Famitsu Boss Talks Future Of Game Magazines

Thanks to Video-Fenky for translating a Japanese editorial from Famitsu Magazine discussing the future of videogame magazines, as Enterbrain president Hirokazu Hamamura muses: "With the Internet as widespread as it is, many people don't think we need game magazines at all -- after all, you can get the latest information right on the Net." But he argues for the "...real charm of your basic [paper-based] magazine news feature: it takes plain old news and turns it into something you don't mind sitting down and reading for a long time." He also suggests that game reviewers have to contend with much more targeted genres, suggesting: "The marketing tactics behind narrowing down target audiences [for specific games] will become the first step in game creation, not the last... Once that happens, game reviews based on the likes and dislikes of the reviewer will become meaningless."

What a beautifully written article

[cgenman]

For those of you who don't know, Famitsu is one of the longest-running and most respected Japanese video game magazines. They have an uncanny ability to get information first, and get interviews with high-ranking people. Chances are, if you have ever seen a japanese video game magazine, this is it. If you have ever heard an American magazine cite a Japanese magazine, this is it.

The article's deconstruction of online game magazines is quite amusing. In essence, it says that online reviews are junk, online magazines are poorly written, and online writers don't know the first thing about the industry. It, of course, says so with the most delicate of Japanese touches. Score one for Famitsu.

He briefly mentions how Gaming (in Japan) is branching away from a purely console model, and as such the "total game sales" figures are inaccurate. Oddly enough, he doesn't mention that lowered console prices would also give the impression of lower console sales on a per-yen basis. Either way, this seems like an odd technicality wedged between two very broadly relevant opinion pieces.

Finally, he cites how with the subdivision of gaming will require reviewers to step back from what they would like, and review a game based upon what the target audience would like. This is a big challenge for the reviewing industry right now, as you might have two or three FPS gurus on your staff, but do you have a RTFPS guru? One who specifically likes slower FPS game in fantasy settings? How do you review a subgenre accurately if you don't have anyone on your staff who likes that subgenre? Will it receive anything other than an 80? He seems to thing that training will be enough to overcome reviewer bias (or lack thereof), but I would tend to doubt that. Certainly, assembling a wide enough team of connoisseurs will be essential to the success or failure of a review department. But that just dodges the question... How do you objectively review a subjective experience from someone else's viewpoint?

To this, sadly, he has no answer.

Re:What a beautifully written article

[Ziffy]

I predict you will get +5 Informative for having a medium-sized, properly formatted post at the top of the comments, despite only saying what Famitsu is and summarizing the article.

You're right, though, it is a beautifully written article.

As for reviewing games... what really matters is being able to express what the game is like, not just giving it a number. Personally, I despise load times, I place a lot of emphasis on sound, I enjoy exploring and collecting things, I like a challenge, and I love surreal themes - these are preferences which I probably won't have in common with any given reviewer, but which will greatly affect my experience with a game. I think the best kind of reviewer is one who is good at seeing what a game is trying to do, and how well it accomplishes it.

Offtopic

[Anonymous Coward]

:) It wasn't a bad first post.

And you, of course, responded to that which would become the first +5 informative, because that gives you a much better browsing position and, hence, a much better chance of becoming +5 yourself.

Slashdot: Still the best game in town.

Reading Sequence

[OC_Wanderer]

IMHO, the greatest charm of the printed magazine is the ability to read it from front to back, back to front, or anywhere in between using the table of contents.

The problems with reading a magazine on the web (or even content sites) is latency and organization. It's still faster to flip a page than to load a page.

Re:Reading Sequence

[bigman2003]

The latency issue is really a non-issue for anyone with a decent connect. I just tried Gamespot, and my estimation is that flipping from page 1 of an article, to page 2 took less than 1 second. There are occasionally times where going from one page to another might take 1.5 seconds, but it seems pretty rare. I've got a decent DSL connection (1.2mb) but nothing spectacular. In fact, some of the stories in magazines have have huge latency issues- like 30 days or so.

As far as organization is concerned, if

Stopped

[Inda]

I stopped buying game magazines years ago.

The cost of the magazines rose when the PSX hit the market. The demo disks glued to the front were great to begin with but they slowly turned into large adverts rather than showing off technology, graphics and game play.

