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[Ripclawe]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/business/media/12games.html?ref=media&pagewanted=print

November 12, 2007

Game News in a Duel of Print and Online
By CATE DOTY

Noel Goodman subscribes to three video game magazines, but he wants information faster than the magazines can reach his mailbox.

“I can find out on the Internet information that won’t be in magazines for another month,” said Mr. Goodman, a 30-year-old electrician in Newport News, Va., who took Halloween off to play video games. The magazines, he said, are “always going to lose when it comes down to content. I can get everything online.”

While video game magazine publishers beg to differ, that is precisely their challenge — retaining readers as the Internet grabs their audience and advertisers. Why wait for a monthly mailing when the Web has fresh game reviews, articles and tips on how to beat the games?

In the last few months, the two biggest publishers — Ziff Davis Media and Future US, which control most of the major game magazines in the United States — have been trying to tip the balance back in their favor.

The two companies have been bulking up their online content, trying to develop a symbiotic relationship. Their magazines offer portability and visual power, and their Web sites provide interactive features and nonstop information flow.

“If information is all that we require, the Web wins. Game over,” said Simon Cox, the vice president for content at Ziff Davis Media’s game group, which includes Electronic Gaming Monthly, a print magazine, and the 1UP Network, an online gaming portal. “But people want content and perspective.”

To keep print subscribers, Ziff Davis aims to offer better writing and reporting than is available from competitors’ Web sites, as well as striking visuals. Ziff Davis is also embracing the financial power of the special issue: a September issue that came out before the release of the blockbuster game Halo 3 for the Xbox 360 from Microsoft included a 19-page feature section.

“We’ve integrated our organization, and print is an important part of the proposition,” said Jason Young, the chief executive of Ziff Davis. He added that despite the problems in the business, the company plans to keep its game titles. “Certainly, peeling off individual pieces is not part of our strategy at this time,” he said.

Mr. Cox said Ziff Davis is continuing a strategy that tries to bounce the reader back and forth between its magazines and its Web sites. “Users can’t get enough information about some of these games,” Mr. Cox said. “You’re just providing different ways of getting into the game.”

According to company reports, Ziff Davis’s digital revenue increased by 14 percent in the second quarter over the same period last year, but revenue for the game group fell by more than $3 million.

And though the 1UP Network was the ninth most-visited gaming Web site in September, with nearly 3.1 million unique visitors, it drew less than half of the 8.1 million people who went to Ign.com, a game site owned by News Corporation, according to ComScore, a company that measures Web traffic. The main online site of Future US, Gamesradar.com, had 4.9 million unique visitors.

Jonathan Simpson-Bint, the publisher of Future US, said that his company also focuses on special issues for releases of new game systems like Wii, which come with high-quality visuals and a high newsstand price.

Given the competition from the Internet, “we’ve had to be more ingenious about the way we’ve approached it,” Mr. Simpson-Bint said.

Future US’s game magazines earned $46 million in 2006, a $4.8 million drop from 2005, according to company reports. The circulation for PC Gamer, a leading magazine from Future US, shrank to 210,369 this year from 300,271 in 2003, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Magazine publishers say that readers want longer features and in-depth articles as a counterpoint to the short, bloglike pieces they find online. But Kyle Orland, a freelance journalist who writes a media coverage column for Gamedaily.com, wondered if that strategy was working, saying that when a large feature is published, it doesn’t get read.

“Attention spans are just getting so small that readers don’t know what they want,” Mr. Orland said.

But game players are also suspicious of publications’ ties to the game publishers they write about, said David Gornoski, the editor of a Web site called Vgmwatch.com. “We’re seeing situations where publishers are dangling exclusive stories in front of publications in exchange for scores for their products,” Mr. Gornoski wrote in an e-mail message.

Still, some longtime players still find the magazines useful. “I like reading in print because I can carry it around with me if I don’t have Internet access,” said Alexandria Velez, 31, a student in information technology from Staten Island. “Wherever I go, I can carry a magazine.”

Mr. Simpson-Bint of Future US said that the Internet was not the only drag on the revenues of game magazines. Another factor, he said, was the mercurial nature of the games market itself, where a slowdown automatically means a drop in advertising.

