GamePro Shutting Down After 22 Years

redletterdave writes "Popular gaming magazine GamePro has shut down its U.S. operations after 22 years of publications by its parent company IDG. GamePro's website, which has been online for about 13 years, will be converted to a gaming channel and incorporated into PCWorld on Dec. 5. Sources within the magazine say GamePro's employees, including its executives, received phone calls this morning with the news. The news comes as a relative surprise, as GamePro experienced its highest traffic ever last week. The company also released its first quarterly magazine earlier this month after deciding monthly print issues were too costly to maintain."

Comments

Most popular services survive

[SharkLaser]

That is the sad news. They didn't gain enough visitors. If you look at their traffics and compare to other sites:

Gamepro: Alexa rank 6489

and competitors
IGN: Alexa rank 306
Gamespot: 412

They just didn't have a change. Personally, I've never heard about them either. If I had and they gave good content, I probably would.. but I never got there via any means. For the other internet age publications, I found Kotaku and RockPaperShotgun and they serve me gaming news just fine. As for TF2, Reddit does great job.

So, was there anything special Gamespy offered that the others didn't?

Re:Most popular services survive

[exomondo]

So, was there anything special Gamespy offered that the others didn't?

You mean Gamepro?

Re:Most popular services survive

[hairyfeet]

If its like the rest of the gaming mags lately where EVERY game gets a "happy ending" review of 80% plus? Good riddance to bad rubbish. Frankly the game mags have gotten so damned bought off that I only trust the MOR reviews in Amazon anymore. The top reviews you have to watch for the astroturf but the ones in the middle of the pack are usually just normal Joes.

Frankly I gave up on the mags when they started handing out glowing reviews for even the bottom of the barrel dreck like Turning Point: Fall of Liberty. The whole point of the mags was to see what was coming up and what was shit and what was good, but now all they do is hand out glowing praise.

Now the only reviews i look for besides Amazon is I check out what old Yahtzee at Zero Punctuation has to say. Yes he is a smartass brit but even when he tears into a game i think I'll like he points out the flaws in a way that makes it easier for me at least to decide. And if he thinks a game is shit he'll be the first to say so, like his review of Kane & Lynch II which he called "deep fried tampons" and as someone who bought the game for a whole $1 I can say his review was right on and it wasn't worth even that.

Convert to digital?

[Tufriast]

Hello! Don't shut down the site, just shut down the print and go to iOS NewsStand! Was this even considered? This was the first gaming magazine I ever read. I have issue #1 in my attic some place, and yeah, I thought it was grand. Now, the market has changed, and they give up? What the hell, is it that American companies just LACK agility in any shape or form these days? I can think of maybe 5 off the top of my head that will come against a big change and go "ok we can handle this" instead of doing like GamePro and caving. Ok I'm done ranting, but seriously, what is with the print industry? Sure, print is done, but DON'T kill the horse. Start a games site. See Destructoid or some other successful indie gaming news outlet. They started indie and made it big. GamePro would have had the advantage of starting big and STAYING BIG.

Re:Convert to digital?

[angry tapir]

Well they would already have had online revenue from the website, and I doubt this was a snap decision. Trust me, at the moment publishing is a really hard industry to be in, and really hard to be profitable in. It's not just as easy as saying "Whoo! Digital revenue instead of deadtree revenue!"

(Kind of disclaimer: I actually work for IDG's Australian subsidiary -- shameless plug: http://www.techworld.com.au/ -- but I don't know the ins and outs of this decision. It's pretty sad though, given the Gamepro brand is pretty venerable in its particular niche.)

Re:Convert to digital?

[theArtificial]

Greetings. Speaking as someone who is involved in the print industry, our company works/ed with many large and small papers across the US as well as in several countries over the last 40 years supplying software for advertisement accounts receivable and circulation management.

This was the first gaming magazine I ever read. I have issue #1 in my attic some place, and yeah, I thought it was grand. Now, the market has changed, and they give up? What the hell, is it that American companies just LACK agility in any shape or form these days?

