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72-494: Electronic Gaming Monthly ( EGM ) is a monthly American video game magazine . It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. The magazine was founded in 1988 as U.S. National Video Game Team 's Electronic Gaming Monthly under Sendai Publications. In 1994, EGM spun off EGM² , which focused on expanded cheats and tricks (i.e., with maps and guides). It eventually became Expert Gamer and finally

144-503: A 2014 retrospective, Polygon said: "For two decades, EGM maintained a focal position in the games media landscape. In the time before the internet, the periodical was a vital conduit for American readers interested in the hobby." Video game journalism Throughout its history, video game journalism has grappled with ethical concerns, especially around conflicts of interest due to advertising pressures and publisher relationships. These issues have led to both controversies, such as

216-482: A B− or higher from the three individual grade: "Silver" awards for games averaging a grade of B− to B+; "Gold" awards for games averaging a grade of A− or A; and "Platinum" awards for games with three A+ grades. The current letter grade system replaced a long-standing 0–10 scale in the April 2008 issue. In that system, Silver went to a game with an average rating from 8 to 9, Gold to a game reviewed at 9 to 10 and Platinum to

288-419: A CD-ROM based magazine with a circulation of 150,000 at its peak. The website was updated weekly during its active period from 1994–1996. Another publication, Intelligent Gamer Online ("IG Online"), debuted a complete web site in April 1995, commencing regular updates to the site on a daily basis despite its "bi-weekly" name. Intelligent Gamer had been publishing online for years prior to the popularization of

360-539: A circulation of 600,000 copies per issue by December 1985, increasing to 1 million in 1986. By 1992, British video game magazines had a circulation of 1 million copies per month in the United Kingdom. During the early 1990s, the practice of video game journalism began to spread east from Europe and west of Japan alongside the emergence of video game markets in countries like China and Russia. Russia's first consumer-oriented gaming magazine, Velikij Drakon ,

432-464: A different name, XG continued EGM2 ' s numbering system. XG lasted for 39 issues until October 2001 (with the last issue being XG #88). The first issue of EGM2 was in July 1994. The magazine lasted 49 issues with the last issue under the original name coming out in July 1998. The change of name prompted a cleaner looking redesign although the content of the magazine would remain the same. In

504-413: A fraction of the game's content, but waiting any longer beyond the embargo date will harm viewership of their site. A good deal of information in the video game industry is kept under wraps by developers and publishers until the game's release; even information regarding the selection of voice actors is kept under high confidential agreements. However, rumors and leaks of such information still fall into

576-478: A game that received nothing but 10 ratings. Until 1998, as a matter of editorial policy, the reviewers rarely gave scores of 10 and never gave a Platinum Award. That policy changed when the reviewers gave Metal Gear Solid four 10 ratings in 1998, with an editorial published half a year before announcing the shift. In addition, they gave the game (or multiple games in the event of a tie, as with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for Xbox and NCAA Football 2006 ) with

648-399: A letter in April 2020, editor Josh Harmon announced that the site would no longer publish long-form articles, prompting speculation that the publication had shut down. Harmon edited the announcement shortly afterwards to confirm that the site would continue "some form of daily news coverage". In October 2024, EGM launched a Kickstarter campaign for a retrospective book about the history of

720-444: A mailbag section, a deeper look into the most recent issue of the magazine, or interviews with special guests such as Marcus Henderson and Ted Lange from Harmonix and Cliff Bleszinski from Epic Games . The "*" at the end of the name was to denote that the podcast was not actually "live" in the general media sense. It was later replaced by 1UPFM , another weekly Monday podcast where 1UP crew members Nick Suttner and Phil Kollar hosted

792-399: A negative review. In 2007, Jeff Gerstmann was fired from GameSpot after posting a review on Kane & Lynch: Dead Men that was deemed too negative by its publisher, which also advertised heavily on the website. Due to non-disclosure agreements , Gerstmann was not able to talk about the topic publicly until 2012. In a 2012 article for Eurogamer , Robert Florence criticised

