Game Informer magazine is back!

[neatfeatguy]

Just arrived today!


I used to subscribe to Game Informer about 12 years ago, back when you could still get PC games in physical copies. When financially things were tight I cut all unnecessary things and there went my subscription and I never got around to renewing the magazine. For some reason about a year ago I was curious if there were any gaming magazines still out there - nostalgia is a cruel mistress - and I found out that Game Informer just shut down and that was pretty much the end of gaming magazines (online/digital only is not a magazine) aside from Edge (based in the UK) and PC Gamer (which I thought quality fell off some time ago so I stopped getting it, but I have fond memories back in the day when they'd show up in the mailbox with demo discs included).

I figured I'd give Game Informer a try once I heard they were spinning up the presses again and for a chance at a yearly sub for only $30 (for early subscribers that took place about a month back) I'm giving them a chance, again.

*edit*
I forgot how nice it feels to just hold a magazine and flip through the pages. There's just something so much better about holding a book or magazine over clicking through digital images.

 

[sepheronx]

I dont see where I can purchase subscription for the physical magazines.

 

[neatfeatguy]

I dont see where I can purchase subscription for the physical magazines.

Subscribe

gameinformer.com

See if that works for you. Looks like digital only is $39 and print w/ digital is $59, according to the info in the link.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Ah, nothing like bringing something back just to watch it die all over again.

Not sure what the financials look like this time around but they went under the first time for a reason. People don't want to pay for quality journalism and will take dog crap AI slop over thoughtful well researched articles (and let's not oversell OG Game Informer here).

Wonder if its a passion project or something intended to eventually just break even rather than do the whole corpo MBA "all products must grow infinitely otherwise they're useless" thing.

Might be able to limp along in the second scenario for a while, we'll see.

 

[Princess Garnet]

I might be getting name wrong, but in the very early 2000s, I got a "free" year subscription to a magazine at FuncoLand (or it may have already been GameStop by that point) due to a purchase I made. I think it was Game Informer but I'm not positive on that. I don't have any of those anymore (I think I may have left them to my brother). I also got a free "Art of Final Fantasy IX" book from that same store, which I do still have.

I think the internet really made print media like magazines a lot harder to succeed with. Everything's been going digital. Magazines still exist, but the ones I see most are news and entertainment stuff at checkouts in stores. Most of the gaming magazines seem to have moved online and used advertisements to try and compensate. If anything is returning to magazine form in 2025, I figure it's not going to be a big venture, but it's still neat to see. $30 for a yearly subscription sounds cheap, like too cheap to truly be profitable? But I'm sure of the costs involved so maybe I'm wrong.

 

[neatfeatguy]

I might be getting name wrong, but in the very early 2000s, I got a "free" year subscription to a magazine at FuncoLand (or it may have already been GameStop by that point) due to a purchase I made. I think it was Game Informer but I'm not positive on that. I don't have any of those anymore (I think I may have left them to my brother). I also got a free "Art of Final Fantasy IX" book from that same store, which I do still have.

I think the internet really made print media like magazines a lot harder to succeed with. Everything's been going digital. Magazines still exist, but the ones I see most are news and entertainment stuff at checkouts in stores. Most of the gaming magazines seem to have moved online and used advertisements to try and compensate. If anything is returning to magazine form in 2025, I figure it's not going to be a big venture, but it's still neat to see. $30 for a yearly subscription sounds cheap, like too cheap to truly be profitable? But I'm sure of the costs involved so maybe I'm wrong.

Yeah, Game Informer was owned by GameStop sometime around 2000/2001. If you paid for a Pro Game membership or something like you could get a subscription to Game Informer, that's how I started getting the magazine years ago. The ending of Game Informer was, as it just so happens, due to GameStop closing that branch of the business down. When I say that my subscription ended a while back, it was back in the early 2000s. I was looking at old magazine covers for it and magazine 100 came out in 2001, I recall having that one for sure. I think 2003 was when I canceled my sub.

Gunzilla Games has picked up Game Informer and we'll see how it goes from here.

 

[sepheronx]

Subscribe

gameinformer.com

See if that works for you. Looks like digital only is $39 and print w/ digital is $59, according to the info in the link.

only the digital shows for me.

 

[neatfeatguy]

only the digital shows for me.

Perhaps it's US only?

 

[Rover4444]

Ten issues a year? I thought it used to release monthly?

