New York Times on tough times for game mags

by Kyle Orland on Nov 12th 2007 11:55AM

Do you read video game magazines? Come on, you can be honest. Just because we try to provide you with all the online gaming news and views you need doesn't mean we don't expect you to occasionally feel the urge to read something printed on glossy paper. We won't get mad. Honest. Why aren't you answering us? YOU THINK WE'RE FAT DON'T YOU!

Oh, we don't know why we're even worried. After all, we were just reading in today's New York Times how magazines are having a real tough time attracting readers, what with their outdated news and limited space. Sure they'll try to lure you in with special issues and in-depth features, but your attention span is so short that you probably won't bother reading them, no matter how much you say you want them. You'll just tune them out like ... hey, are you even still reading this? WHY DO YOU NEVER LISTEN TO US? *SOB*

Source

Tags: EGM, Game Informer, GameInformer, GamePro, magazines, mags, media, online

Reader Comments (57)

I used to like reading NEXT GENERATION a decade ago, but save for the "free" GAME INFORMER magazines I get; I usually don't bother.

Next Generation was absolutely teriffic, and was a perfect example of how a print publication could use in-depth content to compete with online.

It killed me when they slimmed down and then canceled that magazine while crappy screenshot porn continued to hit the stands every month.

well magazines take like a month to come out, but game news happens every day (hence sites like joystiq) and most gamers are high-tech guys who just read the news on the internet instead of waiting a month

there are plenty of other idiots that buy magazines, our forest-killing business is still booming

I read Game Informer, EGM, and one PC gaming mag that I can't remember the name of currently.

While I like getting my daily news off websites, I still enjoy leafing through a magazine and reading reviews in that fashion.

I recently got my (FREE) copy of EGM in the mail. It was the first time I flipped thru a gaming mag for a while. Mostly it was worthless. Outdated news, unintersting articles about thing I had heard about 100x already.

If I had spent money on that I would have been pissed. Printed media fails in general. Their only value remains while in the porcelain shrine. Even then I get bored and turn to my DS.

And even while making a deposit at the bank of porcelain I can just use my phone (HTC Kaiser) to check Joystiq since they use the same wap tech that engadget uses.

Remind me not to play your DS.

I used to subscribe to PCGamer, but its writing staff has started to get all wonky, mostly because the original staff has pretty much left to go onto bigger and better things (I'm looking at you, Greg Vederman). Joystiq, IGN, Gamespot, Gametrailers, Kotaku, and a myriad of other sites gives me all the news and reviews I need.

EGM used to be FTW!!! Mermories......

I read a few game mags that we get, but dont really care too much for them. It seems to me that by the time the come the news is old and its just reaffirming what the internet has already told me.

Magazines as a whole are a waste and not worth reading unless you are stuck someplace with idle time. If you affirmatively care for the issue they cover, the chances are you investigated it already.

I read EGM and Games for Windows.

Only because they gave away free subscriptions via Joystiq. Lawlz.

There's no way they're going to win against the powerful internets.

Really they're only good for pictures, and maybe an article or two. Any news they report is old. They should figure out a better formula.

I read NGamer for the reviews and general humour. It is slightly outdated news but now as I'm online less because of university, it is an easy way to catch up. Their views on games are similar to mine so give quite good reviews, and they are UK so good for finding accurate release dates, as well as editorials on gaming history and other random stuff.

Joystiq, the only gaming magazines I read are the ones you gave me free subscriptions to (EGM and Games for Windows). Oh yeah and the Nintendo Power I got free for buying a Wii. That is all.

Oh yeah, and thanks!!

I've got the first issue of Nintendo Power around here somewhere...the one with the clay Mario on the cover.

I read EGM and a fewe others, but only becuase their free. I will say that Seanbaby's article in EGM is always hilarious and practically worth the price of addmission alone.

Easy enough to say when you don't actually "pay" for it.

I only read EGM now. I used to have Game Informer and Offical X-Box, but I don't go to Game Stop enough and Official X-Box is made useless by X-Box Live demos.

Sometimes its nice to have all the news collected and summarized in a magazine, but EGM's pretty much become a suppliment to 1up now.

i used to have subscriptions to Nintendo Power and I sort of out grew it and didn't have money. Also Game Informer was cool to get something every month in the mail, reviews were hit and miss but they did have exclusives.

If Video game magazines can survive it will because they put demo disks with exclusive content on them. Yeah 360/ps3 can download demos but having exclusive demos in the magazine before you can download it would be great. I would totally subscribe to Nintendo Power it Wii demo disks came in. Make it so you just get a DVD in a month with video segments, and video reviews and such that would be cool.

The only thing I read that I get really is Game Informer
That is really the best mag out there. I also get Nintendo Power but I only bought it because of the deal it came with and I could care less about what really is in the mag.

First it was the print content. Then the internet made that obsolete. Second there was a demo disc. Xbox Marketplace made that obsolete.

Magazines are best read on the throne. 'Nuff said.

I have a laptop and TV tray so I can have the internet or spider solitaire while i deuce.

well my favorite magazines; PC GAMER and GAME INFORMER
i dont get bored reading magazines, the ugly side of magazines is that you have to wait one entire month to get fresh news and of course no trailers no videos....

About 10-15 years ago, GamePro had this section in the back with cheat codes and secrets (they may still have it). Before the internet was widespread, this was like my GameFaqs, and I'd look foreward to it every month, desperately hoping one of the games I own would be in there.

