A game magazine transformation behind: Another epitome of the development of the game industry in the 20

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Article Source: Media review

Two years ago, Volkswagen Software Magazine began to seek a new way out after losing money. However, until the beginning of the 2014, after a huge "painful restructuring", "Volkswagen Software" began to change in a real sense.

"Volkswagen Software" is a symbol, in the 20 years since its inception, has become the common memory of several generations of game enthusiasts. Years of change, time flies, two years ago, the game magazine appeared in a loss, began to seek a new way of life. However, until the beginning of the 2014, after a huge "painful restructuring", "Volkswagen Software" began to change in a real sense.

Behind the transformation of this game magazine is another epitome of the development of the game industry in the 20.

The transformation of a game magazine

As a magazine that has reached its highest circulation of 380,000 copies and has a monthly circulation of more than 700,000 copies, "Volkswagen Software" has had a huge impact on gamers.

Unlike most other flat media that are simply positioned as game magazines, "Volkswagen Software" also has a large number of software and hardware columns, to meet the needs of some computer gamers knowledge of hardware and software, while the quality of the magazine content output of the game is more fun for gamers, these content also affect countless computer gamers, Some of them have therefore embarked on the game path.

As a result, mass software has been supported by a large number of gamers and game industry practitioners as it initiates the transition to the mobile end. April 21, 2014, the "popular software" in a domestic web site to launch the public, hoping to be able to raise 1 million yuan before June 20, as a transition to the mobile end, and the audience to participate in the public can get different degrees of return.

When the April 23 "popular software" began in Sina Weibo publicity, quickly won the support of a large number of game enthusiasts, the early morning of April 28 has received nearly 280,000 yuan of support, a short period of time to raise more than 1/4 of the public fund-raising items.

For the "Volkswagen Software", the transition to the mobile end is a long way to work. Despite the creation of an outstanding monthly circulation of more than 700,000 copies in 2003, the magazine's circulation and income have declined in recent years, and in the 2012-year period, the magazine's first book loss occurred.

Although the amount is not large, but the loss of the "Volkswagen software" then the organizers of the initiation of retreat, 2013 years later, the "popular software" magazine several outgoing rumors, are closely related to this.

At the end of 2013, the rumor that the public software was about to close in 2014, the first issue of the 2014 was also delayed. Behind the rumours was the decision by its organizers to recycle the "Volkswagen Software" issue as a result of the losses that occurred in 2013. With the late January 2014 issue, the fate of the popular software magazine was finally revealed:

The original issue of "Volkswagen Software" has been withdrawn, currently only with another game magazine "E-play computer game Shinkansen" share the issue number, the competent unit changes, the magazine also from the original Shing changed into a monthly.

Although this turn has paid a huge price, but "Volkswagen software" so that the dream of the "restructuring", you can plan for their future road. Transition to the mobile end is an important step for them.

The decline of the game magazine

Journal of the Reader's collection

In the "public software" to achieve a real sense of "restructuring" in the last few months, the same in the domestic game is very influential game magazine "home computer and game" went through 20 years of history: Editor-in-Chief Wei announced the news of the suspension.

2 years ago, mainland China's first game magazine "video game Software" (Game concentration camp) also went through their 18 years of history, before long, "game base" magazine ceased ... These games do not like the "popular software" to change their fate, can only become a player game youth a memorial.

The decline of game magazines is only one corner of the decline of flat media in recent years. The rapid development of the Internet has brought great impact to traditional industries, and traditional media is one of the most impacted industries.

As information travels faster and faster, the latest information around the world is at hand, and the newspapers and magazines that originally provided the reader with the main readings lag behind, and the number of people in need of deep reading in a fast-paced life declines, so in recent years the "print media has gone into decline" and " "The paper media will eventually be replaced" is rife, and some influential traditional media, including Newsweek, have given up the issue and transformed the digital platform.

In the field of game media, the impact of this trend is also very obvious. In recent years there have been a number of games magazine discontinued, including the 22-year veteran game magazine "GamePro", the 19 and influential "game Developer Magazine" and the Nintendo Official magazine "Nintendo Power" and the Sony PlayStation Official magazine.

