EGM Closes, 1up sold to UGO

[skaar]

It's all the Wii's fault.

Somehow.

[DigitalSpace]

Well, this is the third gaming magazine that's folded while I was a subscriber (the other two were Tips & Tricks and OPM). Fortunately, all of my subs were from free offers (and the remainder of my OPM sub was added to my EGM sub).

And it makes Maxim the last magazine I have a subscription to (another free sub that doesn't expire until January 2012 - well, as long as that magazine doesn't fold first).

But I have to admit that, while I'll miss EGM, I don't carry much nostalgia for it due to the fact that I rarely read it back in the day. However, as I said in another thread, I liked reading EGM during work breaks and on the bus. I almost always flipped to the retro section first, followed by the rumor mill, the reviews, and then whatever else caught my eye.

So long, EGM, and thanks for the memories.

[CelticJobber]

I started reading EGM around 1991. I used to love the International coverage of Super Famicom games.

It was great at one point, but it really went downhill in the last few years, and I hated it when they switched to an alphabetical rating system.

My subscription ran out after the Japan special (my favorite issue in years) but I didn't renew because I had a feeling it was about to fold. Since it was one of the most established and respected gaming mags, I wish Ziff Davis could've sold it to another publisher.

Fans of EGM might be interested in former editor in chief Dan "Shoe" Hsu's blog (sorethumbsblog.com) currently he's running the "Ex-EGM Awards" where several former EGM writers pick their year end favorites.

[G-Boobie]

This sucks. I loved the 1Up Podcasts and looked forward to them every week.

Me too.

UGO fucked up. What kept most people interested in the 1UP media business was the people who worked there.... Who have all been fired.

Sam Kennedy gets to try and keep a website built by the personalities of people who no longer work there going. I wish him luck, but I think I'm outta there. No Milky, Shane, Fitch, Kolar or Suttner? No thanks.

[boatofcar]

Anybody want to recommend some good VG podcasts? By good I mean as good as the 1Up Podcasts.

[Richter Belmount]

Anybody want to recommend some good VG podcasts? By good I mean as good as the 1Up Podcasts.

Mega64 is one of my favorite podcasts however sometimes its more about the crew and their sketches than games , but they give some good opinions on games movies and music. And Cheap Ass Gamer but of course I don't think there is anything much thats on the same calibur as the 1up show.

[G-Boobie]

Anybody want to recommend some good VG podcasts? By good I mean as good as the 1Up Podcasts.

Giant Bombcast is pretty good. Gamer's With Jobs is also pretty decent.

That about covers it.

[rbudrick]

I've never missed an issue since issue 1. I'll never forget seeing the first issue in Toys R Us and drooling over the 16 bit stuff. This mag was so dear to my heart in the beginning and into the mid to late 90s. I never liked the mag as much from around the late 90s onward, but I still always read it. In the mid 90s the mag got progressively worse, but I still just couldn't let go, although the content was largely not there.

I think the maverick quality of the early issues is what made me fall in love with it.

RIP indeed, EGM. You were an aging old man and now, sadly, you're dead.

-Rob

[j_factor]

I remember in the late 1990s, there was EGM, Game Fan, GamePro, Next Generation, Game Informer, and Gamers' Republic. What's left?


(Not that any of them were ever that great.)

Your list is missing a few -- remember EGM2 (which became Expert Gamer), Ultra Game Players, Intelligent Gamer, and (especially) Tips & Tricks? I really liked Next Generation, Game Fan, T&T, and Gamers' Republic.

Right now we have Game Informer, Gamepro, Play, and Hardcore Gamer. None are great. I enjoy Play for the layout and some of the writing, but they're not nearly critical enough (seriously, Halverson hasn't disliked a single game since Sonic the Hedgehog 360/PS3). I like a lot of the people involved in Hardcore Gamer, and they have some good articles, but on the whole it doesn't totally do it for me. Gamepro is atrocious. They sucked back in the day, and then somehow became decent for a while (I want to say '99-2003 or so), and now they suck again. Game Informer reads like a magazine on autopilot -- every issue's the same, just with different titles.

[Icarus Moonsight]

Non-specific gaming print periodicals died, to me, when Gamer's Republic closed. Maybe it was just the trauma, but nothing seemed the same after that. Underground/PSM, ODCM and NP were all that was left afterward...

[JSoup]

I've never really had good luck with gaming magazines.

I stopped reading Nintendo Power when they started using clip art instead of creating the covers from scratch. Sega Visions was great, but short lived. T&T was good until I realized I was being ripped off (what with over half the book being the same database of cheats every month).

I really liked EGM2, but it went straight down the shitter after changing to Expert Gamer.

[josekortez]

I'm happy about this since the magazine has sucked hard since it went completely mainstream in its game coverage. I remember the days when I happily looked forward to EGM when they used to include news about import games and such. Then, they got sucked under the bus and tried to pander to the masses like Gamepro and that was the beginning of the end for me. I still cherish those Dreamcast-era issues that I have in my collection, though.

[boatofcar]

Giant Bombcast is pretty good. Gamer's With Jobs is also pretty decent.

That about covers it.

Downloaded both of those tonight. I'll give them a listen tomorrow.

[Trebuken]

I agree the content was light but hell you could get a subscription for little to nothing. Even a bad issue of EGM is worth a dollar. Newstand price might be a stretch...it was good for what many of us were paying.

Also, I'm not much for podcasts...and the only one I have watched much of is this one:

http://www.onnetworks.com/videos/pla...?autoplay=true

OnNetworks. It's mostly retro, but professional and informative.

[Rob2600]

Who else remembers the 1990 EGM Buyers' Guide? It featured the 16-bit showdown, with a side-by-side comparison of the Genesis, TurboGrafx-16, and...the Konix Multi System, which I recall had some sort of a chair peripheral.

[kainemaxwell]

That's horrible. So Game Informer is like the last one standing?

[Oobgarm]

Still got it in the mail and did enjoy reading what was there, even if it wasn't as good as the older stuff.

Fuck.

[G-Boobie]

That's horrible. So Game Informer is like the last one standing?

Ain't THAT some serious shenanigans?

[2Dskillz]

Hardcore Gamer is for sale on Ebay of all places right now. You can actually buy the copyrights, employee contracts, back issues whatever. It is starting at $42,000

[bangtango]

That's horrible. So Game Informer is like the last one standing?

The irony here is that Game Informer was a complete joke during the heyday of EGM (the Steve Harris era) and Next Generation. They used to have cheesy issues that were about 35-40 pages which looked like a fanzine. I remember they also used to give issues away for free in a few different toy store chains. Reading those early GI issues, you would have never believed they'd still be around today. I thought they would have folded a long time ago.

Anyone who read the first few years of Game Informer (or longer) knows exactly what I'm talking about. They have come a long way from then and actually look like a professional magazine.