Puscifer
Member
God I hope it's based in California because they are fucked.
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God I hope it's based in California because they are fucked.
JayK47
Member
I think I quit Gamestop Pro when I moved and just did not start it back up again. I did enjoy Game Informer when I had it. I am old school and still prefer magazines. Over the years, watching magazines I read consolidate, switch to quarterly, or just shut down has been depressing. I mostly read car magazines. Iconic magazines like MotorTrend and Hot Rod have recently switched to quarterly. I expect them to shutter soon, like Game Informer.
Stratostar
Member
F
Still have a fat stack of magazines, so many cool covers. My favorite is still the exclusive Arkham Knight reveal cover issue. Had me hyped beyond belief as a teen.
Still have a fat stack of magazines, so many cool covers. My favorite is still the exclusive Arkham Knight reveal cover issue. Had me hyped beyond belief as a teen.
Halo is Back
Member
Damn, that's a shame. I used to love reading thier magazines when I was younger and devouring every little bit of gaming news I could get. They genuinely had great game previews and awesome magazine covers worth collecting. An industry legend has fallen.
Alex Anderson
Member
I never cared for this magazine.
Really, REALLY bummed about this news. Seems like they just could never get out of the strangehold GameStop seemed to have on them, with their constant interference and firings of GI staff.
Wishing the best for all the staff and hope they all land on their feet quickly. This is one of the last bastions of a WEALTH of gaming knowledge, and I definitely think the industry is worse for their loss.
Wishing the best for all the staff and hope they all land on their feet quickly. This is one of the last bastions of a WEALTH of gaming knowledge, and I definitely think the industry is worse for their loss.
Hudo
Member
I love the fontI never read their Magazine, I was mostly in to Newtype to get both my anime and JP gaming news.
Hypereides
Gold Member
Man, that was some good shit. That Newtype cover layout is so rad. I really miss when graphic design reigned supreme in all kinds of nerdy hobbies. Gaming included.I never read their Magazine, I was mostly in to Newtype to get both my anime and JP gaming news.
DaGwaphics
Member
I've got some of these things shoved in a closet somewhere. RIP GI insert disks.
KillerKowalski
Neo Member
It wasn't before that
Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
Damn. Even their farewell message got fired.
VulcanRaven
Member
There is Pelit in Finland. It started in 1992.
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
What is happening to the video games industry?
Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
1) They're not growing the audience
2) Younger gamers are adopting consoles less
3) Gaming execs promised endless wealth extraction to investors with GAAS games, and now the investors are starting to realize that they lied
4) Gaming companies can't reign in their own costs in terms of development and staffing bloat, and are putting out less stuff than ever before
5) Due to costs rising, they're only betting on the safest stuff imaginable and are growing stale. And they're charging more for it up front and through microtransactions.
All the stuff that people have tried to point out for a while now, but usually get laughed off here.
Red Crayon Aristocrat
Member
It was great reading a cover story for a game you were interested in, especially when, for a while, it was the debut of something, GI might have been the best at cover stories, especially when they switched to that lush, classy style in 2010 that they stuck with till the end.
But like so many things it got woke, the last issue I read the Outer Worlds issue 5 years ago, I think by that point that was the first one I got since 2016, it was a nice trip down memory lane, but nothing since has been interesting enough for me to seek out a paper magazine.
I would question why they should fold it entirely and not shrink it to just special mini mags featuring the cover stories, but it's true that a magazine is kind of an archaic concept now, I'm shocked they lasted this long tbh.
But like so many things it got woke, the last issue I read the Outer Worlds issue 5 years ago, I think by that point that was the first one I got since 2016, it was a nice trip down memory lane, but nothing since has been interesting enough for me to seek out a paper magazine.
I would question why they should fold it entirely and not shrink it to just special mini mags featuring the cover stories, but it's true that a magazine is kind of an archaic concept now, I'm shocked they lasted this long tbh.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Gamestop has completely butchered all traces of Game Informer.
Feels like something real fucking absurd happened in the background, it makes no sense to just remove all aspects like this in this short of a notice.
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For those who missed it, this was the farewell tweet from the GI account.
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mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
None of those things are hurting Sony and Nintendo though. But other things from our past are dying fast.
Dr. Wilkinson
Member
I... honestly can't believe how they've managed to hang around this long. What a run!
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Dr. Wilkinson
Member
What strikes me the most about these arguments is you could literally put these up against Iwata's warnings in the early & mid 2000s and some of them would be nearly verbatim. And to a certain extent even Nintendo cannot help but slowly follow down this path as well. Surely the cost & time put into BotW and TotK is far from ideal for them, even if they knew people wouldn't mind the wait because their software is all focused around one platform now, and there are no droughts anymore.
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Dr. Wilkinson
Member
1) They're not growing the audience
2) Younger gamers are adopting consoles less. The Japanese population is literally expected to decline to just 87 million people by 2070, down from 125 million today. Their home audience will greatly shrink, so they need to grow their audience overseas and in emerging markets.
4) Gaming companies can't reign in their own costs in terms of development and staffing bloat, and are putting out less stuff than ever before. It took six years for them to make ToTK after BotW, and it's not like the main Zelda team made any other games in the meantime. That's historically extremely long for a gap between mainline Zelda games. A decade ago it was 3 years between games, at the most.
