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• 18Jan 09

  Is there an answer for Print Magazines?

  After the recent closure of Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) and the eBay offer for HardCore Gamer, talk has picked up that the print format is dead for magazines.
  
  I do agree that Print Magazines of all forms have significantly suffered in recent years thanks in part to the explosion of web content available at the touch of your fingers, I do disagree that the format is dead. Console specific magazines are still successful thanks in part to their strong bond with the consoles they are about (not to mention that they usually offer bonus disc (eg. OXM) or online offers (OPM offering episodes of Qore)).
  
  The problem is not that information is available online and for free. Take a look at North American magazines like Time, Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, Macleans, Sports Illustrated and others that still exist and still have the numbers to keep them a float. Yes, all are established and long running magazines, but so was EGM's 20 years.
  
  If they are able to still run a successful magazine, then what is wrong with Videogame magazines? The answer is simple, but it's probably something that most companies like Ziff Davis would never adopt.
  
  What do the magazines I mentioned above have in common...and Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu?
  
  They're all weekly magazines.
  
  In order for a Magazine to succeed in today's market it MUST be a weekly based magazine that can still compete with the internet. While the news that is available in the magazine will be relatively late in comparison to when it arrives on the 'net, people read magazines for the features and extra content put into each article.

  Here is an example of what I mean. Taking EGM's issue 233 ( October '08 ) and comparing it to Famitsu No. 1044 (from December 19th), let's compare the two magazines.

  • EGM has 106 pages
  • Famitsu has 264 pages

  • EGM had roughly 42 pages of adverts (noting that ads were also located on inside covers and back page)
  • Famitsu had roughly 42 pages of adverts (again, noting that ads were located on the inside front and back covers)

  • EGM costs you 5.99 US an issue (7.99 here in Canada)
  • Famitsu costs roughly 370 Yen which is about 4 dollars US and 4.50 in Canada

  • Both magazines offer the same type of content: previews, reviews, editorials, cheats and hints, essentially giving games plenty to work with.

  I know comparing EGM to other North American magazines is a bit unfair. Time, Newsweek and Sports Illiustrated have more than 2 million readers each week, while Macleans (Canada's Neweek) and The New Yorker have between 500,000 and 1 million readers each week. EGM's numbers are still high enough that it could support an increase of issues.
  
  EGM's problem in today's market was stated that even with 500,000 paid subscribers and 100,000 copies sent to stores, the ads were not there. But as shown above, in a 106 page magazine, nearly 40% of the magazine contains ads compared to Famitsu's 15%. So was the problem really about getting advertising dollars? Maybe, but I think it's not exactly the issue.
  
  The problem lies in keeping gamers informed and the information fresh. With a monthly magazine, it becomes too difficult to please most gamers and give them something they don't already know.
  
  Let's take reviews as the example here. If a monthly magazine offers reviews on games it has one of two options 1) review a game approximately 40 days before the game is released and hope that the publisher and/or developer do not delay the game. This problem has occurred a few times (eg. GMR Magazine releasing an early review of Ninja Gaiden only for the game to be delayed and GamePro reviewing Half Life for Dreamcast which was never publicly released). Because of this, most print magazines rely on 2) reviewing a game after it has already hit stores. This is a problem because the game has already been in stores and most consumers have already made their decision if they should buy the game. Since the review and the information given by the magazine doesn't help sales, why would a company offer exclusives or rely on a print magazine.
  
  Now this would be completely different if Print Magazines were released weekly. Famitsu is often able to post their review a week prior or the week of a game's release and often this gives gamers the ability to determine if money should be spent on a game. The game and the content is fresh in the reader's mind and people are willing to spend the money. Also, because monthly magazines need their advertising dollars 1-2 months before the issue hits new-stands, often a game might change from the advertisement or reversely, a good enough ad for the magazine is not available.
  
  I don't have any experience in print media so I am not too familiar with development process of a magazine, but you have to assume the following.

  • Printing and publishing takes about 1-3 days
  • Shipping to consumers and to stores takes 1-3 days
  • Layout Setting takes about 1-2 days
  • Submissions must be entered at least a week prior.
  • The average article is written in a day
  • It takes the average person approximately 0-3 days to develop enough of an opinion for a review
  • It takes the average person approximately 1-5 days to gather and write up an Editorial or Preview of a game.

  With this, it would seem that you could essentially create a magazine from cover to cover in about 2 weeks (so this week we'd be working on our Feb 1st issue).
  
