Do you still buy gaming magazines?

[Ashley]

The print industry is obviously past its prime but I still occasionally pick up Wireframe and/or Edge depending on the contents and if I have a journey coming up and want something to read.

I do know there's quite a few kickstarters for very specific topics. I have got both issues of A Profound Waste of Time and the production quality is amazing, but never really bothered with any others.

[Dcubed]

I don’t buy them regularly, but I do like Retro Gamer.  Their features are excellent and they do some brilliant interviews with developers.  Highly recommended!

[Sméagol]

I've been thinking about magazines in general lately, I even ordered one this month, a Dutch magazine about outdoor lifestyle en sports.

Gaming magazines? I don't see me buying any of those. I've never bought them regularly anyway. I had a subscription to the Dutch official Nintendo magazine in the 90s, but apart from those I only have a small selection of gaming magazines like the Power Unlimited, which is the most popular gaming magazine here in The Netherlands (I assume, I don't have any statistics). I get all my gaming info from the internet.

I do actually have a pretty large collection of.. Fashion magazines and men's magazines. Probably around 300. But you're talking about gamings magazines in particular, so I won't elaborate.

[Ronnie]

Sad to say I don't much anymore, though I'll still on occasion pick up Edge if there's a good feature or review, like say a big 3D Mario or Zelda game

[martinist]

Got a subscription to Retro Gamer when I randomly picked up issue 222 from WH Smiths. Really like the back to the naughties section where they talk about video game news and events from a particular month from '05-'06 Currently in January 2006, really good section.

[Hero-of-Time]

Coincidentally, yesterday evening I was looking at the magazine Switch Player. It was a Kickstarter project and looks to have been running since the early days of the Switch. It seems pretty cool.

I do miss gaming magazines but I can understand why they died a death.

[Jonnas]

Last few gaming magazines I bought were copies of Retro Gamer... and I haven't properly read them Goes to show why I don't purchase them anymore, as they don't really fit with my schedule.

Moreover, I used to read magazines because they were also gaming news. I kept up with releases over various consoles thanks to the magazine I used to read (hence why I still remember the existence of say, Psi-Ops, Forbidden Siren, or Onimusha Tactics), but now I have such easy access to trailers, screenshots, opinion pieces, and even demos and soundtracks, that the need has become obsolete.

Still, I should get around to reading those issues of Retro Gamer, they seem legitimately good.

[Ike]

On 27/10/2022 at 10:58 PM, Jonnas said:

Last few gaming magazines I bought were copies of Retro Gamer... and I haven't properly read them

Iz you me? Because I do that. Like with actual games I guess, so it fits.  

I usually pick up Retro Gamer and sometimes Edge, but Morrisons have stopped selling them, so I don't buy them as often nowaways.

[WackerJr]

No not anymore.  I do miss the days of N64 / NGamer magazine as I enjoyed their sense of humour and found their reviews seemed pretty accurate with how I felt about the games I played.

I do enjoy the different articles that paper magazines tended to put together, and I don’t see anywhere near enough online.  I guess they had to fill pages each month so were forced to be creative. 

I am pleased to see that the likes of Edge & Famitsu have still managed to hold on to their reputations when it comes to reviews, and a high score in them is still held in high regard.

[Hero-of-Time]

7 hours ago, WackerJr said:

No not anymore.  I do miss the days of N64 / NGamer magazine as I enjoyed their sense of humour and found their reviews seemed pretty accurate with how I felt about the games I played.

I do enjoy the different articles that paper magazines tended to put together, and I don’t see anywhere near enough online.  I guess they had to fill pages each month so were forced to be creative. 

I am pleased to see that the likes of Edge & Famitsu have still managed to hold on to their reputations when it comes to reviews, and a high score in them is still held in high regard.

Yeah, this was definitely the case but it very rarely felt like filler. I suppose it's kinda similar now with websites and how they are constantly putting out garbage articles and features in order to get clicks (looking at you NintendoLife and PushSquare). When websites do this it reeks of desperation but when the likes of N64 and PLAY magazine needed content it always came off as a passion project and genuine. 

[EEVILMURRAY]

Not really video game magazine, but I have subscribed to Tabletop Gaming magazine, however the last 3 issues have been very quickly flipped through and put to the side with a promise to read it later. 

[Aperson]

I used to subscribe to Official Nintendo Magazine on a regular basis. When that ended online media pretty much took over for me so no.

