Online Space of Alvin Jimenez
The Truth About GamesMaster: Last Part
I was just reading the news on IGN earlier today when I saw an item on World of Warcraft — 10 million subscribers worldwide. To put things in perspective, that’s roughly one-tenth of what the Philippines’ population will be in 2030.
“It’s very gratifying to see gamers around the world continuing to show such enthusiasm and support for World of Warcraft,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re always pleased to welcome new players to the game, and we’re looking forward to sharing the next major content update with the entire community in the months ahead.”
There have also been numerous claims about bringing over the game to the country. From LUG and Egames, to AMDG, the none of those rumors ever came into fruition. The license may have just proven to be too expensive not just for the aforementioned companies, but for gamers as well.
It put things into even clearer perspective for me, as to why GamesMaster Magazine had to be let go of, even if I felt that it was the right time to have a local videogame mag.
- Male
- 13-21 years old
- Image conscious and puts an emphasis on “coolness”
- Leads an active lifestyle, is outgoing and sociable.
Based on survey information, GamesMaster somehow overlapped with FHM’s market. You can even say that GM could have been the next title of choice if our male magazine buyers could afford to pick up another title. We were after all, second fiddle to a thriving male lifestyle magazine market that was dominated by a sister magazine. We were hitting our gamers with quality content (with free posters to boot!), but just couldn’t get over the 20,000 circulation hump.
We were right there man.
When we shut down GamesMaster, we were just getting ready to purchase an Xbox360. The Playstation 3 and Wii weren’t available yet, but excitement for the new consoles were never higher. Nowadays, those same consoles cost less than half of how much they used to cost.
Nintendo DS sales were trumping the Sony Playstation Portable’s on every front back then because of the innovative gameplay. Fast foward to 2008, and there are just as many PSP vendors as cellphone stalls.
I just can’t help but think about what could have happened had we decided to hang on for another year. I had just finished preparing for an event for another magazine I was handling, and was almost done preparing the packages for a more press friendly Gamer’s Pulse Awards. We had prepared some offline and online voting, and mobile texting initiatives as well.
Me and my immediate boss were given a few hours to decide on the matter, as we were shown some numbers that had to reached in the next few months to continue to stay out of the red. Some things I considered before I came to my decision:
- Level-up-Games had just merged with Netgames (gaming advertising was sure to dip)
- Some of the lifestyle advertisers we had been targeting had cut down on their advertising budget, and saw none of it going to GamesMaster.
- Somehow related to the reason above, GamesMaster reached all its targets because of special executions. It would be impractical to rely on purely these to reach our targets.
And so, sometime in July of 2006, we made the painful decision of not renewing the license for GamesMaster. It was a business decision that had to be made, and it was a choice that made the most sense. Given the chance to do things differently, I probably wouldn’t change anything about how we handled GamesMaster. We didn’t just do a good job, we did a GREAT job.
The one thing I do feel bad about is how we kept silent during those trying times when rumors about the magazine’s closing started circulating. I just could not visit our forums and post that in a few months, the magazine would be gone. Just imagine how difficult that was. If any former buyer of GamesMaster gets to read this, I give you my sincerest apologies.
Can a videogame magazine still exist in the Philippines?
What if we bring GamesMaster back? I don’t know – I think it would take a lot of time to build up the brand from where it left off (advertising wise, it will take longer!). To use the WoW analogy, if the game were to go offline for a year or two, they’ll lose so many subscribers to other existing MMO’s (no matter how good the game is).
Nevertheless, I still believe that a videogame magazine can exist in the country. Go to any Internet cafe and look any gamer in the eye – you know they want more. I don’t have any statistics, but I would think that any broadband Internet subscriber is also a potential reader. The Internet age just has a way of bringing all our controllers and keyboards together.
Just think, if an online fantasy game about orcs and humans is able to bring together 10 million people of different countries, race, and social status, wouldn’t you want to read about that too?