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864-477: A new website, 1UP.com , after GameSpot was sold to CNET Networks . Since the magazine's relaunch in 2010, the affiliated website has been egmnow.com. EGM Live* was a podcast hosted every Monday by the editors of EGM on 1UP.com. The podcast was available for download at 1UP.com or the iTunes music store. Much like other podcasts on the 1UP network, the program could include discussion of various message board topics, an analysis of new games being reviewed,

936-539: A school of your choice. The prestige of the offering schools depends on how you performed in your drill. Another new feature in NCAA Football 06 is the Impact Player. Each team has three impact players, usually the three highest-rated players on the roster, but there is always at least one impact player on offense and on defense. (In Dynasty mode some teams only have two Impact Players in later years, but

1008-402: A third is named later in the season. Impact players will also change based on performance or lack thereof.) Some teams' kickers or punters are impact players, too. Offensive linemen are never impact players in the game. Impact players are called upon to make big plays when "in the zone" (indicated by their white impact icon underneath them pulsating). If they execute a big play, action pauses and

1080-563: Is a model of New Journalism applied to video game journalism . A 2010 article in the New Yorker claimed that the term New Games Journalism "never caught on, but the impulse—that video games deserved both observational and personal approaches—is quite valid." It cites author Tom Bissell and his book Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter as a good example of this type of gaming journalism. As retrogaming grew in popularity, so did reviews and examinations of older video games. This

1152-441: Is becoming increasingly significant. A year ago, I would have advised any developer to get in touch with as many press outlets as possible, as soon as possible. I still advise this now, but with the following caveat: You're doing so to get the attention of YouTubers." Rose interviewed several game developers and publishers and concluded that the importance of popular YouTube coverage was most pronounced for indie games, dwarfing that of

1224-555: Is known for making April Fools jokes. Its April 1992 issue was the source of the Sheng Long hoax in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior . In March 2019, EGM announced that it was going to relaunch "later this year" into an outfit that will have "a new look and a focus on long-form features, original reporting, and intelligent critique." It enters under the backronym "Enjoy Games More". In

1296-410: Is primarily due to feelings of nostalgia to video games people have grown up with, which, according to professor Clay Routledge, may be more powerful than similar nostalgic emotions caused by other artforms, such as music. NCAA Football 2006 NCAA Football 06 is a collegiate American football video game which was released on July 12, 2005. It is the successor to NCAA Football 2005 in

1368-549: Is the first NCAA game to feature the option of non-fight songs in the menus. Upon its release, NCAA Football 06 was the best-selling video game for July 2005, occupying both the number 1 and number 2 spots corresponding to the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions respectively. The title also reached the number 6 spot for the list of best-selling video games of 2005 . By July 2006, the PlayStation 2 version of NCAA Football 06 had sold 1.2 million copies and earned $ 56 million in

1440-480: The NCAA Football series. The product features former Michigan Wolverines standout and Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard on the cover. He is the only cover athlete not to have played the year before their respective game; Howard last played at Michigan in 1991. It is the only game in the series as of 2013 to have a music soundtrack, as the other games play school fight songs and general band pieces, and

1512-976: The Gamergate controversy that started in August 2014, both Destructoid and The Escapist tightened their disclosure and conflict of interest policies. Kotaku editor-in-chief Stephen Totilo said writers were no longer allowed to donate to Patreon campaigns of developers. Kotaku later disclosed that journalist Patricia Hernandez, who had written for them, was friends with developers Anna Anthropy and Christine Love , as well as being Anthropy's former housemate. Polygon announced that they would disclose previous and future Patreon contributions. Reviews performed by major video game print sources, websites, and mainstream newspapers that sometimes carry video game such as The New York Times and The Washington Post are generally collected for consumers at sites like Metacritic , Game Rankings , and Rotten Tomatoes . If

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1584-620: The 'user-submitted' model, where readers write stories that are moderated by an editorial team, is also popular. In recent times some of the larger independent sites have begun to be bought up by larger media companies, most often Ziff Davis Media , who now own a string of independent sites. In 2013–2014, IGN and GameSpot announced significant layoffs. According to a 2014 article by Mike Rose in Gamasutra : "The publicity someone like TotalBiscuit ... can bring you compared to mainstay consumer websites like IGN , GameSpot and Game Informer

