The video game industry has been changing for years. While the games themselves are getting bigger and new hardware is exciting the market, large development studios are being taken over by even larger corporations. New formats such as the Xbox Game Pass are conquering the market, while at the same time thousands of employees are being fired.
And many video game magazines are facing new challenges. The print market has been shrinking for years and competition in the digital sector is fierce. This is another reason why an era is now coming to an end: the oldest video game magazine in the USA is closing its doors forever.
Game Informer is shutting down after 33 years
The long-established US gaming magazine Game Informer is being discontinued. After 33 years, issue 367 will be the last issue to appear, featuring the title story of “Dragon Age: Veilguard”. This was announced a few hours ago via X (formerly Twitter). The message is titled “The final level: Farewell to Game Informer”.
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“After 33 exciting years of bringing you the latest news, reviews and insights into the ever-evolving world of video games, it is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of Game Informer.” The news came as a surprise both to the industry itself and to many employees. Apparently they were unaware of their layoffs until the announcement on X…
Employees only learned of their dismissal today
While many people from the video game industry, such as Neil Druckman (The Last of Us) or Geoff Keighley, have expressed their regret about the closure of Game Informer, the employees themselves have probably been hit even harder: They only found out about their termination a few hours before the announcement.
For example, video editor Alex van Aken writes: “There are still employees who don’t know what’s happening, but there’s a tweet someone posted above to give away the news. I’ll say a few more things about that later today, but yes, everyone at Game Informer was laid off about an hour ago.
I lost my job at Game Informer today. It breaks my heart because it was my dream job, but my bills don’t care.” On X, even online content director Brian Shea is surprised:
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Many fans of the magazine are now worried about the many articles that have appeared on the Game Informer website for decades. Because it seems that all tests, news, comments and other things that have ever been published have been removed from the website. If you now go to gameinformer.com, only a text with the statement about the magazine being discontinued is displayed.
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Video game journalism since 1991
The discontinuation of Game Informer marks the end of an era in the video game landscape. The magazine was first published in 1991 and is still the oldest video game magazine in the USA.
Game Informer has also been available as a website on the Internet since 1996. With up to eight million copies sold, Game Informer was one of the most widely read magazines in the country and even competed with heavyweights such as Playboy or Time Magazine. The magazine is saying goodbye with issue 367, which was published in June.
