In recent years, we’ve seen the demise of many physical gaming media publications. It seems that regardless of size, no magazine is safe, and we’ve even seen hard hitters like the Official Xbox Magazine and Official Playstation Magazine UK close their doors.
At the beginning of the year, Wireframe Magazine bowed out of physical media production. This closure was unfortunate as Wireframe typically covered Indie titles and focused on insider stories from the games industry.
The story of Wireframes closure is one we’ve heard many times before. In a report published by gamesindustry.biz Editor Ryan Lambie goes over a few contributing factors. COVID and the cost of living crisis have acted like a ‘double whammy’ that many smaller companies simply can’t recover from. On top of that, many readers simply prefer to read their gaming news in digital form.
Fortunately, in Wireframe’s case, Lambie hopes the publication will continue in a purely online format and had this to say:
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to produce a PDF version of the magazine periodically. Nothing is set in stone yet. It’s still all being worked out. That’s all I can say at the moment.”
I didn’t want to end this article on a downer, and even though the landscape for gaming magazines may look bleak, it’s not over yet. We recently reported on Debug Magazine and the launch of their very first issue. The publication is available as a physical magazine or PDF. If you’re interested, be sure to check out the official Team Debug website.
Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase through those links. This comes at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!