  But what about filling pages? Yes, it can be difficult to fill X amount of pages each month, so it must be just as difficult for a weekly magazine. Yes and no. If you don't have enough content, then of course, you're going to have a hard time filling in pages, but there is always something to write about. As shown above, Famitsu is a weekly magazine and has more than double the amount of pages as EGM and costs less.
  
  EGM would still be around if it made some minor changes:
  
  1) Become a weekly magazine
  2) Kept or even reduced the number of pages BUT also reduced the cost.
  
  Other weekly print magazines in North America contain fewer pages and are more affordable for that weekly purchase. Also, as stated before, developers and publishers would be more willing to pay for more ad space because they'd know that their product(s) would be seen more often weekly rather than monthly. Since eyes would see their game four times as much as they already do, publishers can increase the cost for ad-space and in turn, recoup costs for staff, printing, etc...This is also the same if you use ad space for non-game related content. If the US Army, Gillette or even an drink beverage could maximize the eyes viewing their product, they would not be afraid to invest in print.

  The underlying issue in all this is 'are videogames viable' enough for a weekly magazine format? My answer is yes. There is more than enough information available each week that can be thrown into a weekly magazine. Take a look at the amount of posts on gaming news sites like Kotaku and Joystiq. Each day there are more than 20 decent articles published, so the news is there. If Famitsu can offer plenty of pages of reviews, previews, features, guides and even some extra stuff (pictorials of real people and comics) then EGM (or any gaming magazine) could have also accomplished the same thing.
  
  Then what about costs and staff. Today's journalist is no longer a 'sit at a desk and work in an office' but rather a freelancer from around the world. Freelancers are cheap and there are a lot of people willing to work freelance if it could eventually lead to something bigger and better. Thanks to the ease of communication, a magazine can be based in a city like Chicago, Toronto, Berlin or even a small town like Kamloops (in British Columbia) and have people working around the world. The gaming market has only a small amount of cities where games are heavily produced: Tokyo, San Francisco, London, Vancouver and to a lesser extent New York and Montreal. Yes, games are made in other cities but travelling is easy (for example, if you have a writer based in Vancouver, he can drive the three hours south to Seattle to talk to people at Valve and/or Microsoft) or if you work in San Francisco, you can cover all the various companies in the area.
  
  Plus, with Freelancers, reviewers can be located just about any where in the world. You ship the game to them and then have them submit to you electronically their review and you can have the review up in the next issue without any real problems.
  
  We'll never know for sure if EGM had changed their format they would have succeed; there were too many outside issues involved with EGM and Ziff Davis that lead to its demise ( we are all aware of the Bankruptcy from 2008 ). In my opinion, if there is a person or organization looking at creating a Gaming magazine in the same vein of EGM (writing quality), they should seriously consider having their format set-up as a weekly magazine.

  • Posted Jan 18, 2009 8:55 pm PT
  • Category: Editorial
  • 47 Comments
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• 11Dec 08

  So Who Got the Axe?

  I just read an article that CBS has begun layoffs at CNet. I wonder who got the axe? Does this mean there is only going to be one or two main reviewers/previewers and the rest of the site will be done by Freelancer writers? Or does this mean that GameSpot will be moving to LA or NY to save on costs?

  If anyone has any details on this please tell us...

  source

  • Posted Dec 11, 2008 2:50 pm PT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 10Oct 08

  Linger In Shadows - creating a new genre

  So on Thursday the PSN Store had a weird 3 dollar offer for something called Linger In Shadows. Those who will remember earlier this year, Linger In Shadows was a part of a trailer for what at first people thought was a sneak peak at Team Ico's next project. The trailer was out of this world and looked a lot like Shadow of the Collosus. While it was later confirmed that it was not their next project but a weird project done by Sony Santa Monica and a group of designers in Plastic.

  Linger in Shadows is what designers call a demoscene; it's there way of showing off their skills. If you're trying to associate that with anything, if you watch any advert for a Graphics school those little clips of students showing off their work would be considered a demoscene.

  With Linger In Shadows, you are not actually playing a game but experience a clip that is almost 7 minutes long. Every segment have inteactive aspects and require you to use the SIXAXIS to manipulate portions of the game. For example, to get past the credits, you need to shake the controller enough times to open the next portion. In another clip, you need to properly time pressing the Cirlce button to continue. It's not always simple, but thankfully you can rewind and fast-forward the clips to find the answer.

  Also, this experience has Trophies. If you're a trophy junkie, you unlock 5 trophies just for completing the game. If you find hidden pictures, you unlock a few more. At three dollars this is a great treat. I spent a solid 2 hours with it and considering movies cost 10 dollars and last about the same time, I would say the value is solid.

  • Posted Oct 10, 2008 11:04 am PT
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