Farewell Game Informer...

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  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    Hello Legion Gamers!

    A bit of news not about the games, but about other media connected to them. And it's a bit of sad news, too: Game Informer, the oldest (33 years!) monthly gaming magazine printed in America (it was one of the few ones still printed on paper) is closing down:

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    It was first printed in August 1991 and by now had more than a million subscribers. Now it seems that its 368th issue (which explores The Casting of Frank Stone game) will be the last. It is unclear what is the reason behind this and if the owner company GameStop was involved in this decision.

    Still, it is a shame that one more beacon of game journalism is no more, even if I never read it. Maybe someone else is more familiar with it. @GoLLuM13, @j7schultz or @SKYTRiXSHA, maybe you?
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  • ZaidH's Avatar
    Level 23
    Absolutely gutted by this news 😓

    I never read the magazine as well (it wasn't available in my country), but I was a frequent visitor to the website since around 2011. Apart from putting out articles that were head and shoulders above today’s "gaming journalism," they crafted such a cozy and jolly gaming space. I highly urge y'all to check out Game Informer’s Super Replays on YouTube.

    Those GTA V and Batman Arkham City covers from them are permanently seared into my brain.

    Goodbye, Game Informer o7
  • j7schultz's Avatar
    Level 47
    Paper press is in decay, but they could adapt and stay alive on social media, are they not doing that? It is always sad when a solid company closes, especially one from our beloved gaming industry.
  • GoLLuM13's Avatar
    Level 52
    It's always sad to see something like that happening. And I’m sure GameStop’s financial issues aren’t strange to this
    Tag me to be sure I see the answer and reply to you / Taguez moi pour être sûr que je vois la réponse et vous réponde en retour
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    >> HERE/ ICI <<

  • ZaidH's Avatar
    Level 23
    @j7schultz They actually did take steps to digitalize the magazine to have a wider reach on social media.

    Game Informer's model was to reveal a cover art for an upcoming game -> share exclusive footage on YouTube -> publish some game details on the website -> in-depth look into the game in the physical/digital GI Magazine.

    It's such a shame that the internet rewards walls of text that has nothing of substance, instead of creative endeavours like this 😔

    - - - Updated - - -
    @GoLLuM13 Not sure if this has been rectified yet, but after the announcement of GameInformer closing down, access to the website was revoked and the poor laid off employees couldn't even access their work 😓

    We're seeing some high levels of tomfoolery in the gaming industry this year.
  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @GoLLuM13 Not sure if this has been rectified yet, but after the announcement of GameInformer closing down, access to the website was revoked and the poor laid off employees couldn't even access their work

    This is sad. Long ago there was a good gaming magazine in Russia called "LKI", in Russian it stood for "Best Computer Games", and it came out 1998-2011. Not 33 years, but 13 years is not bad. It was started by a man named Andrei Lensky, and he was its main editor. But in 2010 he passed away due to illness, and without its leader, the magazine started to have format and organisation problems, and eventually first stopped printing in paper and a bit after that ceased production altogether.

    But the reason I am remembering it is because, even though the magazine is long gone, it was all digitally preserved and its website is fully accessible even now as a token of history. I would hope that was the normal practice, but apparently not. Which is a shame, there really should be some sort of rule or law about content preservation, for posterity and nostalgia if nothing else.

    Maybe the Internet Archive will allow to access Game Informer materials?