When I was a little boy gamer I would spend a bit of my allowance on Electronic Gaming Monthly a great little gaming magazine. Unfortunately, young gamers will never understand what the industry was like twenty years ago. In a time before the Internet, the only place to get gaming news for a young kid was a glossy magazine. Today, EGM closes its doors and we’re losing a historic piece of gaming history.
Granted, there were other glossy magazines prized by young boys too, but we were old enough to purchase Electronic Gaming Monthly, now known as EGM by the hip and cool. Although EGM was founded in 1989, many adults between the age of 29 and 35 probably spent their youth flipping through the pages reading the reviews and editorials.
The days of the magazine are drawing to an end for many industries, with video game websites covering everything from truly hardcore to highly niche, we all demand our information as soon as possible. If a company like Ziff Davis is selling its properties, we want to know the minute it is announced, when 1UP is purchased by UGO we want to know the minute the ink dries. Why? Because we can.
January 2009 marks the last issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. After Hearst Corporation (owner of UGO) purchased 1UP from Ziff Davis it was announced that EGM would be seeing its last issue. Sure, there was a chance this would occur without the acquisition as well but the sadness wouldn’t be any different. We’re sure the staff will find a great home writing for another publication or in the online world, but it is sad just the same.
Along with the sad news of EGM closing, we’ve heard a number of folks at 1UP have also been effected by Hearst Corporations purchase of 1UP which has many people out of a job during tough economic times. There has been rumor the 1UP podcasts being ditched as well, but we have heard nothing official yet (please comment with official stories if you hear).
Of course, 1UP is “officially” rejoicing at the news but we know this is part of the “smoke and mirrors” that is an acquisition. A few, now former, 1UP folks have been using twitter and game forums to voice their own “opinions” of the purchase.
This is a rough economic time for many people, printed magazines, online publications and others. The only shining light is knowing many of these individuals will find new places to call home or start brand new online publications to compete against their old company. Talent will not go restricted, they will no doubt group together to form new aged publications to show off why the big boys are flailing in the dark.
We wish them all well in their efforts to find success.
@Dead Island – wrong version on Steam:
Since its a digital distribution channel, it is easy to fix …
@Lord British wants to make another Ultima:
I said it in another post: as a developer, either you sell the IP to the publisher and enjoy the money, or keep the IP and retain control. You can’t do both, have the cookie and eat it.
@Crytek rebukes “unlawful layoff” claims
Europe labor laws (Germany included) are a bit more weird. They would send labor inspectors to check how many extra hours you’re pushing etc. etc.
That’s one extreme.
The other extreme is bad planning that leads to all-development-crunch-time.
There has to be a middle ground.
@ Steam on Xbox Live Marketplace:
Newell wants EA to start selling their titles on Steam again. The way he goes about it is by trying to squeeze market space away from Origin; if EA would like to make more money, they would have to go through Valve’s Steam.
@console “limitations” in Battlefield 3:
PC rulez 😀 !!
Now, while 30 fps in a shooter is fluid, at 60 fps you do get better reaction time from the game. And for online shooters, this matters.
There is a reason why competitive shooter games run at a simulation tick rate at 60 ticks per second, 90 ticks per second and even 120 ticks per second.
Question is, for the fps count to matter, will Battlefield 3 be a competitive online multiplayer? Something tells me that it aims to be one.
@Black Ops map packs hit 18 million sold
What pisses me off is that modders can’t sell the maps they make, but developers can. And nowadays (case for Battlefield 3) there won’t be any modding tools. Way to go to maintain a community …
@PSP:
This will come as a shocker: I like Jonah’s idea about a simple handheld console, that does only gaming.
In terms of gadgets, I don’t like multipurpose ones. My phone only does calls and text messages (and live for 5 days from one recharge), so from a portable handheld I only expect it to play games.
@QOTW:
In the second STALKER game, Clear Sky, they changed the damage mechanics and the weapon accuracy (nerfed it).
Now, while I loved the fact that you could customize your gun in Clear Sky, changing the base accuracy AND making enemies die only from headshots caused a lot of frustrations.
This was somewhat exacerbated by the fact that the first game had decent guns and enemies would die also from body shots.
Thankfully they reverted a good deal of it in the third game.
@Steam on XBL – That would be great but, as Jonah said, Microsoft would be putting out Arcade Games for 15 dollars while Steam is having a sale, selling the same game for 5 bucks. I wish it were so, but I understand why is isn’t.
@Black Ops Map Packs – I have purchased all four map packs (the last one was free due to the fact that I had the Hardened edition of the game), and I, like many, only purchased them for the Zombies maps. The problem with that is I have to pay for the four crappy multiplayer maps instead of them offering the Zombies maps as separate content.
@QOTW – Bioshock is easily one of my favorite games of all time, but the hacking in that game annoyed me horribly. Thankfully, they changed the hacking mechanic in the sequel, so at least they learned from their mistakes.
I enjoyed hacking in Bioshock. Deus Ex: Human Revolution does it better, though.
I found the hacking to be more tedious than enjoyable. But, to each their own.
guys,jonah ,just to let ya all know that im still listening and i observed that the podcast is getting better,i didnt have time to comment coz i was playing minecraft and studying, and guys if you have a minecraft account but you dont play anymore plzzzz message me and try to give it to me because im stuck with a cracked account and im really broke so plzz i beg you all @qotw i never encounterd those things because i enjoy all of my games ,ps dont stop the podcast keep it going
edit you could message me on Facebook ,name; oliver lance de leon