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  (Source: PC World)
1UP network sold to UGO Entertainment

Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) has been cancelled as a result of UGO Entertainment and parent company Hearst Corporation’s acquisition of the 1UP network. EGM was one of the oldest still running gaming magazines in America and provided video game news, previews and reviews for the past two decades.

EGM, which was published by Ziff Davis as part of the 1UP Network, released 12 issues a year and this year would have been the magazines twentieth anniversary. The January 2009 issue will be the final issue of EGM. Other properties of 1UP that will be taken over by UGO include: MyCheats.com, Gamevideos.com, and Gametab.com. Popular podcasts such as the 1UP Show video podcast and 1UP Yours audio podcast are most likely cancelled.

Ziff Davis CEO Jason Young provided standard lip service calling the sale, "a smart transaction for Ziff Davis Media that places market leading assets and teams in a great environment poised for further success,". The PC World article suggests Ziff Davis’s debt and bankruptcy issues contributed to the business decision to sell 1UP.

Young is also quoted in an email to internal employees saying, "many of our employees will travel with this business and become part of the UGO team." Joystiq has been able to acquire a list of former EGM / 1UP staff that were not so lucky and have been laid off. This list includes EGM Editor-In-Chief James "Milkman" Mielke.

EGM appeared to be a magazine in decline as issues have become smaller and smaller over the past several years. The December issue which has traditionally been one of the largest issues of the year was only 98 pages in 2008. Past issues of EGM have exceeded 300 pages and even approached 400 pages in size. In the middle of a heated video game console war, it is difficult to imagine there was a lack of topics to cover this holiday season.

One of the many characteristics of EGM that made it stand out from the rest was the use of multiple reviewers for almost all video games reviewed. Reviewers would give their opinions in a short paragraph and provide an overall score. It was very beneficial to the reader to be able to read the opinions of multiple reviewers because it helped to balance any extremely negative or positive reviews.

Another aspect of EGM’s strengths was its well organized previews section that provided previews and screen shots for future games. Every current console was provided its own section dedicated to previews of future games.

Although the reviews section of the December 2008 issue remains comparable in size and quality to past issues the previews section has been completely gutted when compared to past issues. EGM was redesigned in December 2006, and 1UP have said in the past that the reason for the design shift was to keep more in line with the site layout of their website 1UP.com.

The question that comes to mind is whether EGM no longer had the resources to produce a magazine worthy of the past with a well organized previews section for every console. Another explanation could be the much smaller magazine profile was for saving on printing costs. Whatever the true reason is for the reduction in magazine content what was happening to EGM did not inspire confidence all was well culminating in UGO’s decision EGM was not worth keeping around.

Finally, the internet’s ability to provide the same information as EGM instantaneously may be the largest factor why EGM is no more. Information on games that are reviewed in EGM is available much earlier than any print publication can provide it. Also this information is freely available reducing any incentive to a pay a monthly subscription fee for it.

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Legit Reviews?
By Mitch101 on 1/9/2009 9:24:02 AM , Rating: 5
Online pretty much killed magazines for me but the full nail in the coffin comes from game companies threatening to pull ads if they don't get a good or high review. I don't know which magazine was the biggest offender to giving good reviews to bad games but it ensured I wont ever subscribe to one. Game Over.




RE: Legit Reviews?
By dj LiTh on 1/9/2009 9:30:53 AM , Rating: 5
I definitely agree with the internet being the grim reaper to such publications. As for legit reviews online vs magazines many are still suspect (i'm looking at you gamespot).

At least some trees will be saved. No reason to have a magazine that covers electronics when electronics can do a much better job of it.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Gzus666 on 1/9/2009 11:57:55 AM , Rating: 3
Gamespot is one of the worst review sites I have seen in my entire life next to Eurogamer. Damn near every game now gets about the same review. 8.5 seems to be their favorite score and their negatives are insane. Little Big Planet negative was that it takes a long time to make a level. What? I stopped going to that site for reviews a long time ago, so I forget all the hilarious reviews of lore, but they are just pitiful.

