Gamepro Magazine Shuts Down After 22 Years

[volcanicweather]

After 22 years of publication, the U.S. operations of the popular gaming magazine GamePro have been shut down by its parent company IDG, VentureBeat has learned.

Multiple sources within the magazine confirmed that GamePro employees, including executives, received phone calls first-thing this morning with the dreaded news. GamePro’s U.S. website, which has been online for 13 years, will be incorporated into a gaming channel at PCWorld on December 5.

“Basically, the entire [Gamepro US] portfolio is being shuttered,” a source at the magazine told VentureBeat.

The few remaining GamePro Media employees, including current president Marci Yamaguchi Hughes, will move to GamePro Custom Solutions, report IndustryGamers. There they will create custom content for vendors and events.

The news comes after GamePro’s website saw its highest traffic ever last week (page views were double than normal, our source said), and after the company released its first quarterly magazine earlier this month (monthly print issues were too costly to keep up).

Even though moving to a quarterly publication schedule wasn’t a good sign for GamePro, employees were still proud of the final product, which is larger and features higher-quality paper than monthly issues.

The shutdown is a case of “creative success not falling in line with business success,” our source said. GamePro’s international operations, which include magazines in Spain, France, and Germany, will continue to operate. Though I can’t imagine that employees working at those locations are confident in their job security.

IDG will retain ownership of the GamePro brand, which means that it could eventually revive US operations (don’t hold your breath for a new print magazine though). According to our source, it’s still unclear what’s going to happen to GamePro’s legacy content, some of which is “very valuable.”

GamePro was perhaps the first gaming magazine I began reading as a child, and it definitely helped to foster my unhealthy addiction in gaming. While the magazines quality wavered over time, I thought it was headed in a fine new direction with the recent website revamp. It’s a shame we’ll never get to see GamePro reclaim its former glory.

Source: http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/30/gamepro-shut-down/

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I, like many other kids my age, loved Gamepro magazine. Not only because of the cheat codes and secrets which obviously many kids read and wrote down at magazine racks around the world but also due to their previews and reviews of game. Unlike in the Internet era many of us relied on magazines like Gamepro as our source for information on games and whether or not to buy them, not to mention I'm sure they inadvertently increased the literacy rate of American kids in my generation by an unquantifiable about.

A sad day for the nostalgic kid in me...

[Melena]

I always preferred EGM to Gamepro myself, but it's still sad. I miss the days of standing in the magazine section of a grocery store reading gamepro and EGM while the parents shopped.

[Cyn]

That and looking at those car magazines with all of the chicks in bikinis all over the place tucked inside a Gamepro.

[Pikarya]

Good riddance. 1 down, 20 to go.

[Moss]

That and looking at those car magazines with all of the chicks in bikinis all over the place tucked inside a Gamepro.

trying to peek behind the plastic over the playboy

[Yuri-G]

protip: this is no big loss

[Cantih]

The true loss was years ago with Game Players/Classic PSM.
This is just the body catching up with the head.

[hey]

Was nice to have back before broadband internet access, but after that...i'm not sure how they survived this long.

[Plow]

Gamepro was amazing when it came out, those of us with other systems but no nintendo had nothing but nintendo power until then.

[Elvis]

Yep. I remember ordering a subscription back in 93'! It was Gamepro, then the PS1 mag + looking forward to the demo disk that came with it.

[Kuya]

I too had subscribed to Gamepro in ye old days before internet. It was okay. Game Informer was worse though.

[guartz]

PC Gamer or bust.


Coconut Monkey demands your monies.

[Brill Weave]

Only magazine I read at all is Game Informer and that's because it's free with my Gamestop rewards card.

[Jeryhn]

protip: this is no big loss

This was the correct answer / use of meme.

[bechyni]

Only magazine I read at all is Game Informer and that's because it's free with my Gamestop rewards card.

^ this

[shepardG]

Not even bullshiting, I have gamepro #1 in storage at my parents house.

no major bends, but there's a tear in the corner and some creasing on the spin...

reviews of altered beast for the genisis. and that awesome ass gamepro comic.

[psychodwarf]

Not even bullshiting, I have gamepro #1 in storage at my parents house.

no major bends, but there's a tear in the corner and some creasing on the spin...

reviews of altered beast for the genisis. and that awesome ass gamepro comic.

Still have my Nintendo Power #1. Beat all to hell, but a good read for some of the old shit I used to play.

[Krazy]

I'll never forget the last GamePro 'Pro Tip' I ever read. It was for 007: The World is not Enough.
Pro Tip: If your grenades are full, use one and then pick one up that's lying on the ground.

[Zetanio]

Where am I supposed to get my cheat codes now?

[liggy 0]

memories...

was young and naive enough to always constantly entering that stupid crossword puzzle or word search in the back to win the grand prize of a sega saturn set/tv/games