Hell I can't even remember the last time I read a VG mag.

Ah, their good to read on the crapper at work.

Nintendo Power: It's the cheapest video game magazine to get delivered to Canada and it came with a guide that I wanted for Zelda Twilight Princess. Since the redesign the magazine has been better and they've had a lot of content that isn't available on websites. The interviews with game developers especially the Nintendo ones are worth having a subscription for. Nintendo developers do not do interviews.

Nintendo Power (and a number of guides for games) generally have awesome posters and swag and other things that you can't retrieve (or print off teh internetz) I've got a now hilariously mistitled "SMASH 2007!" Poster from NP, and a bigass Corruption poster from the guide

That's really all their good for (guides too, thanks in part to GameFaqs and the general dumbing down of games). Nintendo Power would be better if it did demos, since Wii's the only one that doesn't offer that anyway

Only time I read a gaming mag is when I'm on the crapper. Ample reading time there, my friend. Can I get an Amen?

Amen

I buy print mags if they come with a cool freebie,the nintendo mag occasionally gives out keyrings or Cds or whatever that are worth the cover price.

Save for that, i will occasionally pick up Edge if it has an article of interest, usually i only get mags which come out just after E3 or the TGS because the amount of material online is so overwhelming that you can sometimes miss out , and its nice to have the mag point out some stuff youd not otherwise have known.

Magazines can have their place, they just need to adjust their business model and provide things that the internet can't. And they probably could, if the people writing in those magazines were real journalists.

That's why I still buy Nintendo Power on occasion, as someone else already mentioned they tend to have interesting interviews with developers that never talk to internet sites i.e. the Phantom Hourglass and Twilight Princess producers (their names escape me at the moment).

I have a free year supply of Games for Windows and Electronic Gamer or something. Honestly, they both suck. By the time I read them, the news is outdated. Anything new, even if its exclusive to the mag, is posted on the internet before I read it. Magazines in general are just a bad idea with the advent of the interweb.

Magazines are better off being free; I have a feeling they make more money off of ads than subscriptions.

Anybody asking the NYT what THEIR subscriber rates are like? Probably as bad or worse decline.

I subscribe to Famitsu, which is weekly. It`s out quickly enough that most news in it is not stale - and most of it is released directly to Famitsu, so it`s usually pretty darn fresh.

It`s great to live in Japan and be fluent in Japanese. :P

Next Generation was the greatest gaming magazine ever. It targeted mature, twenty-something gamers who wanted to read thoughtful pieces beyond just previews and rants. The anti-Game Pro would be the best way to sum it up.

Unfortunately the magazine and their website DailyRadar.com went under but it was and still is the best gaming periodical ever.

I've been buying GAMEStm for the last year or so and it's probably the best games mag out there right now (not sure if it's available in the US, it's a UK mag). Sure for up-to-date news and info the innernets are king, but a good magazine can certainly add something extra.

When I was a kid, I really dug Next Generation, because they were not doing silly things like GamePro was. At 12, I HATED GamePro. I did like Game Players though, they used to do funny things, but their reviews still made a lot of sense. I hated them for changing into Ultra Game Players, trying to act more "sophisticated" ala Next Generation when that is not even their style.

EGM has always been one of my favorite magazines, as of late, they have changed their format so much, it is hard to follow it. Hell, I rarely purchase magazines in general. A XXL here, or a Car and Driver there, but thats it.

Hey, why don't you make like a tree and get out of here?

It's LEAVE, damnit! Make like a tree and leave! you sound like such a damn fool when you say it!

Does NO ONE remember Tips & Tricks magazine?? I shed a tear the day they killed it. I did. Only one, but it was an ample tribute to one of my favorite gamezines (see what I did with the anagrams there?) and the only one I still read back issues of regularly.

I have free subscriptions to EGM and Game Informer. I seriously only read them while taking a shit.

When EGM showed their sony ass kissing back when the DS was just coming out, and turning to celebrities to make me care about why they play videogames...that's when I canceled my subcription.

Game Mags are dead too me. They've stopped becoming what they were created for in the first place.

When I was younger I had NintendoPower magazines (still have them somewhere in a closet), but since they started changing their format I haven't bothered.
The BEST magazine EVER was called GameFan, but they went bankrupt or something--and that was back before or when the GameCube came out...

anyway, the only time I read gaming magz are at Barnes&Noble/Walgreens/Jewel other than the free subscription of GameInformer that my brother receives.

I read EGM, Games for Windows, and PC Gamer(also Maximum PC). I enjoy reading them all equally and I have to admit Simon Cox's statement is why I read these magazines. I do want perspective of industry insiders and quality writing.

lol i use gamer mags to wipe my ass.

why pay like $10 for information that i can get for free here? and most of the time, any big stories the mags have exclusivity to leak onto the net early anyway. i think gamer mags are dying slowly but surely.

i used to buy PSM faithfully until i realized that i never READ the mag cause i already knew all the stuff they were saying. i just bought it for the demo basically.

I haven't been to into gaming mags since ODCM died =( best magazine ever!

I read PC Gamer because, well you can't bring that gaming rig in the bathroom. I'll also so that PC Gamer is entertaining in of itself (anyone remember the top 10 worst games feature? Hilarious)

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New York Times on tough times for game mags

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