Negative of MGS4 was story telling was heavy handed? Yes, I hate when games have well made stories. How do you have a negative when the game was a perfect 10? This is an actual negative from them on Halo 3 "Inevitable flood of prepubescent online players sure to hamper your enjoyment of the online modes.". Well played Gamespot, fault the game for the people who play the game.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By DCstewieG on 1/9/2009 12:44:41 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
"Inevitable flood of prepubescent online players sure to hamper your enjoyment of the online modes."

Personally I think this is a completely valid point. Maybe it shouldn't affect the score of a game but it is very true. I always play Gears 2 with friends only, I've played public games before and it quickly stops being fun. If Microsoft ever adds the option to find players within an age range to Live, they'll have a winner on their hands. Zones didn't quite do the trick.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Gzus666 on 1/9/09, Rating: -1
RE: Legit Reviews?
By Sunrise089 on 1/9/2009 12:55:48 PM , Rating: 2
Who faulted the developer? It wasn't a review of Bungie Software, it was a review of Halo. If Halo is unpleasant to play online in the real world, that's a negative.

If someone designs a car with skis instead of tires, and it performs perfect on their snow-covered test track, you can expect mainstream automotive reviewers to declare the car unsatisfactory for regular roads. Your argument would have them blame the roads instead.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By SlyNine on 1/9/2009 1:41:19 PM , Rating: 3
You're analogy is flawed, it be more like blaming the car manufacture because they didn't put in a map that allowed you to avoid all the bad drivers in the world.

It's not the manufacturers fault their are a lot of a$$ hole drivers out there. It's not the developers fualt there are alot of jerks online.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Gzus666 on 1/9/09, Rating: -1
RE: Legit Reviews?
By JoshuaBuss on 1/9/2009 4:14:41 PM , Rating: 2
unfortunately, it doesn't matter who's fault it is.

If it sucks to play a game online because of the userbase and mentality of the community, I'd like to know about it when reading a review.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Gzus666 on 1/9/09, Rating: -1
RE: Legit Reviews?
By kondor999 on 1/9/2009 5:38:24 PM , Rating: 2
quote:

To know, you would have to poll who is annoying and find out when they are online. Making it a negative means that it is absolute. What if every person you happen to play with isn't annoying? Then that negative is no longer valid. Something as subjective as annoyance is not realms for a review. Also it is a problem inherent to the online community made by Microsoft. This makes it where Bungie would have no way to correct this problem. To discount a developer for something they have no control over is clearly not a fair review of the game. A fair review needs to be about the game, not the system it is played on.


Oh, shut up.

It was a valid observation as to the state of affairs with the online Halo3 community.

Get over it.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Gzus666 on 1/9/09, Rating: -1
RE: Legit Reviews?
By mindless1 on 1/9/2009 11:37:50 PM , Rating: 2
When a game is sold touting it's online mode, the developers should be diligent in ensuring, in policing that so a customer's experience playing isn't ruined.

Whether you feel you can equate it to something else in life is irrelevant, that is just a necessary thing in order to preserve the quality of gaming. Similarly in a restaurant a disruptive customer will be asked to behave or shown the door.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Magius on 1/10/2009 1:32:18 PM , Rating: 2
Sure a developer will make it so gameplay holds in the face of technical issues and go so far as to include a censor algorithm to filter colorful language, not to mention to myriad of rating and reporting mechanisms found in modern online games...

However what you are asking for is for them to create a jerk scanner and control system and that sir is beyond their control.

There are jerks in every online community just as there are jerks in real life. Maybe you want your local movie theater to give you advance warning is that jerk from around the corner is attending the movie at the same time?

Or mayber someone should create a TJW network with real-time watch for jerks in your area.

Seriously though and the main point behind this rant is that writing "jerks will be online and ruin your playtime" as a negative point is completely useless. You should expect it... unless you are playing Pink Ponies Online and then you might still be surprised.

