Alright everyone who is anyone in gaming knows of Future. Future Publishing was huge in Europe before it came to North America as well. Future publishing is well known for Official X-Box  Magazine, Nintendo Power and Official PlayStation  Magazine. I mean they have the official liscense for all three game companies. Not only that but globally they publish official magazines for all three companies else where around the globe.

This magazine publisher is the biggest gaming magazine publisher around and guess what it shows in their lay offs. Apparently Future recently ran into trouble with its technology division which is responsable for Windows:The Official Magazine and Maximum PC was down in profits. So the division realized its gaming division however was staying even not loosing much money.

So naturally Future decided to merge its gaming and technology divisions. But instead of canning game staff they made the cuts to their technology division. According to Gamasutra laying off five key employees. Just to look at the sales figures for Future Publishing USA.

"According to Future's latest financial results, its technology groups revenues were down in the first half of the year, from $8.3 million to $7 million. The gaming group's revenues were flat at $15.8 million." - Gamasutra

So who knows what this merger means for the technology magazines, will some of them be getting axed? Also what about the gaming magazines will they suffer due to staff having to also run the tech magazines?

Also is the poorer tech magazine sales really a managment issue or is it the fact that less and less techies want to buy magazines while gamers are still interested? Will putting the game division in charge of the tech division really help save the dying tech magazines, or will gaming continue to stay even and tech continue to fall?

Again gaming kicks tech's butt, sort of ironic since video games are tech themselves. Oh well its cool to see that while Windows:The Official Magazine is going down that OXM (Official X-Box Magazine) is doing great. I guess its also a blow to PC owners seeing their magazines go down shamefully while console magazines sell well!

who cares really, we have perfectly good gaming and tech sites, as for tech sites we have cnet, engadget etc etc.

Why buy the official playstation mag when we have an perfectly good playstation blog that offers information on all things playstation for free.

Exactly. In the days of internet everybody has access to the latest news, pictures and videos faster than any gaming mag could ever offer. The last time I read a gaming magazine was what, 2003? I don't remember anymore.

I dunno I still like gaming and tech mags. Sure I've read all the news prior but the interviews and some of the content is unique and can't be found elsewhere. But I do have to admit I am sure reading them alot less each year as technology takes over. But I like having a good gaming magazine nearby if I need to go on a long drive (Not driving lol) or if I'm going up North (Where internet isn't readily availible) or to a Bible Camp or missions trip.

But then again my favorite gaming magazine is Nintendo Power. Its interesting to see that gaming magazines are kicking tech magazines butts. I guess all the PC gamers will say something like "PC gamers own PC's and have the internet of course their not going to buy magazines". But the fact that Windows the official Magazine is getting its butt handed to it by Official X-Box Magazine thats gotta say something.

Also any of you suprised that Future's gaming magazines are still doing this well? Considering everyone here believes theirs no need for gaming magazines anymore why are these magazines still selling?

Don't hate on magazines. They produce the best articles available imo. They make Vgchartz artciles look like.... lower quality articles....

Note: (I say this in the nicest way possible. I find Vgchartz articles to be above the internet average in practically everything they produce, but do not find them as high quality as magazines, which is OK because I assume that the writers for Vgchartz are free lance and not actually full time employess like the magazines.)

Nintendo Official Magazine (as it was then called) was far far better before Future got their hands on it. Out when all the good humour, including my favourite part of the mag, Club Seal (a parody of the Seal of Approval, but literally with a seal).