclusive to Gaming Rant.

Gaming Rant Desktop -
We're coming out with a dedicated desktop application, giving you more ways to interact with the Gaming Rant network. The desktop application includes an instant messaging client that can be used with or without internet access (offline message sync will send your queued messages as soon as you regain connection).

Gaming Rant Mobile -
To compliment our desktop application, we're also coming out with an Android application. Communicate with your friends, post announcements and events to your clans, and interact with the network in ways previously unimaginable. There will even be a notification service, so you'll never miss an important clan event again!

Gaming Rant Groups -
We're keeping the core functionality that you've all come to love with our group system, but we're also adding a load of new content and fantastic new features to make the whole experience more 'complete'. The new group system will feature a similar activity stream design, but we're also adding in fully-featured group events, group photos and the ability to send a message to all members, replacing the announcement system. We're trying to make Gaming Rant Groups simple, yet also extremely powerful for clans and communities.

Gaming Rant Video -
Think of this as a YouTube for gamers, except, instead of watching thousands of advertisements, you'll get thousands of videos recorded by other Gaming Rant users. Seriously, an ad-free service can still exist. Why is that so hard to believe?
(speaking of advertisements, the new Gaming Rant website will be completely free of those intrusive sidebar advertisements. We want to provide you with a social network, not an ad for the latest matchmaking website)


We're always open for feedback, suggestions and feature requests. Please let us know in the comments if there's anything you want to see added to the new Gaming Rant website.

Rumor: Backwards Compatibility To Return To The PS3 Via Gaikai
http://t.co/WXzVQ3Y3

Xbox ‘Smart Glass’ – 720 Is Yesterdays News
http://t.co/M6Roufj9

YouTube App Coming To The PlayStation Vita
http://t.co/KfkCEWn5


We're also looking for journalists with a wise tongue to join the Gaming Rant News team!
Interested? Just leave a comment below.