In playing WoW, we report griefers but there is only so much they can do, as there is a huge community with some griefers even abusing the reporting system. What so we do? We blacklist the guy with us, with the guild and with any other allied guild. Eventually the guy finds himself playing alone or has to roll a new toon.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By random2 on 1/11/2009 4:12:36 AM , Rating: 2
Mindless? You cannot be serious. Suggesting the faults found during an online experience is somehow a reflection on the game developers is absurd. This makes about as much sense as a movie reviewer giving a thumbs down to a multiple academy award winner because someone behind him was being too noisey while eating their popcorn.
This is the kind of logic that has produced a nation of greedy litigants hell bent on making someone else responsible for their own stupid behavior which MADE them fall off the ladder, burn their lap with hot coffee, or cause themselves permanent sinus damage by picking their nose with a lead pencil.
It's always sooooo much easier to blame someone else isn't it?


RE: Legit Reviews?
By mindless1 on 1/18/2009 12:15:21 AM , Rating: 2
I am quite serious that a service that is part of the game bought, should be maintained appropriately.

Game developers need to take responsibility for policing their property just like anyone else does.

As per your example of the movie reviewer, you have it backwards. The reviewer should give a bad review of the cinema since they were the ones offering the service of watching the movie but were not maintaining order in the cinema... If it were a more significant problem than your deliberately minimal one about popcorn.

No it is not the kind of logic that produced litigants, YOUR alternative is what does that when people don't take the responsibility I suggested the game developers should.

What are you talking about, blaming someone else? Ever heard of staying on topic? Are you actually suggesting that it's not the troublemakers that are to blame, it's those they cause trouble for? What kind of madness is that or did you just go off on some wild tangent because you lack any good argument?

The faults found in an online experience are most definitely the game developer's fault if they are hosting the service instead of a 3rd party, or if that service offered by the 3rd party is an affiliation to support the advertised feature of the game.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Samus on 1/10/2009 4:21:00 AM , Rating: 2
sign of the times...


RE: Legit Reviews?
By althaz on 1/11/2009 6:27:58 PM , Rating: 2
Why are people arguing about this comment? It's obviously nothing more than a tongue-in-cheek comment. It reflects positively on the game (for online play, popularity is a good thing) but also warns about potential dangers. However its main purpose is clearly to be humorous.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By DEredita on 1/9/2009 9:57:54 AM , Rating: 5
People still need magazines and newspapers. What else are we going to read on the toilet?


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Spivonious on 1/9/2009 10:01:39 AM , Rating: 5
Ever hear of a laptop?


RE: Legit Reviews?
By mmntech on 1/9/2009 10:57:22 AM , Rating: 3
Yeah but you can't use that should you ever run out of supplies.

I have a copy of EGM from 1998 around somewhere. It's interesting to read the old mags and see how far we've come. However, they've been dead for a long time. On the Internet, I have access to thousands of professional and player reviews for games and sites like Gamestats that compile them give you a pretty good idea if a game is bad or not. It pretty much eliminates the issue with publisher payoffs, and most of it is free and on demand. Paper publishers can't compete with that.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Dreifort on 1/9/2009 11:04:45 AM , Rating: 4
but with men's magazines, it's easier to maneuver up the space elevator with paper, then trying to balance a laptop.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Bender 123 on 1/9/2009 2:29:36 PM , Rating: 5
You are right. It throws off the rhythm of the jerking motion, when you constantly have to rebalance it on your knee. Many launch failures come from an uneven load at lift off.

I would assume the iPhone and iPod Touch (appropriately named...) work well for technical documents to get your payload into orbit.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By DEredita on 1/9/2009 11:12:09 AM , Rating: 1
I don't want to get my keys all shitty?


RE: Legit Reviews?
By 325hhee on 1/9/2009 11:28:01 AM , Rating: 2
[quote] Ever hear of a laptop? [/quote]

I'm sorry, but when I go to the bathroom, the only thing that goes in there with me are newspapers, magazines, or catalogs. It's a pet peeve of mine, but I don't think anything that goes to the bathroom, should leave, let alone a laptop. It's like sharing a toothbrush, it's something I feel shouldn't ever be done.

