If any further proof was needed that print media is on its dying breath, two more gaming magazines in the UK are set to shut down. GamesTM and GamesMaster have been staples of the British gaming media market for decades and yet despite revamps and restructuring, they just can't compete with online journalism in the way they once could.
Future, the publisher for both magazines made the announcement that the next-issue of each magazine would be its final one. The writers and layout artists for each would be "redeployed" within the company, Eurogamer reports.
"Despite the company's strong performance overall, unfortunately GamesTM and GamesMaster are no longer profitable parts of the business," Future said in a statement. "The decision was an extremely difficult one, but everyone here is enormously proud of what the magazines have achieved in their lifetimes."
GamesTM was originally launched in 2002 by Image Publishing and was purchased by Future just a few years ago. Future has published its own magazine, Edge for some time before then. GamesMaster, on the other hand, has been around since 1993, covering almost every generation of mainstream consoles and PC games throughout their rise to prominence.
This doesn't mark the complete death of gaming magazines in the UK just yet though. Future's own Edge continues to be published, as does PCGamer, Retro Gamer, PlayStation Official Magazine, Xbox: Official Magazine, and Minecraft World.
With a few GamesMaster and GamesTM readers now looking for a new regular magazine, perhaps those that continue to run will be able to pick up their subscriber base a little.
