Support NeoGAF

[RetroGamingUK]

PLAY magazine, which launched in 1995 and was revived in 2021 after a short hiatus is coming to an end.

The editor has left his position and the magazine is no longer featured on Future’s website

This leaves only EDGE, Retro Gamer and PC Gamer remaining

Pour one out

 

[NeonDelta]

Didn’t realised it had returned, used to buy this every now and then. PlayStation power was my main one as I’d subscribe to that so I would buy PLAY at WH Smith’s in London Victoria if I was coming back from a trip to London etc

Really miss magazines, was the best place to get gaming news and previews/reviews feel so old

 

[hououinkyouma00]

I have very fond memories of gaming magazines (and old tuning magazines like Super Street and Import Tuner), but I can't say I'm surprised that they are shutting down. There isn't really any room for print magazines outside of extremely boutique stuff or stuff like the RPM Magazine which is crowd funded.

 

[DirtyBast8rd]

These old magazines and their covers always remind me of how exciting games where. Probably just getting old but that excitement is gone most of the time.

To bad another magazine is going extinct.

 

[drganon]

Should have been Edge instead.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Should have been Edge instead.

EDGE feels like an industry magazine these days focusing more on indie games.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Didn’t realised it had returned, used to buy this every now and then. PlayStation power was my main one as I’d subscribe to that so I would buy PLAY at WH Smith’s in London Victoria if I was coming back from a trip to London etc

Really miss magazines, was the best place to get gaming news and previews/reviews feel so old

Was PlayStation Power the one that had a memory card on the cover that stored about 3 blocks?

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Poland had a magazine called Secret Service, where the cover pages were absolutely S-Tier:

I was very fond of earliest editions where they were discussing almost exclusively PC games.

 

[Celcius]

I miss the videogame magazine era

 

[MetalFreak]

I remember the joy I used to have while reading gaming magazines many years ago... good times.

 

[Insane Metal]

PLAY magazine, which launched in 1995 and was revived in 2021 after a short hiatus is coming to an end.

The editor has left his position and the magazine is no longer featured on Future’s website

This leaves only EDGE, Retro Gamer and PC Gamer remaining

Pour one out

Look at all those games... Jesus... that's what I call good games. Those were the golden days.

I miss the videogame magazine era

Me too, man... I remember waiting for the E3 coverage from magazines back in the 90's and early 2000's. Man, when the PS2 was announced I was NUTS about it.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Loved reading gaming magazines back in the days, but guess all this is inevitable.

They've become obsolete with the internet.

 

[King Dazzar]

I'll be honest, I always thought gaming magazines lost their way not long after the days of Crash and ZZAP!. They were printed on cheap paper, but had tons and tons of content. But we then moved to thinner, glossier publications, but with demo CD's, which were OK. And they always seemed to just get less and less and then the discs disappeared. I still enjoyed PC Format for far longer than most.

If we ever had the equivalent of Crash & ZZAP! for Xbox & PS, I'd likely even still buy it. But sorry, most other mags I dont miss.

Goodbye though, PLAY. Many a toilet or bath will miss you, I'm sure.

 

[NeonDelta]

Was PlayStation Power the one that had a memory card on the cover that stored about 3 blocks?

Possibly, but not that I remember, I started getting it in 1998 so could have done earlier than that I guess.

 

[Georges Chiellins]

ohno!anyway.gif

 

[IDKFA]

Look at all those games... Jesus... that's what I call good games. Those were the golden days.

To think, those were the reviews for one issue of a magazine released monthly. Those days, games could be developed on a shorter time scale, meaning we had multiple bangers releasing every month.

Not only that, but they worked out of the box. No day on updates required.

Those truly were the golden days of gaming.

 

[Dr. Suchong]

Damn shame.
A fine publication.

CVG
Maximum
Gamesmaster
Super Play
Mean Machines/ MM Sega
Games tm
Sega power and Sega Pro
Nintendo magazine system
So many more I've forgotten to mention, gone forever.
God I miss those days.

 

[Dr. Suchong]

Should have been Edge instead.

