Shard said:The odd thing here is this is the second time that ZD has done a sale of this nature. (They used to own Gamespot till it was sold to Cnet.)
sp0rsk said:You guys just wait till all the 1up editors get modship here!
Rlan said:True, there are some stupid companies out there
But in terms of the financial news, well,w ouldn't that be one of the reasons why OPM got taken out back?
Hell yea! I'll put in my 100 (payapal)sp0rsk said:You guys just wait till all the 1up editors get modship here! It's too bad were going to have to get rid of 1up yours though. That's a shame. Oh well, they will always have a seat as special guests on the gafcast.
GitarooMan said:Uh oh, too many free subs to EGM maybe...I just hope AOL doesn't buy it and make some shite like AOL games or something.
NeoGAF 360 confirmed....sp0rsk said:You guys just wait till all the 1up editors get modship here! It's too bad were going to have to get rid of 1up yours though. That's a shame. Oh well, they will always have a seat as special guests on the gafcast.
shuri said:Let's not forget how every mag looks and feel the same. I really miss the days when gaming journalists and mags actually had personality.
Do you remember the one with doom 2 on the cover it was HUGE!The Mighty Schwein said:Not that I've read many gaming mags since the early 90s but I miss the days when every issue was as thick as a phone book. Personality? Wuzzat?
boutrosinit said:Worse; would be a Future Publishing purchase. All integrity = no more.
Makro said:EGM had lost all integrity long before this. It's the magazine that puts rumors on its cover.
GDJustin said:There is no reason for videogame print magazines to exist.
Eventually, they won't.
NoooOOOOoOOOOOoOOOOOOOOOOO!sp0rsk said:You guys just wait till all the 1up editors get modship here! It's too bad were going to have to get rid of 1up yours though. That's a shame. Oh well, they will always have a seat as special guests on the gafcast.
Segata Sanshiro said:Well, there are a lot of reasons to go with a print magazine.
- Exclusive content
- Attractive and easy to read formatting
- Portability
- Easy to flip through a large source of information
- The space limit also ensures more concise writing, often leading to higher quality writing that gets to the point
- Reading a mag isn't as hard on the eyes as reading off a screen
- No pop-up or pop-under noisy animated ads
- When I turn the page, it works every time. Not so every time I click a link!
Probably more I could think of with time, but the point remains. Magazines and websites complement each other, like EGM and 1up do. I wouldn't want to see mags go anywhere.
Warner and Disney?Vibri said:I wonder which major media companies are left out there who could buy them?
News Corp = already has IGN
AOL = already has GameDaily
Comcast = already has G4
Viacom = already had Gametrailers.com
Cnet = already has Gamespot
Tobor said:Regardless of what you want to happen(as your opinion is of course valid), print is dying. Forums and websites are killing it. My rebuttal to your points:
Exclusive content - anything truly relevant will be on GAF, before the magazine hits the stands. Lets say EGM manages to keep something exclusive a secret. "EGM breaks news about ....."will be on GAF page 1 before the mag circulates.
Attractive and easy to read formatting - sure, but attractive enough to warrant the cost of the magazine? Not likely.
Portability - Sounds like you need a new phone. I have access to GAF from anywhere(even the toilet!) in a higly readable format. I post quite frequently from my phone.
easy to flip through a large source of information - when you find a magazine that is easier to flip through than a search function on a website, let me know.
higher quality writing - good point here, but immediacy still wins the day to my mind
hard on the eyes - epaper is coming quicker than you think. There are perfect contrast ebook readers available now.
pop ups - you using internet explorer? this has been long solved.
works every time - again, worth the money? Not to enough people apparently. Ill take free with the occasional glitch myself.
Magazines geared towards older less tech savvy readers(Old people monthly?) still have some legs. Anything else is going to keep getting squeezed. The next 10 years will be a bloodbath.
Exclusive content - anything truly relevant will be on GAF, before the magazine hits the stands. Lets say EGM manages to keep something exclusive a secret. "EGM breaks news about ....."will be on GAF page 1 before the mag circulates.
Attractive and easy to read formatting - sure, but attractive enough to warrant the cost of the magazine? Not likely.
