Another one bites the dust: GameNOW

[Half Japanese]

I saw this story at Gamespy:

Conversely, Ziff Davis was quiet about its closing of its GameNow publication. At the time this was written, going to the magazine's website and clicking on the subscription offer brought up the message, "GameNow has ceased publication and the January 04 issue will be the last," followed by subsequent connection to a page for its other magazines.

According to someone close to the magazine, GameNow was launched with the intent of targeting the younger segment of gamers, but they determined that "the overall market opportunity turned out to be less substantial we had planned." While tailoring content to a category of gamers -- such as Xbox or PlayStation owners, or even to players of certain genres or specific game titles -- seems to work in many cases, I'm not sure that categorization translates to specific age groups. In my view, gamers are looking for information and time has shown that they'll pick up a magazine that may be more juvenile as long as it has the content they're looking for (usually some mix of news, reviews, previews, and cheats/strategies). With so many magazines out doing just that, it can be tough to introduce a new publication outside the normal formula and have it be lucrative.

Doesn't effect me in the least as I never cared for their magazine. This brings the ZD console mag market down to 4: EGM, OPM, XBN and GMR. Anyone particularly heartbroken by this news? As far as I'm concerned, GMR and XBN are the only worthwhile mags they put out. (EGM to me is worth reading on the shitter...that way I can wipe with their reviews if need be). It's just a shame that XBN isn't the "official mag," thus it being the one with the demo disc.

[Oobgarm]

They weren't terrible by any means, but they were going for an audience who would rather play games than read about them. At least, that's the way it seems nowadays.

I particularly liked their caracitures next to their names in the review section, kinda like what Jess has over at the GameRoom Blitz. IIRC, Next Gen did that, too.

[MarioAllStar2600]

There pocket games magazine was cool. I wasn't a big fan of the magazine though.

[jaydubnb]

Wasnt GameNow the mag that Sushi X moved on to? i wouldnt mind him returning to EGM, as he's the only one that reviewed the King of the Fighters two-pack that didnt waste the review bashing the "outdated" graphics.

[Kid Fenris]

Wasnt GameNow the mag that Sushi X moved on to? i wouldnt mind him returning to EGM, as he's the only one that reviewed the King of the Fighters two-pack that didnt waste the review bashing the "outdated" graphics.

I was under the impression that Sushi X is, and always was, nothing but a pseudonym adopted by numerous writers at EGM and related publications. But maybe I'm mistaken.

[josekortez]

Sushi-X recently reviewed the new King of the Fighters game for PS2 in the new EGM.

[Half Japanese]

I always assumed, like Kid Fenris, that Sushi X was just a moniker and not a real person. Either way, I'm not losing any sleep over it by any means. My favorite writers at ZD mags are Che Chou and James Mielke (the latter of which actually gave a good review to Gungrave instead of bashing it for not being an uber-long story-filled piece of shit, but appreciated the awesome action game it is), and I only own one or two issues of GameNOW (from the DC era, no less). Natural selection I suppose, the weaker members are weeded out.

[PDorr3]

To me GameNow always rated their games WAAAY too high. Games that deserved a B always got an A, and they gave out way too many A's and A+'s. I can respect mags like PSM, because it is very hard to get a solid 10 from them.

[rolenta]

If the magazine only lasted another six months, it would have been around a full ten years!

Gamenow started as EGM2 in July 1994. Sendai wanted to put EGM out as a biweekly magazine but if they did that, the shelf life of each issue would have only been 2 weeks. So they released EGM2 as a monthly and alternated its release with EGM. This way a new magazine came out every two weeks and both of them were on stands for a full month. Other than the name, the two magazines were similar in appearance. The only problem: there wasn't enough news for twenty-four issues a year.

EGM2 became Expert Gamer with its 50th issue (August 1998). The revamped magazine attempted to specialize in game tips, something that Tips & Tricks had been doing for years. The magazine failed to attraact an audience and in November 2001 it became Gamenow, another magazine that really didn't have an identity and had no reason to exist. What is really needed is a magazine aimed towards older readers such as the original Next Generations.

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for EGM2/Expert Gamer/Gamenow. The first prozine review for Phoenix appeared in the second issue of EGM2 (written by Chris Johnston).

[Ed Oscuro]

If the magazine only lasted another six months, it would have been around a full ten years!

Huh, didn't know that.