Do you remember that episode of Seinfeld, George bought a book, took it to the bathroom, and tried to return it, but they knew it has been bathroomed? I feel the same way, I'm not touching anything that has been there. It's just gross.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Kefner on 1/9/2009 11:39:55 AM , Rating: 4
Do you take off all your clothes and go to the bathroom naked? I wouldn't want to wear those clothes after they have been bathroomed! That's gross! (if you wear glasses, a ring, a watch, whatever, don't forget to take those off too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Oh, and brush your teeth in the kitchen, cause if your toothbrush is left in the bathroom, you will get an infection and DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;)


RE: Legit Reviews?
By jonmcc33 on 1/12/2009 7:51:54 AM , Rating: 2
LOL! Too true. I've seen laptops that probably never entered a bathtroom end up all yucky and gross with people that eat food while typing, etc. That's my pet peeve, greasy keys or crumbs, etc on them.

I'm actually typing on a laptop right now while taking a monster dump in my bathroom. :-D


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Proteusza on 1/9/2009 11:41:07 AM , Rating: 2
Loo reading material fills two roles:

1. Actual reading material to pass the time.
2. Emergency supplies in case of absence of toilet paper.

I would use a laptop for #1 but #2, I dont know about you.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Jellodyne on 1/9/2009 11:54:39 AM , Rating: 2
Those point should both be labeled #2.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Bender 123 on 1/9/2009 2:32:17 PM , Rating: 1
You dont know how to use the seashells?

Sorry...just had to pull Demolition Man into it.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By exanimas on 1/9/2009 3:10:55 PM , Rating: 3
My laptop is an Acer, so it is actually well suited for the role of #2.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By MadMan007 on 1/11/2009 12:17:08 AM , Rating: 2
I don't get it...wouldn't you actually be adding more poo to your anal sphincter that way?


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Smilin on 1/9/2009 12:34:59 PM , Rating: 3
Magazines that go in the bathroom die in the bathroom. I bet you take your laptop into work and let people touch it. Your keyboard is NASTY dude.

Ever hear of fvcking Hygiene?


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Spivonious on 1/9/2009 12:57:22 PM , Rating: 1
Geez, calm down. I don't even take magazines or newspapers into the bathroom with me. If it's taking you that long to poop, then you should see a doctor. Unless I'm not feeling well, I'm out of there in 5 minutes tops, and that includes hand washing.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Kefner on 1/9/2009 3:29:32 PM , Rating: 1
Ever hear of soap and disinfectants? You should really look into the world of modern cleaning products. Oh, and stop shitting and pissing on your hands, and your keyboard wont get nasty.

What in the hell do some people do in the bathroom that makes them so germaphobe! Do you go in there and piss all over the walls and sinks or something? I don't know about the rest of you, but I clean my bathroom multiple times a week. Just for full disclosure, I have never used my laptop in the bathroom, and not cause I'm scared, I just don't want to burn my balls off!!!


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Gzus666 on 1/9/2009 3:32:28 PM , Rating: 2
Hell, I used to eat dinner in the bathroom when I lived alone. I'm pretty sure if someone is willing to leave their toothbrush and clothing in the bathroom, any other simple activity should be fine.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By itzmec on 1/9/2009 4:01:21 PM , Rating: 2
yah! hahahahaha


RE: Legit Reviews?
By StarJammer on 1/9/2009 5:58:14 PM , Rating: 2
Oh man, some people here have sick habits in the toilets. If I bring a mag to a toilet, I'm tossing it out, even though mags don't touch the seat or anything it just shouldn't leave the toilet room. Some peoples don't even wash their hands when they're done.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By amanojaku on 1/9/2009 10:04:48 AM , Rating: 2
DT on your netbook. Or porn.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By CrystalBay on 1/9/2009 12:04:11 PM , Rating: 2
Cookbooks, so you can learn how to bake some more loaves...


