Press releases
New glossy consumer mag for gamers
19/03/2004
GAME, Europe’s largest specialist games retailer, is delighted to announce a unique new consumer magazine for the UK’s rapidly growing army of mainstream gamers. Available in April, The GAME Mag is an initiative from GAME and Future Plus, the customer publishing and creative solutions arm of Future Publishing, the UK’s leading games magazine publisher.
With video gaming now a multi-billion pound entertainment market alongside film and music, The GAME Mag is designed for the millions of new customers - adults and children, male and female - that have bought into the games market over the last 18 months as well as the core game players.
Over 3.7 million new games consoles were sold in the UK in 2003, so there are now more than 15.5 million games machines in British homes*.
Anna Macario, GAME Marketing Director, said “We know from our millions of Reward Card members that the UK games market has a more varied range of customers than ever before. It is now very much a mass market.”
“While The GAME Mag is aimed at our core customers, 20 – 34 year old males, we know that many women and older gamers will also be reading it to get the latest information.”
David Maher Roberts of Future Plus said “There has never been more choice in the games market with products for every taste.”
“The GAME Mag’s mission is to offer GAME customers a magazine that will give them clear information on the big picture – covering the huge variety of genres and all of the different platforms. We are extremely happy that GAME have chosen Future Plus as their publishing agency and we are confident of delivering a unique magazine which matches theirs and their customers’ needs.”
Drawing on the expertise of Future Publishing’s best-selling games magazines, the GAME Mag will be available in early April for £1.99, available in all 360 GAME stores in the UK. The magazine uses a more compact size than traditional gaming magazines to make it more identifiable on the shelf.
The first edition will feature extensive articles and commentary, plus reviews of new games due to be released in the coming months.
All of the advertising for the first edition sold out immediately to games publishers. GAME and Future anticipate that subsequent editions will also feature advertising from FMCG and other brands, keen to target the early adopter / 20+ markets.
-ends-
* Includes PS1, PS2, Xbox, GBA SP & GameCube (source: ChartTrack).
About - GAME
GAME is Europe's leading specialist retailer of computer software and video games. The Group currently operates from over 350 stores in the UK and Eire, 35 GAME stores in Sweden, over 90 CentroMAIL stores in Spain and around 60 GAME stores in France. It also offers an on-line shopping service.
Since 2000, by value, the games market has grown 400%, whilst GAME has outpaced this figure and grown operating profit by 800%, over the same period of time.
For further corporate information log onto www.gamegroup.plc.uk, and for the new look on-line store log onto www.game.net
Future Publishing
Future Publishing is part of The Future Network Plc, which was founded in the UK in 1985. Today, The Future Network publishes over 90 specialist consumer magazines worldwide, is the world’s leading publisher of video games magazines and is the fifth largest magazine publisher in the UK. Future employs around 1,000 people in offices in the UK, US, Italy and France. Almost 100 international editions of Future’s magazines are also published in 30 other countries across the world. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange (symbol FNET).
Contacts:
Simon Soffe / Lisa Artemis – GAME PR Dept
01344 464442 / 464512
Leah Moore, Future Publishing, on 01225 822 517
