The video game industry is mourning the loss of Game Informer

Promotional art for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which was the final cover game for Game Informer. | Image: BioWareFollowing GameStop’s sudden announcement that it would be shutting down Game Informer after 33 years — which includes GameStop making all...

Aug 3, 2024 - 21:01

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The video game industry is mourning the loss of Game Informer

Following GameStop’s sudden announcement that it would be shutting down Game Informer after 33 years — which includes GameStop making all of the work on Game Informer’s website disappear and reportedly laying off the entire staff — people across the video game industry are sharing their tributes to the gaming magazine.

“As someone who grew up poring over each issue, it was such a thrill and an honor to see our games grace Game Informer,” said Neil Druckmann, head of creative at The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog and an executive producer on the hit HBO show. “Sad that such a staple of our industry is now gone. Good luck to everyone involved. Your work will be missed.”

“Thank you for what you have brought to the video game industry,” said the official Konami account on X. “We will never stop fondly reminiscing about waiting for that next issue to arrive in the mail. Your legacy and impact will forever remain.” The accounts for Discord, Cyberpunk 2077, Assassin’s Creed, Metacritic and X Gaming saluted Game Informer, too.

Many are reminiscing about Game Informer’s excellent covers, which often had beautiful, custom art. Kit Ellis, who worked at Nintendo for more than 13 years in marketing and PR, highlighted how the Game Informer team pushed Nintendo to make amazing art for this The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild cover:

“I remember how excited we were to get this cover ahead of The Witcher 3 launch,” said Michał Nowakowski, the joint CEO of CD Project Red. “Game Informer was there in the very early days of the industry and it is hard to imagine this will be no more.”

Radek Grabowski, CD Projekt Red’s global PR director, also highlighted great covers for Borderlands and Fortnite. “This is video game preservation, which deserves recognition,” Grabowski said.

Current and former staffers are expressing their sadness, too.

“I’m heartbroken — it was my dream job — but my bills don’t care,” said former lead video producer Alex Van Aden.Former editor Wesley LeBlanc posted about now being out of a job while coming home from a work trip.“We were about 70% done with the next issue and it was going to have a GREAT cover,” said former magazine content director Kyle Hilliard.“All of our features on Game Informer... just... gone,” said Liana Ruppert, a former staffer who left in 2021. “Some of my favorite work I ever did was over there and that’s just me – heart is breaking for the folks that have been there so much longer, poured so much of themselves into it just for it to be taken away with ZERO notice. How is this ok?”“As someone who was there at issue one and spent most of their life fighting and scratching and clawing for GI, it breaks my heart to see it end,” said Andy McNamara, a former editor-in-chief who was at the publication for 29 years.“Heartbroken and angry,” Andrew Reiner, another former editor-in-chief, said in a post. “Most of my adult life was spent at Game Informer. All day, I’ve been remembering amazing moments I had with the team — some of the most talented and kindhearted people I’ve ever met and was lucky enough to work with. End of an era, but GI forever!” (Shuhei Yoshida, who once led Sony’s worldwide game studios and now heads up its indie initiatives, replied: “Unbelievable! Thank you for all the years of amazing coverage and friendship. GI lives in our memory forever.”)

Do you know details of why GameStop shut down Game Informer? You can email me at jay.peters@theverge.com or message me securely with Signal, where my username is @jaypeters.11.

Some are scrutinizing the shutdown message itself, which was not written by Game Informer staff, according to Kotaku’s Ethan Gach. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier observed that ChatGPT was able to write a pretty similar message to the one that was actually posted.

GameStop didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Below, we’ve embedded a video interview from 2016 with former Game Informer lead editors McNamara and Reiner about the origins of the magazine.