EGM sold to original founder, resumes publication this year

by Jem Alexander on May 29th 2009 10:00PM

Electronic Gaming Monthly, which died when UGO bought out the 1UP brand in January, is being resurrected by its original founder, Steve Harris. Harris, who started EGM in 1989, has regained the print and online publishing rights from Ziff Davis Media as part of an undisclosed agreement. Harris intends to relaunch the magazine in the second half of 2009 and says he has "exciting plans for the evolution of what will once again be a leading independent voice for the gaming community."

There's no word yet on whether ex-EGM staff will be making a return to the magazine, or if Harris is in talks with UGO to re-establish a partnership with 1UP, but more details are due to be revealed during E3 next week. We guess in this case print really isn't dead.

Source

Tags: EGM, Electronic-Gaming-Monthly, magazine, Steve-Harris, UGO, Ziff-Davis

Reader Comments (91)

All I care about is if I can get my 3 (free) years subscription back. Also, I hope they can make the mag bigger again. The last year or two of EGM with barely 100 pages and a good chunk of it being ad space sucked.

Yep, the last few years were horrible...the "articles" were nothing more than splash pages of preview pics with very little actual copy written out, the reviews were half-assed, the Seanbaby bits were tired and forced, the preview section was like a broken record, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. Man, I was getting it for free and I still felt like demanding a refund for that hunk of shit. Print game magazines are all but dead at this point, and while it is nice to see EGM get another chance with the founder, I still think it is pointless in the 21st century. The only way to make a video game magazine work at this point is to shift it to be about the culture of video games, with long creator interviews, behind the scenes articles, and anything that would be actual CONTENT in the magazine and not just more mindless padding. Video game news is to be gotten online...pure and simple.

Gameinformer says hi

Well you can kiss the idea of having thick issues goodbye if you don't like ads. That's what pays the bills for magazines.

Out of those 100 pages, only about 25 or less were ads. A magazine should have about a 50/50 balance to be financially stable.

@ Gavin: "a video game magazine...about the culture of video games, with long creator interviews, behind the scenes articles" = Next Generation. Probably my favorite mag from the mid 90s.

Yes, NextGen was exactly the type of mag I was thinking of. It didn't get a lot of adverts, so that hurt it quite a bit. Still, it was a good read and had decent articles that were more than just a few blown up pics.

They can put as many ads in the mag as they want if I can get it for free. I love gaming ads and I promise to look at them once in a while.

Bring back Sushi-X for the win!

YAY! EGM was my absolute favorite gaming magazine.

Mine was Gamefan.

i enjoyed GMR short lived as it was

I remember reading outdated copies of EGM and GMR from my school library.

Yes I was that geeky.

I prefer Joystiq!

It's all about the Official Dreamcast Magazine!

I concur. I want my issues that are owed to me. Usually when you buy a company you assume their debts, but this sounds like just the publishing rights were sold. I guess we're probably gonna have to fight with Ziff Davis to get our magazines that are owed to us.

I can finally go to the bathroom again!

(can't take a dump without my EGM)

Haha that reminds me I never go to the bathroom without my Reader Digest copy :)

im the same way with game informer, at least, when we're out of toilet paper

wayne, no breaking character! you don't run out of toilet paper! you just get alfred to bring some more from your giant stockpile of TP!

still, i laughed.

I have one thing to say:

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT

Im going to sign up to show my support. That mag should have gotten a bailout lol

Glad to see some the print coming back (Sorry Joystiq but i love tangible things as well - dont worry im not leaving you), i doubt any of you are getting your subscriptions back.

we can hope!

FUCK YES THIS IS THE BEST NEWS TODAY.

what she said.

Steve Harris like Iron Maiden's Steve Harris? Run to the Gaming blog? 2 minutes to launch day? seventh sequel of a seventh sequel? Sounds cool.

Lol dorky dork. But I still like this answer best :D

I was thinking Steve Harris, the guy who played Eugene Young on "The Practice", the classic lawyer drama. If he'd Plan B'd UGO, we'd have never lost EGM.

As long as Seanbaby's back I don't care about anything else. Except maybe more Hsu & Chan.

Seanbaby is a stupid douche. Steve Harris is hopefully smart enough to not bring that idiot back.

I actually shouted with joy when I read this on Bit Mob. And there's nobody even in the house.. I need to know where we can subscribe to show our support.. Although i suppose that these things will be revealed later.

