RIP CGW

Heartless Gamer writes "Ziff Davis Shuts Down CGW, Opens Games For Windows. The Ziff Davis Game Group, which produces consumer game site 1UP and Electronic Gaming Monthly and Official PlayStation Magazine in North America, has announced that it is shutting down its US print magazine Computer Gaming World and replacing it with an officially Microsoft-branded 'Games For Windows' magazine and website."

Comments

Good Riddance

[Biovital]

Good, I wont miss this gaming rag at all. I have a free subscription for it, and its terrible. When I first read it 2 or 3 years ago, it seemed somewhat more mature than PCG had become, but like PCG it tries to be too funny and clever every chance it gets and it usually fails. The reviews (which were crap to begin with compared to other mags) became some silly editorial on the game rather than an actual review (for that you have to goto 1up.com). It just became too taken with itself and lost focus. So I wont miss the magazine at all.

Re:Good Riddance

[Cadallin]

Unfortunate that you only caught it so late. The time to be reading it was in the '80's and '90's. When the Editor in Chief was Russell Snipe (the founder) or Johnny Wilson. During those years, the writing was top notch, and the approach much more mature and sophistocated. Originally it was aimed at the over 25, educated game player. The point of view of the magazine was that it was covering an emerging Art Form. They didn't just whore out praise to the highest bidder. How did the game look? How did it sound? How did it play? How did it make the reviewer feel? How was the writing? How are emerging technologies going to affect the industry in the future? Both the review and the editorial content was superb. As long as they continued to focus on their near 30 demographic (who were always the magazine's primary readership) the magazine was good, and thrived. Ziff-Davis, on the other hand, wanted to grow the readership by targeting an increasingly younger audience, this resulted in reduced quality, and the readership plummeted.

Jumping the shark

[JoeCommodore]

Over the decades I've seen magazines get bought out and becomre narrow in ther scope only to eventually die off. I'm sure the new magazine will mainly play to the Microsoft partners and put blinders to the world that is not MS approved, then readers will look for something with more broad and callenging content instead of a glorified MS games catalog and it will die.