Fusion Publishing, Inc. is the publisher of PLAY Magazine, PLAY Magazine Presents: Girls of Gaming and Playmagazine.com.

Play Magazine began life in the winter of 1999 with the goal of becoming the first video game-focused multi-media publication aimed at the emerging teen-to-adult audience. Created by the founder and editors from GameFan and Gamers’ Republic and select new talent, Play Magazine represents the first independent endeavor from Dave Halverson, who entered the gaming industry in 1990 with the introduction of the import mail order Die-Hard Gamers’ Club which would later give rise to GameFan, a publication spawned from the company’s mail-order catalogue.

Play Magazine and Play Online are devoted to quality entertainment across all genres and age demographics with an emphasis on video games and anime—two mediums the company’s respective editors have dedicated the better part of their professional lives to. Play isn’t about merely playing and critiquing games: It’s about the experience, that very special and rare connection between game and player. Whatever the genre, Play has a dedicated expert versed in every facet of gaming at the ready with a complete knowledge of games past and present, how they are made and for whom, so you always get a valuable, relevant perspective. Whether you agree with a given score or opinion or not, the staff at Play feel it’s more important to stay true to themselves, the readers they have served for over a decade, and the people who create games, than to board any of the countless bandwagons circling the core gamer.

On the anime side, Play’s editors bring with them an understanding of anime from its roots forward, including the processes old and new, and more importantly, the diversity of genres and viewers. Play Anime’s goal is to serve the growing anime fan-base in America while helping potential new fans make educated buying decisions, directing them to a level of entertainment they likely don’t even know exists, believing that staring blankly into a sea of pretty DVD cases adorned with positive descriptions is no way to discover anime. Play also features students of film and music, making Play Media more than an afterthought to appear multi-faceted. Play is the confluence of people that are passionate about everything they produce regarding entertainment. From our editors to our amazing designers, Play is the culmination of many years of dedication to the gamut of entertainment mediums.

Play Online—the company’s latest venture—isn’t manned by dozens of editors and freelancers or filled with reams of universal content. Rather, it’s an exclusive information resource partner with Play Magazine emphasizing the gaming and anime culture in Japan via two full-time editors in Tokyo with extensive knowledge of gaming and anime; exclusive features and opinion pieces, intelligent forums in line with Play’s reader-base, extended content, archives, and all of the news, reviews and information that doesn’t make its way into the publication. Play online is an alternative site the company hopes to grow in league with their visitors to create something original and different on the web.

If Play and Play Online look and feel different, it’s because they are; and the staff wouldn’t have it any other way. Over the past decade-plus, these editors have developed a unique bond with gamers in general and developers, outside of the status quo. Play—like GameFan and Gamers’ Republic before it—is an alternative forum for discerning gamers and entertainment fans everywhere. The difference is that unlike this team’s past endeavors, the inmates run this asylum. Supervision is strictly prohibited.