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Dan Hsu working on new project with ex-EGM/1UP staff
Looks like the alums of the EGM/1UP era aren't ready to call it quits. 1UP Show staff have already moved onto a new video project, CO-OP. Former EGM editor-in-chief Dan Hsu is also working on an unrelated project also featuring ex-EGM/1UP staff, as revealed on his personal blog. Demian Linn, former executive producer of The 1UP Show and GameVideos.com will be Shoe's primary business partner. Other ex-1UPers ready to contribute include Michael Donahoe, Greg Ford, Crispin Boyer, and Karen Chu, former "art star at 1UP.com."Hsu is also calling up on the dedication of EGM fans by inviting donations on his blog. Contributions already made have gone toward covering the initial costs of starting this new venture. Hsu is currently looking for investors, a difficult prospect in this economic environment. "If you know any really rich people who would like to see a bunch of ex-EGM and 1UP guys get a new project off the ground, we could sure use the help," he notes in his blog. "This will be a legitimate, revenue-producing business."[Update: We've made edits to reflect the following: Ms. Chu emailed to clarify that despite being referred to as the "art star at 1UP.com" she was not, in fact, the "art director." Additionally, our original post stated that the list of people, including Chu, would "join the staff" of Hsu's venture; we've clarified the freelance nature of this relationship.] [Image]
Mega64 bids farewell to Evan Grant Mondesanto
If you're not easily offended by simulated acts of canine brutality (this is already one of the strangest lead sentences we've ever written), then you may want to check out Mega64's touching tribute to the recently deceased Electronic Gaming Monthly, imbued in a video titled "Metaphors". It's a fairly comprehensive look at the grim business propositions that put the two-decade-old mag in the ground, and it's posted right after the break. It's just like, sitting there, alone. Go keep it company, won't you?
Counting Rupees: Oh, magazine
Each week Jeff Engel and Geoff Brooks contribute Counting Rupees, a column on the business behind gaming: With the end of the holidays came the news that EGM is being shuttered. These are disappointing days for many people, not least the hard-working staff that contributed to the respected magazine. I think that the occasion probably merits a mention as much for its inevitability as its sadness.In days in which even large, mainstream print publications are facing severe financial difficulties, it seems all too obvious that smaller, niche publications are going to face similar pressures. And gaming magazines seem to me to be among the most vulnerable, for several reasons.
1UP's Shane Bettenhausen heads to Ignition Entertainment [updated]
First, a confession: our original headline for this post was "Shane turns down Sony PR job, goes with smaller publisher" – that is, until we heard the kids at Rebel FM jokingly suggest that blogs would use exactly that as a headline. Oh yeah, smart guys? Well, we didn't! Moving on. So, 1UP's Shane Bettenhausen did turn down a Sony PR job ... several years ago. [Update: Shane writes that he "misspoke" and "never interviewed for the position" – so you can stop writing those scathing forum posts, platform conspiracy theorists.] Right now, the recently laid-off Bettenhausen has taken a gig as Director of Business Development (we call that BizDev, folks) at "smaller publisher" Ignition Entertainment. Says Bettenhausen: "they're not on the map as much as other big publishers." Then why take the position, when fellow 1UP alums have moved onto places like Bungie and 2K Boston? At Ignition, Bettenhausen would get to "choose which games to publish" – in other words, he'd rather be a big fish in a smaller pond. Not a bad plan. Up next from Ignition: Blue Dragon Plus for the DS.To get the full story straight from Shane himself, tune into the latest Rebel FM podcast at around the one hour 21 minute mark. (Bonus: Listen for Shane's comment that the "rise of blogs – Kotaku and Joystiq – completely reshaped the landscape." Great! Now we can add "landscaper" to the old CV).
