Future blames console transition for poor sales of gaming magazines

Vikingod

Source: GamesIndustry
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Future's James Ashton has blamed the publisher's falling magazine sales on the next-gen console transition and the rise in the amount of videogame coverage in the mainstream media.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Ashton said the ABC figures released yesterday were "totally in line" with the publisher's expectations.

When asked if he believes there is an overall decline in gaming magazine sales at present, Ashton replied, "It's very tough trading conditions at the moment, yes, definitely," pointing out that both Microsoft and Nintendo went through a transition last year while the PS3 is yet to launch in Europe.

Rayder

The problem with magazines nowadays is the internet. Any info I might have gotten from a magazine was already known on the net days or weeks before. Kinda moots out the need for any mags when they aren't telling me anything I don't already know.

I currently have a subscription to Nintendo Power, but I'm gonna let it run out and forget about it. It's the ONLY gaming magazine I've bothered with in YEARS.....and I'm finding that I just don't need it. I only have a DS and a PC, I don't need to know about the plethora of other systems that I don't own. It usually takes me less than a half-hour to read any interesting articles and then the mag is tossed on a shelf, never to be looked at again.

I had a 6-month scrip to Game Informer (forced on me by re-newing the Gamestop bonus card) and absolutely HATED that mag. It went from mailbox to garbage can in under 30 minutes. It was fairly obvious to me that they were biased against Nintendo, which happens to be the company of the only system I have (DS).

Which brings me to the next problem with a lot of gaming mags ....they spread their selves too thin trying to cover every system. You look for the articles of the one or two systems YOU own and there is only a couple pages dedicated to them and the rest of the mag is useless to you.


While console transitions may make many let a scrip to a mag run out, I don't think it really hurts the mags as much as they would like to believe. I believe it's more likely that my listed reasons are more the reason.

At least, that's how I see it.