Goodbye Game Informer

Probably most people won't care, but "GameInformer" -the long running
computer game magazine- shuttered its business the other day.

Which probably shouldn't be a surprise; after all, who reads (print)
magazines anymore? (although, like most publishers, they relied more
on digital subscriptions these days). More tellingly, "Game Informer"
was a division of the "GameStop" retail chain, which in recent years
has been better known for its stock antics than its retail
performance. The chain has been struggling, and that "Game Informer"
has survived this long is, frankly, sort of amazing.

What was surprising was how /good/ "Game Informer" was. While it
didn't do any hard-hitting journalism, it still had well-written
articles and reviews that weren't just puff-pieces designed to get you
to buy the next game (which is what you'd expect from a magazine
funded by a video-game store). Amongst the surviving 'old-school'
video-game magazine publishers, they were probably the best.

And while the likes of online publishing -Kotaku, GamesIndustry,
PCGamesN and the rest- have taken up the slack, there was a lot to be
said about a publisher who actually still put out printed material. It
implied a reliability and soundness that you often don't get from the
more fly-by-night online offerings. They were a standard baseline
against which you could measure the competitors.

So it's sort of sad to see them go. Even if I was part of the problem
that led to their demise (I let my subscription lapse years ago...
although that was mostly because the only way to renew the
subscription was by physically going to a Gamestop store).

Fare thee well, "Game Informer". You weren't great, but you were good
enough, and your passing is just another sign of the passing of the
golden age of computer gaming.