Final EGM issue to be 'printed' on 1UP
R.I.P. Electronic Gaming Monthly1989-2009 EGM's departing final editor-in-chief, James Mielke, has posted the magazine's last cover on his blog, revealing that the issue will be available to read (in hi-res) on 1UP. Protip: You can print it out and put it in your mailbox out of respect for the publication's demise.Mielke's post goes on to discuss his eight-month stint in the captain's chair -- following the departure of longtime editor Dan Hsu -- and features candid images of the mag's final days. Toward the end of the piece, Mielke claims the EGM circulation was between 550-650K and its death "was simply a matter of UGO wanting a website, not a magazine."Bonus: Here's an image of nearly every EGM cover, ever! [Via GameCulture]
1UP layoffs and the ripples therein
When half of the staff leave/are laid off from a gaming site as notable as 1UP, it affects essentially everyone within the industry -- as does the closure of EGM, one of the very best gaming magazines around. Their excellent coverage of games like Final Fantasy XI, Warhammer Online and World of Warcraft (to name just a few) have always been the sort of things we here at Massively strive for in our own features. Whether it was podcasts like Legendary Thread or the infamous live reading of a certain Age of Conan incident on GFW Radio, the group working at 1UP were always in it to entertain, inform and hopefully make everyone think a little bit about their favorite pasttime.Understandably, the massive layoffs have created a sort of hate brush fire that's been roaring across the internet mostly via message boards fueled by a mix of ex-1UP Twitters and hearsay. While it pains us as fans to see so many talented and hard-working writers let go, there's some truth to the saying, "You can't win 'em all" in this situation. Our own searing anger was doused a little upon reading a lucid post detailing the why behind the whole debacle.
Official: UGO buys 1UP, EGM dead [update]
Within hours of our earlier post regarding 1UP's reported sale to the Hearst-owned UGO network, the deal was confirmed in individual press releases from both entities. Additionally, Ziff-Davis has made official the closure of EGM after nearly 20 years of publication. It's January issue -- currently on sale -- will be its last.1UP editorial director, Sam Kennedy, is quoted in the release, saying that the site's staff is "extremely excited to join the UGO team." UGO's release states that 1UP.com will operate as a separate entity and implies that its current staff will remain in place. The sale to Hearst also includes GameVideos.com, MyCheats.com and GameTab.com.The shuttering of EGM -- the oldest multi-platform games magazine in the US -- leaves GamePro and Game Informer as the last bastions of what, with today's news, continues to be the dying breed of print media.Update: There's not much in the way of new info, but Gamasutra got their mitts on an internal email from Ziff CEO Jason Young, who tells the staff that "more scale is necessary to effectively compete in this market segment." So UGO's planning to keep growing 1UP? Then why kill off the 1UP Show and layoff 30+ people? One other note: Ziff "will continue to operate the Filefront business as a part of the PCMag Digital Network." More as we hear it.Source – Ziff-Davis press releaseSource – UGO press release
PaidContent.org reports EGM's death, pulls story [update]
Update: As you can see here, it's official.Earlier today, media business site paidContent.org reported that video game media hub 1UP had been sold to Hearst (which runs competing hub UGO), and that the organization would be shuttering Electronic Gaming Monthly. You may remember that we reported that both moves were under discussion last month. PaidContent's report has since been pulled, but the full details were related by former 1UPer John Davison's What They Play. WTP then reported that sources had told them that the story would be validated or denied tomorrow. If this is on the level (and we have no reason to think it's not), it's a sad day for fans of video game magazines and game journalism in general. If it comes to pass, here's hoping everyone affected lands on their feet.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine Is Going To Be Awesome
A Play in One Act by Electronic Gaming Monthly Lights rise at Raven HQ on X-Men Origins: Wolverine Project Lead Dan Vondrak, sporting a Marvel T-shirt. VONDRAK. I've read reviews of Wolverine games, I've played previous X-Men games, and you just hate it when you're like, 'This isn't what it's supposed to be like to fight this guy. I'm Wolverine. How come I can't ever just grab a guy and rip him in half?' Yeah, absolutely -- let's do that. Nothing's holding us back. Curtain.
