Gaming World Forums
General Category => Entertainment and Media => Topic started by: Rowain on January 07, 2009, 04:31:06 pm
-
UPRC posted it in the SFIV thread but it's sort of a shock and I guess deserves its own thread. Electronic Gaming Monthly is dead.
UGO/Hearst Publishing officially bought the 1UP Network yesterday and I guess there was an internal email leaked that EGM was shutting down after the January issue (which is technically out I guess?)
The official UGO aquisition announcement is here: http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3172156
I don't think there's been official word on EGM being shut down yet, but I think it's a done deal.
I dunno. I haven't been reading EGM much since like 2004, but I've occasionally bought an issue when I've got time to kill and am near a newstand. It's the only videogame magazine I've ever bothered with, because it's the only one that wasn't afraid to give out bad reviews, and it used to have some funny writing. I bought an issue a few months back and was surprised how small (it was the November issue I think and these used to be huge) it was, as well as how BROAD it had become too. I guess they were desperately trying to appeal to a bigger market and were now previewing PC games and stuff too. I also didn't recognize nearly any of the editors, with the exception of the editor in Chief, James Mielke who I always thought was a doofus who liked Digimon videogames.
I know the general consensus is that gaming journalism is shit, but EGM was the least shit and now it's gone.
Edit:
The 1UP network will continue I think, but there is another story about them laying off like 30 people, which has to be more than like half the staff. Tough economic times!! This is one of the first magazines to go but I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing newspapers and others magazines dropping off too.
-
EGM was the gaming magazine I'd buy from time to time as well. This is disappointing.
-
Man, I used to love EGM. I got a subscription from god knows where (like, no one in my family signed up for it but for some reason it was coming under my dad's name so who knows) so I would read it all the time, it was really great. I guess because of the internet they don't have as much of a business anymore.
Video game magazines nowadays are usually pretty terrible though, they never give bad reviews. A few years ago I found some old early-90's GamePro magazines that were my brother's and I really liked how they'd just tell you if a game sucked really bad (using their smiley face/frowny face dude system). I wish the magazines could be like that now.
-
The staff layoffs at 1Up are probably EGM's crew. It's sad to see it close, I guess, but people who are interested in game news are not interested in buying magazines. By the time a print magazine is out, a game is pretty old hat, so the news is pretty worthless.
EGM was a huge piece of dead weight on the 1Up network. It costs so much money to run a print magazine for games because they have to pay top dollar to get information/review copies in advance of websites etc. If it hadn't been for EGM, 1Up probably would have been able to avoid a buyout.
So yeah . . . it's a bummer to see the most respected game magazine shut down, but it's been long overdue.
Also I miss the gigantic 300-page EGM issues too! :(
-
No more Game Night. I am upset. :(
-
I remember EGM was where I got my first look at Pokemon Gold and Silver and it was like I was seeing THE FUTURE OF GAMING.
I miss those days...
-
The internet wins!
-
1UP Yours. :sad:
-
Only magazines I got when I was a kid were Lego and some magazine where kids reviewed toys and games using smileys and made fun of commercials. So....
-
I remember EGM was where I got my first look at Pokemon Gold and Silver and it was like I was seeing THE FUTURE OF GAMING.
I miss those days...
Haha yes I think I have that one too. It was like HOLY SHIT, REAL TIME EVENTS IN A GAME???? and I remember being pretty excited about the prospect of it coming to North America.
Man EGM also had some pretty elaborate April Fools jokes too. There was one years ago about a system called the Phantom which would allow you to buy and download games to the console via the internet. This was like 9 or 10 years ago, and it's kind of neat because you can actually do that now, and in fact it's a massive and growing market (XBOX Live Arcade, Steam, etc). They had a massive "press release" about it I think, and even photoshopped pictures of the Phantom booth at some electronics expo.
-
I thought the Phantom was real it just bombed or something
I kind of had a thing against EGM to be honest because they were the one who always put their magazine in plastic wrap so you couldn't browse through it. Serves them right the bastards
I think this was before free demo CDs/DVDs too
-
So it turns out that the layoffs were not unneccesary crew - it was actually the entirety of the editorial staff (with two exceptions). Who wants to bet they laid off expensive senior staff and will fill in with new, lower-paid people? I have heard about this sort of thing happening and people being asked to re-apply for their old job at a lower salary (Circuit City comes to mind).
Also all of their podcast staff are gone, so I assume the podcasts are also. That's a bummer because they reeally were the best podcasts out there for video games (esp. 1Up yours).
-
Ragnar's right, the Phantom wasn't one of their jokes at all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_(game_system)
I used to subscribe to EGM, but stopped a few years back when they started going downhill. I think I looked at an issue at a friend's house a few months back and it was just abysmal.
-
egm use to be one of my favorites, still have a bunch of old issues from '95 lying around. i was actually thinking of looking for one of those sites that gives you a free year, but it looks like that won't be happening(and is possibly part of the reason they are no more...)
