Game Network

Game Network
Ownership
Owner	Cellcast

Game Network was a European online game and television network company. It was initially owned by Digital Bros. group, but was later sold to Cellcast. Game Network was, during its broadcast, the only television channel in Europe dedicated to covering multimedia entertainment, and generally focussed on video games.

History

Originally, Game Network's television channel was available all over Europe, with the UK version (produced by Cellcast) overlaying their own regional content to the channel, with programs including Game Guru, Reloaded, Livewire, and most recently, Evolution. The channel expanded in 2003 with the launch of non-gaming programmes such as BabeStation, a late-night "tease" show. The success of this show lead to many other clone programmes appearing on other channels, and this alternative revenue stream lead to a later influx of phone-in quiz shows, of which Game Network shows many. As of 2005, Game Network's UK games programming is largely limited to a block of raw games footage from 5:30am - 10am, with Game Guru airing from 5pm until 7pm, followed by programmes such as Psychic Interactive, which continue until BabeStation starts.

The major gaming shows, such as LiveWire was cancelled in May 2005, and the Italian-language feed from Hotbird ceased in September 2005. At this time, Digital Bros. sold Game Network in the UK, to a company called Cellcast.

Rebranding

Game Network recently was rebranded "BabeStation" on 21 February 2006. As part of a Sky Digital EPG reshuffle a week later, it was moved to Channel 904, where it was in the 'Adult' section due to its' content. Although no more games related shows appear on "Babestation" (for obvious reasons), they are planned to be aired on SUMO TV.

British Version

As of 20 February 2006, Game Network UK had been renamed Babestation, with all video game content being dropped. On the 28 February the channel was moved to the adult section of the Sky EPG.

The future of the British version of Game Network is uncertain, though there are plans to return several of its shows onto YOU TV (Now known as SUMO TV), another TV channel owned by Cellcast.

Shows

Game Guru

{December 2002 – February 2006)

See the Game Guru Wikipedia Page for more details...

LiveWire

(November 2004 - June 2005)

A Live Saturday News, Reviews and Previews show, Presented by Gareth Williams, Chris Jeffery or in later shows, Stuart Headlam. Often with a special guest from the gaming industry. The show once even had a special guest appearance from Goldie Looking Chain.

Reloaded

Series 1 (January 2005 - June 2005)

(AKA Game Guru Reloaded) Another Live show, Originally a daily, then a Saturday show, where the Game guru's would challenge the public to bouts of various games online Either over PS2, Xbox Live (Original and 360) and PC. The show would often be presented by a random presenter (see the presenter list above)

Series 2 (November 2005 - February 2006)

On The second Series, Reloaded also incorporated the features of LiveWire, which did not return due to Copyright reasons with the name.

Evolution

(September 2005 - February 2006)

One of Game Networks only Pre-Recorded shows, The concept was quite bizarre, Originally meant to be presented from DJ NES's (Daniel Scammel) and Peter Browning (Game Network Producer) Flat. It consisted of News, Reviews, Interviews and Previews presented by a naked man in a Towel, a guy who called himself "Duck Recon", and Game Guru's "Guru Larry" (Larry Bundy Jr) streaming video over a PC Monitor. the show moved direction to be presented in the usual Game Network Studio (Grey Sofa, Large Plasma TV in the background) and then into a more information based show with the main screen in a window, with information, text, release dates Etc.. filling the rest of the screen.

Incomplete and unaired Shows

7 Days in LA

A short lived documentary based on the E3 conference of 2005. 3 show regulars (Mike Rushton, Chris Jeffery and Dom Lawler) along with 2 randoms (Scott Doherty and Ryan Hadley) took part in this observational documentary that not only focused on the goings on of the exhibition but also the behind the scenes action. Due to the cancellation of Game Guru in early June 2005, only 4 of the 12 episodes aired. Though many of the later episodes did eventually appear on websites.

Guru Larry's Hack Job

An all out comedy show involving Guru Larry presenting the show with his own bizarre and funny twist on the industry, often making fun of people in the games biz' such as Jack Thompson. Although a series was made, it sadly never made it to air because of the cancellation of the channel. Some clips of the show float around on the internet and are well worth tracking down as it was a hilarious series.