I also got fed up reading articles I had already read online. I cannot prove plagiarism but the sense of deja vu grew month on month.

Plagiarism alive and well!

[Anonymous Coward]

And here's some sexy proof:
Two excerpts from reviews of the (mediocre) game Mistmare. The game isn't important, but what the reviewers say makes my point.

Gamezone Aug 2003 (http://www.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r19940.htm):
" The fighting's not much more fun. Imagine how easy it is to click on a stationary object like a treasure chest while the camera's flailing around. Now imagine how easy it is to hit a moving target while the camera's flailing around. This results in many frustrating situations."
(Review by

Re:Plagiarism alive and well!

[Anonymous Coward]

And that's plagiarism how? I see no phrase that appears in both. Yes, they both hate the fighting, for the same reason. That is not sufficient grounds for plagiarism. None of the distinctive phrases ("camera flailing") get copied.

Re:Stopped

[cgenman]

There was, and is, a lot of crossover between the internet and published magazines. Famitsu the magazine has Famitsu online. Die Hard Game Fan had Die Hard Online. IGN's Snowball owned several magazines. Gamespot is owned by Cnet, who owns everyone else. Plus, there actually were several rather famous cases of video game magazines pulling FAQs directly off of the web, adding photographs, and publishing them as if they were their own.

I wish I had more recent examples, but I've abandoned all of the publ

Time Lapse

[CannibalCrowley]

The biggest problem with paper gaming magazines is their amount of time between an article being written and actually being published. If they want to keep their audience, then reviews need to appear before the game is actually released to the public. Being online is the only way that this can be viable. But who really wants to read through an entire magazine online? Not many, but I doubt that most people read gaming mags cover to cover anyways. Especially when the reviews have been online long before the magazine hit the newstand.

I prefer magazines, but...

[patternjuggler]

Magazines are much more readable than web-pages, frequently- and flipping a page is much faster than waiting for a full screenshot download, even with broadband. Magazines also seem superior for advertisers and more marginal games- why would I bother clicking on a link to a game review of a game I've never heard of, much less clicking on an ad- while with a magazine I'll flip through start to finish and be exposed to all kinds of ads and game reviews I wouldn't have bothered with otherwise. The glossy fin

Magzines are great!!

[FriedTurkey]

Until I get a computer installed next to my toliet. I will still read videogame magazines.

so...

[fexk]

Seems to be three main points, but I'm not sure any are particularly groundbreaking..

1) Online magazines get information first , but often seem amateur and lack background depth.

Not sure this is anything inherent in the medium. Would Famitsu writers writing reduce in quality merely because it was published online. It's more a commentary on the state of the industry, with online magazine subscriptions still being out of favour with the public.

2) Online gaming is not recognised in current statistics.

But

Realization

[swat_r2]

I came to a realization about a week ago when I bought the latest EGM. Included was a demo disc with some previews, clips - the usual stuff. The disc was so lacking, and the editorial comments from the staff were so unprofessional that I shook my head in disgust. I think EGM is great but I immediately tossed that disc in the trash.

I've never bothered subcsribing to a mag, but theres been many months when I've picked up 3-5. OXM, EGM, OPSM, XBN, Gamer - considering the rising price of these mags I've

Re:Realization

[josh glaser]

EGM had a demo disc? News to me.

Why don't they give that kind of thing to, hmm, say, their subscribers?

You may have thought the disc sucked, but I'd at least like to have recieved one.

Anyhoo, I would agree that having a disc (a good disc) with video reviews and the like to supplement the magazine would really be cool.

But until then, there's X-play. ;-)

its for the toilet.

[bludstone]

All this analysis in meaningless. The true reason for videogame magazines is to have something absolutely mindless to read while pinching a loaf.

You know Im right.

Games magazines need to rethink their format

[Peteroo]

The problem isn't so much that games magazines have been over-shadowed by the Internet--once the net evolved, this was inevitable--but that they haven't yet responded to the challenge in a meaningful way.

Games magazines have been plowing the same field for as much as 25 years: news, reviews, previews, features, strategy guides and columns. When they innovate, it's typically in layout and "look." They need to rethink the format to provide content that readers can't find on the web.

On the reporting side