 

[Princess Garnet]

Yeah, Game Informer was owned by GameStop sometime around 2000/2001. If you paid for a Pro Game membership or something like you could get a subscription to Game Informer, that's how I started getting the magazine years ago. The ending of Game Informer was, as it just so happens, due to GameStop closing that branch of the business down. When I say that my subscription ended a while back, it was back in the early 2000s. I was looking at old magazine covers for it and magazine 100 came out in 2001, I recall having that one for sure. I think 2003 was when I canceled my sub.

Gunzilla Games has picked up Game Informer and we'll see how it goes from here.

That may have been what I signed up for then. I remember that during checkout for something in the early 2000s, they made an offer that would include a free year (or was it half a year?) of a magazine, but I'm kind of remembering that I wasn't charged extra for it or else I wouldn't have wanted it (if I was, it was definitely a one time thing instead of recurring). Maybe I'm mistaken on that, or maybe it even happened when I was trading in a lot of my NES/SNES things and thus the cost came out of the credits I recieved back, or maybe I was simply spending above a certain amount so it came free for some promotion. The details are all fuzzy, unfortunately. I just remember going to the store a bit in the early 2000s when it was FuncoLand first and then GameStop later, and that I got a free Art of Final Fantasy IX book.

Going off of various factors, I figure it might have been the summer of 2002 or 2003 that I first got the magazine. I didn't really look through most of them too much either (more of a skim once or twice). I sort of "unofficially" gave them to my brother and then I officially told him to keep them later.

 

[ir_cow]

Sadly now that internet isn't dial-up anymore and video reviews exist, anything written in a magazine is already 3+ weeks outdated by the time it comes to your door.

 

[sepheronx]

Sadly now that internet isn't dial-up anymore and video reviews exist, anything written in a magazine is already 3+ weeks outdated by the time it comes to your door.

I was kinda hoping to do our own TPU or whatever magazine. I imagine it would actually be popular. Great thing to read while taking a dump or whatever.

I know with the advent of the internet, that people don't like to read paper anymore, but there is still people like me who do.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Sadly now that internet isn't dial-up anymore and video reviews exist, anything written in a magazine is already 3+ weeks outdated by the time it comes to your door.

The internet killed print magazine and now YouTube is killing tech sites.


Although videogame websites are killing themselves.

I was kinda hoping to do our own TPU or whatever magazine. I imagine it would actually be popular. Great thing to read while taking a dump or whatever.

I know with the advent of the internet, that people don't like to read paper anymore, but there is still people like me who do.

I miss the magazine days especially the ones that came with demo disks. I remember seeing RE2 in a magazine around 1997/1998 and being blown away.

 

[ir_cow]

@oxrufiioxo I work in newspaper right now. Yes they still exist. Major dropoff in print quantities. Some pubs was 30k per day before COVID, the same ones are under 5,000 now. Only thing keeping newspapers going is that ad companies think people still read them lol.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

@oxrufiioxo I work in newspaper right now. Yes they still exist. Major dropoff in print quantities. Some pubs was 30k per day before COVID, the same ones are under 5,000 now. Only thing keeping newspapers going is that ad companies think people still read them lol.

Man, I use to love getting the newspaper 15‐20 years ago...I feel so old even though I'm only turning 42 this year.

I am tempted to subscribe to gameinformer at least one last time.

 

[r.h.p]

Im feeling ya , i used to buy assorts of Magazines Pc, Motorsport, etc.
Remember when the magazine would have A roundup of latest GPU's including the pic ..i would study those pics for hours ...lol

 

[leeamtheone]

Man, I use to love getting the newspaper 15‐20 years ago...I feel so old even though I'm only turning 42 this year.

I am tempted to subscribe to gameinformer at least one last time.

Same here, and I probably will subscribe, the temptation is just too strong combined with nostalgia

 

[Rover4444]

Sadly now that internet isn't dial-up anymore and video reviews exist, anything written in a magazine is already 3+ weeks outdated by the time it comes to your door.

And that's a good thing! Don't buy a game until the next GI mag comes out and you'll never make an awful day-one purchase!

Man, I use to love getting the newspaper 15‐20 years ago...I feel so old even though I'm only turning 42 this year.

I hate to be the breaker of bad news...

 

[neatfeatguy]

Ten issues a year? I thought it used to release monthly?

Beggars can't be choosers, I guess. Seeing a magazine drop every 5 weeks isn't so bad. I mean, better than nothing at all and plus a little extra time allows for more to be included in the magazine.

