Goodbye Computer Gaming World, hello Games for Windows magazine [update 1]
by Christopher Grant 
{ Aug 2nd 2006 at 3:10PM }
Microsoft, the computer industry giant, and Ziff-Davis, the gaming-mag giant, just sent word that they've joined forces to rip the covers off all future issues of the seminal (and creatively titled) computer gaming mag, Computer Gaming World. In their place will be shiny, new Games for Windows: The Official Magazine covers. And here we were thinking CGW was a creative name! As part of their rebranding strategy, they'll also be renaming the cgw.1up.com site (we imagine to the much more memorable gfwtom.1up.com).
Don't worry about the mag's intrepid staff, they aren't being booted on their keisters (just yet), rather "the new magazine and web initiative will carry on the editorial, production and art staff of Computer Gaming World." So this is just branding; Microsoft's goal of marketing Windows Vista as a gaming console continues. Like any "official" magazine, we'll need to reconsider coverage of first-party (in this case, Microsoft Game Studios) properties but, otherwise, CGW already was a Windows-focused gaming mag. But when the oldest video game publication still in existence (founded in 1981) adds corporate sponsorship to their name, you know something's up in dead tree land.
[Update: Firing Squad spoke with CGW ... err, GfW:tOM's editor Jeff Green about the situation. They write, "Green also said that their contract with Microsoft states that Microsoft will not have any editorial influence on the new Games For Windows magazine and said that long time CGW readers should trust that will be the case." The last issue of CGW will be Oct. 06 and GfW:tOM will debut in Nov. or Dec. 06.]
Read the entire press release after the break.
Ziff Davis Announces Integrated Media Alliance with Microsoft
Includes New Games for Windows Magazine and Web Presence
SAN FRANCISCO, August 2, 2006 – Ziff Davis, the prominent gaming magazine and website publisher, today announced an integrated media collaboration with Microsoft. Ziff Davis will serve as the independent editorial voice for Microsoft's Games for Windows initiative. As part of the strategic relationship, Ziff Davis is launching a new magazine called Games for Windows: the Official Magazine and a companion website on the 1UP Network. Microsoft will drive traffic and readership to the magazine and to the 1UP Network, and will promote the Games for Windows magazine as part of their Games for Windows marketing efforts. The magazine and integrated online components will launch in Fall 2006.
Ziff Davis' online integration will include a Games for Windows website on the 1UP network. The website will host editorial features, social networking, and blogs, as well as game demos, patches, downloads, trailers and original video content from FileFront.com and GameVideos.com. In addition, Ziff Davis will collaborate with Microsoft in the area of online and interactive content for Games for Windows. Microsoft's website, GamesForWindows.com, will also link to the 1UP Network for users who want additional content.
"We believe Ziff Davis Game Group is the ideal industry partner for Microsoft as we advance the Windows platform and Games for Windows initiative," said Rich Wickham, director of Games for Windows at Microsoft. "We value Ziff Davis' innovation in integrating diverse media together and wanted that creative force driving the official Games for Windows magazine and website on the 1UP Network."
The collaboration with Ziff Davis Game Group represents a significant step in Microsoft's larger marketing push for the Games for Windows brand: the magazine shares the same "Games for Windows" branding that will appear on game packaging and in leading retailers throughout the U.S. beginning this Fall.
"We share Microsoft's passion for expanding the Windows gaming market," said Scott McCarthy, President of Ziff Davis Game Group. "This alliance will enable us to reach a wider audience than ever before, both in print and online, and it affirms Microsoft's commitment to gaming on the Windows platform. We're looking forward to working with Microsoft."
Games for Windows: the Official Magazine will incorporate much of Computer Gaming World's best-of-class editorial style and tone, while broadening its reach, influence and editorial content to complement the coming renaissance in gaming on Windows PCs. To ensure clear market leadership position, upon the launch of Games for Windows: the Official Magazine, Ziff Davis will no longer publish Computer Gaming World. The new magazine and web initiative will carry on the editorial, production and art staff of Computer Gaming World.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
MusashiX2 @ Aug 2nd 2006 3:15PM
cause "Games for Windows: The Official Magazine" just rolls right off the tongue, doesnt it?
Einhanderkiller @ Aug 2nd 2006 3:16PM
Aw, damn.
Computer Gaming World just recently became my favorite magazine.
bv @ Aug 2nd 2006 3:19PM
As a diehard (I'm just guessing) mac addict yourself, do you feel this rebranding is a metaphorical punch in the gut or could you care less?
