PC Zone Closing After 17 Years

[fix-the-spade]

It's that old nugget of three products in the same market. Fine when the market's on the up...

Shame it's going, but I can't remember the last PC Zone I read, must have still been at school.

 

[Daedalus1942]

I'd be more worried if PC Powerplay disappeared. I love that magazine... Also, I'm sorry chaps.. but PC Gaming is dying out.
Have you looked at the PC gaming section in your local games retail outlet lately?
It's so small compared to the consoles sections, and it sickens me.
R.I.P PC...

 

[Quesa]

I miss Computer Gaming World

 

[Jared]

Well...wioth the advance of digital media I suppose it was only a matter of time...it had a good, long life at least

 

[omega247]

I was really sad when I read this, I have been reading this magazine for at least 10 years! I grew up with it and as a result I feel that with the loss of this magazine the gaming community is losing something special. This magazine gave us Charlie Brooker for goodness sake!!

As someone else posted, hire Jon 'Log' Blythe, he's well funny (actually hire them all )

RIP Pc Zone, you will be missed :'(

 

[MarsProbe]

It's a shame - but I think if it were PC Gamer closing I'd cut out my eyes.

This. I used to read PC Gamer a lot (well, every month in fact). I did however pick up the odd copy of PC Zone, so this does still sadden me. Im fact, it makes me feel a bit sad when anything like this goes. Call me old fashioned also, but I too lament the passing of another form of print media.

I do think there will always be a market for printed gaming publications however, at least for a long time yet....

 

[Darkowl]

Good riddance. I cancelled my subscription years back when Future took over and after their old team (Dave Woods, Charlie Brooker, Presley & co) left. It lost its uniqueness after that.

 

[ScRaT_the_destroyer]

a dark day, my first pc mag was pc zone december 1998 BEST DEMO DISK EVER,

i always thought pc zone seemed to be more about the games than pc gamer if you sort of catch my drift, pc gamer covered the platform as a whole including the latest hardware and was the magazine to go to for information. pczone imho was always more concerned with having fun

i shall miss it, my first steps into the dark dark realm of the pc gamer, its abit like a death in the family

 

[oktalist]

<- PC Zone reader from the late 90s, saddened by news, but then I hadn't read it in years so I can't really complain. RIP.

 

[Chunko]

What was that bioware?

 

[Normalgamer]

I'd be more worried if PC Powerplay disappeared. I love that magazine... Also, I'm sorry chaps.. but PC Gaming is dying out.
Have you looked at the PC gaming section in your local games retail outlet lately?
It's so small compared to the consoles sections, and it sickens me.
R.I.P PC...

no one buys retail anymore. we have something called "the internet". maybe you heard of it? and if you havent noticed PC actually makes up MOST of the revenue in the entire gaming industry and will GROW PAST 50%. the closest thing consoles have to THAT amount of revenue is the wii. THE WII. if you look at the console industry now, it is looking more and more bleak. in essence console gaming is dying, not PC gaming.

Erm, no, PC gaming may not be dying(But it will with piracy because some of you PC gamers have this whole money-spending problem), but console gaming is definitly not dying, in the slightest. Epic mickey anyone?

 

[Skops]

Damn, thats one less gaming magazine I browse at waiting in line at the corner store buying energy drinks..

 

[The Wooster]

<- PC Zone reader from the late 90s, saddened by news, but then I hadn't read it in years so I can't really complain. RIP.

The same. Though it suffered in size and quality in it's later years (and it cost like what? 11.99 in Canada? Jesus) PC gamer was a huge part of my childhood. It's dark and quintesentially English humour was soothing, it's reviews informative and it's putdowns scathing. It was the sole bastion of humour and personality amongst a drove of bland or outright corrupt magazines. RIP

 

[Zing]

I've never even heard of it. Then again I don't really paper magazines anymore.

 

[Kiahl]

Movie Gallery is gone too...damn, that was the only good video store in my town...

 

[ethaninja]

It's a shame - but I think if it were PC Gamer closing I'd cut out my eyes.

Agreed. I didn't read much PC Zone. But PC Gamer? It's whats for dinner.

 

[Archonic Energy]

Damn i've been reading PC Zone since i was a kid!

why couldn't have been PC Gamer...
Zone was so much more fun! and honest about games that were... less than average.

you will be missed.

 

[Normalgamer]

I'd be more worried if PC Powerplay disappeared. I love that magazine... Also, I'm sorry chaps.. but PC Gaming is dying out.
Have you looked at the PC gaming section in your local games retail outlet lately?
It's so small compared to the consoles sections, and it sickens me.
R.I.P PC...

no one buys retail anymore. we have something called "the internet". maybe you heard of it? and if you havent noticed PC actually makes up MOST of the revenue in the entire gaming industry and will GROW PAST 50%. the closest thing consoles have to THAT amount of revenue is the wii. THE WII. if you look at the console industry now, it is looking more and more bleak. in essence console gaming is dying, not PC gaming.

Erm, no, PC gaming may not be dying(But it will with piracy because some of you PC gamers have this whole money-spending problem), but console gaming is definitly not dying, in the slightest. Epic mickey anyone?

look at the game cost for the consoles now compared to the last gen, expensive right? well people turned to used games to get their fix and the developers and publishers don't like it. they are trying to put in DRM and trying desperately to kill the second hand market. this is strangling game developers as game costs go up, and the need to sell more games increase just to break even. when the second hand market gives you no return in profit, they consider that piracy. since they are being hit by internet piracy and second hand sales, the console is being strangled by its own cost. When they look at the PC with its 43% total profit compared to the consoles in which the wii is the second with 24% it seems the money pool is drying up. if the PC does grow to 50% in 2013, developers and publishers will start to move to PC because its a bigger slice of the pie. If you look at it, the more gens that pass mean more expensive games and a possibly more expensive gaming console (trying to compact an entire gen of technology into a box will cost you, and the growing complexity isn't making it any cheaper). Look at the PS3, believe it or not, is more expensive then a top of the line PC at launch. you can buy a top of the line gaming computer and buy 1-10 pc games (varies due to price, and where you buy it) for the price of a PS3. Console gaming died before, and it can die again. The PC however is quite impossible to kill because they are so versatile and becoming so commonplace. The world is requiring more and more computer skills, and pretty soon it will be incomprehensible for anyone to say they buy console games "because they don't understand computers and don't want to go through the hassle". it may not happen soon, but it will.

That was very well written, but even then so console gaming won't die due to one reason: Single-platform games, the games like Harvest moon, and God of war, if you want to play all the best and brightest games, or atleast some of them, you are going to chip in just to buy an Xbox, Wii, or PS3, because that way you get access to a much larger pool of games. For instance, God of War doesn't feel right on the computer does it? PC gaming may not be dying(Even though it really is hurt by piracy), but console gaming has quite a bit of it's life ahead of it.