Harley Quinn's Revenge Is Batman: Arkham City's Bad New Ending 
High Scores And Egos: There's Always A Bigger Doodle 
The Last Moments Of GAME 
How Bad User Interfaces Are Ruining Video Games And Other Wonderful Things 
She Tried To Make Good Video Games For Girls, Whatever That Meant 
The Story Of Doodle Jump: Brotherly Love And Digital Snacks Print is dead – a phrase we’ve almost come to accept as gospel, particularly when it comes to the tech savvy audience engaged in tech and video games. But, surprisingly, the latest readership and sales figures have shown that video game magazines are beginning to show a significant amount of growth – particularly over the last year.
To no one’s surprise, there will be a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. (C’mon, when Electronic Arts’ CEO is talking tough about Battlefield 3 versus Call of Duty, he doesn’t mean Black Ops.) Official PlayStation Magazine‘s latest edition includes a teaser for the game’s big reveal in next month’s edition. See it here.
The latest Official PlayStation Magazine is onsale today, and features an opinion piece from yours truly, but there’s a thought provoking piece in the issue that asks an interesting question about classification in this country – what if publishers and retailers agreed to ignore the rules and sold games that had been refused classification in Australia?
The U.S. Official PlayStation Magazine has finished putting Capcom’s latest survival horror romp through its paces, delivering their final verdict on the eagerly anticipated Resident Evil 5. So how did it fare?
We saw some fairly conclusive evidence last night that Kaz Hirai needs a good lie down. Today, though, we got some more, as the rest of his Official PlayStation Magazine interview hit the internet.
It’s 2006 all over again! Sony Computer Entertainment boss Kaz Hirai smacktalks the Xbox 360, but not the Nintendo Wii.
Yes, it’s official folks. Derwent Howard released a statement yesterday that includes the gory details. Sadly, I’m not privy to the statement itself, but IT media news site ITJourno has extracted everything we need to know. Again, I’d provide a direct link, but the site is only accessible to registered IT journalists.
According to ITJ, the split is effective immediately, which means there’s just one more issue of Official Xbox 360 Magazine in the pipeline from the publisher. After that, it’s unclear how the magazine will transition back to its original owners or whether it’s appearance on shelves will continue uninterrupted. On the bright side, I’ve heard that Derwent Howard will retain OXM‘s staff for a new Xbox 360-themed magazine.
Keeping with the industry gossip (dominated recently by the comedic antics of the phantom of the Internet), Derwent Howard’s new Nintendo games mag hit newsstands yesterday. Look out for a Lego Indiana Jones on the cover. IGN Australia also has a new Editor-in-Chief, in the form of ex-Official Playstation Magazine editor Narayan Pattison, after Bennett Ring’s recent departure to the world of mobiles.
OPM rises again this November with a new set of letters and a brand new publisher. Exactly one year after Ziff-Davis set Official Playstation Magazine adrift into the sea of dead print media, Future U.S. will relaunch Playstation: The Official Magazine.
Future, publisher’s of the UK version of OPM, also managed to snag Rob Smith, former editor-in-chief of PSM, to run their new mag. The first edition of the 13-issue-a-year magazine will hit in late November with a 300,000 circulation run.
“Future US has a strong heritage delivering cutting-edge insight into the industry, and we are looking forward to a long standing relationship to deliver unrivaled exclusive content to PlayStation fans,” said Peter Dille, Senior Vice President, Marketing and PLAYSTATION(R)Network, SCEA. “We’re very excited to be working with a group that is nearly as passionate about our brand as we are ourselves and we look forward to working with Future on many innovative ideas they have to create a best in class enthusiast publication.”
The fact that PSM UK seems to be doing quite fine overseas leads me to believe that maybe Ziff-Davis’ retreat from the pub was more about their financial stability than the well-being of the magazine itself.