P.S. The old GamesMaster forums still exist — please visit gamebayan.com.ph
Similar Posts:
- The Truth About GamesMaster: Part 2
- Thank you GamesMaster Magazine
- The Truth About GamesMaster: Part 3
- The Truth About GamesMaster: Part 1
- The Truth About GamesMaster: Part 4
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| Print article | This entry was posted by Alvin Jimenez on April 16, 2008 at 5:24 pm, and is filed under Magazines, Others, Publishing. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 2 years ago
that sucks man, though you guys shouldnt be taking it too hard. You guys did a good job. A proper Gaming magazine is hard to sell here in the phils. Not only you have problems with other magazines, not only you have problems with selling the magazine’s soul to the local mmog peoples. But you have the mighty internet as your main competitor.
In the US. a lot of magazines settled to closing down and just maintain a website with premium content. You publish on paper monthly, these people publish electronically on a daily basis. They also have a weapon called VIDEOS that none of the magazines can possibly have.
But still, you cant really read a website inside the bathroom can you? At that’s what gamesmaster was all about for me. Its nice for bathroom breaks.
No just kidding. The community it raised (tough some were noobs that have been flamed to account deletion) was pretty cool too. I still keep in touch with several people from the GM (now GB) forums.
about 2 years ago
Thanks for the info. Now it’s all clear to me. I’m an avid buyer and reader of the magazine and I was really surprised when I first heard the rumors of it closing down.
I think a gaming mag can still exist here. Problems are, just what PBman said, mmog people and the Internet. I myself only get news of new games to TV and the internet but sometimes I like something that I can read on without a tube. One local game mag I bought after GM ends didn’t continue after 2 issues (I don’t know if they would bring it back, and seriously, they were gone after their event).
about 2 years ago
Yeow, looks like I know what Ryubatsu’s talking of, hehe . . .
Anyway, I loved the mag, even though it had faults – don’t get me wrong, you guys did a great job, just as PBM said. Nothing IS perfect, after all. It became a hobby of mine to collect the mag since I first bought an issue(which started April 2005), and used it as one of my references in buying games.
Still, we have to accept the facts. Maybe the mag can’t be revived, but look at what you guys have contributed to the industry here. The forum has also done a lot, though currently I can say that it is “hibernating,” waiting for someone to revive it. The forum has done a lot of influence on me, it has even made my mind shift to patronizing original games.
Well after all that chat, I can say this assuringly – thanks >_
about 2 years ago
thank you for all the compliments. it’s just too bad that when all of this happened, we left so many people hanging in the air. that was the depressing part — knowing that a lot of people supported the mag, even with its faults.
right now there are 3 videogame magazines in the market. what do you think about them?
1. Game!
2. Playground
2. GameEX? (not sure)
about 2 years ago
I commend you guys for sticking to your guns and trying to do your job as best as you can. Unfortunately, I don’t think that print media will be around to stay for much longer, regardless of how badly the diehards would like it to be otherwise. The shutting down of Games for Windows magazine comes as further proof of this.
Personally these days my game information comes from no form of visual media but aural media, namely podcasts. The 1up netwrok has an impressive stable of podcasts that cover the gamut of sports gamers, console gamers, PC gamers, and just everyday gaming. The podcasts let me work while I’m absorbing content, which means maximum efficiency. Plus I feel like I get to know the editors and writers of the magazines better, since they let loose a bit on the podcasts, spitting out stuff that they might normally leave out in a magazine.
about 2 years ago
Ryan,
Just to tell you, my current job is purely online related, because I know that online is the future. I spent 4 years in the publishing industry, and felt that it was already time for a change.
Nevertheless, what I apply to my current work, I learned from magazines, and this is why I feel so strongly about most of the stuff you said in the other blog.
I think there is still a future for magazines, specially if the content you are dealing with is not time bound. Though I agree that podcasts are cool.
However, I would still rather read a magazine in the bathroom rather than have a laptop or ipod with me.
about 2 years ago
That’s why I have stacks of old Economist magazines and comics in the bathroom.
about 2 years ago
Although I do not buy GamesMaster every month during its time, Im buying their back issues.. And I can say that this Mag is the #1 gaming mag here in the Phils. based in its contents..