Topic: Why is GamePro.com shutting down?

So what all magazines do people get?

iirc, the GamePro magazine is also going quarterly instead of monthly. One of the last issues I have has a fairly enlightening article on it. Strangely, they did not automatically transition my subscription to the quarterly version and instead converted it PCWorld for my remaining issues. With that being said, the last PCWorld had an article "from the staff at GamePro" which talked about gaming (cant' remember the topic).

Frankly, I'm a bit skeptical that the quarterly version will be all that successful or even come to fruition.

edit: @Shingi_70 OXM, Nintendo Power, PCWorld, Maxim, Playboy (tmi? lol), Game Informer and now that I own a PS3, I'm looking for a decent Playstation-related magazine. I saw mention in this thread about an "official" Playstation Mag so maybe I'll check into it unless someone has a better recommendation.

I mostly read
Gaminformer
Time
Vouge
GQ
Harper's Bazzar
Front (NSFW)
Dazed and confused dwell
Nintendo power
Spin
Nylon

@Magi: Game Pro did one quarterly issue and said that they are shutting down after that which was pointed out in another thread that was now locked according to the following article.

http://www.industrygamers.com/news/gamepro-is-dead/

As for the site, they probably had to shut it down due to the loss of revenue from having to stop the magazine. While magazines have money coming in from subscribers websites like Game Pro dont so unless they were going to charge people for their site like a porn site than theres no way they could keep it open unless they go by donations or something like that like Wikipedia does.

Anyway heres my thoughs on Game Pro that I posted in the other thread but since it got locked I will repost what I said there here.

I remember picking up a few issues during the PS era since I had Nintendo Power to cover Nintendo games I wanted something so I could see reviews for PS games since I was into PS during that era. I wouldnt say it was a bad magazine I found the reviews pretty decent and they helped me choose a few good games.

I also remember them having a game show named Game Pro back in the early 90's I want to say. In fact I remember seeing on that show the code for Super Castlevania to take you all the way to Dracula.

But in this day and age its not surprising to see a magazine go out of business. I mean with the internet nowadays you can get info in secs rather than having to wait a month. Still it is sad to see something close down after being around for awhile.

As for what magazines I read I dont read any anymore. Most of my reviews I get from sites like this and walkthroughs or codes I get from GameFaqs.

As for the site, they probably had to shut it down due to the loss of revenue from having to stop the magazine. While magazines have money coming in from subscribers websites like Game Pro dont so unless they were going to charge people for their site like a porn site than theres no way they could keep it open unless they go by donations or something like that like Wikipedia does.

That's almost entirely wrong. Magazines and professional websites don't exist based on subscribers, with a very few exceptions. It's the advertising revenue that keeps them afloat.

The reason magazines have subscribers is to help subsidise the cost of producing a physical magazine, which is expensive (and usually more expensive that subscriber revenue - see loss leading). It's the advertising that keeps magazines going, and a magazine needs roughly a 50/50 ratio to stay healthy.

On the web, there are two ways to do things - have a paywall (New York Times), and try to build a subscriber base, and rely less on advertising, or rely entirely on advertising. The former is difficult, since people don't tend to like paying for online news, and only the very best content can get away with that. It would never work for games journalism.

The problem with relying entirely on advertising, especially in the games industry, is that there isn't that much advertising money going away. The second tier professional publications in terms of traffic numbers, such as Gamepro, have no hope of being able to compete with IGN or GameSpot.

But in this day and age its not surprising to see a magazine go out of business. I mean with the internet nowadays you can get info in secs rather than having to wait a month. Still it is sad to see something close down after being around for awhile.

There's a role for magazines to play still - long form journalism. If you look at people's Internet usage habits, the research shows that people don't have an attention span of longer than around 1000-1500 words. They'll get distracted and go elsewhere.

So magazines can still play an important role is the long, in depth features an analysis. What Edge is doing is a pretty good example of what magazines should be doing to remain relevant and complementary to the Internet.

I noticed the locked thread but I try not to read them. Invariably I'll see something that I REALLY wanted to comment on but can't.

Thank you for your loyalty, support, and participation in the GamePro.com community. At noon on December 5, 2011, the U.S. version of GamePro online will shut down as an independent site. GamePro will become part of PCWorld.com (http://www.pcworld.com/gamepro) offering gaming news, reviews, and how-tos from the PCWorld team. Thank you to the entire GamePro staff for their hard work and dedication. They are moving to the pc world site

No worries I am the same way too but I though I would just point that out to you that in fact even the magazine was shutting down and to explain why you were getting another magazine other than Game Pro.

The Official PlayStation Mag is not very well written. PSM was much better, but that was shut down years ago.

OXM, Nintendo Power, Game Informer are all good magazines. I enjoy reading NP and GI the most (haven't read OXM in years though).

The latest Nintendo Power has about 15 pages of advertising, with a decent chunk of that being for products made by NP (official character guides, subscriptions, and such). For reference, the magazine is 96 pages.