Future Publishing have recently made my head hurt. Back in June they ended the Official PlayStation 2 Magazine but decided to keep the Official PSP Guidebook going. Six months on, it’s increasingly evident that they’ve made the wrong decision.
The latest issue of OPG makes for depressing reading – it’s released every 8 weeks but even so they could only find two new PSP games to review, while most of the previews are of Japanese RPGs unlikely to be released in Europe.
During Christmas PlayStation 2 owners were enjoying Sonic Unleashed, Tomb Raider: Underworld, Call of Duty 5, James Bond: Quantum of Solace and the likes of Crash, Spyro and Madagascar 2. PSP owners had to do with Buzz Brain Bender, LocoRoco 2 and a handful of EA’s yearly updates.
Worse still is the fact that the PlayStation 2 has a brighter looking future than the PSP with Ghostbusters, Persona 4, Star Wars: Battlefront III, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Monsters Vs Aliens and X-Men Origins all due out soon. The PSP on the other hand just has Patapon 2 and Resistance: Retribution. Sega, Activision and others have seemingly abandoned the system but seem happy to continue support for the humble PlayStation 2. It makes you wonder what the staff are going be writing about in a few issues time. More Japanese RPGs that won’t be released over here, probably.
Then there’s NGamer Magazine. It costs a whopping £4.99 – a quid more than the Official Nintendo Magazine. What are the differences between the two? Nothing, really – they have the same amount of pages and both come with a usually quite decent free gift every issue. There was a time when NGamer Magazine came with a DVD every issue but these days are long gone. Surely a drop in price would result in more readers?
If the upcoming 200th issue of EDGE doesn’t come with a mini bag of Haribo sweets I think I’ll have to form a one man angry mob outside the Future Publishing offices…