It’s been a little while since this announcement, but I came across it for the first time today.
It seems that Britain’s oldest PC games mag, and long-time inspiration of FFG, PC Zone, is to cease publication after some 17 years. The giant publishing behemoth that is Future have decreed that there’s no point in churning out three PC magazines with games reviews in them and as Zone is the smallest, it’s going to be the one to go.
To be honest, such a move always seemed on the cards once the magazine started to be published by Future, who also produce one-time rivals of Zone, PC G*m*r. I guess the only surprise is that it’s taken so long to happen.
To get too incredulous about it is slightly hypocritical when you don’t even buy the magazine anymore (as I don’t) but it’s definitely a shame that it’s come to this. I did subscribe until a couple of years ago and although I definitely preferred the writers from the mid-90s to early 2000s ‘glory days’, it was still a pretty enjoyable read. But I gather there have been more changes of staff since then and the writing was on the wall.
It’s been a few years since we wrote this but most of it still rings true. Farewell, PCZ, we’ll miss you.
And I’ll even shell out £6 for the last issue.
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Sad news. I came aboard for the issue in which they reviewed System Shock, and read it through to the end of the 90s. It had a sense of humour to it that left other mags looking either earnest-but-dull or just pretentious.
However I too stopped reading around 2000, so I’m not in a position to complain. I’m not surprised if gaming mags are finding it hard to sustain themselves these days, with forces like the internet and the ecnomic downturn at work.
August 5, 2010 @ 5:55 pm