EGM en Espaol est muerto
For our unilingual readers whose loose grasp on the Spanish language sent that headline careening over their heads, the Spanish version of EGM is shutting down, according to editorial director Adrián Carbajal. Their upcoming December issue (the one with the Watchmen game on the cover) will effectively serve as their last installment after a little more than six years of publication. It should come as no surprise that the main reason Carbajal cited for the collapse of EGM en Español is the seemingly perilous future of the English language version of the mag. Should yesterday's report that UGO is looking to purchase the 1UP network sans the twenty-year-old EGM come to fruition, it's unlikely that we'll see many more issues of the gaming magazine we tucked oh-so-many times into our Junior High textbooks.[Thanks, Josué]
Rumors: Rez sequel, Spielberg's LMNO on hold and more from EGM
Beyond Gears of War 3 for 2010, the January 2009 issue of the future-uncertain EGM contains a handful of other rumors to pique your interest (via NeoGAF). Top of that list? A spiritual sequel to Rez is coming from creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi, who can't make an actual sequel beacuse the IP is owned by Sega. Mizuguchi's Q Entertainment recently announced a music-infused project codenamed "QJ" for Wii, though it may be unrelated.Additionally, the issue also asserted that Spielberg's mysterious EA Project LMNO is on hold at the moment. At the end of October, EA denied speculation that there had been layoffs related to the title. The remaining rumor-mongering includes a new Rifts-licensed game in 2010 (the last one was on N-Gage) and a large co-publisher for Tecmo's PlayStation 3 exclusive Quantum Theory.
Rumor: Gears of War 3 in 2010, 5-player co-op
Okay, get this. CVG is reporting that the new issue of EGM features a Gears of War 3 rumor. Come on, that's just silly. Everyone knows that Cliff and the gang have "never announced" a trilogy. (Why do it now?) Besides, suggesting that Gears of War 3 will be released during holiday 2010 is just a little too obvious -- don't you think? Gears 1 in 2006. The sequel in 2008. And part three in 2010? No way. Everyone knows you're supposed to wait three years between the second and third games. And what's this about Gears 3 featuring a "five-player co-op" mode? Ridiculous. There's no way Marcus and Dom's relationship has room for a third wheel, let alone a fourth and fifth. Move along. Nothing to see here.
Exclusive: UGO in high-level talks to buy 1UP; EGM not part of deal
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/UGO_is_in_High_Level_Talks_to_Buy_1UP_EGM_Not_Part_of_Deal'; Multiple sources in and around Ziff Davis Media have told Joystiq that UGO Entertainment is on the verge of finalizing a deal to buy parts of Ziff's 1UP Network, including 1up.com, GameVideos.com and MyCheats.com.The sources, who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the talks, confirmed to Joystiq that the companies were in "very advanced talks" regarding the sale of many of Ziff's popular gaming web sites. 1UP Network editorial staff were reportedly informed of the potential sale in an all-hands meeting Tuesday and UGO executives will reportedly be flying out to meet with the Ziff staff as soon as Wednesday. Few details of the potential buyout plan are known at this time, but UGO reportedly plans to keep the Ziff sites operating independently as separate entities with their own branding, rather than subsuming them fully into the UGO Entertainment Network.Our sources also report that UGO has little to no interest in purchasing either Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine or FileFront.com, two wavering pillars of Ziff's increasingly shaky Game Group. Ziff has had particular trouble selling ads for upcoming issues of EGM, suggesting that the February issue might be the final one for the long-running magazine, our sources reported. This adds credence to recent reports that Ziff may be looking to transform EGM into an online-only property. Ziff has been looking for a buyer for the beleaguered Game Group for at least two years.UGO Entertainment started off in 1997 as Unified Gamers Online and currently attracts over 35 million unique monthly visitors to its general lifestyle portal at UGO.com. In July of 2007 the UGO Network was acquired by mega-publishing conglomerate Hearst Corporation. The network's current properties include GamingTarget.com, GameCheats.com and RPG-focused site GameBanshee.com, as well as celebrity-focused sites like At Pictures.
NYT: Ziff-Davis considering online-only future for EGM
As we near the end of a year that saw outspoken EGM editor-in-chief Dan "Shoe" Hsu resign his post, The New York Times quotes publisher Ziff-Davis as "considering" a course of action that would take the prominent print mag online only. The news comes in an article about ZD's decision to make a similar move with 27-year-old flagship publication, PC Magazine.Ziff-Davis chief executive, James Young, revealed to the paper that an online-only future for EGM is a possibility, but that the publisher "would not make a decision before the end of the year." Recent months have seen the departure of staffers from 1UP, EGM's online sister publication, and a frank admission of the decreasing viability of games-related print media by 1UP editorial director, Simon Cox.
