Game Magazines that Flopped
Video game magazines are nowadays looked down upon, thanks to the advent of Internet-based publications. However, back in the old days, magazines were the major sources of information and gamers had no choice but to read them if they were to know about the up and coming games. Even in recent times magazines carry exclusives weeks or months before the information hits the web. Anyways, Games.net takes a look back at the olden days, listing the magazines that flopped hard. Here’s one:
Premise: A fairly obscure title even in its homeland of the United Kingdom, Mr. DC (the name of the blue swirly thing on the top left corner of the cover) was launched in mid-2000, at a time when debuting any sort of Dreamcast magazine, much less one aimed toward children, was a little… risky, to say the least. “We just felt it was good to be in the market early and to see if we could challenge some of that received wisdom, I guess,” editor-in-chief Caspar Field told UK trade publication CTW in 2000. “Certainly the feedback we’ve been getting from readers and from kids has been fantastic.”
Signs of Trouble: As you’d expect, Mr. DC was an extremely colorful magazine, divering away from most other Dreamcast publication’s clean and Next Gen-like look. Strategy guides and previews take up much of the real estate, and a section in the rear takes a jury of 16 middle-school-age gamers and gets their viewpoints on all the new DC titles of the moment. In short, it was a pretty extensive misread of the Dreamcast’s user base at the time — i.e., hardcore gamers and Sega maniacs — and the resulting magazine didn’t last very long.
Did you read any magazines back in those times? Miss any publications that aren’t around now?