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Gaming Magazines Around The World
by Jeremy Horwitz for Gamers Today
Though many American video game magazines pride themselves on rapid delivery of gaming news and reviews, there can be little doubt that some of their best influences are European and Japanese in origin. The four-year old Next-Generation magazine and the recently redesigned Electronic Gaming Monthly have both derived their layouts from British-based video games magazine Edge; the preview and news contents of each of these monthly publications borrows liberally from the reporting of famed weekly Japanese publication Famitsu. Do you think America has the most magazines devoted to games? Japan and Europe have mind-boggling numbers of titles - sometimes 5 or 6 competing PlayStation-specific magazines for a single linguistic region alone, plus a large number of multi-platform and computer gaming magazines. What magazines should a real video game fan pick up in world travels or from American importers? Read on.
German-speaking readers in countries including Germany and Austria have two solid multi-platform magazines: Mega Fun is comprehensive, easy to read and has plenty of original photography behind a nice laminated cover. Video Games is a good alternative with similar coverage but weaker distribution. French-speaking readers in France and Belgium have plenty of options, the best of which are the established Joypad and the new title Game On, the latter of which shares content and style with a similarly new but comparatively less necessary British publication misleadingly named Arcade. Thankfully, British readers have a well-written alternative, Edge, as well as a number of decent competitors. Official PlayStation Magazines are published in each European region and feature consistently decent content (plus packed-in demo discs) despite Sony's influence on the magazines' editors. Unofficial PlayStation and Nintendo 64 magazines are less impressive in Europe than in the United States, but far more numerous.
Japan has three magazines which are must-sees for video gamers: the best for home games is the weekly multi-platform title Famitsu, which has surprisingly spawned a large variety of nearly worthless console-specific publications. Bi-weekly arcade magazine Gamest has the latest and largest number of shots of brand new arcade games, which although seemingly limited in appeal to U.S audiences because of the long-standing U.S arcade slump. Finally, the Sony-sponsorsend.htmled Japanese PlayStation Magazine is perhaps the best of the world's official PS publications, worth seeing as much for its style as its content. The other countries of Asia have a variety of magazines that aren't especially noteworthy in either layout or content, though Chinese and Hong Kong magazines occasionally focus on locally made accessories such as backup devices and PlayStation mod chips that receive scant coverage in other countries' publications.
Impressively, some American magazines even show up in stores all across the world. Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), the long-running American publication, provides comprehensive but disposable coverage of international gaming news and products on exceptionally low-quality paper. The photography-heavy but journalistically lightweight Gamers' Republic can also be found in the occasional European or Japanese store, yet surprisingly, the most popular U.S. magazine - GamePro - rarely shows up internationally, perhaps because children are its target audience. The stronger international presence of its sister magazine Edge has doomed the American Next-Generation Magazine to domestic sales only, though the latter magazine possesses the most literate (if not always compelling) content in the United States.
Internet publishing is where American magazines really hold an edge over their international competitors - thanks to American companies, 99% of the best video game news is available at no charge online, faster and more thorough than newsstands can presently deliver. (See the Gamers Today comprehensive links list for many examples.) Videogames has emerged as the best of the online publications, pleasantly eliminating the need to buy its printed sister publication EGM or its competitors. Perhaps fearing erosion of print magazine sales, neither Asian nor European game magazines have even attempted to compete with American publications on the Internet, but in a recent twist, Europe and Asia's best content is now being reposted online by small new Internet sites that want to scoop bigger web publications. The result is an incredibly competitive, thriving collection of large and small online gaming resources that equal or better the cream of the world's printed crop.
With the growth of the Internet, is it even worth importing or buying foreign game magazines any more? The simple answer is yes. When travelling to foreign countries, Internet access is less widespread and such purchases are mandatory for game fans. Even when surrounded by racks of U.S. publications, hard-core American gamers will still find that the thorough home and arcade game coverage of Japan's Famitsu and Gamest justify an occasional import order. For the most part (and for most Americans), the Internet is unquestionably the best and least expensive source of information. One can only imagine how much more exciting the Internet will become when Asian and European magazines mount real challenges to their American counterparts.
