Poll: Are You a Fan of Gaming Magazines?

Loved them as a kid, then the internet happened.

I do still like gaming magazines, I mean, I'm subscribed to Retro Gamer and used to be subscribed to Official Nintendo Magazine, but I think unless your magazine is something specialised like Retro Gamer is, people are just gonna go online to get the same, or similar, coverage in a more timely and less costly fashion.

It's a shame, really, but it's the nature of the market. Games mags have been, by and large, competed out of existence, and anything they could do to compete, like Retro Gamer's amazing written features about specific games and series, generally with input from the original creators, is either too niche or too expensive to back in a large-scale fashion.

Like many others I loved them as a kid. Used to have hundreds and still have some of my favourites from the 90s kicking around. But I don't think they're as good as they used to be, unfortunately. A lot of the personality and fun of mags like CVG and Mean Machines has been lost, and so a lot of the appeal has gone with it for me. I still think there's room for that kind of content, but I don't see anyone producing it at the moment. Then there's stuff like Edge, which is OK, it's nice to have a 'high brow' option, but it still feels a little anemic to me so I don't pick it up that regularly. Retro Gamer is the best mag on the stands at the moment in my eyes and I really hope that keeps going for many more years to come.

What @naruball said. I used to buy them all the time, and then in the early 90s when I was in college we got an Internet enabled computer lab. I remember searching WebCrawler, Excite, AskJeeves, and Dogpile for gaming related news.

Pretty much left the magazines alone after that.

Edit: I did have a subscription to Qore while it was available.

I liked the OPM magazine as a kid mainly for the demo discs. There used to be a lot of stuff useful with magazines like cheat books and guides as well as demo discs but all that can be obtained from the internet a lot faster these days.

After ONM went under, I went to NLife and by extension Push Square. I do miss the physical magazines though.

Print media is over, even my news comes from app/website of news papers. Yourselves and Nintendo life are where I get my gaming news.

Loved my Nintendo Power collection back in the day. Now digital rules over physical. And that trend is only going to get more apparent.

Ah, yes, good old times. But with the internet bombarding with news nowadays, physical magazines have become obsolete, unfortunately.

the £5 plus i use to spend now buys me a online store game find all the info online now

I used to read a lot of them. They are irrelevant now because they can't keep up with the news. I'd say gaming sites also need to constantly evolve and get threatened with video content that will be more and more prominent I reckon.

I use to get Crash and zzapp (showing my age) and although i like to read articles when it comes to reviews etc i preview a video!

I seem to be in the minority here, but I still regularly buy Official PS mag, Edge, Gamesmaster, and GamesTM (only just heard the sad news ). Being 47 I guess I'm a bit of an old school gamer. I still visit gaming websites on a daily basis, but sometimes you just can't beat reading a physical magazine. I still look forward to the big reviews, even though they would have appeared online several weeks earlier! It'll be a sad day when all game mags have gone for good

Yep. I'm still subscribed to GameInformer, pretty much the only gaming mag left in the US.

I like to collect them, but It's also just nice to read a physical thing every once in a while. And come on, the art for the covers and pages are pleasing to look at. The Internet has made them less important I'll admit, but I still enjoy kicking back with a gaming mag.

I used to buy them all. I even used to buy the ones for machines I never owned!

They're so expensive now though and then there's this thing call the internet now I think.

Only mag I ever used to buy was N64 magazine as a kid. Even got my art work in one copy and won loads of goodies.

I still miss Digitiser on teletext.
The on line version's good but it'll never feel like 'proper' Digi.

I used to buy GamesTM until relatively recently. Going back further, CVG and Sega Magazine. They're nice, but there are other things to spend money on as you get older.

Old fart still love them!

These days I just find the internet to be much more convenient than magazines. A few clicks on my computer or phone, and I can see all the latest news for free.

They canceld the only real play game magazine here in the Netherlands. 😢

I'd be very sad if gaming magazines disappeared. C&VG, ZZAP64, Commodore Format, Mean Machines, Hyper, Arcade, Official Play station Magazine, Official Dreamcast Magazine, Retro Gamer, Edge and a few others have all helped to fuel my gaming appetite over the years in a way that very few websites have been able to replicate. I guess they'll disappear one day but not yet please.

I like them but have never bought one.

@Gremio108
I was also a subscriber to GamesTM until very recently. I cancelled mine as I found I disagreed with their reviews pretty consistently and was frustrated by the large amount of freelance writers used which made it difficult for me to build a familiarity with the editorial staff.

I have a real softspot for nagazines as someone who read Zzap64 as a kid, PCzone as a teenager and OPM throughout my 20's but the fact is, anything you might read in a magazine is generally old news these days if, like me, you visit games websites and listen to podcasts.

It's partially a matter of costs now, back in my early days of gaming (80's and early-mid 90's) you only had physical magazines as a source. Today you get the same info for free on the web.

I've also become much more eccentric in my taste of games than when I used to read gaming magazines; 90% of the games I play and enjoy today are seen as mediocre, boring or trash by the mainstream gaming press. My taste in games, or combo of games I enjoy, are not represented today by any gaming media, whether it's the online or physical kind.

I do miss the old days in most ways, there was much less BS, and the simple uncomplicated enjoyment of gaming magazines. Games journalism was also much better back then.

I use to collect them like mad. But gaming sites (like this one) and YouTube video reviews, also fans giving honest feedback killed the mag for me. Thank God cos the money goes into buying games!