1656-458: The 2014 Gamergate incident , and increased transparency measures. Additionally, new approaches to gaming criticism, like New Games Journalism , emphasize personal experiences and cultural context, while review aggregation sites such as Metacritic have become influential benchmarks for assessing a game’s success. The rise of video-oriented platforms has also shifted the influence from traditional game journalists to independent creators, underscoring

1728-463: The Metacritic score and subsequent effect on bonus payment schemes. Eurogamer , prior to 2014, were aware that they generally graded games on a scoring scale lower than other websites, and would pull down the overall Metacritic score. For this reason, the site dropped review scores in 2014, and their scores are no longer included in these aggregate scores. Kotaku also dropped review scores for

1800-474: The NCAA's use of college athlete likenesses in video games. Prior to the release of NCAA Football 06 , the only music featured in the game were fight songs of several major colleges. These would play at random, however, the user-selected "favorite team" would always have their fight song played first whenever the game was first started. NCAA Football 06 was the first and last to include licensed music to keep

1872-464: The NFL, EA has an exclusive license with the NCAA to use stadiums, logos, and team nicknames. According to NCAA Football (a not-for-profit corporation serving to represent various stakeholders for college football), the "EA Sports video football game generates more than $ 8 million in royalties for NCAA Football and its members." Also, player names are not available in the game because the NCAA would have to pay

1944-515: The Platinum award for two separate versions of the game. In 2002, EGM began giving games that earned unanimously bad scores a "Shame of the Month" award. As there is not always such a game in each issue, this award is only given out when a game qualifies. Originally, a team of four editors reviewed all the games. This process was eventually dropped in favor of a system that added more reviewers to

2016-487: The UK —caused Eurogamer to self-censor. Eurogamer's editor-in-chief Tom Bramwell censored the article, and Florence consequently retired from video games journalism. According to a July 2014 survey by Mike Rose in Gamasutra , approximately a quarter of high-profile YouTube gaming channels receive pay from the game publishers or developers for their coverage, especially those in the form of Let's Play videos. Following

2088-569: The United States. Next Generation ranked it as the 40th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2 , Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. Combined sales of NCAA Football console games reached 7 million units in the United States by July 2006. The game still ranks among the best game of the series, It also was met with positive reception on release. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it

2160-550: The camera zooms in on the tackle, juke move, etc. Retained from the previous version are the Top 25 toughest places to play (The University of Florida 's Ben Hill Griffin Stadium , or "The Swamp", remains #1 in 06 ), a still-revamped Dynasty Mode (with a new In-Season Recruiting feature), all-time and historic teams, Create-a-School, and much more. The main menu screen features a highlight reel with footage of plays made by some of

2232-531: The dedicated gaming publications. David Auerbach wrote in Slate that the influence of the video games press is waning. "Game companies and developers are now reaching out directly to quasi-amateur enthusiasts as a better way to build their brands, both because the gamers are more influential than the gaming journalists, and because these enthusiasts have far better relationships with their audiences than gaming journalists do. ... Nintendo has already been shutting out

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2304-487: The defunct GameNOW . After 83 issues (up to June 1996), EGM switched publishers from Sendai Publishing to Ziff Davis . Until January 2009, EGM only covered gaming on console hardware and software. In 2002, the magazine's subscription increased by more than 25 percent. The magazine was discontinued by Ziff Davis in January 2009, following the sale of 1UP.com to UGO Networks . The magazine's February 2009 issue

2376-427: The dynamic nature of video game journalism in the digital age. The first magazine to cover the arcade game industry was the subscription-only trade periodical , Play Meter magazine, which began publication in 1974 and covered the entire coin-operated entertainment industry (including the video game industry ). Consumer-oriented video game journalism began during the golden age of arcade video games , soon after

