We've been working away on a whole new look for PC Gamer behind the scenes for the past few months. Everything - from the logo on the cover to the last word in Extra Life - has undergone hours of surgery in our high-tech mag-laboratory. At last, the finished article is about to go on sale.
"OMG noes!!!1!" you might exclaim, worried that your favourite magazine is losing all the things you know and love. Never fear. We thought long and hard about all the good things we already had, and you can rest assured we haven't chucked out anything good. We've still got the Spy, Devil's Advocate, reviews, previews, features, Extra Life and more.
The cover of PC Gamer's new-look issue. It's on sale May 7, and should be on its way to subscribers now!
"About f***ing time you lamorz" you might exclaim, having been wondering for years when PC Gamer is going to join the 21st century. Our new design is the result of the world's finest magazine brains being locked in a dark cupboard since October and not let out until they made something pretty.
We've got some new ideas in there which we'll be telling you more about over the coming days. In the meantime, have a butcher's at our new cover. And be sure to watch the video we had made to celebrate the relaunch. There's a link here somewhere. Ah yes, here it is.
Nice change of motto, "Britain's best-selling PC games magazine" was always a bit daft and you guys certainly have a more worldwide appeal than you would think (and yes, I am definitely talking about the UK mag then ).
Though I think every righteous PC gamer would feel a bit insulted if StarCraft II is a supposed saviour of PC gaming (let alone the RTS genre lol). A guaranteed multimillion selling mega-hit ŕ la SCII (or any other Blizzard title) says nothing about the health of the platform in general. It doesn't need saving, publishers just need to realise a PC isn't a console. A better tagline (still positive to lure in new readers of course) for StarCraft II would have been "More innovative than you think", "Biggest RTS campaign effort by Blizzard ever", "Not just for Koreans", etc.
Also, I really hope you guys have something meaty about SupCom 2.
Looks pretty good and I must agree with The_B it does make the mag look more serious, not that it wasnt before but still. Hoping my copy hits the doormat today so I can take it away with me this weekend.
Looking forward to reading this issue. Congrats to Ross and the team. I think now I realise why we have not been seeing much of Ross lately...
Nice change of motto, "Britain's best-selling PC games magazine" was always a bit daft and you guys certainly have a more worldwide appeal than you would think (and yes, I am definitely talking about the UK mag then ).
Will the next re-design be 'Galaxies Number One PC Gaming Magazine'?
Not quite sure what to think at the moment, I like things when they're familiar, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.
Sub turned up today. It's quite different, but i must say i'm enjoying the more serious articles and lay-out. The 'at a glance' statistical/info bits break the articles up nicely and overall i think it's a nice change.
Really liked the 'what are you playing now' bits- is this permenant? will readers be able to write in and feature? as that'd be AWESOME^^
It could lead to some epic boasting... pictures or it didn't happen....
at first glance i really hated the new design. then reading through the magazine i still hated the new design. next issue i'll still hate the new design. come the new redesign i'll have gotten used to it and the cycle of hate can begin all over again...
and i really don't think that the fact you can read all manner of games related stuff for free on the internet really justifies the redesign (which is the impression i get they're trying to pass as the reason for it in the magazine) which actually now that i think about it makes the magazine look like everything's been printed from a website made with wordpad. it's definitely not an innovative or bold new design, and i don't think it's just the fact that i'm used to the older design that's making me dislike it as i adjusted to the last redesign a lot quicker (like within 10 minutes of it coming through the door). it would have been nice if they had trialled the new look first, especially as the majority of the readers pay for the privilige, so it's not like when the owners of a website decide that the reason it's not doing so well is because it doesn't look like every "Web 2.0" site out there... but now i'm just rambling.
in short: i don't like the new design but it's not bad enough to bring my subscription to an end just yet.
I have to say I really don't like it. What I call the "classic" design which for me represented an era of how PC Gamer looked from around 1996 onwards is how it should be. You ruined PC Gamer in about 2000 with the new design then, and I thought you 200th issue was really good, so why change it, what are the reasons I ask?
What didn't work before, and why is this better? I am not wholly convinced I'm afraid. There does need to be far more to the magazine, it needs to be be beefier for the price you charge for it. I mean come on Ł5.99 for a mag with a free DVD? As the above poster mentions you can get pretty much all the news you have in your mag online anyway, so you really have to re-invent yourselves and appeal to a real young audience as well veteran gamers such as myself.
I read the magazine in a few hours which is poor considering it could have been more. I will have to consider my next move, but I feel I may defect to PC Zone.
And too all the people complaining have you ever created a magazine yourself? I had to for a school project and it is really hard to get anything near as good as PCGamer which is one of the two magazines I had to analyse.
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