[darksnowman]

Quote

The 15 (ish) greatest UK video game magazines of all time

1 - Edge
2 - Zzap!64
3 - C&VG
4 - Super Play
5 - Mean Machines
6 - PC Zone
7 - Arcade
8 - Amiga Power
9 - GamesTM
10 - Your Sinclair / Commodore User
11 - Advanced Computer Entertainment
12 - Sega Saturn Magazine
13 - GamesMaster
14 - Retro Gamer
15 - Maximum

Honourable mentions: obviously it was impossible to fit all the memorable publications into a list of 15 (ish) so here’s a nod to some greats I had to leave out – Amstrad Action, ST Action, Sinclair User (some of the best cover designs of the era), The One, the lovely NGC and N64 magazines, and the actually really good Official PlayStation and Xbox mags.

https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/may/10/the-15-ish-greatest-uk-video-game-magazines-of-all-time

The Guardian put together a list of the top fifteenish UK game mags. There's a blurb for each through the link. I'd put GamesMaster higher but maybe that's the nostalgia goggles. Retro Gamer should either be higher or not make the 15 because sneaking it in at 14 is too low. Saturn Mag sounds like it must have provided decent coverage.

[Happenstance]

I haven't bought a magazine in years but I kind of fancy getting a subscription to Retro Gamer now.

[Helmsly]

Funny enough I was in WH Smiths just under a week ago which was the very same one I used to buy a lot of my gaming mags in back in the 1990s and 2000s. I popped in to look around for old times sake and I was going to buy a gaming magazine and unsurprisingly, it was actually hard to find them... all there was was Retro Gamer and Edge buried away. In the end i opted to get a random Marvel graphic novel instead

1 hour ago, darksnowman said:

https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/may/10/the-15-ish-greatest-uk-video-game-magazines-of-all-time

The Guardian put together a list of the top fifteenish UK game mags. There's a blurb for each through the link. I'd put GamesMaster higher but maybe that's the nostalgia goggles. Retro Gamer should either be higher or not make the 15 because sneaking it in at 14 is too low. Saturn Mag sounds like it must have provided decent coverage.

I like that Super Play is so high on the list. I would have also put N64 magazine on there which I would have been my personal number 1. Also I agree Gamesmaster should be higher.

I gotta say, i was never a huge fan of Edge. I'm not saying its bad but it is so formal and serious, which was never the way I liked reading about video games.

Some of you might like the site ForgottenWorlds which is a website that has articles about UK game magazines as well as interviews with people that worked on them. A couple of months ago they interviewed Will Overton who did a lot of the cover artwork for Super Play (you can see one of his covers in my avatar) and N64 magazine.

[Hero-of-Time]

9 hours ago, darksnowman said:

 Saturn Mag sounds like it must have provided decent coverage.

The official Sega Saturn Magazine was fantastic. The guys who made it done so much with so little. I mean, the Saturn was getting annihilated by the PS1 and yet they still provided decent coverage, despite the lack of games being released. They often highlighted high profile Japanese releases, especially when Capcom started releasing the 4MB cart games, like X-men vs Streetfighter and Vampire Saviour. Still bums me out we never got these over here.  Fantastic magazine that I hold up there with N64 Magazine. 

Man, I miss that era of gaming so much. Games seemed so much more exciting back then. I don't think it's an age thing either. Having gaming news on tap thanks to the internet certainly dilutes some of the excitement. Just having the news once a month and then speculating about things in the lead up to the following issue made for some good times. Now, people can find out all sorts of stuff, thanks to leaks and what not, meaning there's not a lot left as a surprise.

 

[Hero-of-Time]

7 hours ago, Helmsly said:

I gotta say, i was never a huge fan of Edge. I'm not saying its bad but it is so formal and serious, which was never the way I liked reading about video games.

Yeah, I never was either. They are very good at what they do but the content is too dry/serious for my liking. The likes of Super Play and N64 Magazine seemed like they were wrote by a bunch of fans who just happened to get together and create a magazine.

[Dcubed]

Speaking of old rags...

https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/05/polands-dreamcast-extreme-magazine-looks-so-good-youd-think-it-was-official

Out of nowhere comes a brand new Polish Dreamcast magazine called Dreamcast Extreme.

Pretty cool!

[Sheikah]

Yeah, joining the Edge dogpile here. The couple of occasions I bought it I remember it was really expensive and mostly contained pictures with little in the way of actual writing. Style over substance for sure.

[Happenstance]

And of course I am now getting targeted Facebook ads for Edge 😆

I'm another one that was never a massive fan of Edge, I'd agree that it felt a bit too serious. I think if I went with a magazine for modern gaming at the time I bought Games TM but even that was rare. My go-to magazines as a kid/teenager were Games Master and PC Zone.

[Cube]

I don't think I've ever read Edge, it always looked to clinical to me. I mainly for N64 and NGC magazine (I have them all on my phone, bar a couple of missing issues of NGC), before unsubscribing from NGamer at some point (I stuck with it for a while after my Wii and DS were stolen, but not having a Nintendo console disconnected me from it). I also dabbled in a bit of Cube and Revolution, as they had good discs with their mags (videos/action replay type stuff).