2448-450: The embargo as to be able to include specific criticism towards features that were marked off-limits in the embargo agreement, such as for 2013's SimCity . Additionally, modern lengthier games can offer more than 20 hours of content, and the amount of time journalists have to review these advance copies prior to the embargo date is limited. It has become a concern of these journalists that they are knowingly publishing reviews that cover only

2520-740: The first coverage of video games in Japan, with columns appearing in personal computer and manga magazines. The earliest journals exclusively covering video games emerged in late 1981, but early column-based coverage continued to flourish in North America and Japan with prominent examples like video game designer Yuji Horii 's early 1980s column in Weekly Shōnen Jump and Rawson Stovall 's nationally syndicated column, "The Vid Kid" running weekly ran from 1982 to 1992. The first consumer-oriented print magazine dedicated solely to video gaming

2592-596: The first magazines entirely dedicated to video games began appearing in 1982, beginning with ASCII 's LOGiN , followed by several SoftBank publications and Kadokawa Shoten 's Comptiq . The first magazine dedicated to console games , or a specific video game console , was Tokuma Shoten 's Family Computer Magazine (also known as Famimaga ), which began in 1985 and was focused on Nintendo 's 8-bit Family Computer . This magazine later spawned famous imitators such as Famitsū (originally named Famicom Tsūshin ) in 1986 and Nintendo Power in 1988. Famimaga had

2664-557: The first two electronic video game magazines was the "first to be published regularly" online. Originally starting as a print fanzine in April 1992, Game Zero magazine, claims to have launched a web page in November 1994, with the earliest formal announcement of the page occurring in April 1995. Game Zero's web site was based upon a printed bi-monthly magazine based in Central Ohio with a circulation of 1500 that developed into

2736-399: The hands of video game journalists, often from anonymous sources from within game development companies, and it becomes a matter of journalistic integrity whether to publish this information or not. Kotaku has self-reported on the downsides of reporting unrevealed information and dealing with subsequent video game publisher backlash as a result. In 2009, the site published information about

2808-475: The highest average score for that issue a "Game of the Month" award. If a "Game of the Month" title receives a port to another console, that version is disqualified from that month's award, such as with Resident Evil 4 , which won the award for the Nintendo GameCube version and subsequently received the highest scores for the PlayStation 2 port months later and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 , which won

2880-606: The last game in the series to feature Division I FCS teams on all platforms. NCAA Football 06 was the first game in the NCAA Football series to shorten the year to the last 2 digits. NCAA Football 06 features a new game mode, "Race for the Heisman". In "Race for the Heisman", you begin as a high school standout hoping to sign with a major college program. After choosing your position and your position-specific drill, you are offered three scholarships, or you can walk on to

2952-606: The last page. EGM en Español was released in Mexico in November 2002. It was published by Editorial Televisa and is edited by a different staff. Sometimes the content was more focused to the Latin American gaming crowd (e.g. soccer games were paid more attention than NASCAR or American football games), as well as the humor and other features. Sometimes it featured jokes among the Mexican community and sometimes supported

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3024-405: The magazine, titled The Electronic Gaming Monthly Compendium . The campaign reached its fundraising goal of $ 35,000 within less than 24 hours of its launch. The magazine includes the following sections: EGM' s current review scale is based on a letter grade system in which each game receives a grade based on its perceived quality. Games are reviewed by one member (originally a team of four until

3096-585: The market for video game magazines in North America. Computer Gaming World (CGW) reported in a 1987 article that there were eighteen color magazines covering computer games before the crash but by 1984 CGW was the only surviving magazine in the region. Expanding on this in a discussion about the launch of the NES in North America, Nintendo of America's PR runner Gail Tilden noted that "I don't know that we got any coverage at that time that we didn't pay for". Video game journalism in Japan experienced less disruption as

3168-405: The more recognized examples, members of Obsidian Entertainment were to have gotten bonuses from Bethesda Softworks for their work on Fallout: New Vegas if they obtained a Metacritic score of 85 or better out of 100. After release, the game only obtained an 84 aggregate score from Metacritic, one point away, and Bethesda refused to pay them. Video game reviewers are aware of their impact on

