The July 2011 issue cover |
|
| Editor-in-Chief | Andy McNamara |
|---|---|
| Categories | Video game |
| Frequency | Monthly (12 per year) |
| Publisher | GameStop Corporation |
| Total circulation (2011) |
5,954,884[1] |
| First issue | August 1991 |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | Minneapolis |
| Language | English |
| Website | www.gameinformer.com |
| ISSN | 1067-6392 |
Game Informer (GI) is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations.[2] Today, the magazine has nearly 3 million subscribers, making it the highest circulated video game magazine;[3] and as of the first quarter of 2009, it has been listed as the 12th largest overall magazine.[4] Game Informer is now ranked among the top four magazines for reaching males 18 to 34.[5]
It is owned and published by GameStop Corp., the parent company of the video game retailer of the same name, who bought Funcoland in 2000. Due to this, a large amount of promotion is done in-store; this has contributed heavily to its subscription base,[6] which is now larger, as a subscription is included with the store's new Power Up Rewards Discount Card.
Game Informer saw a complete redesign of both its magazine and website in November 2009,[7] just prior to their 200th issue, in December of that year. In celebration of their 200th issue, The Legend of Zelda was awarded the best game of all time.
Contents |
Game Infarcer is an annual spin-off of the normal magazine. Similar to GamePro's LamePro, it's released only in the April issue, as an April Fool's joke. In 2008, Game Infarcer received a new Chief Editor, DarthClark, who replaced Garnadan, and the cover game for the same Game Infarcer issue was a mix of both Assassin's Creed and Dawson's Creek, which resulted in Assassin's Creek. Another joke is the reviews in GameInfarcer almost never receive numeric scores, such as WiiNap (also a fake game) which got a score of "one penny".
In the July 2008 issue, Game Informer had its second annual Sacred Cow Barbecue (annual, in their case, means whenever they feel like doing it). Similar in style to a celebrity roast, the occasion is meant to "knock some of gaming's most revered icons off their high and mighty pedestals."[24]
Game Informer currently reviews games on the Wii, PlayStation 3, XBOX 360, PC, Nintendo DS, PSP, Nintendo 3DS, PSVita, and Wii U consoles. The reviews of games for the Game Boy Advance and GameCube consoles were discontinued during 2007, primarily because the number of games for both systems were dwindling. Older games, three per issue, are given brief reviews in the magazine's Classic GI section (compared with the game's original review score, if one exists), though this was also discontinued in 2009 with the redesign of the magazine. The magazine's staff rate games on a scale of 1 to 10 with quarter point intervals. A score of 1 is considered worse than terrible; 10 is a rare, "outstanding", nearly perfect game; and 7 is "average", a decently playable (but flawed) game. To this date, 21 games (22 if one counts the Playstation 2 version of Resident Evil 4) have received a perfect "10", in order, they include
Super Mario World, reviewed in October 2000 in a Classic GI Review,
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, reviewed in November 2000,
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, reviewed in December 2001,
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, reviewed in December 2002,
Metroid Fusion, reviewed in January 2003,
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, reviewed in April 2003,
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, reviewed in November 2004,
Halo 2, reviewed in December 2004,
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, also reviewed in December 2004,
Resident Evil 4, reviewed in March 2005 for Gamecube and November 2005 for Playstation 2,
God of War, reviewed in April 2005,
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, reviewed in January 2007,
BioShock, reviewed in September 2007,
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, reviewed in December 2007,
Grand Theft Auto IV, reviewed in June 2008,
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, reviewed in July 2008,
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, reviewed in November 2009,
God of War III, reviewed in April 2010
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, reviewed in October 2010
Batman: Arkham City, reviewed in November 2011.
and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, reviewed in December 2011.
Some games received even lower scores, scores below 1: Batman: Dark Tomorrow received a 0.75,[25] Shrek: Fairy Tale Freakdown for Game Boy Color got a 0.5,[26] and the Xbox launch title Kabuki Warriors scored a 0.5.[27] In the latter review, editor-in-chief Andy McNamara said, "I literally won a match just by bashing the controller against my ass. I wish I was joking, but the score is seriously Kabuki Warriors zero, my ass one." This was confirmed by his fellow editors. Another game reviewed for Classic GI — Marky Mark: Make My Video for Sega CD — was given a 0. More recently a score of a 1 was handed out to the Kinect game Hulk Hogan's Main Event in the December 2011 issue. Dan Ryckert said "Hogan lends his orange face (and a few brief voice overs) to this baffling product, which plays like a glorified version of "the Hokey Pokey". The best compliment I can give this atrocious title is that Kinect picks up on what you want to do some of the time, but that would be like complimenting a Mario game for recognizing that you want to jump when you press A". A recurring gag in every issue is in the review "table" (the magazine defines what each score means), the 1 score is always changed to a different joke.
Game Informer Online was originally launched in August 1996, and featured daily news updates as well as articles. Justin Leeper and Matthew Kato were hired on in November 1999 as full-time web editors. As part of the GameStop purchase of the magazine, the site was closed around January 2001.[28] Both Leeper and Kato were eventually placed on the editorial staff of the magazine.
GI Online was revived in September 2003, with a full redesign and many additional features, such as a review database, frequent news updates, and exclusive "Unlimited" content for subscribers. It was managed by Billy Berghammer, creator of PlanetGameCube.com (now known as NintendoWorldReport.com).[29] Berghammer is currently the editor in chief of the EGM Media group [30]
On March 2009, the online staff began creating the code for what would be the latest redesign to date. The redesign was to release hand-in-hand with the magazine's own redesign. On October 1, 2009, the newly redesigned website was live, with a welcome message from Editor-In-Chief Andy McNamara. Many new features were introduced, including a rebuilt media player, a feed highlighting the site activity of the website's users, and the ability to create user reviews.[31]
In the 2006 horror film Stay Alive, there was a brief appearance of a Game Informer Magazine with the title game from the movie. This was not a real issue of the magazine and was made specifically for the movie.
The movie Grandma's Boys has multiple sightings on Game Informer Magazine posters on the walls.
In an open-ended action game from 2009 developed by Radical Entertainment, Prototype, the Game Informer logo can be seen in many places in the game.
|
||||||||