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Harkonnen on 1/9/2009 10:40:29 PM , Rating: 2
Bathroom readers.

www.bathroomreader.com


RE: Legit Reviews?
By scrapsma54 on 1/10/2009 12:06:03 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
by DEredita on January 9, 2009 at 9:57 AM

People still need magazines and newspapers. What else are we going to read on the toilet?
Paper lcd that can wirelessly link to a subscribed source?


RE: Legit Reviews?
By rbfowler9lfc on 1/10/2009 7:30:30 AM , Rating: 2
Uh, why not print comic strips onto the toilet paper?


RE: Legit Reviews?
By timmiser on 1/9/2009 6:15:12 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
game companies threatening to pull ads if they don't get a good or high review


As a former online reviewer myself, I can say that statement is not factual. As this forum so easily proves, people don't always agree about a game and the same can explain why you may not agree with a review.

Rest assured, there is no black helicopter circling overhead filled with software developers waiting to pull ads from review sites for bad reviews.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By Etsp on 1/9/2009 8:15:22 PM , Rating: 2
That's like a politician saying that the government isn't corrupt because he isn't corrupt. Except for the fact that in my example, the politician's lying... One member of an industry cannot account for the practices and procedures for the rest of the industry.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By mindless1 on 1/9/2009 11:40:50 PM , Rating: 2
Perhaps not pull ads, but there's the less obvious recourse for them - not renewing ads or not placing new ads. You'd have to have your head in the sand to not recognize that it's the content on a website that causes a developer to want to advertise to that audience, that the money would be wasted if the products aren't advertised where they receive positive reviews.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By timmiser on 1/13/2009 4:08:48 AM , Rating: 2
Well, you have to also realize that the quality and integrety of the reviews keeps the readers and without readers, nobody will advertise with you.

This analogy actually wins out over the threat of ads being pulled by developers who are "poor sports" because you've gotta realize, if they make a crappy game, it's still a crappy game and they know it and the players know it.

The measure of which game review sites get the games and the previews soley comes down to their audience size, not past reviews of their products.


RE: Legit Reviews?
By mindless1 on 1/18/2009 12:07:29 AM , Rating: 2
In an ideal world, even at some websites, but let's not put a bag over our heads and ignore that ad money does buy reviews at some 'sites.


Good riddance
By the goat on 1/9/2009 9:27:25 AM , Rating: 2
The quality of EGM has been horrible for the past decade. Just like all Ziff Davis magazines the best reviews always went to the companies which bought lots of advertisements. John Dvorak is the only Ziff Davis employee who's opinion I give any weight to.




RE: Good riddance
By Screwballl on 1/9/2009 9:51:08 AM , Rating: 2
agreed... I had a subscription some 15 years ago and even then it was on its way down so I let the subscription expire..
I actually saw a few early 2008 issues in an office this week and was just amazed at how it was 75% ads and the rest were articles or reviews that felt more like advertisements.
Their quality and stance is in the gutter, so I say good riddance!

Another one that need to die: MaximumPC
They are just as bad if not worse than EGM.


RE: Good riddance
By DEredita on 1/9/2009 10:01:15 AM , Rating: 2
I still get Maximum PC, but good lord - they seem to be out of touch. I can't stand those 10-15 page long hosting ads in the magazine.

There is so much hardware and software - they can do so much more with that magazine. But, the magazine does it job, it keeps me entertained when I am on the toilet.


RE: Good riddance
By sliderule on 1/9/2009 10:10:42 AM , Rating: 2
Yeah, I used to love MaximumPC but it did go down hill. I let my sub expire 2 years ago. Way to many adds, at the time I would've paid more per year if it meant less adds, but what ever.

Just like every other magazine out there regardless of content, you can find the info free and quicker on the internet.


RE: Good riddance
By jojo29 on 1/9/2009 2:49:56 PM , Rating: 2
I agree with this statement. Let EGM die. It sucked when Dan Hsu was Editor-in-chief, it was readable before but from this point on, the magazine just reaked of selling out.

