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    GamesTM and GamesMaster magazines to close

    Video games media specialists Future will close two of its multiformat magazines.GamesTM and GamesMaster are producing …


    Sad news. There's basically no magazines left. All the American ones closed years ago. There is not a single Nintendo-focused magazine in existence. And now there's only 3 multiformat mags: EDGE, Game's in house mag, and I think GameInformer in the US is still printed?

    Dark days compared to 1995 when there were at least 30+ games magazines on the shelves of stores like WH Smith and John Menzies.

    At least Retro Gamer is still around.

    I never wrote for GamesMaster, but chatted with the editor about pitching features. I did however freelance for GamesTM a fair bit. In-house and externally. Really sad to see it go. Though in fairness I have not enjoyed it much for quite a few years. It became very dry and the design was much more stale than its early years, seemingly trying to be like EDGE, rather than its own distinct entity.

    I had been planning to sell my entire collection, apart from issues I wrote for. Reckon I might keep them now, for nostalgia's sake. 16 years ago it came out.

    #2
    A shame, it's been a long while since I read it as magazines simply became too heavily behind the curve compared to online sites but I used to get every issue and always, always preferred it to EDGE.

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      #3
      Yeah. I imagine most of us are going to be in the boat: a shame but I haven't read them in years, which is why they are closing.

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        #4
        while I’m out the loop I’m pretty sure there are still Nintendo focused mags in japan, isn’t famitsu’s mag still going the one that was famitsu gba +gc then it turned into ds +wii.

        To be honest I’m not surprised mags have gotten less & less in the uk, look what sells in the top 10 charts I wouldn’t be buying a mag for that. I used to enjoy import articles as it was new & exciting. But that all died off as well, when all the mags became boring & mainstream. You can find all of that on the net.

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          #5
          They really needed to evolve, so the content could be exclusive to the mag and not something already online. They should have ditched news and previews. Maybe keep the reviews, but focus more on exclusive interviews, dev diaries, and unique features. For example a lot of the developer features on Gamasutra, about their recently developed games, are quite fascinating.

          Sadly there was seldom anything unique. I recall once buying an issue of GamesTM a few years back, for a single feature on movies that feature fictional games, and which had interviews with movie people in it. Fascinating. But not really worth spending a fiver on. Now imagine if the entire mag was an unusual feature like that - that would be something timeless and filled with value which can be reread months down the line.

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            #6
            A shame really, but also totally inevitable.

            It amazes me how many magazines do still exist for other subject matters though. My Mum gets an absolute stack of knitting mags every month along with Lincolnshire Life, The Lady, a ton on house and garden stuff... and Hello! Ugh.

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              #7
              A lot of that is down to why people are buying those magazines. Sketcz is right - they needed to change and they didn’t. People used to read games magazines for news and reviews. The internet renders them late and redundant in terms of filling that need. But people aren’t buying knitting magazines for the latest news. A huge number of magazines still serve a function because they deliver meaty articles, interviews, useful information and so on in a form that you’d actually want to keep handy. No need to keep game news or a review handy - it’s disposable and it’s on the Internet. Like we buy the odd Doctor Who magazine because my kids like it. They don’t get it for news. They get it for the articles, interviews and the pictures which they can go back to and spend time with.

              The likes of the end stage Sega Saturn magazines would have had more chance at being relevant now than most current games magazines. Retro Gamer is more relevant. But a games magazine pushing news and reviews has little place now.

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                #8
                I suppose it was telling that none of them successfully managed to transition to having a successful online presence either when having an established readership and reams of pre-existing content should have made them early giants. If GamesTM is going down then the fuel light will be blinking on EDGE

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                  #9
                  I still get GamesTM. I really enjoy it. I stopped getting Edge years ago because it wasn’t my cup of tea. I’m really sad about this :-(

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                    #10
                    I think the writing is on the wall for all printed game mags - you can thank youtube...

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                      #11
                      I’ve bought every one since issue 2. There’s nothing quite like reading a paper mag.

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                        #12
                        Reading a skinny book is a bit like it.

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                          #13
                          Someone linked me to this the other day when I mentioned the magazine closures:
                          A Profound Waste of Time is a bold independent magazine, celebrating gaming as an art form and emerging culture.


                          Ignore the eye watering price per single issue and look at the content list.

                          This is the direction mags like GamesTM and EDGE should have gone in, years ago.

                          It's almost all creator centric - devs, producers, musicians, voice actors, etc. I mean, just look at this image below, showing a long form feature on licensed games, written by a game director who has worked on several. This is valuable, this is the industry speaking directly to you the reader about their works.



                          And it doesn't all have to be serious features. For a bit of fun, the creator of Downwell gives a sort of director's commentary illustrating a fold-out map. Fun and informative.

                          I once did something similar in Retro Gamer. I was interviewing the creator of Super Castlevania IV on SNES, and sent him screens of 8 key moments in the game, asking for a director's commentary. Which was super fun to read.

                          Instead of fighting over reviews and competing with the internet, what if after a game gets good scores on the internet, your next issue features a sit down commentary of the dev playing through that game and talking about key things, in print. Players would already have played the game for about a month, because the internet is faster and release dates pre-empt you, and then they see your mag and think: "Yeah, I'm loving this game right now, would be cool to read the director talking us through it."

                          You know, like the new Red Dead Redemption game, coming out. Or whatever. Websites give it high scores, then BAM! Your print magazine has a leisurely 4 weeks to chat with the people behind it, and put out a loving feature where they take players through key moments, highlighting secrets etc.

                          It feels to me like a games magazine today should only print content which will have the exact same value 6 months down the line. It doesn't need to be retro, it simply needs to be relevant within that given year / timeframe. Tech guides are a good example. A really good feature on upgrading your TV or VR headset will have a lifespan of at least a few months.

                          News is worthless before you even write it. We'd always do news on literally the last day of print deadline, in the offices at Imagine Publishing, and by the time the magazine hit stands a week later it still felt old. A good example was I wrote a news item on an alleged Bioforce Ape prototype which someone claimed to have found. I wrote the facts as they were stated / claimed to be, used a couple of screens, and off it went to print. By the time the mag hit stands the person who found it revealed it to have been a hoax.

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                            #14
                            As soon as I saw the thread I was going to mention A Profound Waste of Time, I posted my copy in the purchases thread a few months back.
                            Personally being a bit of a casual reader it took me a good month to get through, it’s a decent size with great collaborations from creators, beautiful original artwork.

                            I would much rather spend more money on a quality item, that I get much more time with and revisit with it being just as informative and not old news or reviews.

                            Also worth mentioning Indie G Zine, 2 issues have been kickstarted, again with some great original artwork featured throughout.

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                              #15
                              Loved GamesTM , brought the first issue on a holiday to Cornwall and read it cover to cover several times , a real shame to see it go . As Edge dispapeared up its own bum hole , GamesTM really held the torch for quality games mags

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