Sadly now that internet isn't dial-up anymore and video reviews exist, anything written in a magazine is already 3+ weeks outdated by the time it comes to your door.

I can't stand video reviews and I won't watch them unless there is no other source around. I hate listening to people talk during videos or having to look at them because everyone feels it's best to have their face floating over part of the video because, you know, that's what people want to see when checking out a review....their stupid, ugly face while they drone on about crap no one asked to hear about. Also, most people have annoying voices that I don't want to hear....did I mention I don't like looking at their ugly faces?

Spoiler

For example people like to reference a couple of tech youtube reviewers such as Linus Tech Tips - his appearance doesn't really bother me too much (I still don't want to look at him if I don't have to), but his voice is like nails on a chalk board to me and I can't stand listening to him talk. Or you get, is it Steve?, from Gamers Nexus - he's so unkempt looking that he's hard for me to look at and take him seriously. I don't want to have to be forced to look at him, just no.

I never pick up a game when it first comes out - I haven't done it for many years, maybe as long back as when I canceled my sub to GI. I don't mind if something in print comes out a short while after all the chatty Kathys post their youtube reviews. I'm in the minority here, I know a lot of people that like watching video reviews. I'd rather read and not watch when it comes to reviews, this way I can interpret the words in a way without having annoying voice cues trying to sway me a certain way that the narrator is going with their personal opinions.

I'll take this resurgence of Game Informer as a win. As long as I find value in it and if it stays around, I'll keep a subscription going.

 

[ShiBDiB]

only the digital shows for me.

I wish they had just a print version, I'd sub to that. (I'll probably grab it anyway, for nostalgia sake)

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Ah, nothing like bringing something back just to watch it die all over again.

Not sure what the financials look like this time around but they went under the first time for a reason. People don't want to pay for quality journalism and will take dog crap AI slop over thoughtful well researched articles (and let's not oversell OG Game Informer here).

Wonder if its a passion project or something intended to eventually just break even rather than do the whole corpo MBA "all products must grow infinitely otherwise they're useless" thing.

Might be able to limp along in the second scenario for a while, we'll see.

I dont think anyone in their right mind would have ever called Game Informer "Quality journalism".

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I dont think anyone in their right mind would have ever called Game Informer "Quality journalism".

-Right, so twice the reason they wouldn't want to pay for Game Informer.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I dont think anyone in their right mind would have ever called Game Informer "Quality journalism".

Im going to play devils advocate.

Providing they can provide "Quality journalism™" - I think it will sell. If you look at most of the online gamer news sites these days. 99% of them are outright garbage. Its more the independent journalists who do it as a hobby or a part time thing on youtube that often do the best reporting although you'll have to sift through a lot of channels to find out which ones are trustworthy and those that arent.

The journalism landscape has changed since 2000 and with so many websites pushing terribly written articles and getting political. If a magazine or website popped up overnight and just did their job without getting political - It would be an overnight success.

 

[ir_cow]

I can't stand video reviews and I won't watch them unless there is no other source around. I hate listening to people talk during videos or having to look at them because everyone feels it's best to have their face floating over part of the video because, you know, that's what people want to see when checking out a review....their stupid, ugly face while they drone on about crap no one asked to hear about. Also, most people have annoying voices that I don't want to hear....did I mention I don't like looking at their ugly faces?

I generally require some real gameplay footage and commentary before I buy a game these days. Waste of money otherwise. Most AAA games these days are just recycled junk from 20 years ago. I watch these commentaries just to hear what's busted.

Like for example Vision of Mana. Was looking forward to it, but the main side character has a horrible fake southern accent in a fantasy world. Nope never paying that game now and would have never known without a video review. Completely ruined it for me.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Im going to play devils advocate.

Providing they can provide "Quality journalism™" - I think it will sell. If you look at most of the online gamer news sites these days. 99% of them are outright garbage. Its more the independent journalists who do it as a hobby or a part time thing on youtube that often do the best reporting although you'll have to sift through a lot of channels to find out which ones are trustworthy and those that arent.

The journalism landscape has changed since 2000 and with so many websites pushing terribly written articles and getting political. If a magazine or website popped up overnight and just did their job without getting political - It would be an overnight success.

Yeah, but, they wont. "Game Journalism" has always been a cesspool of dropouts and industry shills, the difference between today and 20 years ago is all the dirty laundry has been exposed for the world to see.

The few independent journalists actually worth a damn are not going to be writing for game informer.