Ziff Davis announces new IGN France partnership, as part of international licencing expansion

Ziff Davis, the owner of GamesIndustry.biz parent IGN Entertainment, has agreed a new partnership with European media group eMense to operate IGN France. The firm already operates IGN Benelux, IGN Nordic and IGN Germany under licence from Ziff Davis.

IGN France has been operated since 2020 by a team lead by Editor-in-Chief Erwan Lafleuriel, all of whom remain with the site. Lafleuriel described the transition to eMense as “an exciting next step to accelerate and build on the value we’ve created with IGN France to date.” The site was originally launched in 2015 by Webedia, which currently operates IGN Brasil.

Adam Doree, SVP, Global Partners at Ziff Davis, said the firm was “delighted to expand operations with our longstanding partner, eMense,” describing the European markets as “highly competitive, requiring thoughtful value creation with audiences and advertisers,” and eMense as having “that magic touch, which continues to drive a dynamic local strategy for IGN.”

Camiel Slingerland, CEO of eMense, said: “Games, entertainment and fan culture are extremely popular in France, the logical next market in our growth strategy. We’re delighted that Erwan Lafleuriel and the existing team has transitioned to this new adventure with us, and thrilled to take IGN France to the next level.”

The deal brings eMense’s total multi-platform reach across four IGN brands to approximately 16 million users, the firm said, citing Google Analytics and platform metrics. IGN’s global multi-platform reach totals 366 million users under the same metrics across a total of 30 international editions serving over 100 countries.

The partnership comes ahead of a separate agreement with an unnamed partner to operate a French edition of fellow Ziff Davis brand CNET, as part of an ongoing expansion of the firm’s licensing of its stable of brands.