EGM shuttered in massive Ziff Davis game division sell-off
Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 7:40am by Jack
Happy 20th anniversary, Electronic Gaming Monthly! You’ve been discontinued, and a number of video and podcast departments at 1up have joined you.
It’s a sad day for print, but an inevitable one, as online is the future, much like digital distribution. The current EGM on newsstands is the final one, and next month’s, already completed, will be delivered digitally online.
With the cancellation, a number of people also lost their jobs, so if you’re going to be critical, grow up and keep the comments respectful.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:15 am
I’ve said it before, and will say it again:
Although the opinions of the 1up crew often differed from my own, they are a smart group of people who do good work. Here’s hoping everyone lands on their feet and keep on running.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:41 am
That’s too bad… EGM had an excellent reputation for unbiased reviews. In a field where game ratings on a ten-point scale usually meant always giving at least a 5, they were willing to use the whole scale to give their true opinion (giving Superman 64 a 0.5, sparing it a zero only because it booted up properly). And Dan Hsu’s grilling of Peter Moore over the rocky start of the XBox 360 is still one of the high points of gaming journalism, pulling no punches whatsoever: http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3147131
I’m not too surprised to see magazines start disappearing (like newspapers) in the face of internet coverage, but EGM was probably the best one out there.
January 7th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
I’ll miss EGM. I’ve been reading it ever since I was little. Other than Game Informer it’s the only gaming mag I regularly read (and I only read Game Informer because of the Edge Card Subscription.) Their review scheme was great, and I admired it when they switched to a letter grade system. It’s too bad that a bunch of great people were let go from the 1up network too, like the Milkman and Shane Battenhausen.
On the positive side, maybe some of the former EGM/1uppers will join the ranks of Hsu and Boyer’s SoreThumbs blog. That would be pretty neat.
January 7th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
that sucks. egm was the first game mag i ever bought (i probably still have some of those issues somewhere in storage) and i’m sad to see it go. many a summer afternoon was spent taking trips down to the 7-11 picking up my egm, drinkin my slurpy, and playing a few rounds of sfII before returning home to read it almost as religiously as my nintendo power (which was the first mag i ever had, but on account of my dad subscribing after buying our NES). good times old friend you will be missed.
January 7th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
That’s really too bad, they should have sold the EGM mag brand when they had the chance, like Nintendo with the legendary Nintendo Power. I love to read about anything gaming, so I know the newsstands video game magazine is a joke compares to the various free online coverages. Oh well, the one who can’t adjust to the future is going to be history.
January 7th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
To me, one of the saddest parts of losing print-media is the design format. Each issue had the opportunity to showcase unique designs and page layouts – but when print media moves to the web, it’s lost for the ease of conformity.
Perhaps in the future magazine layouts will return, if the “e-reader” such as the Amazon Kindle ever catches on and becomes mainstream – but until then, I will miss them.
January 7th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Wow, this sucks. EGM has been a constant in my life for almost 20 years. It will be very weird not getting a new issue in the mail every month.
I still remember the first issue I read back in 1989. In fact up until around 2003 I still owned it.
January 7th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
yeah print is going bye bye. I work for a magazine and i was told yesterday that I will be laid off in March. So…at this point my only hope is that Nintendo Power stays in print for as long as it can.
January 7th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
the things I will most are quarterman got the best insight into the future there of any game news…..and the reviews
January 7th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
I’m not so torn about EGM as it had an online counterpart with 1up (come on, print is dying, unfortunately), but they got rid of a TON of people. UGO cut out the podcasts and 1up Show, which was what 1up was about, honestly. It’s a shame.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Hey guys I just want to say that I hate UGO, and I wish the group would free fall and burn on its way to the zenth level of hell. I have to say that I was a bit “nicer” earlier today, but now I am pretty pissed.
January 8th, 2009 at 12:01 am
I remember years ago when my favorite gaming magazine, GameNow, was discontinued. Ziff Davis started sending me EGM because I had a GameNow subscription. It took a while but EGM grew on me. I don’t buy gaming magazines regularly anymore, but yesterday at the store I saw the new issue of EGM and picked it up. Weird that it’s the last issue ever in print.
I had that everything is going online. I love the internet and blogs and websites, but you can’t totally get rid of print. It’s not just the gaming industry mags. Not too long ago, one of my snowboarding magazines was discontinued. Hopefully this trend ends soon and people realize the value of online and print media, and that they can coexist.
January 8th, 2009 at 4:47 am
This sucks. I listen to the 1upFM. I subscribe to EGM. I love the 1UP crew.
Though perhaps I should edit these statements: I listened, I subscribed… but I still love. The 1up staff (er… ex-staff, I guess) is a group of very talented, passionate writers and it makes no sense that they were let go. This shows a complete lack of strategy on UGO’s part and seems counteractive to the process of buying a company to make more money.
Then again, if I were writing for 1up during all this, I would probably be inclined to quit anyway. It all just seems disrespectful.
But life goes on, I guess. Good thing there are still grass-roots, independently-owned blogs that can still convey game news to the people.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
“Although the opinions of the 1up crew often differed from my own, they are a smart group of people who do good work. Here’s hoping everyone lands on their feet and keep on running.”
I completely agree. Hopefully whats left will develop a strong online presence.