-
Game Players/Ultra Game Players was the best videogame mag. EGM was alright too though.
-
The Phantom is real. I pass Infinium's building downtown from time to time and get to laugh at it.
The concept of "gaming journalism" is already rather oversaturated; it is not surprising one of the less modern giants collapsed.
-
The recession leaks into Gaming.
-
Oh, I checked the wiki entry for EGM April Fools jokes, it was the return of the Intellivision that I was thinking of.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EGM_April_Fools%27_jokes#2000
Also yeah, the 1UP Show is dead too.
-
I remember how last year's joke was a Lego Halo, and as soon as I saw it I thought "that's way too obvious," then I saw an article for 50 Cent: Blood in the Sand or whatever and I wasn't so sure anymore.
-
1UP Yours. :sad:
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
1UP YOURS WAS ACTUALLY A PART OF MY LIFE. Every saturday I'd chill out in the bath and listen to it...
SHIT.
EUGHHHHH!!!! NO MORE SHANE AND GARNETT. GOD DAMN IT.
THE LAST ONE IS THE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL. NO. THIS IS NOT RIGHT.
Sorry, this has GENUINELY upset me.
-
Haha yes I think I have that one too. It was like HOLY SHIT, REAL TIME EVENTS IN A GAME???? and I remember being pretty excited about the prospect of it coming to North America.
Man EGM also had some pretty elaborate April Fools jokes too. There was one years ago about a system called the Phantom which would allow you to buy and download games to the console via the internet. This was like 9 or 10 years ago, and it's kind of neat because you can actually do that now, and in fact it's a massive and growing market (XBOX Live Arcade, Steam, etc). They had a massive "press release" about it I think, and even photoshopped pictures of the Phantom booth at some electronics expo.
That issue is one of the few issues I still have because sometimes I like to read old game magazines and try to remember how exciting they were back then :fogetsad:
Also do you guys remember the Hsu and Chan comics because back then I thought they were the funniest thing but if I read them now I feel like they wouldn't be as good (in our world of video game webcomics that are so bad....)
edit: woah hsu and chan still exist?
-
It costs so much money to run a print magazine for games because they have to pay top dollar to get information/review copies in advance of websites etc. If it hadn't been for EGM, 1Up probably would have been able to avoid a buyout.
The magazines don't usually pay for exclusives, they just promise a certain amount of pages in the magazine and to give a fantastic preview/review of them.
-
I'm surprised that they still even have game magazines. I used to collect a ton of them every month as a kid but that all stopped instantly when I had internet access at home. Why bother spending $10 to read last month's news and reviews when you can just get up to the minute information for free on the net?
I was saying a while back how I loved the old old Nintendo Powers because it had a feel like a comic book or something back then. Now they're all like WEBSITE ON PAPER anyway like Nester was sort of a webcomic that you might've bothered to read because it was omg a cartoon in the middle of a gaming magazine
-
That issue is one of the few issues I still have because sometimes I like to read old game magazines and try to remember how exciting they were back then :fogetsad:
Also do you guys remember the Hsu and Chan comics because back then I thought they were the funniest thing but if I read them now I feel like they wouldn't be as good (in our world of video game webcomics that are so bad....)
edit: woah hsu and chan still exist?
Hsu and Chan was always pretty good. It usually had these really funny little details that you would miss if you just read straight through. You could definitely still enjoy it now because it is not COMPLETELY AWFUL like every other video game comic.
-
remember those april fools jokes?
those were actually really great.
-
this didn't come as a surprise to me because not only does ziff-davis suck but they've also been giving away free subscriptions like mad probably so no one would complain when they did sell it. Only magazine I cried over was Dragon and Dungeon because that shit was meticulously researched. I remember one Dragon had an article on how to run a campaign during the Crusades with a dark fantasy touch and they mapped out Jerusalem and made stats for religious organizations the players could join OH MAN IT WAS INCREDIBLE.
Still, this laid off a ridiculously talented crew and they're relocating twice that number. Fuck that shit. The company was doing fine but thanks to this "recession" all the big wigs are fucking panicking, selling all of their assets, and firing dozens of hardworking middle-income people so they can keep their 50 million a year fucking paychecks. GOD HELP ME IF I ONLY MAKE 45 MILLION A YEAR I WILL MAKE SURE 20 GUYS BENEATH ME ARE FIRED AND STARVING IN THE STREETS!
And UGO is terrible. At least they're keeping Filefront or else I'd be pissed.
James Mielke who I always thought was a doofus who liked Digimon videogames.
b-b-but i'm a doofus who likes the digimon videogames :(
-
Haha yes I think I have that one too. It was like HOLY SHIT, REAL TIME EVENTS IN A GAME???? and I remember being pretty excited about the prospect of it coming to North America.
