R.I.P. Games For Windows Magazine, Welcome GFW Online
Count 'em down but hardly out, as Games For Windows magazine (nee Computer Gaming World for 27 years) goes online-only in a transition just announced following publisher Ziff Davis's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in early March.
1UP's VP of content Simon Cox says "the announcement today that we are closing the print publication Games For Windows: The Official Magazine has nothing to do with the Chapter 11 stuff" on his blog. Instead, the company's citing the movement of readers away from print to online news sources. The final issue (April/May, pictured above) is on newsstands now.
You might remember the atypically hard-hitting and well-written Computer Games Magazine closing shop around this time last year. When that magazine folded -- allegedly due to lawsuit damages incurred by publisher TheGlobe.com that had nothing to do with the otherwise profitable magazine -- a few of its writers hopped over to GFW and made a great magazine even greater. With GFW The Print Magazine now history, that means PC game print aficionados are -- as far as mainstream newsstand availability's concerned -- pretty much down to Future's PC Gamer or bust.
"The end of an era, but the start of a new one," reads the subhead of this note from 1UP's Sam Kennedy.
Here's hoping it's an epoch, guys.
(Check out GFW editor Jeff Green's blog for the straight-no-chaser version of the story.)
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This is what I get for being stuck in meetings.
I was going to post some major missive about the sad news today, but you beat me to it, Matt. I may still chime in my two cents somewhere on the subject, but for the short term, I want to take a moment to say farewell to a magazine that I've read since issue #2 and worked at for about five years (until joining the wacky PC World crew in January).
Watching the dead trees version of my old magazine getting mulched is a damn sad sight, and seeing two talented artists get laid off (MJ and Rosie were great to work with) is even worse. At least the editorial team remains to fight the good fight online. And, sadly, being Web-only makes a lot more sense for the PC market these days.
That is a whole other diatribe for a whole other time but for the moment, suffice it to say, "Stay Classy, CGW/ GFW / 1Up -- I know I'll miss you."
It's a sad day. I wrote for CGS+ back when it was CGS+ and not CGM, and it shuttering its doors hit me in the gut. CGW closing, not so much, but still hurts. Hope Jeff Green finds a new mag.