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.
This weeks gaming podcast covers two reviews, including LittleBigPlanet and Guitar Hero: World Tour. We also touch on a bit of retro NES history with ExciteBike. This weeks gaming news includes:
Hey guys,
I haven’t written in for a while because you failed to speak bad of Vita all these weeks 🙂 the moment I heard Jonah flip flop on what media devices the Vita uses I knew I had to straighten it out (too bad about Jordan). Oh, there’s also work but I guess that’s a minor thing 🙂
The Vita uses cards and is still a great platforms with many great games. I just got the platinum trophy in Velocity 2X, which is just an amazing shoot’em up/platformer game. I wonder if it could break your dislike of the device…
I also haven’t been writing in because I didn’t feel I had much to add on the subject of the recent news items. However, the Windows 10 news is quite interesting. The reason they gave for skipping a number is great. Way to go with consistent naming, Microsoft! I’ve been using Windows since Win95 and they pretty much stick to the pattern of having every second system be terrible, as if they had two dev teams and one of them had no idea what they were doing. I bought a Win8.1 laptop recently (no touch) and I found it very hard to navigate through my apps. The Metro design sucks for mouse-operated devices and it’s not that intuitive for touch either.
Let me end with a little ‘about me’ section so that maybe Paul remembers me next time. We share the first name, after all 🙂 I’m 29, fonished college years ago and I’m trying to do a PhD in electronics/computer science. I also work for a startup which will one day be sold for… ONE MILLION DOLLARS (puts pinky in mouth).
Coming back to tje topic of Vita, my question to you guys. Which handhelds have you owned / do you own and enjoy a lot? Explain why 3DS is better than the Vita without using the words or phrases Link, Zelda, ‘the legend of’, ocarina 🙂
Cheers,
Pawel