I'm glad EGM went down the drain. It will bring other better magazines (Play) out in the forefront.


Same thing in Argentina
By Moki on 1/9/2009 10:14:30 AM , Rating: 2
This happends to me and my team in Argentina, 6 months ago. We have an online site for about 7 years (www.irrompibles.com.ar) and we make the final step to paper. Our fantastic magazine last 8 issues until the shutdown. The reason? Economic problemns in our country affect the sales, and publishers and videogames companies that doesn't want to put ads in the magazine because we talk about their products anyway. Because we have to inform, and that was publicity and advertising for them without put a coin. They contribute to destroy us.
With this our dream to come to life crased again. If it happend to the big ones, we are dead.
But like our magazine slogan says "the gamer don't die, respawns" we still tryng.




RE: Same thing in Argentina
By acase on 1/9/2009 3:00:18 PM , Rating: 1
Well if your magazine was in english I'm guessing it was shut down due to terrible grammar. That is a pretty good slogan though. At least if it were actually put into a proper english sentence.


RE: Same thing in Argentina
By rbfowler9lfc on 1/10/2009 7:35:39 AM , Rating: 2
You might be aware that english is NOT the default spoken language in Argentina, right?


RE: Same thing in Argentina
By MadMan007 on 1/11/2009 12:21:01 AM , Rating: 3
No but it is the default language spoken by ignorant grammar nazis on the internet who assume it's the default everywhere.


Here we go again.
By Smilin on 1/9/2009 9:45:30 AM , Rating: 2
CGW computer gaming world which converted to Games for Windows magazine went belly up a few months back.

I had a subscription that I had purchased along with several others through some 3rd party.

To meet their obligation to me they signed me up for EGM when GFW went out of business. I'm not sure why as one is a PC game magazine and the other is Consoles.

Anyway...EGM pretty much sucks and I'm not surprised they are going under.

I've still got PC gamer and I've been fairly happy with it. I wonder what they'll sign me up for next?




RE: Here we go again.
By callmeroy on 1/9/2009 12:18:24 PM , Rating: 2
I agree with folks comments on EGM and Gamespot. At one time I actaully paid for their "Gamespot complete" service, hey I never said I was brilliant.

Anyway, aside from the horrendous economy making times tough for everyone - the console gaming market is raking in so much cash compared to PC gaming market that attention is just slipping away. I also didn't like when CGW (then Games for Windows) shut down, that was one magazine I really enjoyed reading. I was also a subsriber for easily 15 years straight and saw all the changes over the years.

Like you stated, I also got my CGW subscription converted over to PC Gamer. PC Gamer is a mag I used to buy here and there anyway, but now its the first time I actually subscribe to it. Its keeping me pretty satisfied in the way of a PC gaming magazine. Which is scary, since i like it they will probably be out of business next.


EGM was nigh-unreadable for the past 5 years
By Agentbolt on 1/10/2009 12:54:13 PM , Rating: 2
I disagree with everyone saying EGM was killed off solely by the Internet. That didn't help, but EGM lost popularity because it was a horribly written, non-entertaining magazine. They spent like 2 months hyping these interviews they were going to do with Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Sony's and Microsoft's were puff-pieces except for them harping for like 3 questions on price for Sony, reliability for Microsoft.

Then they specifically said "The Nintendo interview is going to be the best yet", then, next month, whoops, no interview. Their pitiful little excuse was literally something along the lines of "Sorry Nintendo would be mad at us if we print that interview" Their previews section, after promising to actually be critical of the game being previewed, turned into some 3 paragraph statement on every single game, with every preview going "Looks kinda rough, might be okay."

Good riddance. I got the magazine for free the past 2 years due to various promos (a good statement of its health in and of itself) hoping it would sort out its editing problems, and it never happened. It's no great loss.




