Moggy wrote:...They should have kept a vibrant forum community going rather than just casting them out into the wilderness.
I kinda feel that I should be looking at Future-owned gaming website for the latest news and reviews, not Eurogamer or GoNintendo. Future was a major player in UK gaming (paper) media but they just haven't really channelled that power into an electronic format. Official Nintendo Magazine was probably their best effort at an online gaming website and I suspect that was funded by Nintendo. With sales dwindling on their paper-based gaming mags it feels like they should be going all-out promoting attractve digital options but I can't see them doing so. I think they're struggling for resources - money and people - now.
Of course, as poorly as Future has managed its (lack of) online presence, the other challenge is something I've mentioned before - the fact that people have now devalued the worth of journalism. Folk won't pay for quality writing and insight when they're happier to accept poorer-quality text as a freebie. The rise of social media means that anyone can shout out their views on anything and get fast feedback... and, with that power, they're not gonna pay to hear someone else's opinion. Back in the day, thousands of kids would be on tenterhooks to discover what, say, Julian Rignell of Zzap!64 thought about the latest game release... now they have access to thousands of opinions for free on Facebook.
Tl;dr Future ain't gonna change, people aren't gonna pay for journalism, and I'm annoyed about both.