5) Due to costs rising, they're only betting on the safest stuff imaginable and are growing stale. And they're charging more for it up front and through microtransactions. I think Nintendo is directly affected by this as much as any other major publisher/ developer. They've been doing $30 "expansion passes" for years now on many of their biggest games. Among other things.
All the stuff that people have tried to point out for a while now, but usually get laughed off here.
2) Younger gamers are adopting consoles less. The Japanese population is literally expected to decline to just 87 million people by 2070, down from 125 million today. Their home audience will greatly shrink, so they need to grow their audience overseas and in emerging markets.
4) Gaming companies can't reign in their own costs in terms of development and staffing bloat, and are putting out less stuff than ever before. It took six years for them to make ToTK after BotW, and it's not like the main Zelda team made any other games in the meantime. That's historically extremely long for a gap between mainline Zelda games. A decade ago it was 3 years between games, at the most.
5) Due to costs rising, they're only betting on the safest stuff imaginable and are growing stale. And they're charging more for it up front and through microtransactions. I think Nintendo is directly affected by this as much as any other major publisher/ developer. They've been doing $30 "expansion passes" for years now on many of their biggest games. Among other things.
All the stuff that people have tried to point out for a while now, but usually get laughed off here.
I think Nintendo is plenty affected by these things. They're not immune to what's affecting others in the game industry, even if they're particularly good at weathering the bad trends, and spending less than others do, particularly when times are tough.
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Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
Well like I said, a lot of people like to just ignore this stuff and then act surprised later.
I think every single thing is affecting Sony and Nintendo as well. 1, 2, 3 for sure on Sony, 4 for sure on Sony, 5 for sue on Sony but Nintendo also uses reliable IP for sure.
Maybe you should challenge whatever it is in your worldview that is making you write that nothing is affecting them. That's why you're going to continue to be surprised. Up to you though.
Fake
Gold Member
Not even a farewell they can do right... damn...
ResurrectedContrarian
Suffers with mild autism
Just as paper newspaper had 100x more integrity and depth than online news of today, the print gaming mags were so much better to read back in the day than what you get from any of the big sites (IGN, Kotaku, etc).
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Affecting? Yes! Everyone is affected by these changes. But hurting? Nah man. Not even close. Both Nintendo and Sony are riding great at the moment. And we need to start being realistic about what's really going on around here when it comes to gaming.
Humdinger
Member
Well, this particular story (about GI folding) is about the print industry, not about the gaming industry. The print industry (newspapers, magazines, books) has been dying across the board for years, decades. I'm surprised Gi lasted as long as it did. Most other gaming magazines have long-since folded. But that's isn't about the gaming industry. It's about the print industry vs. the internet.
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Tal Shiar Agent
Member
I love physical games... but I'd also love if GameSpot went under and it's CEO went to prison...
saintjules
Gold Member
They did? I don't see that. Supposedly Gamestoo straight up nuked the account. It's scum like behavior.
butane bob
Member
I don't buy that for a second. EGM were infamous for not actually playing the games they reviewed for example. The nonsense "7/10 = average" rule started with print magazines coz they were terrified of losing their publisher freebies. Old american magazines were more advertisements than content.
British mags were no better - check out mean machines or super play where they give atrocious games massively high scores, and then turn the page and there's a feature showing photos of them all hanging out with the publisher and drinking and partying.
Everything wrong with modern games journalism started in print decades ago. In fact you can read all about it in a 1996 issue of Amiga Power in an article called "A Pound of Flesh" where they point out in detail what is wrong with gaming magazines and how corrupt they are.
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Moriarty1889
Member
With everything going digital this was bound to happen sadly. It is nice to have an actual physical magazine for gaming imo and I do miss EGM, PSM and others. Sad times indeed.
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cinnamonandgravy
Member
neogaf should have a magazine.
some original art, some nice quality paper, some shit posts, and have it delivered right to my toilet.
some original art, some nice quality paper, some shit posts, and have it delivered right to my toilet.
Singular7
Member
F
Still have a fat stack of magazines, so many cool covers. My favorite is still the exclusive Arkham Knight reveal cover issue. Had me hyped beyond belief as a teen.
Despite everything else ^ is why we should be sad
ForAcademicPurposes
Gold Member
Publications like Gaminformer were a few of the reasons that I got into graphic design as a young squirt. I salute everyone that has worked and given their everything for that publication.
ResurrectedContrarian
Suffers with mild autism
Some of that is fair, if you went into the mags looking for reviews. I never did as a kid. I was just excited to get a glimpse of all kinds of new things coming, and since the internet wasn't there to blast a constant feed of advertisements 24/7, it was actually exciting and surprising when footage of something like Mario 64 suddenly showed up in a longform feature, and I'd actually read all of it instead of quick-scrolling as everyone does now.
Constant information kills the excitement and mystery. Every dev now just puts out a continual drip of "announcements," like the fighting games that are the worst offenders by trying to get a whole series of new articles every few weeks when they unveil another single fighter.
Shake Your Rump
Member
balls of snow
Member
Rage bait is all the rage. Look at the views those ytubers get and compared it to old man vidya game institutions.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Good time to start making backups before these eventually disappear forever.
Evil Calvin
Afraid of Boobs
I don't think they had any discs. At least the couple hundred issues I have never had them.
Evil Calvin
Afraid of Boobs
GAAS games like Fortnite .....the publishers see $$$$$ and how much money mobile and console GAAS games make and have been focusing on that. Indie games will thrive as they are more creative and the expectations are lower.