EGM Magazine Shutting Down

Gamasutra reports that Ziff Davis Media has sold a number of gaming websites, including 1Up.com, and will be shutting down their popular magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly. Some of 1Up's staff was laid off as well, though the new owners want to keep the rest of it intact. The sale was motivated by an unprofitable business model made worse by the recent downturn in the economy. 1Up's James Mielke has made a post about the final hours of EGM, and a glimpse at the final issue, saying, "...the final, secret, unpublished issue of EGM will show up here on 1UP shortly in the near future. You will be able to read every hi-res page, ads and all (last time I checked at least) on 1UP, to see the beautiful job that crew did, even with the guillotine hanging over our heads every minute of the day."

Comments

Not only print media...

[MindlessAutomata]

Not only is print media in general doing worse as the internet takes over, but you also have to consider the audience. Gamers, as an audience, typically learn about games, both current and upcoming, through online channels.

Similarly PC Magazine and others have shut their printing operations for similar reasons. Technical users get their news off the internet.

I'm really surprised EGM lasted as long as it did, especially since the gaming magazine market in general was really quite terrible. I haven't picked up an issue of EGM in ages, though, so I can't attest to its quality.

Re:Not only print media...

[mhkohne]

I can't say I'm that surprised. I actually canceled a free subscription to EGM (they had a promotion a year or two back) because it just wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. Being a print publication (and the attendant information lags) was bad enough, but their staff wrote like a bunch of high-schoolers. If I'm going to bother to kill a tree, I at least want some decent writing.

Shutting down? NAY

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not shutting down, it is GONE.

And it wasn't just some of 1up.com being laid off... it was THIRTY of them. They pretty much gutted the place, hardly anything of the talent that made the site is there anymore.

This is a sad day.

- AJK

End of an era

[HalAtWork]

EGM was THE video game magazine that you got when you were a kid (besides Nintendo Power that is). They brought us the first huge otaku celebrity, the made-up Sushi-X. They invented Quartermann, who brought us often reliable industry rumors. And they brought some great personality and spirit to video games. The whole crew at EGM and 1up were totally dedicated to what they did, and are incredibly passionate about video games. I really hope they are able to keep 1up going exactly as it was, and their amazing video and audio podcasts as well.

The 1up Show - Video podcast - Humorous and intimate discussions about games with interviews and game footage
1up Yours - Audio - Experienced editors gather to discuss news of the week, and other hot topics
1up FM - Audio - Interns and newcomers to 1up discuss their views on gaming news, with a "backlog" segment where they play through older games together that have been overlooked while they were busy playing other games
Retronauts - Audio - Expansive coverage of specific titles or eras in retro gaming
And a lot more.

These guys are really awesome. Download all of their podcasts and listen to old episodes, they are all worth listening to. If the 1up crew gets broken up, I'm definitely going to try to keep up with what they're up to to see if they are putting out gaming coverage through other outlets. Hopefully they sell off DVDs of scanned EGM issues and DVD dumps of their web site's editorials if they decide to go down, it would really be a shame if all that stuff got taken down.