There’s a win-win-win here for readers, publishers, and game developers proud of their product. It reminds me of the demo discs that used to come in ‘90s gaming mags. It felt like stealing, getting free games, along with the knowledge of which AAA games I actually had to buy. Retvrn, etc. - ThreadSky

bencollins.bsky.social • 41 days ago

There’s a win-win-win here for readers, publishers, and game developers proud of their product. It reminds me of the demo discs that used to come in ‘90s gaming mags. It felt like stealing, getting free games, along with the knowledge of which AAA games I actually had to buy. Retvrn, etc.

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bencollins.bsky.social•41 days ago

Anyway, that’s what I’d do. It requires elbow grease, but there’s a sustainability outside of programmatic ads. If you’re in games journalism, you probably know trustworthy devs who’d help get it off the ground.

That said, I’m just some idiot. I don’t know particulars. But DM with Qs. I’m around.

mographer.bsky.social•41 days ago

Fwiw, I would support the heck out of a parody games magazine that ripped the hell out of both "Gamergate" gamers and AAA studio execs. Lean all the way in to ripping on basement dwelling mouth breathers everytime they freak out over something being "woke"

reticulated.net•41 days ago

Savage!

weavr.bsky.social•41 days ago

Between early access, in-game currency, and DLC packages, it seems like there’s a lot of opportunity to capitalize on some of these ideas if you have industry connections.

jonzor.bsky.social•41 days ago

I think if you want physical media in this case I'd have a plan for lots of content that ages well. Culture stuff as much as news and reviews.

professorethical.bsky.social•41 days ago

Anyone with an ounce of ethical standards would be dab hand for marketing in this way. Vulture capitalists will always choose the most "profitable" route which is almost always the least wanted way to advertise.

I'm with you Tim, you just need to find the people who care.

sonofisaac.bsky.social•41 days ago

free Sickos skin!

ubiquity75.xyz•41 days ago

blueskyexpert.bsky.social•41 days ago

"Elbow grease" lmao - a billionaire owns The Onion. That's the elbow grease!

bobbysegs.bsky.social•41 days ago

Great thread, starting the rumor now that you are bringing back the Onion AV Club under a different name.

ubiquity75.xyz•41 days ago

MY GREATEST DREAM

bobbysegs.bsky.social•41 days ago

I would definitely pay for two Onion things to mailed to me.

Also shout to Nintendo Force (run by fan/journalists) which I get delivered to my house and is great.

satellitekisses.bsky.social•41 days ago

Be bold rather than bland, make people laugh, provide something they’ve never seen before.
At least that will get people talking about it and that’s data you can use to build it up better + better.

dustinmatheny.bsky.social•41 days ago

We need him now more than ever.

nooneherebitusbots.bsky.social•41 days ago

I have fond memories of those discs, much like video rentals. And physical bookstores. Oh damn. I'm old, aren't I?

mrkevinwallace.bsky.social•41 days ago

Would a very small run magazine be viable? Emulating old EGM or Nintendo Power magazines would the gaming equivalent of the newspaper, but I assume a minimum number of pages would be needed.

Then again, filling that sucker up with fake ads would be a lot of fun.

books-love-bricks.bsky.social•41 days ago

Sounds like Nintendo Force?

https://www.nintendoforcemagazine.com/

funfactorpod.com•41 days ago

Demo discs in 90s gaming mags, you say? ✍️🗒️

kathytafel.bsky.social•41 days ago

I was at Imagine Publishing, and was one of the people including those demos on disks shrink-wrapped with magazines. Just some caveats to maybe add to your thinking - that model worked because in those days, most people were on 56K modems...

kathytafel.bsky.social•41 days ago

Potentially paying by the hour connected online (sometimes there was flat rate but not always. So it made sense for a *CD* (which can hold 650 MB) to be included with the magazines, they cost less than DVDs. Average PS3 demo is 750 MB. Cost=~ 0.85 for 1000. Prolly the cost of newsprint is cheaper.

kathytafel.bsky.social•41 days ago

Cost also reduced by shipping to airport newsstands after paying mafia fee (that is a joke). Sold ~1/2 to subscribers, 1/2 to airport (and other) bookstores/newsstands, driving the average shipping cost down. This made sense when nobody had high speed internet…

kathytafel.bsky.social•41 days ago

But now, target market can just get the demos themselves (I guess you're talking exclusive demos) but the development costs of a *different* demo than the one you are already making *while you are trying to ship to make Christmas sales* is probably not going to pay for itself unless you are…

kathytafel.bsky.social•41 days ago

Mega game franchise, at which point you don't really need the press anyway. For myriad reasons this model exactly probably doesn't work. If it did, Chris Anderson would still be running Imagine instead of TED talks…

kathytafel.bsky.social•41 days ago

I think there's value in the paper print (biased). I mean, people bought our *Internet* magazine, which was 1/3 *paper* links to websites with snarky reviews ("mirrored" on the CD-ROM), because of the snark. Good writing is good writing. SEO ruined the Internet. You might need more colors.

jontafkasi.bsky.social•41 days ago

Knowing the magazine was in the shop was the best feeling. I'd cycle down there, grab the magazine and a can of shandy (actual alcohol for children), then cycle home and try every game. My dad shaking his head at me. "There's no future in computers"

arjenroodselaar.nl•41 days ago

This! I’d stop by the newsstand at the train station while on my way home from school, around the day of the month new issues of each of my favorite gaming and computing magazines would come out.

I now realize it was the ritual that made it so fun. And the discs held you over for a few weeks.

ajpiano.com•41 days ago

harkens back to that era when the soaking wet new york times at the end of the driveway had a CD with increasingly large amounts of free AOL hours on a regular basis

moralcode.bsky.social•35 days ago

Reminds me of what the band MASTER BOOT RECORD does on their website. The whole thing is several giant CTF games where you get free tracks and albums by solving the puzzles

ezra.solutions•41 days ago

i would pay for a quarterly haunted demo disc

sleepyredpanda.bsky.social•41 days ago

i loved when magazines would come with posters, demo games, comics/manga, all that fun stuff. i assume there's a market, even outside of nostalgia, considering lots of people like subscription boxes and stuff like that

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