Man EGM also had some pretty elaborate April Fools jokes too. There was one years ago about a system called the Phantom which would allow you to buy and download games to the console via the internet. This was like 9 or 10 years ago, and it's kind of neat because you can actually do that now, and in fact it's a massive and growing market (XBOX Live Arcade, Steam, etc). They had a massive "press release" about it I think, and even photoshopped pictures of the Phantom booth at some electronics expo.
Thanks for letting me know that my friends and I were dumbasses who thought this was real.. and years later pondered what ever happened to the phantom
-
this didn't come as a surprise to me because not only does ziff-davis suck but they've also been giving away free subscriptions like mad probably so no one would complain when they did sell it.
That's how I got mine.
-
I guess this means no more free issues...
-
b-b-but i'm a doofus who likes the digimon videogames :(
Haha I am refering to when those DIGIMON WORLD videogames were coming out and EGM was reviewing them and everyone on the staff gave them like 2 and he was giving them 8s and shit. Basically I've always found Mielke was incapable of giving truly poor reviews, like his scores were always substantially higher than the others tasked with a certain game. It's another reason I was sort of surprised and annoyed to find EGM was only giving one reviewer on quite a few games now when I bought an issue recently. Sure, they used three on BIG TICKET titles but the smaller ones only had one person working on them.
-
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
1UP YOURS WAS ACTUALLY A PART OF MY LIFE. Every saturday I'd chill out in the bath and listen to it...
SHIT.
EUGHHHHH!!!! NO MORE SHANE AND GARNETT. GOD DAMN IT.
THE LAST ONE IS THE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL. NO. THIS IS NOT RIGHT.
Sorry, this has GENUINELY upset me.
Apparently 1UP Yours is alive but no Shane... so the show wont be nearly as entertaining.
Also, the guys from 1UP FM have a new podcast called Rebel FM the first one was yesterday and I liked it.
-
I really liked the first Digimon World but it was broken and difficult as hell so I guess objectively it was REALLY BAD I just still liked it (best curling ever). No one should rate that an 8 though!
-
Apparently 1UP Yours is alive but no Shane... so the show wont be nearly as entertaining.
Also, the guys from 1UP FM have a new podcast called Rebel FM the first one was yesterday and I liked it.
I love Shane. I even joined the facebook fan club of his. He MADE 1Up Yours.
I find it funny how the official topic is people just ranting about how shit Shane was and purely because he was a Sony fanboy... he made it so funny, but it looks like the Microsoft fanboys couldn't take it!
And I gotta check out RebelFM, sounds alright.
-
aww, no more letters to the editor with sarcastic comments :(
-
Why couldn't someone shitty like Gamepro go down...
-
I got what I think is the last print issue (the one with Wolverine on the cover?) and good lord...it was a disappointment! It had to be at least a fourth the size of what I remember EGM being and the content was just...not enough. I should never have bought it, my memories of EGM could have been what they used to instead...
-
to be fair, a lot of those old EGM's would've been the size of the current issues if they had eliminated the 30-40 pages of previews which were often just TWO SCREENSHOTS + SMALL PARAGRAPH OF TEXT that they did for EVERY SINGLE THING EVER, including japanese games that would never get released in the US and random terrible licensed titles (disney horse adventures is coming to the gameboy colour in march??? sweet thanks EGM). I guess they did away with those whenever they took on the new magazine format.
That and I think there are just LESS GAMES these days, probably because the cost of development is so much more. I mean, there used to be like TWO NEW MOTOCROSS games a month for the PS1, and now you just have EA Sports releasing yearly updates for every single sport imaginable.
-
Personally I prefer EDGE and GamesTM, because they also give actual news from the industry instead of just reviewing games with funny speech. They also got people in there who actually are or were in the industry.
Oh well bummer for them I guess
-
to be fair, a lot of those old EGM's would've been the size of the current issues if they had eliminated the 30-40 pages of previews which were often just TWO SCREENSHOTS + SMALL PARAGRAPH OF TEXT that they did for EVERY SINGLE THING EVER, including japanese games that would never get released in the US and random terrible licensed titles (disney horse adventures is coming to the gameboy colour in march??? sweet thanks EGM). I guess they did away with those whenever they took on the new magazine format.
That and I think there are just LESS GAMES these days, probably because the cost of development is so much more. I mean, there used to be like TWO NEW MOTOCROSS games a month for the PS1, and now you just have EA Sports releasing yearly updates for every single sport imaginable.
I see what you mean about less games, I've kind of noticed that there just aren't the same numbers as there used to be! But I liked the tiny previews, because I could always look into the games in more detail if they looked interesting. Sure they had previews for shit licensed titles but they would also have more interesting things in there. Even if they never came out in the US I still liked reading about cool sounding games.
-
For anyone that cares: Shane is on Rebel FM http://media.libsyn.com/media/rebelfm/rebel_fm_01-14.mp3
-
b...but...where will seanbaby go? :cry:
i hope he gets picked up by another magazine. he's bound to.