Game Informer shutting down after 33 years

Gaming magazines were magical 30 years ago when game companies were black boxes. Games just appeared on shelves one day and you had to rely on the publisher's brand name as a guarantee of quality. Simpler times. You could maybe get a highly-editorialized sneak peak from a gaming mag a few months early.

Now, it's almost like games are made in public. Everyone knows what you're working on thanks to leakers and court filings. Every developer's life is analyzed and used as fodder for the rumor mill. Companies are basically forced into early-access because the cost of a bad review by a prominent influencer post-launch is too high.

Seems like “gaming journalism” has been replaced by independent journalists or random social media “influencers”. Mostly the latter.

Gaming mags like Game Informer used to be the premier source of gaming industry news - exclusive interviews with publishers and studios, and game reviews. The reception of these quality articles largely determined the success of games.

But now? Just buy off a few “influencers” with significant following, have them play through the happy path, review, edit and approve videos for positive vibes.

Formula for success. No need to push out quality anymore. Keep milking the cash cow game series.

Very hard to find a good game these days. Have to sift through at least a dozen of shit games in the marketplace before settling on something half decent.

The Dishonored/Prey/Deathloop covers were wonderful: https://x.com/Sinnoware/status/1819421747399250198 https://x.com/jlmonnet/status/1716026320822399158

The Cyberpunk2077 AR one was amazing too: https://x.com/gamebowski/status/1281003400403042305

"In March, Game Informer introduced out a way to subscribe to the magazine directly — previously, you could only get the magazine by buying issues on their own or through a GameStop Pro subscription."

Huh, that sounds crazy. Even back in the 90s subscriptions were common in the UK. I would get a 6 month/1 year sub to a magazine i liked for a birthday every now and then. There would always be a page trying to get readers to sub.

I assumed this is how the likes of Edge still survive.

So GameStop comes in as the savior earlier and just as the CEO goes totally nuts on Twitter they release bad news after bad news. What a coincidence.

I remember being wowed by the Dreamcast and Shenmu review. Good times.

I think people want to feel angry, it’s a shot of adrenaline with the same feeling as drinking coffee. The ones that panders to rage bait like Washington Post and IGN are doing relatively well in a difficult landscape. It is horrible, but is probably how we are wired and something deeply unconscious, and I try to combat this by asking myself what kind of feeling a certain website will give me, before clicking, which seems to do the trick.

[dupe]

Some more discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41141260

I wouldn't have guessed Game Informer was still around. Growing up, I felt it was like the little brother of GamePro and Electronic Gaming Monthly, both of which published much bigger issues.

But my parents were frugal, so Game Informer was the first magazine subscription I ever had. I credit it with greatly improving my reading skills by exposing me to journalism.

It was good 15 years ago. Now, it has become a pretty mediocre, borderline boring magazine.

Was the magazine any good?

But I thought GameStop stock, the meme-y one beloved by Matt Levine was riding high. Surely GameStop has sold enough stock to meme-y retail Investors to afford a couple of yachts for each board member and keep a game magazine going - send a free copy to every stock owner surely ? What a waste of marketing