Next Generation Magazine Returns

[digitalpress]

Well, in web form :)

Originally Posted by Colin Campbell, Editor-in-chief of Next Generation
In the nineties, the games industry had Next Generation magazine. The magazine helped define an era of massive growth and unprecedented creativity in the games business. We believe that the coming of a new generation of consoles and the spread of new platforms, such as online and mobile, signify another such era.

Today, Future reintroduces you to Next Generation. Instilled with the editorial integrity of its predecessor, Next Generation is an online business daily news source designed to offer you unique insight into the rapidly changing world of games and the interactive entertainment industry.

Check out the site, in its second day of operation, here:
http://next-gen.biz/

[shvnsth]

so its back in name only, or basically they are giving something else the name next generation that has nothing to do with the magazine from the 90s.

[digitalpress]

so its back in name only, or basically they are giving something else the name next generation that has nothing to do with the magazine from the 90s.

Well, personnel-wise it's different. I mean, it's been years, and those guys from the original staff weren't just going to wait around for a new iteration of Next Generation. Saying this has "nothing to do with the magazine from the 90's (which ran until 2001, by the way) is a little exaggerated. It's the same charter as the original mag, and that's all I'd care about as a gamer.

[Lady Jaye]

Thanks for the link, Joe! What I've read so far is interesting.

[zmweasel]

so its back in name only, or basically they are giving something else the name next generation that has nothing to do with the magazine from the 90s.

ProTip: Magazines (and websites) are ALWAYS changing personnel: new editors, new writers, new layout guys. The GamePro of today has almost nothing to do with the GamePro of five years ago. Same with EGM. Same with OPM. These are the "same" magazines in name only.

The print version of NextGen went through several incarnations itself, with the first (when it was edited by Brits and recycled editorial from the Brit pub Edge) being the best.

-- Z.

[kevincure]

Glad to see something NextGen back, though I would love to see the actual magazine return.

Zach, you're in the industry. Why isn't there an Edge style game magazine these days? There must be some demand for a well-written, adult-oriented game magazine - anything more than "goofy letters, previews of sequels, a longer preview of a bigger sequel, reviews, codes" formula that defines every mag around. I think 1-up Zine 3 was the last US game magazine I enjoyed, and it came out over a year ago.

An adult-focused game mag would seem to be attractive to advertisers as well - adults have more money, buy more games, and are more interested in niche titles. What's the deal?

[sabre2922]

Hey thanks this sites actually pretty damn insightful :D

I did like the magazine for the first couple years after that it turned to complete $hit.

Give me DIE HARD GAMEFAN anyday :hail:

[TheSmirk]

Thanks for the news, I'll be keeping an eye on this ressurrection of sorts......I've been going through some stuff in the attic recently and I was flipping through my old mags, including a ton of Next Generation, that was a good mag.

[zmweasel]

Why isn't there an Edge style game magazine these days? There must be some demand for a well-written, adult-oriented game magazine - anything more than "goofy letters, previews of sequels, a longer preview of a bigger sequel, reviews, codes" formula that defines every mag around. I think 1-up Zine 3 was the last US game magazine I enjoyed, and it came out over a year ago.

An adult-focused game mag would seem to be attractive to advertisers as well - adults have more money, buy more games, and are more interested in niche titles. What's the deal?

Game publishers and magazine publishers still (rightly) consider the vast majority of their target audience to be casual-gaming males in their late teens and early 20s. Adult console gamers--REAL adults with jobs and families and bald spots--aren't even on their radar.

Next Gen was always an "inside-baseball" publication, which made it a very tough sell outside the tiny clique of hardcore gamers who are both literate and know and care about game developers. I guarantee you that the majority of the folks in this hardcore forum don't even know the difference between a developer and a publisher.

Next Gen was to Game Fan as Arrested Development is to According to Jim, but which one receives wistful praise from the majority of veteran gamers?

-- Z.

[sabre2922]

Next Gen was to Game Fan as Arrested Development is to According to Jim, but which one receives wistful praise from the majority of veteran gamers? < a quick response to this just in case it was anyway pointed at me since im the one who mentioned Gamefan.

Ill adimit the first 12-16 issues of Next-Gen magazine were great very proffesional and spot on with system specs and the like but the magazine did go straight to the dogs after the first year or so and that is just MY OPINION doesnt necessarily make it true.

I swear by Gamefan for the fact that it was everything that a gaming mag should be and only the true hardcore understood the in jokes or industry talk or those that had already been into video games for the past 20 years or so.

Gamefan was truly unbiased and was one of the few mags (were there any others?) that gave the Dreamcast as much coverage as any other console including PS2 hell they even covered every damn 32X or Jaguar game they could get there hands on even fight for life the last Jag game published in the U.S.
Sure the writing was off sometimes but you could feel the true enthusiasm in almost every page of Gamefan whereas the last few years of Next Gen felt like they had been written by freelancers who could not have cared less about videogames or the hobby as a whole.

Hey thats just my Opinion though ;)

[zmweasel]

a quick response to this just in case it was anyway pointed at me since im the one who mentioned Gamefan.

Not singling you out at all. Just making the point that most hardcore (and casual) gamers don't care about good writing.

-- Z.

[sabre2922]

Just making the point that hardcore gamers don't care about good writing. < hey now that is a good point :D

[poopnes]

I started reading Next Generation around issue number 5. That was in 1995. I was 14. I knew that I wasn't the target market for the magazine (as at the time there was still lots I didn't understand), but I sure did appreciate the approach of the magazine. My favorite part was the interviews and the in-depth look at the hardware of the systems. NextGen didn't go downhill 'til around the launch of the Dreamcast. I recieved a copy of Edge in 2001, but even that magazine didn't seem to live up to its heritage anymore.

The new website already shows tons of promise. If they'd just get back to doing a daily Q&A (like the old website) I'd be an extremely happy man. I remember when Chris Charla (I think that was his name) was doing it. I even got a question answered. I was sad when he left (I believe he went to Digital Eclipse).

edit:

Just making the point that hardcore gamers don't care about good writing. < hey now that is a good point :D
Hey, NextGen WAS hardcore. They used to promote that they and all their subscribers were hardcore. There was even that issure that asked "How hardcore are you" and then they had this huge test to take to see how hardcore you really were. =)