[DoctorEldritch]

It seems that the situation is even a bit sadder than I initially thought: that goodbye tweet was not written by any of the magazine writers. They wrote their own farewell tweet:



And a few hours after that the tween account of Game Informer was deleted. Makes me think this whole situation could have been handled differently...

[ZaidH]

@DoctorEldritch You know a creative outlet was good if it cultivated a dedicated audience to archive everything. Much respect to LKI.

As for preservation, a YouTube channel called "Minnmax" (composed of former GI employees) is leading the efforts in archiving the magazine and the stuff on Game Informer's youtube channel. So hopefully all that effort and hardwork of the GI folks won't be locked behind GameStop's clownery.

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH I do not think it was the audience who archived it, I think it was mostly the website staff. After the magazine got its own website, they digitized all the issues they made themselves and maintained it. Then after the magazine closed down, the site was put "on ice" and is not updated or maintained, but it is still accessible to the public in the form that it was in when the magazine closed down.

Hopefully, they will manage to save and preserve the material. Even if it becomes obsolete content-wise as the games it is about become older, it still has value format-wise as a good example of game journalism.

What I am wondering is why GameStop, instead of selling the magazine to some other company, decided to close it down. The magazine was an established brand and an asset, so would it not make sense to sell it to someone who could help it survive? Though maybe there were no interested buyers...

[ZaidH]

Ooof GameStop too should've handled matters like the LKI magazine.

Apart from the magazines and articles, GI has a 30+ years library of consoles, games, and a rare marketing collection. That too in pristine condition. Hope this goes to the right people and not in a landfill 🥹

Not a big fan of IGN, but I wish they got Game Informer along with half of the gaming journalism outlets they bought recently.

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH GameStop even deleted the Twitter/X account. Not sure if they wanted to preserve anything.

I would hope that in cases like this, it may actually go into a public auction. If so, dedicated fans may all get a piece of the magazine's history. Hopefully. But you never really know.

True. But then again, the journalist's biggest value and most important quality is impartiality. So long as it is guaranteed, the rest comes with experience. And to be impartial you need to be financed by a body that allows you to be impartial, with no meddling from sponsors or companies, etc. If GI would lose its impartiality by joining IGN, then it is better off closing down.

Is IGN good on being impartial in their reviews? To me, most of what they write seems rather subjective.

[DoctorEldritch]

GI twitter account may be closed, but Matt Miller, GI's Editor-In-Chief, shared his last letter (and a rather warm felt and long one at that, too) on socials:

[ZaidH]

I honestly steer clear of IGN, but I have to applaud how they bought Game Trailers and have kept all the videos associated with it.

"It was one place where a love of gaming was celebrated without pretense or undue snark, where humor could coexist with thoughtful critique, and players could have each game enriched through a deeper understanding of how they were created and who created them."

Man this is why Game Informer was so special 😭😭😭

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH Maybe something new would come along. I mean, if most of the people who worked in that magazine did not go their separate ways but instead banded together to make a new one, even if only digital, that may build the credibility of that new magazine already, most of their old subscribers could just switch to that.

Easier said than done, of course, but if WolfEye did it, so could they.

[ZaidH]

God that would be the dream. A couple of years ago, some laid off GI employees did band together and created "Minnmax". I wish they were big enough to include the folks responsible for the magazine.

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH That's what you get for naming the company "Minimax". It's so mini it does not have enough space for everyone. They should have named it "Maximax".



But in all seriousness, what would prevent them form taking ex-GI people on board? I mean, taking new people in is how you grow, if they are little now they could grow by doing jus that. And if they need money to do so, a Kickstarter campaign especially among old GI subscribers may help.