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Games Entertainment

Print Gaming Magazines Doomed? 58

Posted by Zonk from the doooom dept.
Joystiq has a pair of interesting posts up looking at the future of print gaming publications. Besides positing on the future of the print media, they discuss subscription and reach rates for some of the major U.S. magazines. From that piece: "Game Informer really is several times larger than their nearest competitor. How did they manage that? And why the heck is the Official U.S. Playstation Magazine passed around so much than all the other publications?" I wonder what the differences are between here and abroad? In the UK, for example, there are a large number of publications, all of which seem to have avid readerships. (Though, with magazines like Edge and PC Gamer UK, it's hard not to see why.)
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Print Gaming Magazines Doomed? More

Print Gaming Magazines Doomed?

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  • The print medium is quickly becoming legacy. I read 3 newspapers a day and a few magazines a month, but they are all online. It's much more convenient as I can read them from anywhere at anytime. Plus, the online search tools are nice, makes it much easier to filter out all the garbage articles I have no desire to read.
    • And you can read a newspaper / magazine at anytime too!
      • Not really. Say I'm at school, I can't open up a newspaper in the middle of class (well, I could, but I'm sure the teacher wouldn't appreciate it). Plus, the NYT only has Sunday delivery here, the Washington post has none. I'd have to go to the newsstand to buy them, whereas I can just hop on line.

        Electronic versions are much more convenient and accessible.
        • The teacher probably wouldn't be as thrilled with you reading the site rather than listening to his boring lecture either ;)

          I have no clue about your locale, but around here, there are MANY places where there are no open net connections, so the newspaper is much easier to use.
          • Actually, I surf thru all my classes and none of the teachers care, probably because I participate more than any other student.

            I live downtown in the center on my region's metro area, so net access isn't a problem.
    • It's much more convenient as I can read them from anywhere at anytime.

      You can read newspapers anywhere, but you can only read websites when you're at internet-enabled computers.
  • First, let me clarify that I said better writing, not good writing...Gamespot, on average, makes me cringe about three or four times less per article than Gamepro.
  • Reading books, magazines, and other text not on a computer screen is becoming a thing of the past. Blame schools, they're the ones who encourage and demand the children to use computers so badly.

    • Re:Surprise? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by CoderBob ( 858156 ) on Thursday January 12, 2006 @03:10PM (#14456781)
      People have been saying this for decades. I'm not so sure. There are people (myself included) who have problems reading text on a computer screen. If I do so for too long, I get prodigious headaches- which I don't get from dead-tree products.

      If nothing else, news sources are having to compete to keep readers, but just like audio books haven't destroyed the book market, I don't see people clamoring for the newest Robert Jordan novel in electronic form.

      I wouldn't blame schools- schools don't teach children to use the computer to read things, they teach them to use them for word processing, etc.- and print copies. Libraries, with limited computers in most schools, encourage students to print material for later reference (and to open up workstations). Computers are excellent for interactive things, but if I'm reading a 200 page treatise on something, I'd rather have a paper copy I can mark up, take with me on the bus, or read in bed without needing a notebook.

      • Some tips (Score:2, Informative)

        by hackwrench ( 573697 )
        Adjust the monitor's brightness and contrast so that it is comfortable to you. Also font size and selection can be an issue. I prefer the room to be dark when looking at the monitor, other's preferences may vary. Also, refresh rate. The current refresh rate of your monitor may be playing havoc with your neural net. Try faster or slower refresh rates.

        About schools. They don't seem to publish much in the way of disclosing what they teach children, which is a real pity. Then there's the whole grade system. Y
        • Thanks. I've had better luck with the dark room, and using a small light to read notes if need be. The biggest problem is at work, where lighting is not in my control, nor is monitor type...
    • Reading books, magazines, and other text not on a computer screen is becoming a thing of the past. Blame schools, they're the ones who encourage and demand the children to use computers so badly.

      Do we still use clay tablets or papyrus?

      Or how about bamboo reeds or sheep skin?

      Reading online is still reading.

      Knowing how to read today is more important that it was even 10, 20, or even 100 years ago because of computer. Heck, I daresay in a given day I generate more text than a scribe in the middle ages a month.
  • Print is doomed in general. Check the financials of the big newspaper corps....

  • People Still Like Owning Things (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Azarael ( 896715 ) on Thursday January 12, 2006 @03:05PM (#14456721) Homepage
    That may be true, but print(and other media) will still stay around as long as the consumption of digial media is tied to inconvenient technology. Reading a book, magazine or newspaper is far more pleasent to many, rather than looking at the same text on a computer, pda, etc. It's nice being able to hold something in your hand and take it anywhere without batteries or cords. Outmoded idea? maybe, but it's the truth.

  • become less mainstream, maybe... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by leland242 ( 736905 ) on Thursday January 12, 2006 @03:07PM (#14456735)
    ...go away forever, unlikely.

