GamesTM and GamesMaster to close

Gemini73

Trelliz wrote:
KK wrote:My Sainsbury’s last month put OXM in the entrance above the newspaper stand, which I was quite surprised by. It’s usually dedicated to EMPIRE, something like The Economist, and cooking mags.

I hate going to the dedicated mag aisle now and it’s about 70% women’s magazines with Z list celebs and headlines like ‘look at those flabby legs on Jenna Somebody from Housewives of Addiscombe!’. The other 29% is TV Guides, Rich Folk Weeklies (Country Life), Cooking and Children’s magazines. And then right at the end is the tiny section basically for men featuring Digger Monthly and Glorious Hatchbacks of the 80s.

NickSCFC

Andrew Mills wrote:They were an amazing bunch to work with over the years. My personal thanks to Robin, Matthew, and Geriant for allowing me to plaster my guides over their hallowed pages for quite a few years. I shall look over my issues with great fondness.

One of the articles mentioned staff being reassigned, is there any other info on this?

NickSCFC wrote:
Andrew Mills wrote:They were an amazing bunch to work with over the years. My personal thanks to Robin, Matthew, and Geriant for allowing me to plaster my guides over their hallowed pages for quite a few years. I shall look over my issues with great fondness.

One of the articles mentioned staff being reassigned, is there any other info on this?

No idea Nick. I only heard about this on Eurogamer. Matthew and Geriant left Future a few years ago each. Not sure what Robin Alway did (past editing a different mag for Future).

Whoever was left, would likely have been pulled from other mags. Future shared content HEAVILY with a 'central hub' for many years now. It's the main reason the budget for guides dried up. They'd create one guide and share it across the multi-plat games.

NickSCFC

Andrew Mills wrote:
NickSCFC wrote:
Andrew Mills wrote:They were an amazing bunch to work with over the years. My personal thanks to Robin, Matthew, and Geriant for allowing me to plaster my guides over their hallowed pages for quite a few years. I shall look over my issues with great fondness.

One of the articles mentioned staff being reassigned, is there any other info on this?

No idea Nick. I only heard about this on Eurogamer. Matthew and Geriant left Future a few years ago each. Not sure what Robin Alway did (past editing a different mag for Future).

Whoever was left, would likely have been pulled from other mags. Future shared content HEAVILY with a 'central hub' for many years now. It's the main reason the budget for guides dried up. They'd create one guide and share it across the multi-plat games.

Have noticed that a lot of features across Official PlayStation and Official Xbox are pretty much the same, they even had pretty much the same cover a few months back.

NickSCFC

https://www.gamespew.com/2018/10/an-ode ... -magazine/

f you are a gamer of a certain age, then you know the joy that gaming magazines can bring.
Even in today’s tech-driven society, there’s few things more relaxing than taking some time out to read a good physical gaming magazine. And GamesMaster was more than just a good magazine – it was the gaming magazine of a generation.

First published way back in 1993, GamesMaster magazine was there to compliment the TV show of the same name. But even after the show went off air, the magazine continued to fly off shelves. At the time it was the number one source for gaming information, previews and reviews.

What I always admired about GamesMaster was how it was both insightful and comedic. Its reviews were completely trustworthy, and always comprehensive. But it was always written in a slightly informal manner, managing to become more than just a magazine; it was your trusted friend who was always up to date with the latest gaming news.

GamesMaster was never one to shy away from interaction with the readers. In fact, its letters page was always one of the highlights to the monthly magazine. No matter the topic, GamesMaster was a magazine which encouraged reader interaction, making the reader feel valued and important.

My fondest memory of GamesMaster involves The Ocarina of Time. As a child, my anticipation for this soon-to-be-released epic tale of a young child becoming a hero was sky-high. I wanted everything to do with Zelda, and that included an issue of GamesMaster which included a feature on The Ocarina of Time. After reading that issue I fell in love with the writing style of GamesMaster, and have been influenced in my own career by its unique take on the gaming industry.

GamesMaster may be publishing its final ever issue in December, but its legacy in the gaming world will never be removed. From awesome GamesMaster posters up in peoples’ rooms, to special edition issues which take pride of place in readers’ bookshelves, GamesMaster will always live on.

It's a good piece but I can't get over him calling it "The Ocarina of Time"

NickSCFC

I believe GamesMaster was the first time I encountered the word "Twat"

NickSCFC wrote:I believe GamesMaster was the first time I encountered the word "Twat"

I bet you’ve heard it plenty of times since though.

PostRe: GamesTM and GamesMaster to close by KK » Fri Oct 26, 2018 8:57 pm

Future has upload the intro, contents and first few pages of the last issue of GamesMaster:

https://issuu.com/futurepublishing/docs ... issuu/1?ff

Apart from killing it off without any sort of goodbye (which Future have done multiple times in the past) by the looks of things I don’t think this could have been a bigger dissapointment if you tried. An N Gamer/OPM/PC Zone send-off this most definitely isn’t.