By dieseldre2k on 1/10/2009 7:27:06 PM , Rating: 2
wow u are an idiot. the reason they didnt have a nintendo interview was because nintendo didn't want to give them one after seeing what they did with Sony and Microsoft.

half the ppl here love to talk out of their ass too. have you guys ever read EGM? sellouts? are u kidding me? were they sellouts when they put a PS3 covered with tomatoes on the cover because of how much it sucked? were they sellouts when they refused to publish their MGS4 score because Sony put a gag-order on the media on bad reviews? were they sellouts when they got all those ads pulled because of bad reviews? the magazine wasn't a joke, u guys are. read the magazine before u talk. this one was different.


By Motoman on 1/9/2009 9:36:31 AM , Rating: 2
...is that by the time you read it, it's out of date. Too much happens too fast in computing in general for sure, and I reckon computer gaming, to try to keep up with a printed magazine. You'd have to print weekly if not daily.

In a way I kind of will miss such stuff, I guess, but it's progress...internet killed the magazine star.




pirated magazines
By Dreifort on 1/9/2009 9:56:51 AM , Rating: 2
Even publish magazines cannot escape digital piracy.

Everyone wants digital copies of magazines for convience, then these digital copies get massive distribution via pirated networks on the internet.

At least we still have men's magazines that are still in publication. We have to have something to read while contemplating how to get a massive load into space.




My Subscription!
By geokilla on 1/9/2009 10:06:29 AM , Rating: 2
Noooo. First I sign up for both Games For Windows and EGM together at the same time. One issue later, Games For Windows was removed. Now EGM is gone too. Good thing my subscriptions were free through those promotions found by others on the Internet.

I looked forward to my EGM magazines every month I get them. I find the main articles to be very interesting and what not, while the review sections to be either good or bad, no in between.

R.I.P. EGM




RIP EGM
By dome1234 on 1/9/2009 12:00:32 PM , Rating: 2
EGM was great. I've been a reader since mid 90s and I have to say that in spite of its decline in recent years, there are worse publications out there, i.e. gamepro.

The current economic mess makes it harder unless you have a sugar daddy like gamestop for gameinformer, not just funding but hustling subscription to gs customers and getting exclusives.

UGO doesn't need EGM, but it needs 1up. Alexa's traffic watch ranks 1up at 1,636 and UGO's at 3,267. Sadly gamespot spots a healthy 159 in spite of the gerstmann fiasco.

Thoughts are with those who were let go. List here, http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34795...

Former eics of cgw and egm have these comments,
http://jeff-greenspeak.blogspot.com/
http://sorethumbsblog.com/




By InfantryRocks on 1/9/2009 3:18:52 PM , Rating: 2
Now that was a great mag...except for that "Nick Rox" guy...what a fanboy.

EGM was pretty entertaining when I last read it regularly (about 10-15 years ago now), and their letters section was always a hoot (especially their "Psycho Letter of the Month"), but, as many have pointed out here, with the internet, who needs a magazine?




By ET on 1/9/2009 4:35:47 PM , Rating: 2
Game mags are definitely dropping like flies. My favourite, Computer Gaming Magazine (originally Strategy Plus), died a while ago, and the decline continues.

But it's not only there. I've been into SF/fantasy short story mags, and their circulation continues to drop. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is switching to an issue every two months instead of monthly.




Ziff Davis
By lordcheeto on 1/10/2009 1:03:36 PM , Rating: 2
I remember reasing a couple of months ago that Ziff Davis was on the verge of bankruptcy... still, this is disappointing.




PC Games (reviews)
By tallcool1 on 1/13/2009 9:29:09 AM , Rating: 2
Anybody have a recommendation for a site that has honest reviews of PC Games? I was a long time subscriber to "PC Gamer" magazine, and just recently let my subscription lapse.




Poor magazines
By Biggiesized on 1/13/2009 2:56:21 PM , Rating: 2
I really miss Gameplayers...




"I f***ing cannot play Halo 2 multiplayer. I cannot do it." -- Bungie Technical Lead Chris Butcher









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