Games Console Magazines.. who still buys them?

I haven't since my teens, but then I agree there is little point these days when you can find out all the reviews online and demos are available through Xbox Live & PSN. Not to mention, the top sellers seem to be the Official Magazines, which I would imagine these days are still biased.

A friend bought me a copy of Edge while I was in Hospital a few months ago, and that was a good read, because like others have said, it's a more adult read, and looks at the industry as well. I don't buy it often, but If I'm going away anywhere, it would be the one I pick up.
 
I get Edge for free as my wife works for future publishing. TBH I'd probably still buy it from time to time as I do actually read it cover to cover on the toilet.
 
Used to buy them - but not any more. Only if I have a long journey coming up - but even then I'd probably buy "Stuff" or another gadgety magazine :p
 
I used to subscribe to EDGE which is still a great read apart from the jobs ads at the back (far too many IMO).
Arcade mag was good while it lasted.
 
I bought them when I had to commute to and from work. Sometimes there was a wait between trains, especially first thing in the morning, And it was nice to have something to read, other than the Metro.
 
I still do ! Well Gameinformer in the USA which works out to about 7quid a yr.. So well worth it.. I also enjoy reading GamesTM when i go for a coffee in my local Barnes & Noble.. But if I'm honest i feel a bit embarrased at the coffee shop, cos i'm a little old to be reading games magazines. (37)

Nothing will ever re-create the good old days of Zzap64 or Crash though ! Those days reading the mags was as much fun as playing the games.. Actually I'm flying back to Blighty in a couple of weeks to visit a town just up the road from Ludlow, which is where it all Crash / Zzap scene happened. I may go pay homage and go visit the town since it was a very important part of my growing up !
 
Bought Edge for about the first 100 issues or so (even had a 3 or 4 letters published in the early issues), but towards the end of that I was doing it more out of habit than anything. Just got so fed up with their reviews, I finally stopped.

GamesTM was the last mag I ever purchased - used to have a subscription years back, but with the net and broadband, I just failed to see the point and never renewed it.

Nothing will ever re-create the good old days of Zzap64 or Crash though ! Those days reading the mags was as much fun as playing the games..

Indeedy :)
 
I subscribe to GamesTM. I like the articles and it seems better written than anything online. Its standards are declining though.
 
Used to get N64 magazine every month and was a excellent magazine. That was until the internet really took off. Thats the problem with many publications now. They just do not offer anything over the internet these days.
 
Used to get N64 magazine every month and was a excellent magazine. That was until the internet really took off. Thats the problem with many publications now. They just do not offer anything over the internet these days.

I find magazine like Games and Edge give a more impartial opinion. For example whens the last time you read a preview expressing major concerns in an online article? It very rarely happens, they just tend to focus on the positive and ignore the negative.
 
I occasionally get 'Games', depending on how much of my photography mag I've read that month. Simply because sometimes it's nice to not be looking at a screen!
 

How are the standards declining?

Well, I think the decline started with their Assassin's Creed review. It was ridiculous and they only gave it such a low score to be controversial. Given the content of their review, 6/10 might have been fair. 4/10 is just attention whoring.

Their review of Fallout 3 was also terrible. It basically said "we don't have time to review this game before the magazine hits the shelves but here's a 10/10".

A lot of the features are getting a bit stale too. The guy doing the retro section tells the same story of Atari being whacky and how they all smoked a lot of weed every single month. Boring.

That said, I still think it's a very good magazine in general. I enjoy a lot of the features and articles in it and I generally respect their review scores.
 
I still buy them.But only because the place I work at open's til midnight and it gets very boring after about 9pm!
 
I still read Edge (though don't subscribe anymore) but rarely anything else unless I'm sat waiting somewhere and need to kill time.
 
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