    I'll be the first to say "you cant take it to the bathroom". But, as a subscriber to PC Gamer, I like the magazine. I have a job. I own a house. I do not have time to troll the internet looking at every review site under the sun. Boom, once a month I get a magazine, full of pretty pictures and (to me) well written articles that are both humorous and honest.

    I also get Rolling Stone, yet I don't see articles talking about how that is going out of print anytime soon. (and it better not, I shelled out $50 bucks a few years ago to become a subscriber for life!)
    • you hit the spot. Most gaming websites don't understand that it's the depth of the articles, not the number of them, that gets the reader hooked. I've noticed a pleasing trend in french gaming magazines who have realised that since they can't beat the gaming websites in bringing the latest information, they can at least beat them at creating interresting content ( actual journalism, not just reposting the latest newz post from ea's website)
    • You can take it to the bathroom with Wi-Fi, though.

  • Nintendo Power (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Digital Vomit ( 891734 ) on Thursday January 12, 2006 @03:08PM (#14456747) Homepage Journal
    I know Nintendo Power is a special case, but I quit my NP subscription when I was younger when they introduced advertisements. I've toyed with the idea of subscribing again, but the thought of buying a book of ads divided up by the odd game review doesn't really grab me, you know? On the internet, at least, I have the power to block ads.

  • everything is doomed (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I feel like the slashdot writers watch Invader Zim because at least one article a week has to do with something being "doomed... DOOMED.... DOOOOOOMED!!!!!". This is of course followed by another article explaining why the first article was wrong. People should just stop reading and replying to articles with the word "Doom" in the title.

  • UK Circulation Data (Score:4, Informative)

    by easychord ( 671421 ) on Thursday January 12, 2006 @03:31PM (#14457025)
    Sample of games rags from www.abc.org.uk

    Official Playstation 2 (Future Publishing Ltd) 133,242
    Official UK Xbox Magazine (Future Publishing Ltd) 85,072
    Games Master (Future Publishing Ltd) 55,388
    PC Gamer (Future Publishing Ltd) 48,326
    Nintendo Official Magazine (EMAP Active Limited) 37,760
    Edge (Future Publishing Ltd) 31,078
    Games TM (Highbury-Entertainment Ltd) 20,117
    • Excellent list of mags, I subscribe to two of those (PCG and Edge, Future must love me) and regularly pick up a third (GTM) on occasions. Nice to see the total subscriptions though, thanks.

  • Gaming Magazines (Score:4, Insightful)

    by wickedj ( 652189 ) on Thursday January 12, 2006 @03:32PM (#14457038) Homepage
    First off, print media will never go away. Certainly, I foresee a reduction in the amount of publications but for the most part, the price, ease and legacy of paper media is far too appealing.

    However, for gaming magazines, I have a feeling that most of their content will move to an online medium. Gaming in general implies electronic devices (not including board games). Since the audience is already familiar with technology, moving magazines to an electronic medium makes sense. I forsee that online strategy guides with images and links will be the "soup du jour". Of course all this exists now but will be more prevalent in the future. It's been a while since I have read a gaming magazine and to be honest, the reason I quit was lack of actual depth within the article. Certainly, I don't expect much from a game review or news on the latest hardware but sometimes I want something a little more. The writing in these magazines is severely lacking.

    However, just recently, I did find one online magazine that actually had some depth and the writers some talent, The Escapist [escapist.com]. Hopefully this is an example of what's to come when the majority of the magazines move online. Something that is not just reviews but actual journalism as well.
  • I would never give up print magazines. My personal favorite, of which I'd pay double the subscription rate if they were in trouble, is "Computer Games." That magazine doesn't try to be the most quick on reviews, but they try to be the best. They usually have thoughtful comments and interesting articles. The "Applied Game Theory" column alone is worth the cost to me. I personally like being able to sit with a magazine on the couch or outside and not have to worry about net connection or a computer or a scree
  • How does Game Informer manage the large numbers? Simple. They shove it down your throat. I can remember way back when it was Funcoland, they would give away a subscription to GI (or maybe a different magazine?) when you signed up for the membership card for 10% off used stuff or whatever it was at the time, and AFAIK they still do it today as Gamestop. I can remember sometime in fairly recent memory turning down the free subscription, much to the surprise and chagrin of the sales monkey.
    • they recently stopped providing game informer for free. as such, the discount card now only costs $5 for a year, which, since I didn't care about some lame-o magazine, seems, to me, to be a lot better deal. a $5 card for a 10% discount on used games is an impulse buy: its the change after breaking a $50-spot on a used game. a $10 one with a subscription to a crappy magazine, not so much.
    • IMO GI is the best print videogame resource out there. It doesn't cost an arm and a leg and a left nut and the reviews are actually useful, plus anything they do a big review on has at least two reviewers so you can actually get some idea of what's left to personal preference. Every video game magazine is disappointing, GI is less so than most.
  • IMHO, this is a question of value. Does the print bring more value to the reader than online material? In most videogame magazines, the answer is unfortunately NO. One publication, Play Magazine [playmagazine.com], attempts to deliver value to the gamer community in their publication by printing articles that go deeper than your standard publication, along with exclusive interviews with many different facets of the game developer world. Their magazine provides additional information covering topics such as gaming in Japan
  • The editors at PC Gamer (the American one) feel like a second family to me. A second, flabby, balding family. I don't respect any web journalists by name as I respect the writers at PC Gamer. However, I'm not thrilled about the price. Subscription price is very reasonable, but individual issues cost as much as $12CAD! Considering most issues come with a CDROM with 1 demo that's pretty tough to justify. I have some ancient PC Gamer issues that cost $6CAD - including the Quake 1 issue which was over 300

