Official: UGO buys 1UP, EGM dead [update]

by Randy Nelson on Jan 6th 2009 7:25PM

Within hours of our earlier post regarding 1UP's reported sale to the Hearst-owned UGO network, the deal was confirmed in individual press releases from both entities. Additionally, Ziff-Davis has made official the closure of EGM after nearly 20 years of publication. It's January issue -- currently on sale -- will be its last.

1UP editorial director, Sam Kennedy, is quoted in the release, saying that the site's staff is "extremely excited to join the UGO team." UGO's release states that 1UP.com will operate as a separate entity and implies that its current staff will remain in place. The sale to Hearst also includes GameVideos.com, MyCheats.com and GameTab.com.

The shuttering of EGM -- the oldest multi-platform games magazine in the US -- leaves GamePro and Game Informer as the last bastions of what, with today's news, continues to be the dying breed of print media.

Update: There's not much in the way of new info, but Gamasutra got their mitts on an internal email from Ziff CEO Jason Young, who tells the staff that "more scale is necessary to effectively compete in this market segment." So UGO's planning to keep growing 1UP? Then why kill off the 1UP Show and layoff 30+ people? One other note: Ziff "will continue to operate the Filefront business as a part of the PCMag Digital Network." More as we hear it.

Source – Ziff-Davis press release
Source – UGO press release

Tags: 1up, breakingnews, egm, electronic-gaming-monthly, hearst, js-twitter, ugo

Reader Comments (81)

Fuck...Garnett may be gone to.

Seriously, why did UGO buy 1UP if they only wanted to destroy it from the inside?

Nah it's been all but confirmed that Garnett's staying, but there's no hope of 1up yours returning to the way it was without Shane. Even the people who hate him would likely agree that he was 90% of the energy and entertainment on that show. This is a terrible day indeed.

even so, no podcasts. Period. End of discussion

http://twitter.com/talkingorange

Damn, I really liked it..

i subscribe to egm and it was set to expire in 2010 i guess or i hope they give the rest of the subscription to another magazine cuz i will be very angry..this is bad news indeed but not suprising seeing print magazines are on the way out

Fuck it. UGO is dead to me forever. You don't fucking mess with the core of team and you sure as hell don't fire Anthony Gallegos AND Shane Bettenhausen AND Phillip Kollar AND Nick Suttner ON THE SAME FUCKING DAY.

There goes all the good stuff about 1UP. No more Retronauts, no more LAN Party, no 1UP FM or 1UP Show or Broken Pixels

Media Distribution...has changed

I was just about to subscribe to EGM when my GamePro subscription ran out! Now what am I going to do?

What the hell is UGO smoking? They buy 1up but pretty much fire a good chunk of the staff. I bet a lot of people go there because they get to know who is behind the content 1up produces.

This is some retarded shit here.

funny, they recently started sending me issues even though I haven't had a subscription in 5 years.

While I agree they suck now, I'm sad to see them go. I think I still have countless early issued boxed up somewhere.

Nothing beats the timely news on the internet though.

ARGH!!!!!!!! I'M SO ANGRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Best of luck to those who lost their jobs because of this.

so they will ave to cedit my account back for the renew 2 years i paid for egm as of last july .

The first EGM I ever bought was EGM #65. Mortal Kombat II on the cover.

Their 100th issue was great.

This is a sad day for me.

Are you serious? EGM is the ONLY game magazine I actually like... Disappointing.

GI still stands strong because a subscription is given to anyone with a Gamestop card. Blame Gamestop for it's "Number one" status. As long as Gamestop exists GI will continue it's journalistic debauchery.

now you all feel the pain i felt back in 1995 when EGM used street fighter 2 on 99 consecutive covers to drive out of business what was the greatest game magazine of all the times, VG & CE! though game magazines are on the way out altogether, i hate to think that over at gamepro they feel like they have won the 'war' now.

to me the rankings should be as such for best magazines

1 VG & CE
2 diehard game fan
3 EGM
4 game informer
5 game pro

It is also a shame they they wont have a 20th anniversary issue or a final april fools joke. where in maybe, EGM moves to kindle or i-app or something

I hope you're kidding. VG&CE was horrid...I can't speak for PC games since I wasn't a PC gamer back then, but their console coverage was not only poor but flat out incorrect quite a bit.

I have received their mag in the mail for as long as I can remember.. I still have their huge Sega CD issue. It was like a phonebook.

I'm going to miss them, and the cash I blew renewing for two years a few weeks back.

ARG! What the crap? This is the most horrible news I've received all year. I'm including stuff I heard since last January in all of that.