3240-410: The most famous players in college football history, including Ricky Williams , Bo Jackson , Archie Griffin , Charles Woodson , Herschel Walker , LaDainian Tomlinson , Barry Sanders , LaVar Arrington , Warren Sapp , Ray Lewis , Tim Dwight , Randy Moss , Ron Dayne , Warrick Dunn , Lawrence Taylor , Tim Brown , and Peyton Manning . Like Madden NFL 06 , which has an exclusive license with

3312-469: The most widely followed games like Counter-Strike , League of Legends , and Dota 2 . While self-made print fanzines about games have been around since the first home consoles, the rise of the internet gave independent gaming journalist a new platform. At first ignored by most major game publishers, it was not until the communities developed an influential and dedicated readership, and increasingly produced professional (or near-professional) writing that

3384-433: The nature of interactivity with video games creates unique challenges in how these embargos are executed. In agreements with publishers, media outlets will get advance copies of the game to prepare their review to have ready for this date. However, embargo agreement may include other terms such as specific content that may not be discussed in the review. This has led to some publications purposely holding off reviews until after

3456-438: The players for naming rights so they are called by their positions and numbers, but the player can still give them names. Athletes later sued for a $ 60 million settlement. Additionally, the exclusive license with the NCAA later caused controversy when the NCAA was sued for using the likenesses of college athletes in video games without compensation. This led to a series of lawsuits, including O'Bannon v. NCAA , which challenged

3528-467: The production with a poster. Adrián Carbajal “Carqui”, with a long experience in Mexican gaming magazines (prior to EGM en Español , he worked in now competitor publications Club Nintendo and Atomix ), was the editor-in-chief through the entire run. There was a weekly official podcast called "Playtime!" hosted by most of the editorial staff. EGM en Español has been cancelled as of December 2008 due to Ziff Davis Media's economical problems. EGM Italia

3600-503: The publication into a separate print property in February 1996. Future Publishing exemplifies the old media's decline in the games sector. In 2003 the group saw multi-million GBP profits and strong growth, but by early 2006 were issuing profit warnings and closing unprofitable magazines (none related to gaming). Then, in late November 2006, the publisher reported both a pre-tax loss of £49 million ($ 96 million USD ) and

3672-525: The publisher. In November 2015, the site reported they had been "blacklisted" by Bethesda and Ubisoft for at least a year; they no longer got review copies, nor received press information from the publishers, nor can interact with any of their company's representatives. New Games Journalism ( NGJ ) is a video game journalism term, coined by journalist Kieron Gillen in 2004, in which personal anecdotes, references to other media, and creative analyses are used to explore game design , play, and culture. It

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3744-501: The relationship between the video games press and publishers, characterising it as "almost indistinguishable from PR", and questioned the integrity of a games journalist, Lauren Wainwright. In the controversy that followed, dubbed "Doritogate" (after a video of Geoff Keighley emerged of him sitting in front of bottles of Mountain Dew, bags of Doritos and an ad banner for Halo 4 ), the threat of legal action—the result of broad libel laws in

3816-415: The review. Within the industry, Metacritic has become a measure of the critical success of a game by game publishers, frequently used in its financial reports to impress investors. The video game industry typically does not pay on residuals but instead on critical performance. Prior to release, a publisher may include contractual bonuses to a developer if they achieve a minimum Metacritic score. In one of

3888-410: The reviews are scored or graded, these sites will convert that to a numerical score and use a calculation to come out with an aggregate score. In the case of Metacritic, these scores are further weighted by an importance factor associated with the publication. Metacritic also is known to evaluate unscored reviews and assign a numeric score for this as well based on the impression the site editors get about

3960-632: The rise of eSport popularity, traditional sport reporting websites such ESPN and Yahoo launched their own eSport dedicated sections in early 2016. This move came with controversy, especially in the case of ESPN whose president, John Skipper, stated eSports were a competition instead of a sport. The response to the shift was either great interest or great distaste. However, as of January 2017, ESPN and Yahoo continue their online coverage of eSports. Yahoo eSports ended on June 21, 2017 In addition, ESPN and Yahoo , other contemporary eSport dedicated news sites, like The Score Esports or Dot Esports, cover some of