The arrogance and polarising review scores have never bothered me.
It's the fact it's become a horrid little smug leftwing circle jerk.

 

[s_mirage]

I'll be honest, I always thought gaming magazines lost their way not long after the days of Crash and ZZAP!. They were printed on cheap paper, but had tons and tons of content. But we then moved to thinner, glossier publications, but with demo CD's, which were OK. And they always seemed to just get less and less and then the discs disappeared. I still enjoyed PC Format for far longer than most.

For me, the rot started once faster than dial-up internet became common. After that, mainstream gaming mags struggled to be worth it. I thought they were still good until the early 2000s though, and there was still a decent selection of mags, even if there weren't as many as there had been.

The 16-bit era was the peak for me; there were so many magazines to choose from back then.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

The arrogance and polarising review scores have never bothered me.
It's the fact it's become a horrid little smug leftwing circle jerk.

Amen. I was a subscriber from issue 2 probably all this time up till when there was the controversy about them not reviewing Death Stranding I think and eventually the then editor at the time leaving for 'mental health' issues (read: not allowed to criticise once the words have been uttered) but I stayed on a bit longer then the wankfest about Hogwarts which was like nah... fuck this shit.

I just want to read about games not how the government (at the time (and sorry no politics)) we're ruining the industry for everyone and all the editorial pieces were just using it as a soap box to criticise them too.

So I fucked EDGE off and never looked back. PC Gamer is going that way a little now too.

And sorry, if you look at the staff page in PLAY, I'm surprised its lasted this long (just my opinion)

 

[RagnarokIV]

PC Gamer is going that way a little now too.

And sorry, if you look at the staff page in PLAY, I'm surprised its lasted this long (just my opinion)

PC Gamer has been fucked for the best part of a decade and an absolute joke (both magazine and site). Long gone are the nerdy mag and demo disc days. The website is hilarious, when they do their political snarky putdowns on games like KCD, Wukong, First Descendant etc the comment section is just everyone talking shit about the site and author until they eventually lock and nuke the comments.

Their Wukong hit pieces had incredible backlash like I've never seen.

 

[Dafegamer]

Damn this is sad :/ all of my favourite UK magazines just gone. Just got Edge today and was expecting Play for this month as well

 

[Sausy1987]

Sickened . I kept buying it to support to but I can't say I didn't see this coming . The last 6 or 12 months the writers giving extended coverage to niche games that only they cared about was putting me off . I don't want to be that guy but they were nearly too woke they were just getting annoying to read some of the woke drivel they wrote .Hope PC gamer hangs on because I
don't line edge but I might have to at this rate .

 

[Sausy1987]

Amen. I was a subscriber from issue 2 probably all this time up till when there was the controversy about them not reviewing Death Stranding I think and eventually the then editor at the time leaving for 'mental health' issues (read: not allowed to criticise once the words have been uttered) but I stayed on a bit longer then the wankfest about Hogwarts which was like nah... fuck this shit.

I just want to read about games not how the government (at the time (and sorry no politics)) we're ruining the industry for everyone and all the editorial pieces were just using it as a soap box to criticise them too.

So I fucked EDGE off and never looked back. PC Gamer is going that way a little now too.

And sorry, if you look at the staff page in PLAY, I'm surprised its lasted this long (just my opinion)

Ya staff page was very off putting over all

 

[JimmyRustler]

These old magazines and their covers always remind me of how exciting games where. Probably just getting old but that excitement is gone most of the time.

To bad another magazine is going extinct.

Of course it was exciting. The industry was developing at an insane pace in the 90s and early 00s. Still boggles mind that you can play the original RE and then the Remake and are reminded that it's only 5 years between those two. Those were some crazy times for gaming.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

On the plus side, Retro Gamer is still a good read though I suspect if Darren Jones (editor) gets an offer he can't refuse then they'll probably move the old PLAY editor onto it and that will then sink into the abyss.

 

[Preseznik]

Peak gaming age.

