Gaming Magazines: Paper or Digital?

Posted by Stefan Crowe On November - 27 - 2008

There are many of gamers out there who used to get the monthly copies of their game consoles magazine. There were usually a quite a few choices available, but the most common ones were the “Official ” ones. These ones tended to come with an assortment of promotional gifts, most notably a “free” demo disc. I use the word “free” somewhat loosely seeing as you were usually paying about a fiver (£5.00 for all those non-UKers) for the magazine itself. You could even sometimes get a free keyring or pen with the months must-have game logo printed on it.

I was one of those gamers, sort of. I wasn’t quite hardcore enough of a gamer to get it every month, but I did get it a good 4 or 5 times. This going as far back as the PlayStation 1 (not One), I think in the end I ended up with about 30 demo discs. But that died out when I got my PlayStation 2, with me buying one, yes one, magazine in its lifetime. This trend has continued into the current gen, where I haven’t bought a single magazine.

My deteriorating magazine ownership obviously doesn’t necessarily reflect everyone in the world, but I do believe a similar trend is being followed. The internet gives us most of our rumours, information and gaming updates now, so why shell out money for something free?

Now the magazine publishers have to compete with the likes of Qore, the official US PlayStation digital magazine, which gives its own promotional items in the form of early demo access and Beta invites to try out games for free*.

I’m just wondering what the current preference is now and, if it is digital, does that spell the demise of paper-based magazines.

* Again, I mean free in the you-paid-for-it-indirectly sense.