“It’s a really tightly linked ecosystem,” he said. “The fortunes of the magazines are very profoundly linked to the fortunes of the hardware platforms.”

 

[Firestorm]

Interesting that although 1up is only the 9th most visited site in terms of unique visitors, most consider them one of the "Big 3" when it comes to game sites. I know that I personally think of IGN, GameSpot, and 1up as the big three.

Oh, and exclusive demos are always a great way to make people buy magazine! You know, like a Brawl demo included with Nintendo Power in the holiday issue.

Please?

 

[MassiveAttack]

What American readers want from magazines is serious journalism, skilled writing, and luminous insight.

In other words, give us our fucking Next Generation back, ok Future?

 

[Esperado]

I go to 1up for the podcasts and largely ignore everything else.

 

[davepoobond]

hm...what ARE the top 10 then?


interesting that gamesradar is owned by an actual corporation. it feels like a non-corporate (read: fan) run web site.

 

[Zzoram]

I love the 1UP podcasts, but their website is just too slow. Gamevideos is also notoriously slow. The whole point of the Internet is to get things fast, and 1UP just fails at that.

Hopefully they upgrade their servers soon.

 

[mattiewheels]

so what are the top 5 gaming websites by traffic, if 1up and ign aren't even in that list?

 

[GhaleonQ]

1. Ugh. What a poorly constructed article.

2. Games Radar? Really?

3. Ms. Doty's Wikipedia page is hilarious, should not exist, and was clearly made entirely by her.

 

[Zzoram]

Interesting that although 1up is only the 9th most visited site in terms of unique visitors, most consider them one of the "Big 3" when it comes to game sites. I know that I personally think of IGN, GameSpot, and 1up as the big three.

Oh, and exclusive demos are always a great way to make people buy magazine! You know, like a Brawl demo included with Nintendo Power in the holiday issue.

Please?

So do I, and I assumed most people thought the same.

 

[Night_Trekker]

Jonathan Simpson-Bint, the publisher of Future US, said that his company also focuses on special issues for releases of new game systems like Wii, which come with high-quality visuals and a high newsstand price.

There is a joke to be made here but I'll let someone else do it.

Spoiler

I love you Nintendo.

 

[GhaleonQ]

hm...what ARE the top 10 then?

If comscore's rankings are similar to Alexa's:

1. GameSpot
2. IGN
3. Game Trailers
4. GameSpy.com
5. GamersHell.com
6. MegaGames
7. GameAxis
8. Games Radar US
9. 1UP.com
10. GameZone

 

[Belfast]

I wonder what constitutes a "gaming site," though. They might consider even larger sites that have a "games" section eligible. Still, it does kind of put things into perspective, and even though it only accounts for September, 9th place for 1UP is kind of surprising.

 

[fistfulofmetal]

I would have thought IGN would be on top.

 

[Kusagari]

If comscore's rankings are similar to Alexa's:

1. GameSpot
2. IGN
3. Game Trailers
4. GameSpy.com
5. GamersHell.com
6. MegaGames
7. GameAxis
8. Games Radar US
9. 1UP.com
10. GameZone

I've never even heard of some of those above 1up.

 

[Zzoram]

I've never even heard of some of those above 1up.

IGN, Gamespot, 1UP and Gametrailers are the only sites I visit regularly. Of those, I barely visit Gamespot, I don't like it's layout. I only go to IGN for podcasts, 1UP for podcasts, and Gametrailers for videos.

 

[PantherLotus]

The only thing they can do to survive
1. Exclusive Content (can only happen with publisher support)
2. Demo disks (Nintendo wtf are you doing?)
3. Artwork/Prints/Posters


That's about the only relevance magazines have anymore, when even our cellphones have web access to the internet.


As far as what I actually visit now, almost none of them. GAF is the most relevant. I think blogs are more relevant because they can be tailored to my tastes, and the big sites are so ridiculously 'busy' on the eyes that they're an unreadable mess, not unlike a car dealership ad in a sunday paper.

 

[A Human Becoming]

I would have thought IGN would be on top.

If you look at Alexa, IGN and Gamespot have always been very close, with IGN having spikes over Gamespot.

EDIT: I want to note after IGN and Gamespot, there is a huge drop. Gametrailers has really picked up this year however.