Game Network Presenters

The Gurus

Quite possibly the most important aspect of the channel over the years has been the presenters. Coming from all walks of life, they each had their own unique personality. As they were all massive game fans themselves, it really helped convey a rapport with the audience.

There have been numerous Gurus that have presented the show over the four years including:

Guru Larry (AKA Larry Bundy Jr. (the longest serving Guru))
Guru Stu (AKA Stuart Headlam)
"The Chad"/Guru Maggot (AKA Mike Rushton)
"Man in Bush" (AKA Dominic Lawler)
"Henchman A"/Guru "A" (AKA Mark Nesmith)
Guru Vagus (AKA Gareth Williams)
Guru Chris (AKA Chris Jeffery)
Guru Ed (AKA Edwin Jones)
Guru Janice (AKA Janice Careddu)
Guru Wez (AKA Wesley Lock)
Guru Ben (AKA Ben Parfitt)
Guru Ed (AKA Edwin Jones)
Guru Olly
Guru Paul (AKA Paul Sunter)
Guru Boidster (AKA Duncan Simpson)
Guru Phil (AKA Phil Collins)
Guru StOo (AKA Stuart Macdonald)
Guru NES / DJ NES / Corporate NES (AKA Daniel Scammell)

GJ's

The GJ's (game jockeys) were the original presenters of the station and presented during Digital Bros' reign over the channel. The people who coined the name "GJ" were -

GJ Betina
GJ Maria
GJ Carl
GJ Noel
GJ Chris
GJ Ivan
GJ Alison
GJ Mark

Where are the Gurus now?

(In alphabetical order)

Ben Parfitt (Guru Ben) is now Online Content Manager for publisher Intent Media.
Chris Jeffery (Guru Chris) resides in Scotland.
Gareth Williams (Guru Vagus) freelances for Videogames magazines.
Larry Bundy Jr. (Guru Larry) now heads and presents the Retro games Division of the recently launched video game channel, XLeague.tv on Sky Channel 291 and is also working on a forthcoming comedy video game show with Gamer.tv. He runs the European division of the popular gaming site, ScrewAttack and also was the Retro Games Advisor for Rapture TV's video game show, G@mers in 2006. He's still referred to as "Guru Larry" in most of his shows by fans.
Mike Rushton ("The Chad"/Guru Maggot) now works for ITV Play.
Guru Olly went on to do nothing.
Peter Browning still works for Cellcast on their numerous interactive based shows.
Phil Collins (Guru Fil), Paul Sunter (Guru Paul) and Duncan Simpson (Guru Boidster) have since written for various websites. They now reside on their own technology blog called The Good, The Bald and The Stupid.
Wesley Lock (Guru Wes) as well as being in university training as a psychologist Wesley is also the co-creator and co-writer of the forthcoming World-Wide gaming comedy Sketch show Hack-Job, as well as one of the producers behind the European version of ScrewAttack where he co-stars in the highly popular series Games Yanks Can't Wank. Wesley is also currently jointly producing and presenting on the retro section on the new XLeague.tv channel on Sky channel 291.
and... Dominic Lawler, well, we'll never know what happened to him - or the bush... ^{[citation needed]}

The Game Network Online

Game Network provides the massively multiplayer online role-playing game The Myth of Soma. They also have a contract with Wemade Entertainment, to provide The Legend of Mir 2 in Europe, as well as another contract with Artifact Entertainment, to provide Horizons: Empire of Istaria.

Both The Legend of Mir 2 and The Myth of Soma have been moderately successful in Europe and the number of Mir 2 subscribers pale in comparison to their Chinese and South Korean counterparts. Game Network has been criticised by the player base in both of these games for not doing enough to prevent cheating and bug exploiting, as well as having extremely poor customer service. This may be why the contract to provide The Legend of Mir 3 was signed with UK-based Quality Games Online rather than Game Network.

There was a weekly television show for both The Legend of Mir 2 and The Myth of Soma, which attracted new people to the games. Both were cancelled in 2003.

Video Clips

External links