Feature: Gaming Mag Graveyard! Ten Mags that Died Fast. Subscribe to this RSS feed

The Top Five Gaming Mag Flops!

5- Gaming Industry News (Ziff Davis Media, 2004)
Number of Issues: 5

Premise: With this monthly newsletter, Ziff Davis wanted to copy the success it and other tech publishers found in low-circulation titles aimed squarely at industry executives. Headed by Jimmy Guterman and featuring frequent contributions by Dean Takahashi and other well-known writers, this 12-page newsletter offered industry analysis and stories meant to help investors, advertisers, and other people who make more money than you or I make game industry-related decisions.

Signs of Trouble: The subscription price was $695 per year -- "a 30 percent discount off our standard $995 price," the back page of each issue was quick to state. This price also included a weekly email commentary and a copy of Ziff's "Digital Gaming in America 2003" white paper, but the publisher failed to find sufficient reader interest at that price to keep the newsletter going for long. (A similar publication, Electronic Gaming Retail News, lasted from 1991 to '93 based off primarily free circulation.)

4- Game Buyer (Imagine Publishing, 1998)
Number of Issues: 4

Premise: Game Players ran throughout the 1990s as Imagine Publishing's multiplatform magazine in the US, and while it had a loyal fanbase that dug its unique sense of humor, it was never a major force in the marketplace. When a major redesign and renaming to Ultra Game Players failed to turn the tables, Imagine decided to shuttle the Game Players name and take one final stab at a multiplatform publication. Game Buyer aimed for an "authoritative review resource" bent, trying to outclass EGM with exhaustive reviews of nearly everything under the sun.

Signs of Trouble: Without the unique voice of the old Game Players, the previous audience was alienated -- and the rest of the marketplace wasn't too interested in yet another multiplatform reviews-oriented magazine, of which there were half a dozen by this time. Later issues cut the price drastically and reintroduced strategy guides and some of the community-based humor of Game Players, but it was too late by then for Game Buyer's fortunes.

3- incite Video Gaming/incite PC Gaming (Computec Media, 1999-2000)
Number of Issues: 9 each

Premise: incite was the public face of a major operation by German tech-publishing giant Computec Media to establish a foothold in the US magazine business. Video Gaming and PC Gaming hit US newsstands simultaneously on October 26, 1999. Both were priced at a loss (Video Gaming at 99 cents, and PC Gaming at $1.99 with CD-ROM) to get them in the hands of as many curious readers as possible. The idea was to put together two magazines that were at once hardcore and accessible to the general public. Much of the editorial staff was headhunted from other game magazines (especially Gamers' Republic), and a $12 million ad campaign was prepared to launch alongside the magazines on TV, in print, and on outdoor media like billboards and kiosks.

Signs of Trouble: The sales strategy was enormously successful at first -- the first issue of PC Gaming sold 408,000 copies, while Video Gaming sales topped 548,000, making it the most successful game-magazine launch of all time. However, this success did not last long, as Computec failed to attract long-term advertising for either title -- non-endemic advertisers found the magazines too much of a "hardcore" game publication, while video-game companies were concerned that its audience was too casual to be interested in their games. This was disastrous for Computec, which overestimated their predicted ad-sales figures and subsequently relied heavily on advertising for incite's revenue. The ad rate for a spread (two adjacent pages) in the incite magazines was set at $16,000 per issue, the same rate that Maxim charged and one that was far above any other game magazine. Management was anticipating each issue to be over 200 pages in size -- an extremely optimistic target even at the best of times, but downright impossible by mid-2000, when the game industry was about to enter the lull before the launch of the PlayStation 2.

The problem? Focus, primarily. The titles were infamous for its intertwining of model- and celebrity-based interviews and features with its game coverage, something that neither the hardcore readership nor the magazine's staff were particularly enthuisastic about. Since the editorial was primarily picked from "hardcore" gaming magazines, they naturally preferred to offer hardcore gaming content -- but this butted against Computec's original aim to produce a magazine for gamers "threatened" by hardcore gaming magazines.

2- Super Gaming (Sendai Publishing, 1991-92)
Number of Issues: 4

Premise:

Here is how Sendai advertised Super Gaming in their own magazines:

"Are you the type of video game player who has always wanted to know about the latest games and systems but could never find a magazine devoted entirely to what's new and in the future? Not just games for the Genesis, Turbo and Nintendo, but also previews of Japanese titles that won't arrive on these shores for years -- if ever!

Now the editors of Electronic Gaming Monthly, always the first word in video games, has created a magazine especially for you! Super Gaming will take you where no other game magazine has ever gone before, with the latest news and game previews for your Sega 16-bit, NEC or Nintendo systems! With Super Gaming you will know about the hottest carts of tomorrow today, as well as new developments and game systems!"

Signs of Trouble: Signs of Trouble: In other words, Super Gaming was a miniature version of Electronic Gaming Monthly, just like Mega Play and Super NES Buyer's Guide, except that it covered nothing but Japanese games. Each issue includes previews, tricks, in-depth features, and its very own Review Crew that covered nothing but imports for the Famicom, Super Famicom and PC Engine. Unfortunately, this coverage meant that the only advertisers interested in such a magazine were mail-order shops that specialized in Japanese games. The magazine failed to become a marketplace success, and so with the third issue Super Gaming repositioned itself as a "video game preview" magazine, with early coverage of both Japanese and American games. This failed to make much of a difference, though, and the magazine folded after four issues.

1- GameGO! (2001)
Number of Issues: 1 (plus 1 distributed online)

Premise: Premise: While arguments about the merits of GameGO! persist to this day, few would disagree that it was among one of the more pretentiously-themed titles in US game-mag history. Mostly founded and staffed by ex-Game Fan writers, GameGO! was essentially an attempt to re-launch Game Fan, which disbanded in 2000 -- except make it even more hardcore, putting obscure Treasure game Stretch Panic on the cover and frequently picking on more mainstream titles. Each issue extensively featured import titles and explanations of Japanese trends, to the point where Issue 1 had a primer on mahjong so you could play all the adult-themed titles that hit Japanese arcades.

Signs of Trouble: This extremely hardcore-oriented approach was frankly better suited to the Internet by 2001, and after low sales, EB Games (GameGO!'s sole national distributor) dropped the magazine after a single issue. A second issue was completed, but there was no money left to print it.