Portability - Sounds like you need a new phone. I have access to GAF from anywhere(even the toilet!) in a higly readable format. I post quite frequently from my phone.
easy to flip through a large source of information - when you find a magazine that is easier to flip through than a search function on a website, let me know.
higher quality writing - good point here, but immediacy still wins the day to my mind
hard on the eyes - epaper is coming quicker than you think. There are perfect contrast ebook readers available now.
pop ups - you using internet explorer? this has been long solved.
works every time - again, worth the money? Not to enough people apparently. Ill take free with the occasional glitch myself.
Chris Remo said:While I agree that (sadly) gaming print publications' days are numbered, most of your reasons apply only to the most technological savvy people, not your random guys who buy Game Informer to read about Halo 3. E-paper? Scouring web forums full of wackos to read a story a day before your issue arrives at your home? Posting on those web forums from your cell phone? Hell, using something other than Internet Explorer? This stuff really isn't interesting or useful to average gamers.
Segata Sanshiro said:On news, codes, and partially on reviews, the internet has won the day. There's no question. By exclusive content I was more referring to features, which are sometimes photo-rich and layout dependent. I have no illusions about the waning popularity of print, but extinction is a long way away.
Attractive and easier to read formatting along with high quality writing that works everytime will always be worth the money to me. Sometimes, you get what you pay for.
I've yet to find a website search function easier and more reliable than an index and my fingers.
Perfect contrast is still a screen, not paper. There is absolutely a difference that they are never going to be able to correct.
As for ads, I suppose I could use an adblocker, but I don't. Pop-ups usually get squashed, but pop-unders and embedded ads still show up with my browser.
On the portability issue, I'm afraid I can't ever see myself enjoying reading pure text content off a tiny screen while on the bus or the throne.
Magazines will go away eventually, I'm sure. But I don't see why people would want them to. As I said before, the inherent weaknesses of the format are the strengths of the web format, and the inherent weaknesses of the web format are the strengths of the print format.
The Mighty Schwein said:Not that I've read many gaming mags since the early 90s but I miss the days when every issue was as thick as a phone book. Personality? Wuzzat?
Segata Sanshiro said:You, uh, can't judge a book by its cover?
/straightens tie
I second that. Nowadays, when there is TGS, we see the coverage as it happens instead of waiting for the next issue of EGM to come out 2 months after the actual event. Especially with the football-like nature of gaming industry, the lead time can't be compensated. Sure they can secure a few exclusives, but that's not enough to warrant the future. With today's release schedules, developers release games as games get finalized, so mags enjoying early copy of finished games to review 2 months before everyone else seems a thing of the past.Tobor said:I spent a good portion of my childhood reading gaming mags, so I'm not gleeful about there demise, just realistic. As fanciful as some of my comments may seem, the big picture is unmistakeable.
Segata Sanshiro said:Heh, the phone book ones were 50% ads back then too, but 50% of 500 pages still beat 50% of 200 that we get nowadays. The content today is a lot better though.
It wasn't as difficult as people make it sound. Every publisher makes visits to NY regularly to do press tours and show off products to east coast editors and publications, so stopping off at Chicago along the way was no big deal (in fact, most PR people loved it because it gave them an excuse to see the city). We had people visiting us almost every other day when we were in Chicago. I'm sure it still goes on up in Minnesota, too.Chris Remo said:I can't imagine trying to operate a video game media outlet out of Chicago rather than San Francisco. There's just too much industry press-related stuff that happens in this city. Believe me I'd probably be living elsewhere (even elsewhere in the Bay Area) but my job basically requires I be here.
:lol :lol :lolmistuhcahlos said:Great news. A magazine and website full of a bunch of wankers. Their "everything sucks" attitude is pretty typical among people our age, but it makes for a shit read. Maybe this will finally humble them.
GDJustin said:There is no reason for videogame print magazines to exist.
Eventually, they won't.
[wallstreet.jpg]Rlan said:What sort of idiot organisation would buy a company just to kill it?
Vibri said:I wonder which major media companies are left out there who could buy them?
News Corp = already has IGN
AOL = already has GameDaily
Comcast = already has G4
Viacom = already had Gametrailers.com
Cnet = already has Gamespot
jj984jj said:Warner and Disney?