Future Pub. relinquish PlayStation license - OPM now Play

End of an era.

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Hopefully the no one losing their job bit is true.

Surely it’s only a matter of time before the magazine in cancelled completely, what are the sales for the mag like?

Change it from Play to Super Play and it instantly becomes one of the best magazines ever.

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Welcome to PLAY: your new PlayStation magazine!

Here's everything you need to know about our brand new video games magazine

The Official PlayStation Magazine is taking a well-earned retirement, so we're making an exciting fresh start. Welcome to PLAY: the new magazine for PlayStation gamers.

Our aim is for PLAY to go farther and deeper than ever before into the world of PlayStation gaming. And crucially, it's made by the same team of writers, editors, and designers, with the same deep industry access, quality of writing, and passion for all things PlayStation.

We're committed to delivering unique perspectives and deep dives into the biggest new games for PS5, PS4, and PSVR. So, whether it's the latest on exclusive blockbusters such as Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart – our cover game for issue 1 – or exclusive access to the hottest new studios, we've got you covered.

Your support over the past year, and the previous 25, has really meant the world to us. Your messages and inclusion in every issue have helped us bring the world and culture of PlayStation to life. So, as we launch PLAY, we hope you'll continue to join us each month as we report on the biggest games, issues, and events surrounding the consoles we love.

A big thank you from the whole team, and we hope you love the new magazine as much as we enjoy making it.

What is PLAY Magazine?

It’s a new PlayStation magazine created by the team behind the Official PlayStation Magazine. The same editorial people, access, and passion for PlayStation as ever before, now under a new banner. If you love PlayStation – from PS1 to PS5 – then we’re the magazine for you. If you still enjoy your video game news, previews, reviews, and features curated once a month into a beautifully designed package made with care and flair, then PLAY Magazine is unmissable.

What’s happened to OPM?

All good things come to an end, and along with Sony we felt that the Official PlayStation Magazine had finally earned a well-deserved retirement. However, we still love PlayStation and magazines, and we know you do too, so PLAY Magazine came to life.

Who makes PLAY Magazine?

PLAY Magazine is made at the same place (Future) and by the same editorial team as Official PlayStation Magazine. Editor Ian Dean has over 20 years of experience as a video games journalist and leads a passionate team who have worked in print since PS1’s heyday. Whether it’s recalling Lara Croft’s debut or the latest indie hit, the PLAY Magazine team has you covered.

I’m an OPM subscriber – what happens to my subscription?

You’ll be first in line to get your hands on the very first issue of PLAY Magazine, as your subscription will simply switch from OPM to PLAY without you needing to do anything.

https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/play-magazine-faq/

A disappointingly subdued and muted way to bring the most successful videogame publication in history (outside of the USA) to a close, but at least the magazine itself isn’t changing (it only recently had a redesign).

Coincidently (or perhaps not?) Ian Dean was editor on the original Play magazine in the early 2000s.

Worrying though if sales have now reached a point that Future can’t afford to use the official license any more rather than Sony themselves saying they don’t want it, if indeed that’s what has occurred. There was no indication Microsoft didn’t want the Official Xbox Magazine either and that was cancelled out of the blue last year. Nintendo publicly stated they wanted out.

Unofficial titles like PSM3, Xbox World 360 and Play were really struggling almost a decade ago, and even established names (GamesMaster, GamesTM) weren’t selling enough most recently in 2018. Fast forward to now and this doesn’t bode well for the long term future of Play.

I’ll keep my subscription going though. Perhaps in their new retro section they’ll now start referencing old issues of Play from the ‘90s (when it was mostly good). Or any of their old licenses come to think of it. PSM2 was the business in 2000-2003.

ITSMILNER wrote:Surely it’s only a matter of time before the magazine in cancelled completely, what are the sales for the mag like?

18,776 for their final public ABC audit in 2019. The Future website says 21,117.

Some great nostalgia in those early covers.

https://magazinesfromthepast.fandom.com ... er_Gallery

rinks wrote:Some great nostalgia in those early covers.

https://magazinesfromthepast.fandom.com ... er_Gallery

OPM/Play's cover's today are still put together by the same bloke (Milford Coppock, who became more of a notable personality in the PSM2-era)

Couldn't beat the excitement of receiving the magazine in the morning (when the postman used to turn up at half 7) and then the anticipation of having to wait the whole day at school to play the disc. Christmas, 12 months of the year.

Every time you took out a new subscription, you got a free game as well.

Play and PowerStation magazines ran a similar offer, in which for 60 quid or thereabouts you got a brand new release of your choice and 13/14 issues of the magazine for the whole year.

OPM was closely aligned with EDGE back in late 1995/96 - the design aesthetic was extremely similar and Future ran a joint subscription offer that included both magazines.

Yeah, the demo disc was the real draw for me. I particularly remember the Parappa cover issue that came with the regular demo disc, and a second disc for Abe’s Oddysee.

Happy days with OPM each month. I remember the MGS2 demo disc magazine selling out everywhere as the hype was incredible before release.

I think it's a mark of the state of gaming in the UK that Future have done this with the Playstation-based magazine, yet completely shuttered the Nintendo and Xbox ones without a second thought. Who knows, though? Maybe this rebranding gives new life to the magazine, and it will be good to see one of the console-focused magazines still going no matter whether official or not.

None of the back issues of OPM are now available for purchase at MagazinesDirect, nor have they been placed in Clearance. I guess the license must have expired already and they're no longer allowed to sell them? While it wasn't mentioned, I wondered why in the current issue of OPM the subscription pages weren't present.