Damn this sucks something fierce. All my favourite places to get my game commentary are dying :(

This blows. I've been a subscriber since 2000. I still have pretty much every issue.
I know the news is later than the internet but I don't buy EGM for it's news I subscribed for so long because of the analysis. The articles. The exclusive previews. Great review team that wasn't afraid to give a much hyped game a bad/decent score. Commentary on the industry was always great. Quarterman's rumors were fun to read and speculate on.
This a loss. I know the internet rules all and the news it at our fingertips at pretty much anytime, but this is a loss.

R.I.P. EGM you will be missed
Dan Shu, Crispin Boyer, Milkman, Shane Bettenhausen, Jennifer Tsao, Seanbaby and all the other great writers this magazine has seen, you will be missed.

i remember having read my first issue of EGM in june of 2003, and i was hooked from then on.
i had every issue from then until 2006, but after the redesign and shoe's departure, it had turned into something different, not the EGM i had grown to adore and look forward to recieving every month.

i was waiting to finish this subscription off anyway.

PS. EFF game informer. i'd much rather read old issues of egm than their sold out tripe.

1UP show you will be missed.

What is the point of UGO?

Does anyone visit any of their sites? I see ads for them everywhere, but i've never seen anything remotely worth looking at.. and half their sites sound dodgy...

Correction - good riddance to EGM. Print media is great. EGM, however, has been a joke since around the time of the PS2/XBox/GC era, when they made the transition from doing occasional journalism to putting more effort into being "funny" and coming up with stupid responses for their letter column. At this point we're lucky if they gave us 3 or 4 worthwhile articles a year.

Now, that said - it's terrible that a magazine that embedded in the culture doesn't get a farewell issue. They don't even get a fucking ending. That's sad. First EGM I ever bought was #12 and I stuck with it for many years after. It was a fantastic magazine in the 90's and the "telephone-book" sized issues we'd get around the holidays ruled.

nice...get rid of one of the two magazines i still read, and combine all the websites i don't care about. seriously, all those websites suck.

i'm not even sure if my current subscription was paid for or free. not sure when one ended and one began.

EGM is dead? Oh no! Where will 12-year-olds or people with a sixth grade reading comprehension level get their game news now?!?!

I loved listening to those guys do their podcast. Good work gentleman. Hope you land softly somewhere within the industry...but reading your twits...be careful not to come of to whinny or bitchy. Yes losing your job sucks, but man up - get up - move up! Potential employers might be reading it as well...

Agreed, Kizzle. EGM sucks these days and has for a while. The only thing I'll miss is the April Fools pranks. Otherwise, the Sony production known as GameInformer has surprisingly better journalistic qualities. Oh, did I say Sony? I meant "GameStop".

I actually cancelled my subscription to EGM early 2008 but the issues keep on coming. I had better get a pro-rated amount back to my card for this.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I HAVE BEEN A VERY LOYAL READER TO Electronic Gaming Monthly!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FIRST OF ALL, I HAVE NEVER EVEN HEARD OF FUCKING "UGO". Who the fuck are they??

UGO? Who the fuck are they?? I can't believe EGM is GONE FOREVER!!! I have been such a loyal reader for EGM, and I have been collecting their issues since 2003!!!! You KNOW HOW MANY ISSUES I HAVE ???? ALOT!!@@$#!!!1#!!!

WHY DOES THIS PERIOD OF OUR LIVES HAVE TO SUCK BALLZ SO MUCH?? EGM was the only VIDEO GAME magazine I wouldever purchase. FUCK.

This is like FORD being bought out by some company called "Ugoslavic Shoe Plane Co."-WTF?????

I can't believe this. First KB Toys, then Circuit City, now EGM. This is too hard to deal with. WHY COULDN'T UGO BUY GAMEINFORMER??? WHY???

R.I.P. EGM you will be missed
Dan Shu, Crispin Boyer, Milkman, Shane Bettenhausen, Jennifer Tsao, Seanbaby and all the other great writers this magazine has seen, you will be GREATLY missed.

I have a place for UGO in HELL.

(ps: is there any possible way that EGM could come back in the future when our economy is better?)

At least I did my duty as a loyal reader to buy and enjoy their magazines.

RIP EGM.

I used to read EGM, but I found the amount of, and intrusive nature of their ads annoying (I don't like half page ads during the reviews) in comparison to what I began seeing in EDGE.

EDGE may be the more expensive read (although, we're only talking two dollars), but the content is much better, with more provocative articles.

Course, a major print like EGM going down doesn't bode well for other print if the trend picks up steam.

man gamepro was the s#@t back in the days for there guides then egm was an oversize gamer dream book and now both are down but egm is leaving for good sad day for gamers. game informer is good but comes late and something has stupid shit like a star trek game cover which took up to ten page talking about a game that will fail and nobody will like .

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Official: UGO buys 1UP, EGM dead [update]

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