In China, "video game Software", "game base", "home computer and games" and other magazines have ceased. Other games, newspapers and magazines are still alive, but their circulation, advertising revenue and influence are falling every year.

For a game magazine, the key to survival is the ability to support long-term development through distribution and advertising profits. In the distribution process, the magazine itself labor costs and the proportion of payment is not large, the main cost depends on the printing material, printed quantity, issue discount, return rate and so on.

For game magazines, it is now generally difficult to achieve profitability through distribution, there are a number of reasons, such as pricing factors: In the "Volkswagen software" as an example, despite the release of many years of printing materials and printed number have increased, but to ensure that the circulation can only maintain a consistent pricing. In this case, the need to maintain the survival of the magazine depends on advertising, and advertising to some extent, the cause of the decline of the game magazine.

Magazine Ads: Double-edged sword

Game magazine advertising changes to some extent and the domestic game industry is closely related to the ecology. For domestic games in the early large number of stand-alone game manufacturers, with a large number of readers of the game magazine, newspapers have been excellent advertising positions.

On the one hand, the game magazine is the most game to understand the game information of the only source, while a large number of players also have a game introduction and other aspects of the demand; On the other hand, the game magazine is mainly introduced at home and abroad are also the content of single game, user overlap is extremely high. Therefore, early game magazine advertising is a domestic issue of stand-alone game ads, the reader is not very objectionable.

The rise of the network game changed the original game industry ecology, the original single game manufacturers have put online game development and operation. In addition to the proliferation of piracy and examination and approval issues, the number of stand-alone games in the market has been reduced, the game magazine advertising sales have also been greatly affected.

In order to survive the needs of the game magazine's main advertising business has turned to online games, and in the rapid expansion of the online gaming industry, many game magazines have been adhering to the media ethics has been a huge challenge.

When the bottom line of media ethics is defeated by game makers with huge advertising fees, what readers want to see in the game Magazine for Fair and objective coverage of the industry and game products is also hard to guarantee, replaced by a large number of advertising and software to promote the game products, which caused a lot of readers disgust, which also led to the decline in circulation.

For the online game advertisers, the site media, internet cafes and other new media advertising effect more visually visible, they also do not value the advertising game magazine.

So it formed a vicious circle: The magazine's game soft text increases, the quality content reduces causes the reader to resent and causes the circulation decline, thus the magazine itself advertisement value also along with it drops, the advertisement income naturally accordingly reduces. So when online game ads become a major source of revenue for magazines, the ultimate fate of the game magazine is almost certainly doomed.

Moving the end of the future

For older gamers, game magazines are an important memory of the growth process, so if you can continue this memory on the mobile side, most players will be happy to see it. But the success of the magazine transformation will ultimately depend on whether the quality of the content meets the needs of the reader in the new era.

A lot of foreign game magazines have been transformed to mobile end very early, while retaining the magazine, the content is posted on the mobile app and Web site, such as the foreign magazine "EDGE", which is famous for its content, and the familiar "PC Gamer" by computer game readers. In 2011 years, the Apple app Store and Google Play launched their mobile app.

Readers can read the full contents of each issue in a mobile device, and can easily access the contents of the period. "Volkswagen Software" announced the transformation of the mobile end, is the hope for the traditional media to seek a new way out.

The important problem that the transformation mobile end solves is that it is convenient for readers to purchase and meet the need of anytime reading. For the "popular software", the original brand and readers, high-quality editors and the author is its transition to the mobile end of the important capital, many readers are also able to read the magazine on the mobile side of the electronic version of the very look forward to, especially to meet the many old readers of the early magazine electronic version of the collection

If the "popular software" mobile end of app's reading experience is good enough to be able to attract this group of users, but the future can continue to focus on the quality of the content itself.

For the future development, the public software in the public-raised page on the display of the future seems to be difficult to convince more people, most of the supporters for many years of emotional accumulation, and even can say no return.

Talk about "Volkswagen software" on the mobile side of the planning, the former "game base" executive editor of the said: "App may make the advantage of the media more flexible, more suitable for the current content acquisition method will become more effective, content is not a good choice, rely on mobile phone to make every minute of reading is valuable without bringing pressure on the reader may be more comfortable. "