4032-435: The sale—in order to reduce its level of bank debt—of Italian subsidiary Future Media Italy. In mid-2006 Eurogamer 's business development manager Pat Garratt wrote a criticism of those in print games journalism who had not adapted to the web, drawing on his own prior experience in print to offer an explanation of both the challenges facing companies like Future Publishing and why he believed they had not overcome them. With

4104-423: The same reason. Eurogamer later reverted to scoring reviews. Frequently, publishers will enforce an embargo on reviews of a game until a certain date, commonly on the day of release or a few days ahead of that date. Such embargos are intended to prevent tarnishing the game's reputation prior to release and affecting pre-release and first-day sales. Similar embargos are used in other entertainment industries, but

4176-508: The series in uniform with other EA Sports releases such as Madden NFL and the NHL series . This format was dropped for NCAA Football 07 , with the soundtrack returning to college fight songs. However, it was possible to turn off the licensed music and listen to the fight songs in NCAA Football 06 . The music features mainly college rock, punk and post-punk selections, including Bad Religion , The Clash , NOFX and The Mr. T Experience . It

4248-405: The show, along with other 1UP members. EGM2 (stylized as EGM ) was a video game magazine published by Sendai Publishing from July 1994 to July 1998 as a spin-off of Electronic Gaming Monthly . Unlike EGM , however, EGM2 lacked a reviews section and had a greater emphasis on import games. Starting in August 1998, EGM2 became Expert Gamer (often abbreviated as XG ). Although with

4320-414: The sites gained the attention of these larger companies. Independent video game websites are generally non-profit, with any revenue going back towards hosting costs and, occasionally, paying its writers. As their name suggests, they are not affiliated with any companies or studios, though bias is inherent in the unregulated model to which they subscribe. While most independent sites take the form of blogs ,

4392-480: The staff so that no one person reviewed all the games for the month. Though the scores ranged from 0–10 on the previous numerical scale, the score of zero was almost never utilized, with exceptions being Mortal Kombat Advance , The Guy Game and Ping Pals . At the very end of every single magazine made during the Hsu period there is a funny/random message after the absolute last text (copyright/disclaimer text) on

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4464-487: The success of 1978 hit Space Invaders , leading to hundreds of favourable articles and stories about the emerging video game medium being aired on television and printed in newspapers and magazines. In North America, the first regular consumer-oriented column about video games, " Arcade Alley " in Video magazine, began in 1979 and was penned by Bill Kunkel along with Arnie Katz and Joyce Worley. The late 1970s also marked

4536-419: The then-upcoming PlayStation Home before Sony had announced it, and Sony severed its relationship with Kotaku . When Kotaku reported this on their site, readers complained to Sony about this, and Sony reversed its decision. Kotaku has also published significant detailed histories on troubled game development for titles such as for Doom 4 and Prey 2 , as well as announcing titles months in advance from

4608-466: The time, it was called "the first national videogame magazine found only online". Game Zero Magazine ceased active publication at the end of 1996 and is maintained as an archive site. Efforts by Horwitz and Shubert, backed by a strong library of built up web content eventually allowed IG Online to be acquired by Sendai Publishing and Ziff Davis Media , the publishers of then-leading United States print publication Electronic Gaming Monthly who transformed

4680-691: The video game press for years." He concluded that gaming journalists' audience, gamers, is leaving them for video-oriented review sites. Journalism in the computer and video game media industry has been a subject of debate since at least 2002. Publications reviewing a game often receive advertising revenue and entertainment from the game's publishers, which can lead to perceived conflicts of interest. Reviews by 'official' platform-specific magazines such as Nintendo Power typically have direct financial ties to their respective platform holders. In 2001, The 3DO Company 's president sent an email to GamePro threatening to reduce their advertising spend following