Josh @ Aug 2nd 2006 3:19PM
Damn, now I know I won't be reading this anymore. Looks like it's PC Gamer all the way. ~_~
So what happens to Ziff-Davis' other magazines, like EGM? (if it's in the press release, I didn't read it yet)
jimy @ Aug 2nd 2006 3:25PM
Awesome. This makes me like microsoft even more.
epobirs @ Aug 2nd 2006 3:29PM
It's been a very, very long time since CGW needed to provide any platform info alongside a review, just how much PC was minimally needed and how much was recommended, so it isn't any great change. Back in the day you could have reviews for Apple II, Atari 800, C-64, PC, and some shortlived others in a single issue.
I doubt Mac adherents will feel any difference. Notable new games that originate on the Mac are so few and far between they can hardly complain if many issues pass without a Mac product review. Most blame Apple's atitude toward gaming more than anything else. The Mac sees a filtered selection of ports from the PC that make the average quality level quite high since turkeys are less likely to make the jump.
That, at least, is some compensation.
InnerLogic @ Aug 2nd 2006 3:39PM
This is a pretty cunning plan.
Let's say, for example, Windows Vista false-starts (Hey, ya never know ;-)) or Linux gaming gets somewhat better (in that cedega or native games start appearing more). Now CGW, even though now they don't really cover other OS's, can't do linux or OSX gaming, only Windows games.
Now this is most likely NOT the reason why this was done, not even close, but still worth noteing.
PS. Cedega + Half Life 2 + Kubuntu AMD64 = Gaming bliss
Tom @ Aug 2nd 2006 3:40PM
with the stopage of a number rating on the reviewed games I planed onletting my subscription laps anyway. Never understood what the big deal was to have an artical AND and rating.
jc @ Aug 2nd 2006 3:42PM
Just like crappy SCEA games got great reviews in OPM, I have a feeling MS GameStudios will receive the same in the GFW mag.
All they need now is John C. Dvorak writing for them.
B33 @ Aug 2nd 2006 4:07PM
Many SCEA games get crappy reviews in OPM... Reviews aren't the problem though. I find that making CGW PC exclusive is not right. Congrats Microsoft for screwing up a good magazine.
Forcepath @ Aug 2nd 2006 4:13PM
I think what bothers ME the most about the change IS the brand name issue. Before, it was (mostly) objective in their reviews of games, but now I am forced to wonder if first-party Microsoft games will be getting a stronger push in the new magazine.
Branding a magazine normally just means to me that the reviews get a lot less objective and a lot more 'paid for by the company that brands the magazine.'
Good luck to them, hopefully they don't destroy the staff.
Jason @ Aug 2nd 2006 4:14PM
What? CGW covers something besides PC games?? I never noticed... Who cares! It is basically a PC magazine anyways.
omgwut @ Aug 2nd 2006 4:15PM
@ #6
That's their plan. [:
juanito @ Aug 2nd 2006 4:22PM
i'm subscribed to this mag and that kinda ticks me off. most people say that vista isn't as good as they want you to think, and its going to be a resource hog once the final version comes out. plus with Ubuntu linux gaining huge amounts of success in the linux world, windows is doing everything they can to stay on top of there monopoly. i wish some gaming developers would put games out on linux so that windows actually had to truly make itself better, than other wise just saying if you want to play the new games that force you to use directx 10 then you have to switch to vista.
i don't think any mag like this should be focused on a company that already has a monopoly.
ill trooper @ Aug 2nd 2006 4:38PM
"Ziff Davis will serve as the independent editorial voice for Microsoft's Games for Windows initiative."
Huh? Magazine Ownzored! Gates FTW!
Mac game market share, Windows dominance in the gaming field, 'always been a PC magazine anyways..." That's not the 'issue,' so to speak. The issue is: Why put 'Windows' in the name of the magazine?
I'm wondering: Should readers get ready for a spoon-fed stream of upbeat Microsoft advertorial? 'Nintendo Power' is never going to tell you if a game falls flat... Can this magazine actually remain 'independant?' Is anything truly 'negative' or critical going to be publsihed?
I pity the magazine that opts to put another company's trademark in their own... And logo, including '®'! (the 'registered' R if that doesn't show up in my post) in their own logo. Way to look like a little bitch!
Josh @ Aug 2nd 2006 4:48PM
"'Nintendo Power' is never going to tell you if a game falls flat..."
Huh?
HotShotX @ Aug 2nd 2006 5:08PM
and another gaming mag loses its soul.
~HotShotX
Jacob Gonzalez @ Aug 2nd 2006 5:23PM
Did you also know that in the past 2 issues of Computer Gaming World they took out their Star Rating system to a no rating system at all. Now they add up all the scores from different reviews at the end of their article.
