egm posts

The relaunch of Electronic Gaming Monthly in both print and online versions is now in full swing. The first print magazine issue has been on newsstands for a few weeks now and the EGM[i] online interactive magazine has posted its third issue this week. Today it was officially announced that both the print and online editions of EGM would be getting a new Editor-in-Chief in Billy Berghammer.

Berghammer has a ton of previous game journalism experience that included some time as the Managing Editor of Game Informer's web site and later for an all too brief stint as Editorial Director of Gaming for G4TV.com.

While it released its 2009 "lost issue" online earlier this year in this same format, the newly revived Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine has now launched its first all new interactive version, called EGM[i], on the EGMNow.com web site. Much of the content is free to read for anyone but some of it is strictly for EGM subscribers.

Overall the interactive features are very well handled with clear menu and user interfaces pointing you to move your cursor that uncover extra content in the articles. One of them is a new interview with Ultima creator Richard Garriott where he talks about his new gaming ventures. All in all EGM[i] looks extremely promising and might be a sign of how the future of print magazines will evolve on the internet.

Just a few months ago it seems like gaming print magazines were on the way out. However this month not one but two classic gaming mags are being resurrected and there's word that another all new game magazine from a well known publisher is in the works.

After a delay of about a month it seems like subscription copies of the first issue of the new Electronic Gaming Monthly are finally reaching subscribers, according to posts made on the Facebook wall of the magazine's editor-in-chief Steve Harris.. The issue is the first for the long running multi-platform game mag since Ziff Davis canceled the publication over a year ago. Also making a return is GameFan. The first issue has been spotted in bookstores and newsstands. The original version started in 1992 but stopped publishing in 2000. The new version has one of its founders, Dave Halverson, as its editor-in-chief and is a split print mag with GameFan on one side and a movie-based magazine on its opposite cover.

And if that not enough news for you, the Facebook page of former Cnet editor and G4TV personality Wil O'Neal reveals that he has been recruited to be the new editor-in-chief for an upcoming, and so far unnamed, multi-platform gaming magazine from Future US, the publisher of, among other magazines, PC Gamer. There's no word on when the new magazine will start publication.

The good news? The first print issue of the relaunched Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine is now on its way to its subscribers. The bad news? The release frequency of the first few issues of the print magazine won't quite be on a monthly basis.

The magazine's publisher Steve Harris has posted up word on his Facebook pagethat,"EGM is on a sorta-bi-monthly schedule for the first 2 issues (longer than a month, less than 2), for a variety of reasons . . . " Harris also said that the first print issue is on its way to the first subscribers but it "will take 7-14 days to reach everyone based on where you live."

It's the issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly that took over a year to finally be shown to the public but this week the EGMNow.com web site finally released the first 44 "pages" of the "lost issue" of the gaming magazine. The 237th issue, which was completely completed before its former owners Ziff Davis pulled the plug on the long running print magazine back in December 2008, is now available via EGM's new interactive digital format with lots of animations and pop-up text in the articles (you have to register for free to see the issue).

And what about EGM issue 238, which was supposed to bring back the print issue of the magazine? Previously the plan was to release the issue to newsstand by this month but it doesn't look like it will make that deadline. The EGM interactive issue states in its news crawl down the bottom that the issue will appear on newsstands "soon". And a new version of EGMNow.com is supposed to relaunch in June. Big Download has emailed and called representatives of EGM to get a definitive update on their print issue release plans but we have not received any word from them on exact dates.

Update: A Help page on the EGMNow.com web site states, "The relaunch issue of EGM is now at the printer and will be shipped to subscribers in the first half of April." This would seem to confirm that the magazine will head to newsstands about a month later than originally announced.

The relaunch of the print issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly is still in the future but so is EGMi, the electronic version of the print mag. Now a new YouTube video shows off more of what EGMi will look like in terms of its interface, animations and the way it offers info that's different that a normal gaming web site.