[Ike]

4 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Speaking of old rags...

https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/05/polands-dreamcast-extreme-magazine-looks-so-good-youd-think-it-was-official

Out of nowhere comes a brand new Polish Dreamcast magazine called Dreamcast Extreme.

Pretty cool!

Does it come with demo disks and special Toy Commander levels?

[darksnowman]

17 hours ago, Happenstance said:

I haven't bought a magazine in years but I kind of fancy getting a subscription to Retro Gamer now.

I've only picked up a few issues of Retro Gamer, but with the Internet being the death knell to many-a print publication, they must be doing something right to have lasted 20 years at this point. Especially with retro gaming the subject of so many online articles, podcasts, YouTube retrospectives. The issues I got have some decent articles and it's always nice to read something that isn't on a screen.

16 hours ago, Helmsly said:

Funny enough I was in WH Smiths just under a week ago which was the very same one I used to buy a lot of my gaming mags in back in the 1990s and 2000s. I popped in to look around for old times sake and I was going to buy a gaming magazine and unsurprisingly, it was actually hard to find them.

Sad.  

I didn't have a local WHSmith, nonetheless, I used to enjoy having a loiter to leaf through the gaming mags. Everyone was doing it. Besides, I had to know what NMS wasn't telling me.

8 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

The official Sega Saturn Magazine was fantastic. The guys who made it done so much with so little. I mean, the Saturn was getting annihilated by the PS1 and yet they still provided decent coverage, despite the lack of games being released. They often highlighted high profile Japanese releases, especially when Capcom started releasing the 4MB cart games, like X-men vs Streetfighter and Vampire Saviour. Still bums me out we never got these over here.  Fantastic magazine that I hold up there with N64 Magazine. 

It was outside my scope of interest so I don't remember ever even having a look through it. Very much sounds like a labour of love from all involved which is something I can appreciate.

8 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Man, I miss that era of gaming so much. Games seemed so much more exciting back then. I don't think it's an age thing either. Having gaming news on tap thanks to the internet certainly dilutes some of the excitement. Just having the news once a month and then speculating about things in the lead up to the following issue made for some good times. Now, people can find out all sorts of stuff, thanks to leaks and what not, meaning there's not a lot left as a surprise.

Yeah, I'd tend to agree. We got a monthly news and rumour mill update then it was over to our imagination to picture how those screenshots would one day come together to be a game you're playing. Perhaps better in the sense we had weeks to pore over the mags before being swept up in the next issue's news. E3 and Spaceworld months were something else. Nowadays we're lucky to have five minutes to process what's happening before it's onto the next breaking news.

8 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Speaking of old rags...

https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/05/polands-dreamcast-extreme-magazine-looks-so-good-youd-think-it-was-official

Out of nowhere comes a brand new Polish Dreamcast magazine called Dreamcast Extreme.

Pretty cool!

"Naturally, unless you happen to be able to read Polish, the magazine's contents are going to be largely alien to you, but what's abundantly clear is that a lot of time and effort has gone into creating this magazine, which not only celebrates some of the best games to appear on Sega's final home console, but also takes a look at the many homebrew titles which have been released since Sega abandoned the system."

Sounds cool. Good for them for having a go at this in 2024.

8 hours ago, Sheikah said:

Yeah, joining the Edge dogpile here. The couple of occasions I bought it I remember it was really expensive and mostly contained pictures with little in the way of actual writing. Style over substance for sure.

Yes! Overpriced, thin, and page spreads of a single screenshot is what I associate with Edge as well.

5 hours ago, Cube said:

I also dabbled in a bit of Cube and Revolution, as they had good discs with their mags (videos/action replay type stuff).

I picked up the odd issue of these too to get the disc. I didn't realise they were just GameCube-style discs with videos to watch on your PC, or demos you needed an Action Replay to get them to work on your console. Just knew I needed them after all those years of demo discs doing the rounds during the 32-bit era.

[Hero-of-Time]

Thanks to this thread bump, I spent a lot of time on eBay last night looking at old gaming magazines. Play, PSW, N64 Magazine, Official Dreamcast Magazine...they were all getting looked at. It's a shame that a lot of copies that are on sale are in poor condition. I suppose they are getting on in years though.

I remember a DVD that came with an issue (don't remember what issue number) of PSW that featured a MGS2 trailer. I dunno if it was specially edited for the magazine because I don't recall ever seeing that trailer anywhere else. I was half tempted to buy any PSW DVDs that featured anything MGS2 in the hopes that I could find it again.

[Cube]

One great website for retro UK gaming magazines: https://www.outofprintarchive.com/

They're digitally backing up a ton of magazines. They have "preliminary" versions that are the initial scans, but then they're also touching up to match the original colours better (which is a lot of work) to make better versions.