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Forums - Sony - PlayStation: The Official Magazine being shuttered, will say farewell with holiday issue

Cyrus_ATX on 07 November 2012

 

 

PlayStation: The Official Magazine being shuttered, will say farewell with holiday issue

 

The publisher of PlayStation: The Official Magazine has confirmed to Game Informer that the Sony-minded periodical will board up its doors by year's end. This isn't the first gaming magazine that publisher Future US has called it quits on this year -- news of Nintendo Power's closure broke this August. Just like the Nintendo-centric themed publication, the PlayStation mag's last issue will be its holiday edition. However, unlike Newsweek's leap to a purely digital existence, there's no indication that the magazine could see life online.

 

http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/07/playstation-the-official-magazine-closes/



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badgenome on 07 November 2012
spurgeonryan said:
That is too bad. When I was a kid I used to swipe the game demo discs from them. Tony Hawk....

That was Official Playstation Magazine, which was closed like 5 years ago.



fighter on 07 November 2012

Internet happened...



man-bear-pig on 07 November 2012

Not surprising. I always wondered how these official magazines made any money, so I just assumed they were subsidised...I guess I was right. Sony is on the brink if collapse, so they NEED to cut costs or they'll die...it's a necessary loss. I wonder how long MS will keep their official Xbox magazine going? Probably a long time given that money is no object, but it still must be a money drain.



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Kresnik on 07 November 2012
man-bear-pig said:
Not surprising. I always wondered how these official magazines made any money, so I just assumed they were subsidised...I guess I was right. Sony is on the brink if collapse, so they NEED to cut costs or they'll die...it's a necessary loss. I wonder how long MS will keep their official Xbox magazine going? Probably a long time given that money is no object, but it still must be a money drain.


Do Sony have any influence in the decisions of a media corporation like Future US?  Aside from allowing them to use the word 'Official', do they actually pay anything towards the magazine?

I'd have thought not, but maybe I'm wrong.



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sales2099 on 07 November 2012

Yup, gaming magazines just not feasible anymore. Plus I guess this would save Sony some money.



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coolguy on 07 November 2012

What a shame this is a great magazine i use to get it in the mail



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ECM on 07 November 2012
Kresnik said:
man-bear-pig said:
Not surprising. I always wondered how these official magazines made any money, so I just assumed they were subsidised...I guess I was right. Sony is on the brink if collapse, so they NEED to cut costs or they'll die...it's a necessary loss. I wonder how long MS will keep their official Xbox magazine going? Probably a long time given that money is no object, but it still must be a money drain.


Do Sony have any influence in the decisions of a media corporation like Future US?  Aside from allowing them to use the word 'Official', do they actually pay anything towards the magazine?

I'd have thought not, but maybe I'm wrong.

Here's how it works:

*Sony (or whomever) opens up a bidding process for the rights to use the word PlayStation on the cover of a mag.
*The publishing houses will mock-up an issue and also present a monetary bid.
*The winnder of that selection process gets the rights.

And that's basically where it ends. 

They *might*, in the original contract, negotiate some exclusivity, but it generally is not overseen, for lack of a better word, by Sony.

(Old Nintendo Power was, of course, in-house at Nintendo, so that doesn't count.)



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Kresnik on 08 November 2012
ECM said:

Here's how it works:

*Sony (or whomever) opens up a bidding process for the rights to use the word PlayStation on the cover of a mag.
*The publishing houses will mock-up an issue and also present a monetary bid.
*The winnder of that selection process gets the rights.

And that's basically where it ends. 

They *might*, in the original contract, negotiate some exclusivity, but it generally is not overseen, for lack of a better word, by Sony.

(Old Nintendo Power was, of course, in-house at Nintendo, so that doesn't count.)


Thanks a lot for explaining that, mate.  So this is purely a decision by Future US publishing?



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Kantor on 08 November 2012

That's a shame. The UK edition, at least, was always filled with great content, and it's always sad to see a publication go under.

I imagine Sony will just contract another publisher to print an official PlayStation magazine now.



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