Hello PC Gamer Magazine.
Smack042 @ Aug 2nd 2006 5:34PM
Oh man not again. Microshaft tried a onesided mag already with OXM and its so biased i actually thought Tao Feng was a good game. The whole 2 games that are Vista exclusive coulda easily been covered in CGW. Here they go force feeding us more MS BS. Hello PC Gamer and Linux. One because its a better magazine anyway and the other......just out of spite >:)
borgie @ Aug 2nd 2006 5:57PM
It's like 99% of all PC games runs on Windows anyway, so I guess they are just being honest about what they're writing about. But that name just made it sounds like a part of Microsoft, which kills any credibility they have left. Who reads gaming mags anyway; everyone get their news online nowdays.
Scott Jon Siegel @ Aug 2nd 2006 6:39PM
Is this connected at all to Ziff Davis's recent financial troubles?
http://kotaku.com/gaming/top/1up-egm-other-zds-for-sale-190928.php
Any way you add it up this is sucky news. It's an awful title for a mag, and it's an obnoxious jab at Mac and Linux gamers. This might just be the first in a long line of "bad news" stories regarding the 1UP network of sites and mags. Here's hoping I'm wrong.
K1ller 1nst1nct @ Aug 2nd 2006 8:04PM
Makes me wonder how many years off Microsoft is from a rival website to gamespy/gamespot.
Dave @ Aug 2nd 2006 8:40PM
Isn't it a bit too late to revive interest in computer games? These companies don't seem to give a shit about quality PC games anymore, as they are content to release buggy, half completed games and expect everyone to wait 6 months for an update(I'm looking at YOU Lucasarts).
Shagi @ Aug 3rd 2006 12:02AM
If Billy Gates is to be believed a major push of the PC as a gaming platform is in the works; the boxes uniformly redesgined, new displays labeled easily for even non-pc gamers to recognize, and Vista w/ the promise of DX-10.
I wouldn't be too worried about this, if Billy really wants to reinvigorate the PC this move is just another way of creating a brand identity that will hopefully be as farmiliar to non PC users as PS3, Xbox, and Nintendo eventually.
I think this is actually good news but we all can't help and feel the loss of a mag which we've been reading for many years.
Rock on Green and Co.
Tosus @ Aug 4th 2006 11:03AM
Well, well, well. Here I was thinking that CGW went down the tubes when Johnny Wilson left. I had no idea! The irony is, I had just started to like their mag again. Their whole 'no scores' policy made me think that they were going to be returning to their old review policies, where hard-hitting, in-depth content was what was central to their reviews, rather than fluff and sophmoric humor. But now they've gone and ruined all the faith I had in their magazine. To say they sold out is like saying Bill Gates makes money.
On the other hand, Ziff Davis has been in trouble. With the advent of the internet, gamers get their information from 1up, Gamespot and, of course, Joystiq months before it appears in magazines. No amount of print exclusives and pretty pictures can substitute timely information and articles that are not (visibly) biased by ad buys. (Well, for the most part, anyway) So the question is, what would I rather see? CGW continue, with ostensibly no pressure from MS on their editorial content, or the magazine disappearing completely? Would the same talent that made up the publication find homes elsewhere? Would they be able to provide us with the same level of games journalism if they were under another editorial chain of command? Would Gamespot or PC Gamer snap them up and use them to their fullest potential? Maybe, maybe not.
At the very least, we can't blame Jeff Green or the people at CGW (entirely) for this shift. ZD was long mulling over what to do with their unprofitable publications, and slapping a big ol' MS logo to the front of every issue, while perhaps not the best move they could have made, was certainly one the did with little or no input by the actual staff of the magazine. One could even argue that they have a tradition of corporate branding, (OPM, for instance. Heck, when PC magazine was first published, PC was an IBM brand name) and those magazines still have high publication numbers. Time will tell how much sway MS will have over the content of the magazine, but I guess all I have to say is: it's a good thing I didn't have to pay for my subscription. ( http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/egm/free-1-year-subscriptions-to-gaming-mags-175323.php )
Lord Yannman @ Sep 5th 2006 12:56PM
I actually ....cried, err, wept when I first heard this. CGW was the ONLY place where I could find completley unbiased reviews and gaming news. Also the level of writing in the magazine was the best I've ever seen. Which may constitute why it had so many (or so few, by comparison?) readers. If anybody knows where I can find this level of writing and unbiased reviews, please email me at paladinyann@yahoo.com
darkcmd @ Oct 23rd 2006 5:36PM
Wow, now we can have biased articles pushing microsoft and their products, great.