Crystal Bearers finally gone forever? [update]
Update: Huzzah! Square Enix says the game is still on.Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers is more than just a long title -- it's also a questionable game with a sketchy history. It's a history that may finally have come to a close, however: after back-and-forth rumors of the game's continuation and demise, apparently the latest issue of EGM points toward the game's cancellation. While the EGM rumor may be off track, we're certainly not surprised if it does turn out to be the truth. We've been considering it gone for some time, and only now, as we are reminded of what could have been, are we saddened again. Lament with us in the comments, if you wish.[Via GoNintendo]
Watchmen: The End Is Nigh revealed
The latest issue of EGM has revealed an upcoming Watchmen game, to be released around the same time as the movie in 2009. Subtitled The End Is Nigh, the Watchmen game will be episodic and downloadable via the PlayStation Network. The game will be a prequel to the movie, though there are currently few details regarding how it will actually play. 1Up promises that Watchmen fans needn't be worried about the franchise being treated badly. Several advisors for The End Is Nigh have worked on the original graphic novel, such as artist Dave Gibbons and Editor Len Wein. Sadly Alan Moore himself is nowhere to be seen. The game will flesh out the backstory of the comics a little more. There's a lot to play with so we're intrigued to see more details once they're finally released.
December EGM gives first look at Watchmen: The End is Nigh [Update]
Fans of Alan Moore's groundbreaking graphic novel, Watchmen, are probably either eagerly anticipating the book's upcoming film adaptation -- or, in true comic book snob fashion, dreading its release. Unfortunately for them, their excitement/dread may be multiplied by the upcoming video game adaptation of the book -- thankfully, the December issue of EGM will break the relative silence on Deadline Games' ludological prequel to the novel, now titled Watchmen: The End is Nigh. Though none of the December issue's exclusive details are leaked in a recent teaser on 1UP, an early reaction from EGM editor-in-chief James Mielke is provided to ease concerns that the prequel won't follow Watchmen canon -- according to "The Milkman", who recently traveled to Deadline's studio in Denmark, the game is incredibly faithful to the book. We'll remain cautiously optimistic until we can get more details when the next issue of EGM hits newsstands later this month. Update: Revised to reflect previous coverage.
EGM rumors: Cliff Bleszinski's new game & Disney DLC for LBP
A new month means a new issue of EGM, which means a whole new batch of rumors in their infamous Quartermann column. This edition features two things of note for PS3 fans.First is a rumor about Cliff Bleszinski's new game. Having just finished Gears 2, many are wondering: what's next? Well, his next game may be a survival horror game, which promises to mix the visceral feel of Gears with psychological terror. Even more exciting: the next game may be a multiplatform title, allowing PS3 fans a chance to finally play one of his games.In addition, EGM is also continuing the rumors about a possible Disney partnership for LittleBigPlanet. The rumor mill suggests a Disney DLC pack will arrive in 2009, and it will include a playable version of the classic Mickey Mouse cartoon, Steamboat Willie (pictured above).
Rumor: Rogue Squadron compilation locking S-foils in attack position
According to the latest issue of EGM, which just arrived in our mail box, Wii owners could be seeing Rogue Squadron make a return to a Nintendo console, as Q from the Rumor Mill is reporting that Lucasarts has licensed out the Rogue Squadron series of games. Sadly, we're not talking about a brand new game, but rather a compilation of the N64 and GameCube titles, all on one Wii disc. With the whole Play on Wii thing, it seems like this has a good chance of becoming true.Head past the break for the excerpt from the magazine.
Rumor: Disney characters coming to LittleBigPlanet
As you put the finishing touches on your latest laborious LittleBigPlanet masterpiece, you make a startling realization -- something is missing. Your homebrewed LittleBigLocale is missing its keystone; without this necessary component, your hours of work will have been for naught. The component is, of course, a statue of Horace Horsecollar and his bovine betrothed, Clarabelle Cow.While the previous sentence likely only made sense to people who watched cartoons in the 1930s, the following will probably be clearer -- according to the latest revolution of Electronic Gaming Monthly's rumor mill, LittleBigPlanet DLC is set to include non-sony property, such as characters from Disney franchises and 3rd-party PlayStation titles. We're not sure in what capacity these properties could be included in Media Molecule's uber-customizable platformer, but we're certainly excited about the prospective existence of SackBaloo.
