Computer Games Magazine, the second oldest gaming magazine, has discontinued publishing, according to a story on Gamasutra.While it is sad to see such a venerable magazine go by the wayside, the big question is this: Do you really care?
With the immediacy of the internet, you have to wonder if a gaming magazine even makes sense these days.I spent years in the magazine industry as an editor, and I know first-hand the pros and cons of magazine publishing. The pros? Beautiful, rich color advertising promoting exciting new games. The ability to include discs with betas, demos and other things gamers can try for themselves.
The cons? In a word: time. Remember all those stories you read in the November issues about the impending release of the new consoles? They were all written in July. That's right. July.
Every review you read in a magazine about a hot, new game? It was written four months before you received that issue in your hot little hands. The review was probably based on a beta version that didn't completely work. Most magazine-based game reviewers are little more than beta testers of those games. If something doesn't work, they rely on the media relations people to fill in the gaps. Is this really what you want to base a $50-$70 purchase on?
And you'll never see a bad review of a product from a company that has put multi-page ads in the magazine. The subscription fee you pay barely pays for the postage it costs the magazine companies to send those things to you. With only a few exceptions, magazine companies make all their profit on the advertising in the publication. (Of course, there are exceptions to this, such as ad-free magazines like Consumer Reports.)
So Computer Games Magazine is gone -- and it won't be alone. The parent company also shuttered the new Massive magazine, which covered MMORPG games, such as World of Warcraft. It is likely we will see more magazines closed over the next few years -- they just can't keep up with the speed of the internet news and blog sites.
What do you think of computer game-oriented magazines? Do you currently subscribe to any? Have you recently quit any? Please share your views on this important subject.
Labels: evermore, magazine, Videogames
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