4752-469: The web, originally having been based upon a downloadable "Intelligent Gamer" publication developed by Joe Barlow and Jeremy Horwitz in 1993. This evolved further under Horwitz and Usenet-based publisher Anthony Shubert into "Intelligent Gamer Online" interactive online mini-sites for America Online (AOL) and the Los Angeles Times' TimesLink/Prodigy online services in late 1994 and early 1995. At

4824-406: The world. EGM Thailand is published by Future Gamer Company Ltd., EGM Singapore is published by MediaCorp Publishing and EGM Turkey is published by Merkez Dergi. EGM Turkey got closed in January 2009 for financial crisis. In 1995, EGM ' s first online website was nuke.com. It merged with GameSpot in 1996 after Ziff-Davis purchased Sendai Media Group. In 2003, EGM created

4896-413: The year 2000, then a team of three, and finally knocked down to one in 2008), except for "the big games", which were reviewed by one of a pool of editors known as "The Review Crew." They each assign a grade to the game and write a few paragraphs about their opinion of the game. The magazine makes a strong stance that a grade of C is average. Towards the top of the scale, awards are given to games that average

4968-465: Was Computer and Video Games , which premiered in the U.K. in November 1981. This was two weeks ahead of the U.S. launch of the next oldest video gaming publication, Electronic Games magazine, founded by "Arcade Alley" writers Bill Kunkel and Arnie Katz. As of 2015 , the oldest video game publications still in circulation are Famitsu , founded in 1986, and The Games Machine (Italy) , founded in 1988. The video game crash of 1983 badly hurt

5040-1715: Was already completed, but was not published. In May 2009, EGM founder Steve Harris purchased the magazine and its assets from Ziff Davis. The magazine was relaunched in April 2010 by Harris's new company EGM Media, LLC, widening its coverage to the PC and mobile gaming markets. Notable contributors to Electronic Gaming Monthly have included Martin Alessi, Ken Williams (as Sushi-X), Jim Allee, "Trickman" Terry Minnich, Andrew "Cyber-Boy" Baran, Danyon Carpenter, Marc Camron (later Director of Operations), Mark "Candyman" LeFebvre, Todd Rogers, Mike Weigand A.K.A. Major Mike (now Managing Editor at GamePro Magazine ), Al Manuel, Howard Grossman, Arcade Editor Mark "Mo" Hain, Mike "Virus" Vallas, Jason Streetz, Tim Davis, Ken Badziak, Scott Augustyn, Chris Johnston, Che Chou, Dave Ruchala, Crispin Boyer, Greg Sewart, Jeanne Trais, Jennifer Tsao, artist Jeremy Norm Scott, Game Scholar Leonard Herman, Shawn "Shawnimal" Smith, West Coast Editor Kelly Rickards, Kraig Kujawa, Dean Hager, Jeremy Parish and Mark Macdonald (who later went on to become director of Gamevideos.com before leaving Ziff-Davis ). Writers who also served stints as editor-in chief include Ed Semrad, Joe Funk, John Davison, James Mielke, artist Jeremy "Norm" Scott , Dan "Shoe" Hsu and Seanbaby . In addition, writers of EGM ' s various sister publications – including GameNow , Computer Gaming World / Games for Windows: The Official Magazine , Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine – would regularly contribute to EGM and vice versa. The magazine

5112-614: Was launched in 1993, and China's first consumer-oriented gaming magazines, Diànzǐ Yóuxì Ruǎnjiàn and Play , launched in mid-1994. Often, game reviews would be accompanied by awards, such as the C+VG Hit, the YS Megagame or the Zzap!64 Gold Medal, awarded usually to titles with a score above 90%. Other features would be gameplay hints/tips/cheats, a letters page, and competitions. There are conflicting claims regarding which of

5184-645: Was published in Italy by Edizioni Star Comics S.r.l. from 2001 to 2003. EGM was also published in Brazil as EGM Brasil by Conrad Editora since April 2002. Since the last quarter of 2005, EGM Brasil was being published by Futuro Comunicação. With the suspension of U.S. sales of the EGM, the Brazilian EGM was rebranded to EGW (Entertainment + Game World). In 2006 three other editions of EGM were published around

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