NickSCFC

KK wrote:Future has upload the intro, contents and first few pages of the last issue of GamesMaster:

https://issuu.com/futurepublishing/docs ... issuu/1?ff

Apart from killing it off without any sort of goodbye (which Future have done multiple times in the past) by the looks of things I don’t think this could have been a bigger dissapointment if you tried. An N Gamer/OPM/PC Zone send-off this most definitely isn’t.

Damn, this issue was probably finished off before the staff were told they were losing their jobs.

What a gooseberry fool way to end 25 years

Drumstick wrote:strawberry floating Future.

PostRe: GamesTM and GamesMaster to close by KK » Fri Oct 26, 2018 10:21 pm

Of all the things they could have done, including a look back at the TV show, and this is the best Future management can offer? 25 years and it appears to come down to a solitary paragraph? I’ve long believed GM was the least loved of Future’s gaming titles (it’s stapled for a start, and for a long run featured typos on almost every other page and a constant revolving door of staff writers taken from every other magazine, an obvious sign it was being comparatively rushed out the door) but it deserved a better sign off than this.

I don’t know how much leeway they allow, but if I was editor of PC Gamer right now and I knew I wasn’t planning to go anywhere in the interim, I’d be slowly compiling something so when the final issue is announced a feature is pretty much ready to go. Standard practice in the news industry for, well, deaths.

PostRe: GamesTM and GamesMaster to close by KK » Sat Oct 27, 2018 7:59 am

And gamesTM is up as well: https://issuu.com/futurepublishing/docs/gtm206.issuu

Rage 2 on the cover, with no reference of it being the last issue on the cover. On the inside it also just looks like a regular issue, aside from the goodbye from the editor.

KK wrote:And gamesTM is up as well... with no reference of it being the last issue on the cover. On the inside it also just looks like a regular issue, aside from the goodbye from the editor.

What a way for Future to send off these magazines :fp:

. I was going to pick 'em up, having anticipated a "look back and goodbye" retrospective in each... but there seems little point in doing so. Dang it

.

I fear for the final five... Edge, OPM, OXM, PC Gamer and Retro Gamer. Perhaps ironically, Retro Gamer could potentially live longest but, in Future's hands, I'm not so sure. Oh, well, I guess we should just read them whilst we can and enjoy the moment!

PostRe: GamesTM and GamesMaster to close by KK » Sat Oct 27, 2018 7:35 pm

For those who have a subscription to either, they’re being automatically shifted over to EDGE.

I went looking for GM today (Resident Evil issue) and couldn’t find it anywhere, not even WHSmith. For the first time in maybe a decade both OPM and OXM had a copy open to peruse though.

Dang it, I'm frustrated that mags are dying out! It's fantastic being able to quickly discover gaming news via the internet but I don't feel anything like the same level of fondness or attachment as I did for the mags. Websites rarely have much personality; I check Eurogamer and Nintendo Life pretty regularly but I barely feel any kind of link to them.

But this is how things are. Perhaps smaller, "fan"-based magazines could come to the fore. Maybe that could be the source of a renaissance... companies aren't gonna do it but enthusiasts could. I like that thought.

Such a shame future are deciding to not bother having a special end of an era last issue for these. Guess I won’t buy the last issues after all

PostRe: GamesTM and GamesMaster to close by KK » Sun Oct 28, 2018 10:23 am

I see the future of gaming media in print being bookazines, one off special editions, game specific, and other book based reads. There’s a children’s magazine that recently launched solely dedicated to Minecaft.

It’s hard to know how Retro Gamer performs as there is no public audit, but I see that more frequently now than even EDGE and PC Gamer, so it must be doing quite well for shops to have so many copies of it available.

OPM at the moment tends to feature very popular ‘free’ gifts that are probably very cheap to produce. I noticed the Tomb Raider coasters the other month were going for up to £40 on eBay when they came out.

NickSCFC

KK wrote:I see the future of gaming media in print being bookazines, one off special editions, game specific, and other book based reads. There’s a children’s magazine that recently launched solely dedicated to Minecaft.

Aren't those usually compiled of recycled monthly articles though?

I think the PlayStation book is just RetroGamer articles.

NickSCFC wrote:
KK wrote:I see the future of gaming media in print being bookazines, one off special editions, game specific, and other book based reads. There’s a children’s magazine that recently launched solely dedicated to Minecaft.

Aren't those usually compiled of recycled monthly articles though?

I think the PlayStation book is just RetroGamer articles.

Not always. I was commissioned to do an original piece for the Mario Kart GM special bookazine, the GM Call of Duty one, and for XBW 360's Halo one over the years. It's likely some content was recycled, but certainly not all of it.

And I noticed Mr. Shilling was a contributor to the final GM. And I was surprised to see Miriam was still cracking her operational whip at Future. At least she's not in a mag-specific role.

GamesTM and GamesMaster to close

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