I still have 1 magazine sub going, from a local outlet trying out a revival, but it's not the same.
Reading in print about stuff I've known for weeks just ain't it.

 

[TheStam]

These old magazines and their covers always remind me of how exciting games where. Probably just getting old but that excitement is gone most of the time.

To bad another magazine is going extinct.

I know, reading these magazines was thrilling in the 90's. It was a young medium and advancements were happening at lightning pace. A new genre could be born at any time. Now things seem to have been figured out and taken their final shape. Also the big devs and publishers are risk averse as development costs have sky rocketed. There are not a lot of experimentation outside of indies, but even there you don't actually get surprised all that often even if a lot of them are cool it's more like a new take on an existing concept. In the 90's I remember reading about games like Lemmings, Ultima VII, Ultima Underworld, Theme Hospital, X-Wing, System Shock etc etc. And you saw the amazing screenshot and read about how they worked and it felt like the future, you could hardly believe what was being described. Of course you're more impressionable as a kid, but I still feel like it was the peak gaming era.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

Peak gaming age.

I still have 1 magazine sub going, from a local outlet trying out a revival, but it's not the same.
Reading in print about stuff I've known for weeks just ain't it.

That's why I like Retro Gamer - reading about stuff I used to use / play in the 80s and 90s that I've forgotten about!!

 

[Dr.D00p]

EDGE feels like an industry magazine these days focusing more on indie games.

I simply don't recognise EDGE as being the same magazine that I was reading from the first issue in '93 to the turn of the millennium.

I don't really know  what it is anymore....certainly not for me, in a long,long time.

 

[Preseznik]

That's why I like Retro Gamer - reading about stuff I used to use / play in the 80s and 90s that I've forgotten about!!

True, the magazine I'm subbed to is like 30% retro, which was a good editorial call IMO.

 

[hinch7]

Damn used to love reading these. Shame that most mags have gone the way of the dodo. Wonder how long EDGE will last out.

 

[Hookshot]

I’ll always remember when DCUK magazine put out a demo disc that bypassed the Dreamcasts region lock allowing PAL DC to play NTSC games.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

Sadly, people don't pay for the written word now.

 

[Brigandier]

I used to buy this magazine back in the 90s.

 

[Hunter 99]

Collected edge for 10+ years but always preferred Games TM.
Stopped my edge subscription after the hogwarts legacy boycott couple years back.
I then knew that they had fully turned into the whole woke,DEI agenda.(even of they were showing signs of it way before)
Shame I miss the good old days,GAMES TM resi 4 cover was awesome.

 

[midnightAI]

Its still going? (proves how much I go into newsagents that sell magazines)

(I used to get this, Edge and The Official PlayStation Magazine, occasionally others depending on content. Cheekily I would spend 30 mins in newsagents such as WH Smiths, John Menzies or Woolworths reading entire articles etc. without buying the magazines, that was around 20 years ago though)

 

[Davevil]

Nostalgia thread.... psm had some of the most beautiful covers

 

[Kerotan]

I bought hundreds of these gaming magazines during the ps2/3 era. Great times.

Leading up to the ps5 launch I started buying them again but after launch it just wasn't the same. One of them gave Gollum a lot of hype every month and we seen how that turned out.

 

[Dr. Suchong]

On the plus side, Retro Gamer is still a good read though I suspect if Darren Jones (editor) gets an offer he can't refuse then they'll probably move the old PLAY editor onto it and that will then sink into the abyss.

Retrogamer is indeed an excellent read.
It warms my heart reliving memories of my gaming past, and learning about old gems I haven't had the pleasure of sampling yet.
Politics are neatly side stepped, and the important stuff (The GAMES) are spoke about in earnest.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

Nostalgia thread.... psm had some of the most beautiful covers

That the USA version?

UK was called PSM2 iirc and looked slightly different.

 

[adamsapple]

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

everyone subbed to PLAY gets moved over to EDGE or cancels I assume.

 

[yogaflame]

Sad. I also miss the good old days of EGM, PSM, Game pro, and Official PS magazine. Digital is really a double edge sword.