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Official PlayStation Magazine Discontinued
Citing the advent of downloadable game demos and an inability for the magazine to 'fit into our integrated media network or afford us digital media opportunities', Ziff Davis' Official PlayStation Magazine will be closed out in January of next year. From the Gamasutra article: "According to the firm, Sony Computer Entertainment America will remain a key content and marketing partner for Ziff Davis Game Group, which will cover SCEA's PlayStation 3 and first-party games extensively across all of its media outlets, including EGM, 1UP.com, and GameVideos.com. The Game Group editorial team will also 'work closely with SCEA in the development of digital content for the PlayStation Network, accessible only through the PS3.' Due to the long-term decline in the magazine advertising market, Ziff Davis has been gradually transitioning away from print for some time, aggressively building up 1UP.com as its central website portal." 1up is carrying a story with the official announcement and some low-key commentary. If you're interested in how much this had to do with subscription numbers, GameSetWatch has a run-down on subscribers for many of the large gaming rags.
I can't remember the last time I even touched a physical game magazine - has to be years now.
Every single PS3 is going to have a webbrowser and access to a complete Sony network infrastructure for news, demos, online purchase of games, movie and music downloads.
I noticed they chalked up the downloadable demos as thier primary reason. Good thing to see they valued a strong editorial staff over PR compilation chaff. This alone not only drives the magazine's price up and makes you feel like a sap for purchasing a "multimedia marketing solution" (aren't ads supposed to help pay the cost of the magazine, not drive it up? Basic publishing LAW anyone?), but pushes good copy further into the margins. Of course - it would have helped for them to have HAD good copy, but that's just a former Next-Generation subscriber troll reaction.
On the other hand, it clears the slate that much further for a magazine that is as good as Edge (which is getting harder to take relevant as the UK has been kicked in the nads not once but twice by Sony's release schedules - not to mention the cost) but is geared to US tastes.
The thing that has always been stuck in my craw is the industry touting of the aging of the median-gamer, but the editorial that is stuck one decade behind it. Edge magazine is on target, but lord knows - little - if anything else is.
Anyone want to angel investor a former member of the Pulitzer publishing empire?
Game magazines as a place where game publishers show off screen shots from upcoming games and reviewers give scores no longer make sense as a business model. No one who is really interested in games is without an internet connection, so they can go to the game publisher's website themselves or get them from other sites that totally ad supported and thus free. The web also has videos, which are superior to screen shots. The web is also more timely. Furthermore, the web is full of average people who will give their opinion on games. Go to GameFAQs.com, and you can read a lot of average people's opinions. Yes, they only ever score things 10 or 5 (love it or hate it), but you can still figure out what kind of game it is when they explain why.
No, the only reason for publishing a monthly game magazine now is to talk about news that says new: that is to talk about games as a medium, instead of hyping big upcoming game X. As gamers get more mature, there are more people who want to read New Yorker-style intelligent breakdowns of what gaming conventions mean and what the role of games is in society. Things like the Escapist and Gamers Quarter may seem too on the fringe right now to make much money, but the fact is that in the future, that kind of content is the only thing gamers will be willing to actually spend money on. Everything else we can just get for free*.
*With ads, of course. But at least no cover or subscription price.
In a recent interview with Computer and Video Games, Official PlayStation Magazine's Editor in Chief Tom Byron remarked, "We have built up a certain brand equity over time since the launch of Official PlayStation Magazine that the first five million subscribers are going to buy it, whatever it is, even if it didn't have articles."
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
Gaming magazines died for me when they discontinued Next Generation magazine.
Whereas every other video game magazine at the time tried to treat gamers as if they were pre-pubescent boys, NG spoke to readers as if they were intelligent adults, at least most of the time.