I noticed you didn't say "I have their latest magazine on my desk". I think you may be able to answer your own question: How many people 35 and under in your circle regularly purchase magazines or maintain active subscriptions, even to papers? Heck, I hardly purchase them any more opting for online sources which don't require a subscription ("free" isn't my only metric, my habits have changed from 15 years ago). Typically I make a few magazine/news paper purchases a year and using this year as an example I recall purchasing 2600 and maybe a neat specialty bookazine (200 pages of CG stuff from the UK) throughout the year. Many of my friends do not even do that, but they do make book and misc. purchases from Amazon throughout the year. How much competition is there in the video game segment?

Where and how people get information has changed significantly. In addition to that, what people are willing to pay for has changed as well. Another example from that past is to look at how news groups used to be THE way to get information online. Now forums have replaced news groups for the most part, see stackexchange.

I can think of maybe 5 off the top of my head that will come against a big change and go "ok we can handle this" instead of doing like GamePro and caving.

And how many have folded in that same period? Shrinking pie.

Ok I'm done ranting, but seriously, what is with the print industry? Sure, print is done, but DON'T kill the horse. Start a games site. See Destructoid or some other successful indie gaming news outlet. They started indie and made it big. GamePro would have had the advantage of starting big and STAYING BIG.

I don't think you're aware of print margins either but maybe their business isn't viable without the print. How much overhead is there (take someone's salary and double that for a rule of thumb business costs)? See how much effort is involved in maintaining a sales force, steady income via subscriptions and/or advertisers, distribution, creative (writers, designers), legal etc. It's a lot of work and to say "you just give up when the market changes?" is hilarious. In the software world buyouts happen all the time - look at Google (Picasa!), Microsoft (Security Essentials), Apple etc. Look at the phone industry. I digress. Since there is now one less player, and you're confident in the demand for the services this publication provided now is your chance to shine, who knows, you might be able to scratch an itch.

Who?

[mrmeval]

Who? I'm baffled by this as...who is this?

No really.

22 years you say?

I should KNOW them.

Ah well.

Going from monthly to quarterly

[ackthpt]

That's usually a pretty bad sign, right there. While magazines seem to be dying everywhere, I'm completely at a loss for the hige number of magazines in a local bookseller, which appear to cater to select readership. There must be something they do right.

Damn it :(

[Daetrin]

I'd just belatedly started listening to Kat Bailey's "new" Roleplayers' Realm podcast on GamePro, after she moved there from 1UP's "ATB" podcast. I guess there's still RPGFan's podcast to try and fill that niche, but i hope that she and everyone else at GamePro manage to land on their feet =/

That name takes me back..

[flimflammer]

Haven't dealt with GamePro in ~14 years. I actually wasn't even aware they were still in business, which I guess was part of the problem. I still remember all the GamePro and Nintendo Power magazines I had in the late 80s/early 90s. I probably still have them somewhere...

Re:That name takes me back..

[Digicrat]

Same here, though I kind of knew they were still around from a few random encounters with their website or magazine in the store (on average once every other year...).

Anyone remember SwatPro, their spinoff magazine printing just game cheat codes? Short-lived, but memorable in the days before the net took over.

I also recall at some point in the late 90s losing interest in GamePro when I realized that 3/4 of the magazine seemed to be nothing but ads...

Re:That name takes me back..

[DigiShaman]

I remember my first edition of Nintendo Power and the fold out guides to Zelda. Oh, and that section of codes. I've always cracked open to that section first. What kid didn't? :) But the best had to have been EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly) back in the 16bit console war era. Each month was jammed packed with news, gaming gossips, reviews, and of course, Japanese console gear galore and imports you could order from at the back of each edition. Back then, gaming was much more elusive and mysterious than it is nowadays. To me, that was the core element that made it so exciting and fun to play. You just never new what Easter Eggs were to be found next.

I'm old...

[Charliemopps]

Wow, I remember seeing the first issue of this magazine on the shelf and thinking to myself "HOLY CRAP A MAGAZINE ABOUT VIDEOGAMES?!?!" I still have the issue. Found a pic here: http://gamesnet.vo.llnwd.net/o1/gnet/117181_6.jpg

At the time there wasn't anything else, at least where I lived. There was no internet. Basically you got a game and guessed the best that you could. All those awesome Easter eggs that gave you unlimited lives and such? No one knew really... and if you got stuck in one spot in a game? You were truely screwed. Nothing you could do but give up. Then along game Gamepro and a couple of other magazines like it and BAM! Full maps! Tips! Strategy! Hell, I'd read guides to games I didn't even have and then decide to beg my parents for some money.