Ah, I can still recall the endearment and glowing admiration I held for this publication when I was twelve.

For a second, I thought that Steve Harris of Iron Maiden bought EGM. :P

RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE!!

No, it's Wise Fwom Yow Gwave.

That's really fabulous, I hope he's able to resurrect the mag and make it relevant again.

As for those bitching about their free subscriptions, piss off. You got them for free, you're out nothing, quit being whiners. If you paid, and didn't get a refund, that's a different story.

Alright! My favorite gaming mag is back! I just hope they get back the same people that made the magazine great.

Awesome news! I read EGM for over 10 years before they got canned.
I'll be subscribing again for sure!

Ouch, avatar completely taken.

Assemble the enthusiast press!

bring back Sushi X!

First Filefront gets bought back by their founders, and now EGM is getting bought back. Wow, this must make Ziff Davis feel like shit, or was it their plan all along? BWA BWA BWA

Ugh. Old-school EGM was terrible, although I doubt you youngsters even remember it. Check out a few issues on Retromags.com and see for yourselves if you don't believe me.

Old school EGM was terrible? How was that?

I loved them and 1up.com until Shane Bettenhausen started acting like fanboy douchebag. Oh, wait, he was always like that. John Davison and Garnett Lee were all I needed to hear.

I'm sure I'll get voted down b/c I said something bad about Shane.

Old school EGM wasn't terrible. It looks like gold compared to EGM of the last couple of years, but it was ho-hum back in the day compared to everyone else.

EGM in the 90s was golden compared to the bias, company influenced bullshit reviews everyone does these days.

"Biased". With an -ed. Fuck.

Outstanding. This is better than any of the other news floating around this pre-E3 week.

HOLY CRAP! ZOMBIE EGM!

Now all we need is Ed Semrad and Sushi X, and the return to glory will be complete!

I remember this mag used to be the only way I got gaming news, before the internet...each copy that came in the mail was like a mini Xmas....ah memories!

| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment.

Breaking News

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days

Vita 'UMD Passport' won't be offered in US 220 comments
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate 153 comments
David Jaffe leaves Eat Sleep Play, layoffs hit developer [Update] 108 comments
Don't call it a remake: Final Fantasy X is a 'remaster,' to be clear 95 comments
Battleship movie adapted into FPS by Double Helix 93 comments

EGM sold to original founder, resumes publication this year

Reader Comments (91)

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:04PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:12PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:56PM Scratchcard said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:58PM Crusty Magic said

Posted: May 29th 2009 11:09PM EDay said

Posted: May 29th 2009 11:42PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 30th 2009 3:20AM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 30th 2009 6:57AM Ghen said

Posted: May 31st 2009 2:21AM chicago mafia said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:06PM Sora said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:50PM zuburi said

Posted: May 29th 2009 11:24PM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: May 30th 2009 10:41PM finnith said

Posted: Jun 22nd 2009 10:16PM Ashkental said

Posted: Jul 2nd 2009 6:29PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:07PM DredPirateStorm said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:10PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:41PM NightElve said

Posted: May 29th 2009 11:22PM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: May 30th 2009 1:25AM Sly C said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:08PM Rokusho said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:09PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:12PM emirabal said

Posted: May 31st 2009 3:07PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:13PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:53PM SecretAgentHam said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:19PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 30th 2009 12:31AM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 31st 2009 12:18AM RogueJedi86 said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:19PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 30th 2009 12:12AM EDay said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:19PM TendoMan said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:23PM Stanely said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:24PM zack11190 said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2009 5:49PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 30th 2009 1:15AM lgndk11r said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:30PM Courtney said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:33PM cesaria said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:35PM toptekjon said

Posted: May 30th 2009 1:50AM Al2x said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:43PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:48PM Ryudo said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:51PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:54PM MNeko said

Posted: May 29th 2009 11:13PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 29th 2009 11:16PM EDay said

Posted: May 29th 2009 11:21PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 30th 2009 1:39AM Jerk Face said

Posted: May 29th 2009 10:59PM Chip1337 said

Posted: May 29th 2009 11:04PM Obienator said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

Double Fine Kickstarter passes $1 million in under 24 hours, breaking yet another record

Featured Stories

Shank 2 review: Refined brutality

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier brings information warfare to the front

Rhythm Heaven Fever review: Crazy into you

The most popular postsin the last 7 days

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days