All the old issues of Official Xbox Magazine from 2009-2018 have been made available for free download on the Apple Newsstand by Future, so wouldn't be surprised if that now happens with OPM too.

An alternative to naming it Play would have been just "PSM", which is what the unofficial US mag was called from 1997-2007, and OPM UK was originally abbreviated to until around late 2000.

Is the mandate that the masthead of any unofficial publication can't contain "PlayStation" still in effect? I don't think it was ever confirmed who was behind it (either Sony or Future Publishing), but it resulted in a number of magazines from 2000 onwards having to change their name.

KK wrote:Couldn't beat the excitement of receiving the magazine in the morning (when the postman used to turn up at half 7) and then the anticipation of having to wait the whole day at school to play the disc. Christmas, 12 months of the year.

Every time you took out a new subscription, you got a free game as well.

Oh my god, the demo discs at their peak were absolutely incredible! Tomb Raider, GTA, Resident Evil 2, Metal Gear Solid... As a teenager without much of a budget to buy games, having a new demo disc with up to a dozen playable games turn up every month was a dream! As you said, with a free game as part of your yearly subscription, the value was enormous. Still slightly fuming with that special edition Tekken demo though! :slol:

These days, the internet removes the need for demos on a disc and reviews or news printed on paper, which really squeezes the space for gaming magazines. I'd happily pick up one of these magazines for a train journey or something similar, but what price are these magazines these days when picked up from a shop? Close to a tenner - hardly an impulse buy. It's a shame as I think there could really be a market for them, but they're all too bulky and pricey for an impulse buy.

Oh god yeah, that Tekken demo, at the expense of everything else!

They then repeated that again with OPS2 and Tekken Tag.

I spent weeks playing the Tekken 3 demo with my neighbour though, while also contemplating if it was possible to unlock extra characters (it wasn't).

Issue 31 has always stuck in my mind, for Resident Evil 2 and the Net Yaroze classic Terra Incognita. Issue 42 was something else, not only for Metal Gear Solid, but there were 19 other demos on the disc as well! And this was in January 1999, normally considered a rather uneventful time of year. That was the thing with the PS1 and OPM - rarely a duff month.

I still have my copy of issue 1 of OPM lying around somewhere.

From my desk i can see issue 13 poking out of my book pile too.

Pretty sure i ended up getting at least the first 50 issues before i switched to N64 Magazine, the cover discs were home to some awesome demos too, i remember the anticipation of trying F1 '97 for the first time, and also the despair at playing Warhammer: Shadow of the horned rat, one of the worst PS1 demos i ever played (i literally had no idea what was even going on in it).

I either sold or gave away my stash of magazines, but I kept all of the demo discs. God knows if I'll ever go back to them, could be a laugh.

I'm not sure why demos are not a much bigger feature on the stores?! I mean, I know that some games have them, but I must have purchased 80% of my games off the back of a demo back then, it is great exposure for games that you may not otherwise pick up. The most extreme example for me must be Resident Evil. Had it not been for the demo of Resident Evil 2, I wouldn't have bought the game. I've since gone on to buy ten games in that series.

Sorry, derailed the topic slightly! But it's a real shame that as technology has grown, magazines have become less interactive, rather than more. Give me exclusive demos for my games, or in game content for games you are reviewing. Give me videos on the digital copy, or a simple QR code linking to videos for the magazine. Unless things have changed dramatically since I last picked one up, magazines really don't seem to have improved over the year. A new glossy layout isn't going to draw me in at a tenner - it needs to be something that you can't physically get elsewhere. Before the internet, mags were a real gem, but these days they are generally behind what you can already read online.

SillySprout wrote:I either sold or gave away my stash of magazines, but I kept all of the demo discs. God knows if I'll ever go back to them, could be a laugh.

I'm not sure why demos are not a much bigger feature on the stores?! I mean, I know that some games have them, but I must have purchased 80% of my games off the back of a demo back then, it is great exposure for games that you may not otherwise pick up. The most extreme example for me must be Resident Evil. Had it not been for the demo of Resident Evil 2, I wouldn't have bought the game. I've since gone on to buy ten games in that series.

Sorry, derailed the topic slightly! But it's a real shame that as technology has grown, magazines have become less interactive, rather than more. Give me exclusive demos for my games, or in game content for games you are reviewing. Give me videos on the digital copy, or a simple QR code linking to videos for the magazine. Unless things have changed dramatically since I last picked one up, magazines really don't seem to have improved over the year. A new glossy layout isn't going to draw me in at a tenner - it needs to be something that you can't physically get elsewhere. Before the internet, mags were a real gem, but these days they are generally behind what you can already read online.

The accepted wisdom on demos seems to be that they do more harm to sales than good *shrug* The other argument against them is that it's not easy to make a demo and so causes more work (work which may potentially harm sales) for already overworked staff.

I guess one way around the cost an resource requirements of demos would be to allow timed access to games. Play the first hour for free and proceed to purchase if you wish to do so. Where games already allow part installs, it could work to reduce the download / install size. If this was done at a platform level, it would be at minimal cost to developers.

I appreciate though that demos can cost sales, but for indie games and new franchises, demos surely only add exposure.

I still have a few PSone demo discs

The ones with the Yahtzee 'indie' games on them too, they're so good.

I bought loads of games off the back of those demo discs. I buy very few these days, partly because I'm older and have less disposable time, but the quick access to lots of titles led to a lot of surprise discoveries. To play a demo now, you already have to have the idea that you might want to play the game...

Future Pub. relinquish PlayStation license - OPM now Play

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