I don't know how relevant they are now... or any print material for that matter. But they were revolutionary in 1989, RIP Gamepro.

By Slashdot standards, Reddit's crap looks savory.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh please. I accept your challenge. Compare the comments on these sections:

http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience and http://www.reddit.com/r/science
http://science.slashdot.org (Be alert; it's worse than Facebook.)

Or the submissions here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/games and http://www.reddit.com/r/gamernews
http://games.slashdot.org (Um, where are the big news articles?)

Or here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/programming
http://developers.slashdot.org (What happened? 10 years ago, programming topics were the main attraction of Slashdot.)

Or the comments here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/politics
http://politics.slashdot.org

Slashdot today is a bad joke. I often find better content and discussions on Twitter.

And (not much) of value was lost

[cdecoro]

I hate to say it, especially thinking of all the people that will be losing their jobs in this hard economy, but GamePro's demise is long overdue, and no great loss. I haven't been into video games much for the last 10 years, but as a high-schooler in the 90's, I was quite a devoted reader of the video game press. Compared to Electronic Gaming Monthly, perhaps its major competitor for most of that time, GamePro was essentially a purveyor of hype and marketing buzz, rather than a serious commentator on the state of the field (assuming that a magazine about games can ever be serious). Nearly every (well-marketed/buzzworthy) game had an almost perfect rating on the scale that they used -- one could never rely on GamePro to give any sort of critical view. Many games had absolutely perfect scores.

By contrast, EGM had a scale of 1-10, through for the first year or so I thought it was a 1-9 scale because I never saw any 10's (I want to say it was Final Fantasy III that got the first 10 that I saw, but I'm not sure). I remember that EGM prided themselves for many years on never having rated a game 10 by all four reviewers. Moreover, unlike EGM (or earlier-90's Nintendo Power), GamePro had a saccarine, plastic, slick, manufactured feel (I apologize for my lack of a better term), and lacked any real sense of personality or character. Kind of like cheap candy -- yeah, it has an overwhelming sweetness, but has so little else that it ends up feeling as if it tasted bland. I've kept all the Nintendo Power issues from when it started in 1988, until I stopped subscribing around 2000. Most of the EGMs from that time period as well. GamePro, if I ever somehow ended up with an issue, went straight to the trash.

Re:By Slashdot standards, Reddit's crap looks savo

[hoxford]

Slashdot today is a bad joke. I often find better content and discussions on Twitter.

IMHO, part of the problem is that most Slashdot comments are literally bad jokes. Too many of the comments are feeble attempts at humor by some attention starved idiot who believes he/she is far more clever than they actually are.

Re:Gaming rags haven't been relevant...

[manwargi]

It's not as easy to admit to it, being one of the sentimental types that fondly remembers the gaming magazines of the early 90s, but I have to agree with everything you said. Around the time the internet gathered enough momentum to get a sufficient number of gamer types the internet began to get the latest in news that much faster than the magazines. The big sign which ultimately lead to me allowing my EGM subscription to run out was the point when I was receiving the following month's issue early each month (i.e. getting a May issue in early April, maybe even the end of March), and the content inside was still dated compared to everything I'd already read about online.

Re:By Slashdot standards, Reddit's crap looks savo

[lucm]

Slashdot today is a bad joke. I often find better content and discussions on Twitter.

IMHO, part of the problem is that most Slashdot comments are literally bad jokes. Too many of the comments are feeble attempts at humor by some attention starved idiot who believes he/she is far more clever than they actually are.

IMHO, part of the problem is that most Slashdot comments are about what comments should/should not be. Too many of the comments are feeble attempts at trying to tell people what they should or should not post.

Re:By Slashdot standards, Reddit's crap looks savo

[Ihmhi]

I often find better content and discussions on Twitter.

Twitter bothers me sometimes. It's rather difficult to have an intellectually satisfying conversation when you're limited to only 140 charac