The video demo is certainly very colorful and interactive and those new elements could make it more interesting to use than a standard gaming web site. But all the flash and sound will mean nothing if there isn't some good content to back it up. At the moment it looks like the new EGM will have that kind of content as it brings in in writers and editors from the old version of EGM along with some new folks. The first print issue was supposed be the the April 2010 dated version to be released later this month. At the moment there's no word on if that's still the plan going forward.

We've been wondering how the upcoming relaunch of Electronic Gaming Monthly will be pulling off their big plans for an interactive electronic version of their print mag. In a new update to the sparse EGM web site this week, founder Steve Harris finally gives a demo of how EGM[I] will work by using a cover of the magazine's "lost issue" (the issue that was completed by the previous EGM team before its owner Ziff Davis pulled the plug).

The demo uses a new technology created by a company called ScreenPaper. The demo itself isn't all that interactive but it does show at least what the visual look of the e-magazine will be like, complete with sound effects. Harris says, "Within weeks you'll be able to read, watch, and listen to pages that are vibrant and legible, without the need to zoom in and out " EGM's first print and e-issue should be released sometime in March with an April 2010 date.

Fans of Electronic Gaming Monthly's print magazine have reason to celebrate today. After ZiffDavis shut down the magazine's operations over a year ago the magazine's original founder Steve Harris bought back the rights to the magazine. Today Harris updated the EGM web site with an update, announcing that folks in North America can now sign up for subscriptions to the new EGM. Subscriptions include getting the monthly print magazine mailed to you as well as access to EGM[I]: The Digital Magazine, their weekly extension of the print magazine. Six months of the EGM/EGM[I] combo costs $14.99 while a full year costs $24.99 for US subscribers (Canadians will have their own subscription options).

The print mag itself will start showing up in newsstands with the April 2010 date issue (which likely means they will get the issues sometime in March) The magazine will have a heavier than normal paper stock that Harris states will "provide greater reproduction quality and to give the magazine a nicer overall look and feel. " The cost for each newsstand issue will be $6.99 so obviously subscribing to the mag is the better value. Harris is still being pretty vague on what EGM[i]: The Digital Magazine will be like, saying, " It is an entirely new product that literally brings content to life in ways that print magazines and websites just can't do." We should see the interface of the product in the coming weeks which will incorporate video, downloads and more. He also hints that it will have some kind of interaction with Apple's upcoming iPad product and other tablet based PCs.

It's a rare thing for a print magazine to come back to newstands after being shut down but one of the biggest such mags in the gaming industry is doing just that. After months of preparations, Electronic Gaming Monthly will return to newsstands in March with its April 2010 dated issue.

As some of you may know, the magazine was shut down just under a year ago by Ziff Davis as part of its complete escape from the game media industry. However the magazine's original founder Steven Harris bought back the rights to EGM last May. Since then he has been working to relaunch the print magazine and tie it into a digital version, EGM[i]: The Digital Magazine. Each newsstand copy of EGM will have a code to access EGM[i] that will provide both original content as well as article extensions. The new EGM will also have contributions from a number of the magazine's previous writers and editors.

It looks like the revival of Electronic Gaming Monthly is gaining steam. Last week it was announced that the canceled gaming magazine's ex-editor in chief Dan Hsu and its Reviews Editor Demian Linn would be contributing to the new upcoming version of EGM. Now comes word that one of the original magazine's columnists, Sean "Seanbaby" Reiley, will also be writing for the new EGM.

"Seanbaby" will be offering up his "Rest of the Crap" column once again to the new EGM's print magazine and web site. The column goes after genuinely horrible games with humor and, well, humor. In a separate announcement, it was revealed that the new EGM would feature contributions from Area 5 Media. The company was founded by Ryan O'Donnell and Matt Chandronait, who were formerly producers of the 1Up Show on 1Up.com. They now work on another only weekly gaming show, CO-OP. There's still no word on when the new EGM will launch.