Loved Electronic Gaming, back then

I used to get Club Nintendo magazine when i was young and Edge & Superplay Magazines. But now video game sites keep people updated more than magazines as the news goes faster on the internet.
Back in the days before games came out all over the world on the same date. Games used to take a year to get the the UK so all we had was pages to look at until the game came out with hype.

@SegaBlueSky Pretty much this. I miss the style and personality each mag brought.

@get2sammyb

Do you remember the first ever edition of official Dreamcast magazine? It was printed on really fancy paper and had a whole section for ‘lads’ fashion! Wasn’t long before it changed to something more traditional.
I used to read mags for the reviews then rush out and buy the top scoring games. These days I’ve usually completed a game before the mag hits the shelves.

I used to buy gaming magazines regularly but then the internet now offers the news, hints and tips and provides actual game-play video's rather than static screen shots that only show graphics, not the game in motion.
One thing I liked about game magazines was the demo's and guides/cheat codes but now demos are available to download and again the internet provides all the guides and 'cheats' (if they exist in games now) rather than just a select few.
I do like magazines and the tactility of holding one, reading articles etc but as far as gaming goes, I do think the internet is a much better medium. Magazines at best offer old news - take E3 for example, you would have to wait until the following month for news and details of games, wait to get a screen shot or two taken from a camera pointed at the screen rather than a screen capture but with the internet, you can watch E3 live, watch the game-play capture and interviews with developers all for 'free' - so why buy a magazine to get that news much later?

I haven't bought one in years now, but to be honest, I'm thinking of starting again. The news might be a little out of date by the time you get it, but at least the page layouts aren't ruined by excessive, intrusive advertising.

I loved Nintendo Power, but once that went under... yeah.

Print magazines as a mass market commodity make less and less sense as the information age marches forward. Especially for a hobby like gaming, which is tech-centered and more future-oriented.

With that said, I think there will always be at least a niche market for physical magazines. It's just a matter of identifying and appealing to that niche.

Amiga Format and Amiga Power, then OPM UK and finally OPM Benelux were my favorites between 1990 and 2014. All gathering dust now.

I remember buying my first magazine; computer & video games back in the eighties. This article triggered me to search for it and found it! It was CVG issue 34 releasen in August 1984. I loved the artwork supporting the games, loved going through the micro adds, sweet memories... it had articles about mind and voice controlled games, imagine that!

@get2sammyb

That’s awesome 👏
I’m feeling really nostalgic at the mo!
I’ve been reading magazines since ‘input’, had the binders and everything.
Never got anything printed in a mag tho but I suppose a msg on a forum is the current ‘equivalent ‘.

I still get them since I’m a pro member at GameStop, and I look at my gameinfoemr on occasion, but I don’t read it like I used to. It’s definitely got some advantages becjzde if structure and regular features they do, but getting as it comes out and being able to interact here is overall better. I’m glad to still support it though.

I miss them, I think writers tried harder when they had to convince you to pay $6 for their stuff. Can't justify paying for month old news though.

I live in Ukraine and we here haven't had any printed gaming magazines at all except a few not really interesting local ones. You should have had one more option in the poll to choose - "I had no opportunity to buy and read any".

One of my favorite things ever was collecting EGM and reading all the Hsu and Chan comics as a teenager. I thought they were hilarious.

used to love amstrad action and zapp64 used to collect them all

Haven't bought a gaming magazine in years, unless you count the game informer included with gamestop membership. Even that was many years ago. I used to enjoy them as a kid though. I bought Nintendo power and always looked forward to PC Gamer for the free demo disk. I lost count how many times I played the first level of Quake from the demo disk.

the end of the line has come for them im affraid they will be missed. But world has moved on. Hell do we want to go back to dark ages of 4 tv channels as well.

Just a heads up to people, kind of still get free gaming magazines (Sort of), here in Australia, we have JB Hi-Fi stores, which in the States might be known as Best Buy. Anyway, every month they have a free top quality magazine on up coming games, movies and music, which is an excellent substitute to the way old video game magazines represented themselves. Only thing missing is the plastic wrapping, haha

So yeah, that excitement still lingers and if I remember correctly, some imported gaming magazines back then like Electronic Gaming used to cost up to around $20 around 1990!

As most others, I don't think they have a place. I WANT them to have a place, but they simply don't. I feel like every major gaming magazine ends up selling out eventually these days and the market is so niche now. I remember growing up with years of Nintendo Power magazines... but now, I don't see why I'd subscribe to a magazine with YouTube and news websites. Having the physical media was cool, but being able to get daily updates on everything and discuss opinions with people in comment sections is way better.

I’ve loved downloading PDFs of loads of old magazines that I could find online. I got Super Play, N64 and NGC (mostly the same team/writers), and TOTAL! magazine too. I’m now trying to find the earliest issues of GamesTM as I used to buy that when it first came out.

It’s more of a nostalgia thing for me. I remember magazines back in the day, so I enjoy reading the old ones, but I have no interest in new ones now. I think it’s because the internet didn’t really exist back in the day, so to get people’s views of the games from that time, you have to go to the magazines. Nowadays you can find old, archived articles and reviews from websites going back to the early 2000’s or even the late 90’s.

I still buy printerd media for video games, but not magazines. I like to buy the encyclodpedia or anthology type books that do the rounds, like those from Bitmap books. Some great stuff in those, and the artwork or photos will always beat the internet.

When Y2K happens, I’ll still have my EGM and Gamespot magazines to read...and burn as kindling to keep myself warm. 🔥

I still get Game Informer. Albeit the digital version for my iPad. I’ve always preferred GI over all other gaming media.