EGM And 1up For Sale. Is Ziff Davis In Trouble?
Ziff Davis, that corporate publishing giant, is attempting to sell both their longstanding Electronic Gaming Monthly and 1up website/community. I can’t say this really surprises me, since all my subscriptions to good magazines from Ziff Davis have been cancelled over the past couple of years and funnelled into a supply of EGM issues that I never ordered: Synch, Xbox Nation, GMR, Computer Gaming World (now replaced with the much crappier Games For Windows), Official Playstation Magazine... all gone, now, and replaced with a magazine that I only pick up when the urge to swat the dog strikes.
Simon Carless of GameSetWatch, who has been following the story, believes, “Ziff might have closed Official PlayStation Magazine a little earlier than they might otherwise have done, in order to make the Game Group more attractive to potential purchasers, who obviously care most about 1UP. Which makes sense, because in most cases (prestige low-circulation magazines such as Edge notwithstanding), circs and revenues in consumer print are only going to trickle down over the next few years.”
One has to wonder just what this sale means… is Ziff Davis having trouble and trying to generate some funds by selling off its less-profitable franchises? Will Dan Hsu remain as a beacon of journalistic integrity or will he jump ship and go to somewhere more deserving of his talents and skills (I hear Gamespot is hiring)? Will 1up stop sucking eggs and actually get fixed? More importantly, will anyone actually decide the Ziff Davis Game Group is actually worth the money?
Only time will tell. Only someone else will actually care.
For Sale: Egm and 1up [Joystiq]
Boy of Tomorrow
Posted to on 8 January 2007
· Comments (7)
Other stuff like this: cgw, dan hsu, egm, gmr, opm, stormclouds on the horizon?, ziff davis
Could it have all started when they were found of selling their reviews?
Were they actually caught doing that? Jeebus.
I never heard of them selling their reviews, and who knows what is going on with Ziff Davis. I remember Playstation Magazine, with their cool demo disks. I guess they can’t have the demo disks anymore.
I’ve gotten EGM a majority of months over the last 5 years just by hearing about “6 or 12 free issues with no strings” deals over and over. Well, that and the slimy EB Games guy who added a “free trial” subscription with auto-bill to my order without asking a few years ago, and it took like 5 months to get them to cancel it.
Am I the only one that actually likes EGM? O___o
Game mags are so, um 2003
EGM is very biased, thats all i have to say. oh and that i think their magazines cator to the pre-pubescent junior high gamers.
i go through an EGM once in a while to see if things have changed. unfortunately theyre still the same except that their biasism and hypocrisy comes through clearer than ever.