I'm rather disappointed by the flippant nature of some of the posters regarding this subject. I visited the GameNow site (and the announcement in their forums), and it seems to me that GameNow was likely the last good game publication Ziff Davis owned.

Interestingly, the news was one of those nice pre-Christmas shocks for the staff as well; they didn't have any advance warning and were certainly prepared to carry on the publication those next six months, if not for another ten years.

[Atari7800]

I enjoyed it as well. Their reviews were a bit on the high side, but I liked their special features.

[Cmosfm]

I particularly never cared for it, my favorite magazine right now is EGM...ya know, besides Tips & Tricks which is the BEST MAGAZINE EVER, now If I could somehow score a free subscription...

[Half Japanese]

I'm rather disappointed by the flippant nature of some of the posters regarding this subject.

This is the same "flippant nature" that so many were all too eager to express when Acclaim stopped publishing 'Cube games and 3DO shut their doors. Sure there might have been some decent folk working there, but shit happens.

[Ed Oscuro]

I'm rather disappointed by the flippant nature of some of the posters regarding this subject.

This is the same "flippant nature" that so many were all too eager to express when Acclaim stopped publishing 'Cube games and 3DO shut their doors. Sure there might have been some decent folk working there, but shit happens.

That's great, but in many cases this was "didn't care for the magazine (or rather, didn't read it so we really didn't know?)" whereas with Acclaim and 3DO...they were (in the case of Akklaim, still are) crap companies and I don't miss 3DO in the least. Of course you care for the workers, but the product is what a consumer cares about. If 3DO had folded after making excellent games within memory, perhaps the people who worked there would have had more success entering other companies (and if, for example, some aspect of a game that X worker had slaved away on - such as the programming in an Army Men game - was acknowledged as very good, this may have come to pass). The logic doesn't quite fit.

[Cmosfm]

I'm rather disappointed by the flippant nature of some of the posters regarding this subject.

This is the same "flippant nature" that so many were all too eager to express when Acclaim stopped publishing 'Cube games and 3DO shut their doors. Sure there might have been some decent folk working there, but shit happens.

That's great, but in many cases this was "didn't care for the magazine (or rather, didn't read it so we really didn't know?)" whereas with Acclaim and 3DO...they were (in the case of Akklaim, still are) crap companies and I don't miss 3DO in the least. Of course you care for the workers, but the product is what a consumer cares about. If 3DO had folded after making excellent games within memory, perhaps the people who worked there would have had more success entering other companies (and if, for example, some aspect of a game that X worker had slaved away on - such as the programming in an Army Men game - was acknowledged as very good, this may have come to pass). The logic doesn't quite fit.

Ok, I did read the magazine because I have a friend that sells magazines at a flea market (don't ask) so I got all the issues free. Mostly, it was a poor magazine. I read it, yes, but with other magazines out there worth spending money on this one is like the bargain bin of them all (sorta like 3DO games in the gaming world - since we were talking about those also). I rank it right up there with GMR as a pretty shitty mag with not enough effort put into it. But hey, at least it's not as bad as Nintendo Power.

[gamergary]

GameNOW went downhill after it replaced Expert Gamer which was a good magazine.

[Half Japanese]

Ed, if you read your own reply to mine, then you just explained the GameNOW scenario. By the way, Acclaim isn't all garbage: Vexx, Aggressive Inline and the Mirra games have all been pretty good. And as far as 3DO is concerned, do you not think that their upcoming Street Racing Syndicate game would have sold tons of copies just from "2Fast 2Furious" similarities alone? And Army Men Air Attack was great, and I hate baseball, but supposedly their High Heat franchise was one of the best. I'm not taking up for them, but simply demonstrating that their fall is similar to GameNOW's. That's all

[Sotenga]

GameNOW went downhill after it replaced Expert Gamer which was a good magazine.

Indeed. They used to be good when they were known as EGM2 and Expert Gamer. But then they just HAD to start putting more emphasis on reviews than strategies... bah. I guess all that's left for strategies is GameFAQs... if I wanted reviews, I'd listen to you guys. My ears are closed to any negative Castlevania comments, however.

[Lady Jaye]

I never cared for GameNow. It was one of those magazines that left me on my hunger way more than the average mag. (maybe that's just me: whichever publication I read, I hunger for more reading material afterwards... maybe that's something that the DP zine will satisfy, hopefully!)

[NE146]

I guess all that's left for strategies is GameFAQs...

How bout Tips N Tricks mag?