World's First Dedicated Gaming Magazine Is Facing Closure 82
mrspoonsi (2955715) writes "BBC Reports: 'Computer and Video Games, which in 1981 was the world's first magazine dedicated to gaming, is facing closure. The title, which has been online-only since 2004, may stop publishing at the end of a 45-day consultation period that began on 14 May, sources said. However, its publishers, Future, are also believed to be looking into selling off the brand. The magazine is behind the gaming industry's Golden Joystick Awards, a yearly event held since 1983. Early issues of the magazine were seen as being instrumental in helping small-time games developers to get their titles out there, said Mr Henderson — a trend that he thought was beginning to re-emerge as apps and mobile gaming have taken off.'"
A Life Well Wasted (Score:4, Informative)
Computer Gaming Gaming (Score:5, Informative)
...the world's first magazine dedicated to gaming...
Okay, I'm being pedantic here, but this is one of my pet peeves. "Computer Gaming" is not Gaming. It is a lesser thing--a subset of the greater whole.
This was not the first gaming magazine-- Games magazine came out in 1977 and The Dragon was in 1976. Both of these magazines were dedicated to gaming (with Games being the more general use of that term).
Don't even get me started on calling computer games RPGs.
Re:Magazine? (Score:4, Informative)
It's an explainable thing. The UK magazines market was largely driven by W H Smith. Not only because of their shops, but they were a wholesaler too, so a lot of the other newsagents were selling merchandise sourced from W H Smith.
And W H Smith started out as a chain of railway station concessions. People bought books and magazines to read on the train.
With a lesser railway system, and more people travelling by horse and then car in the USA, the train station bookstall/newsagent phenomenon didn't take off in the same way.
Or at least that's my theory.