 

[Firestorm]

I love the 1UP podcasts, but their website is just too slow. Gamevideos is also notoriously slow. The whole point of the Internet is to get things fast, and 1UP just fails at that.

Hopefully they upgrade their servers soon.

I don't even do that. Anything I need is usually on GAF, including the 1up show and podcast. The 1up site is a bit of a mess to navigate anyway.

 

[ZealousD]

Am I the only one that finds it mind-boggling that the article would fail to mention GameInformer when talking about print magazines?

 

[Zzoram]

I don't even do that. Anything I need is usually on GAF, including the 1up show and podcast. The 1up site is a bit of a mess to navigate anyway.

I go to the sites for the podcasts to give them page hits. Sometimes I do just get it from GAF if I'm lazy :lol

 

[Reilly]

To keep print subscribers, Ziff Davis aims to offer better writing and reporting than is available from competitors’ Web sites, as well as striking visuals.

:lol

 

[-Rogue5-]

If comscore's rankings are similar to Alexa's:

1. GameSpot
2. IGN
3. Game Trailers
4. GameSpy.com
5. GamersHell.com
6. MegaGames
7. GameAxis
8. Games Radar US
9. 1UP.com
10. GameZone

Where the f*ck is Gaming-Age?

 

[Firestorm]

:lol

I'd say they do. 1up actually writes about games as if they were games. I know many people disagree, but games shouldn't be covered like wars. It's entertainment, not politics.

 

[Mac the KNife]

Those alternate cut-out covers two (?) years ago in EGM were pretty cool. I'd like to see more stuff like that.

I only read one gaming magazine, EGM, and it has undergone radical change over the years, focusing on intriguing feature articles, the best reviews in print and unique developer interviews. EGM's connection with the 1up network definitely strengthens the print medium and cuts out needless sections like previews from the mag.

Having said that, I probably wouldn't be getting EGM were it not for my free subscription. The rising price of gaming has forced me to re-examine my gaming budget and gaming magazines don't fit in, unfortunately.

 

[Reilly]

I'd say they do. 1up actually writes about games as if they were games. I know many people disagree, but games shouldn't be covered like wars. It's entertainment, not politics.

I won't disagree (I don't really care). I just think it's funny that a gaming publication is somehow going to write better and more interesting stories. tt's impossible. Even if they do, no one will care. Their audience doesn't give a shit about their writing.

 

[davepoobond]

If comscore's rankings are similar to Alexa's:

1. GameSpot
2. IGN
3. Game Trailers
4. GameSpy.com
5. GamersHell.com
6. MegaGames
7. GameAxis
8. Games Radar US
9. 1UP.com
10. GameZone

never knew gametrailers had so much traffic.

gamershell i've heard of, but never knew they had so much traffic.

haven't heard of the rest of those i bolded. at all. geez.

 

[YYZ]

gametrailers is the only good site there, free videos (HD too!) of everything. NeoGAF for boards AND news, 1Up for weekly videos and podcasts, NeoGAF for boards. IGN has a few decent podcasts (IGN is AFK, and other people may like the console specific podcasts).

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

IGN FTW!

 

[GhaleonQ]

Their audience doesn't give a shit about their writing.

No kidding. I always wondered how, exactly, the Ziff-Davis group planned to fix their magazines. The audience doesn't want them to go highbrow, the writing ability is largely irrelevant to most readers, and Game Informer will likely get all of the scoops. What can they do, honestly?

 

[ZealousD]

I'd say they do. 1up actually writes about games as if they were games. I know many people disagree, but games shouldn't be covered like wars. It's entertainment, not politics.

What was that comment that Shane made on the latest podcast? Something about how he didn't like how Super Mario Galaxy made him care about his Wii?

 

[Reilly]

What can they do, honestly?

I'd like to see them turn into a bi-monthy magazine.

Whenever I pick up the latest issue, I think to myself, "I waited a whole month for this?"

 

[Enkidu]

Wait, megagames is one of the biggest gaming sites? I thought the only reason to visit that site was to get nocd cracks.

 

[dfyb]

I go to 1up for the podcasts and largely ignore everything else.

same

 

[AndoCalrissian]

What American readers want from magazines is serious journalism, skilled writing, and luminous insight.

In other words, give us our fucking Next Generation back, ok Future?

Nailed it.