  • Lifetime subscriber (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Puhase ( 911920 )
    I picked up Gamepro from the very first issue it ever printed and have been a subscriber ever since. Nowadays it is simply more out of habit and my family wanting to continue the tradition my grandmother started than my strong desire to read it. The problem with that magazine in particular was that the very strong minds in the writing and editorial staff were promoted or poached away to places that offered higher salaries/position. I can understand the lure of more money and escaping more of the "hectic dea

  • UK game mags (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Jurrasic ( 940901 )
    Not at all suprised that the UK gaming magazines still have a large and avid readership. When I was a kid, I would pass over US-pressed pap like Vidiot and Electronic Games magazine and get the local WH Smith to import the UK magazines Zzap!64, C+VG and such, the quality and editorial content is about 100% better, funnier and more diverse. The same exists today, in mags like Edge. If the US paper gaming mag industry wants to live, they need more smart writing and lower price tags, and less bulging DVDs o
  • One of my gaming magazines recently contained a 30 page advertisement. That's right, 30 pages. They were even numbered. This seems to have been the trend with gaming magazines as a whole: more ads, less content. That issue with the 30 page spread is they day they lost me as a subscriber. I like having magazines as a supplement to the news I get online, but I certainly don't buy them for the ads. If that kind of nonsense is the way they are going I guess I'll have make do without them.
    • I got that damn magazine too. PSM. I was so shocked that I had to count the pages. I counted 32. I was so pissed when I finished counting. The 4 page Peter Jackson's King Kong ad's that were made to look like articles were bad enough. Yet these guys went and accepted a 32 page advertisement on CELL PHONE GAMES!

      CELL PHONE GAMES!

      The subscription was free when I signed up for Gamefly, but I stall canceled it after that junk.
  • I don't think game mags can be judged in with other print mags.

    I stopped buying game mags years ago because they all seem to be giving good reviews to bad games because they have special deals with distributors or publishers.

    online mags to me, tho, are just as bad. I don't read them either.

    I buy a game because I think it looks or sounds good and I make my own decisions. I never let my opinion be swayed by biased game "journos."
  • I may be one of the select few left in the world, but I prefer reading a good magazine over a good online article. Printed mediums are much lighter on the eyes, and the pages are not attacking the reader. Sure there are many ads in magazines, but rarely do printed ads flash incessantly or jump from corner to corner or scroll down until you hit the x in the corner.

    However, I have completely stopped reading gaming magazines. It's not that they've stopped being useful. Oh wait, that's exactly it. Gaming mag
  • Print's days won't be numbered until game publisher ad bucks start flowing to web sites instead of magazines. Gaming magazines still get the lion's share of advertising bucks spent by game publishers. The shift of ad budgets to the web has been slower to develop in gaming than in some other news niches. While some large gaming web sites and networks can build revenue through direct ad sales, many independent sites can't afford to hire advertising reps. As a result, Google AdSense is the primary revenue sour
  • Zonk completely fails to mention that Highbury Press is currently up for sale and most of its magazines face closure.. UK magazines are in a pretty sorry state. Edge is good, but PC Gamer is a self-congratulatory smarmy piece of chauvinistic rubbish. I used to get PC Format but that's gone downhill too.. now the only thing I get magazines for is the exclusives (and the only decent one in months has been OXM360's FFXI beta).

  • Game Informer really is several times larger than their nearest competitor. How did they manage that?

    Very easily. For a long time, you got a free subscription to Game Informer whenever you signed up for the Used-Games club at GameStop (a very large national retailer with many, many small neighborhood shops). So, for a year or so, I got the magazine in the mail. I actually liked it better than websites when it talked about games. Obviously, for E3 news, print will always lag behind, but it's nice to sit d

  • I really enjoy print game magazines. I like the fast and simple interface of being able to flip through from start to finish- I see screenshots of all the games (some of them as big as a page), I get exposed to games I would just ignore when there's just a title and a tiny screenshot and maybe a line of text that I have to make a conscious decision to click on and wait for it to load in the case of a website. I think the graphic designers of magazine are usually better than for websites, which typically h
  • "Print is dead." -- Dr. Egon Spengler, 1984

    Bruce

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