Edge (magazine)

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Edge
The cover of Edge Issue 179 (October 2007)

The cover of Edge Issue 179 (October 2007)
Editor Tony Mott
Categories Computer and video games
Frequency Monthly
Circulation 31,304[1]
Publisher Matthew Pierce
First issue October 1993
Company Future Publishing
Country Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
Language English
Website Edge online
ISSN 1350-1593

Edge is a multi-format computer and video game magazine published by Future Publishing in the United Kingdom. It is known for its industry contacts, editorial stance, distinctive anonymous third-person writing style, yearly awards, and longevity.

Contents

[edit] History

The magazine was launched by Steve Jarratt, a long-time video games journalist who has launched several other magazines for Future. One of Edge's forerunners was ACE,[2] a current competitor is GamesTM.

Artwork for the hundredth issue's cover was specially provided by Shigeru Miyamoto.

In October 2003 the then-editor of Edge, Joao Diniz-Sanches, left the magazine along with deputy editor David McCarthy and other staff writers.[3] After the walkout the editorship of Edge passed back to Tony Mott, who had been editor prior to Diniz-Sanches. The only team member to remain was Margaret Robertson, who in 2006 replaced Mott as editor.[4] In May 2007 Robertson stepped down as editor and was replaced by Tony Mott, taking over as editor for the third time.[5]

Between 1995 and 2002, some of the content from the UK edition of Edge was published in the United States as Next Generation. In 2007 Future US began re-publishing selected recent Edge features on the Next Generation website;[6] the Edge website and blog subsequently became incorporated into the Next-Gen site.[7]

[edit] Features

Each issue includes a "Making-of" article on a particular game, usually including an interview with one of the original developers.[8] Issue 143 introduced the "Time Extend", series of retrospective articles. Like the "making-of" series, each focuses on a single game and, with the benefit of hindsight, gives an in-depth examination of its most interesting or innovative attributes.[9]

"Codeshop" examines more technical subjects such as 3D modelling programs or physics middleware, while "Studio Profile" and "University Profile" are single-page summaries ("like Top Trumps, but for game dev") of particular developers or publishers, and game-related courses at higher education institutions.

The magazine usually does not credit individual writers to specific reviews and articles, only referring to itself in the third-person as a single collective called "Edge". The magazine's regular columnists are the main exceptions to this practice. The two current columnists are N'Gai Croal and Randy Smith. In addition, several Japanese writers contribute to the "Something about Japan" feature.

Previous columnists have included Paul Rose ("Mr Biffo", the founder of Digitiser), Trigger Happy author Steven Poole,[10] Toshihiro Nagoshi of Sega's Amusement Vision, author Tim Guest (whose column on MMOs preceded the publication of his book Second Lives), and game developer Jeff Minter. In addition, numerous columns were published anonymously under the pseudonym "RedEye".

James Hutchinson's comic strip Crashlander has been featured in Edge since issue 143.

[edit] Scoring

It was almost three years before Edge gave a game a rating of "ten-out-of-ten". This score was previously defined as "revolutionary", with the other ratings having similar labels. However, with issue 143 the scoring system was changed to a simple list of "10 = ten, 9 = nine..." and so on, a tongue-in-cheek reference to people who read too much into review scores.[11]

The magazine has only awarded this score to nine games:[12]

In contrast, only one title has received a one-out-of-ten rating, Kabuki Warriors.

[edit] Posthumous awards

In a December 2002 retro gaming special, Edge awarded "posthumous" ten-out-of-ten ratings to two titles:

  • Elite (originally released in 1984)
  • Exile (originally released in 1988)

Edge also awarded a 10/10 score in one of the regular retrospective reviews in the magazine's normal run:

In Edge's 10th anniversary issue in 2003, GoldenEye 007 (1997) was included as one of the magazine's top ten shooters, along with a note that it was "the only other game" that should have received a "ten out of ten" rating. The game had originally been awarded a "nine out of ten", with the magazine later stating that "a ten was considered, but eventually rejected".

Resident Evil 4, which came second in Edge Presents The 100 Best Videogames, originally obtained a nine, but according to the 100 Best Videogames issue, it came "as near as dammit to the sixth (at the time) Edge ten".

[edit] Special issues

 This article or section is incomplete and may require expansion and/or cleanup.
Please improve the article, or discuss the issue on the talk page.

A number of Edge special editions were published in the UK. These included:

"The 100 most significant reviews from the first 100 issues" (2001)
A collection of reprints of notable reviews from the magazine's history, along with retrospective commentary on each game. In addition to reviews of popular titles (including the three "ten out of ten" scores that had been awarded during that period), it also included Edge's comments on notable hyped disappointments such as Rise of the Robots and Daikatana. The issue also included an index of the content of those 100 issues of the magazine.
"Retro: The Guide to Classic Videogame Playing and Collection" (2002)
This retrogaming-themed special issue applied the format of the standard edition of Edge to classic video games. This was the most fully-formed of the Edge specials, being an edition that only featured new material.
"Retro: The Making Of... Special" (2002)
The second edition in the Retro series was a collection of "Making of" features, most of which had run previously in the main magazine. These features usually contained interviews with the makers of classic video games talking about the process invoved in their title's creation.
"Equip: PlayStation 2"
"Equip: GameCube"
"Equip: PC"
"Equip: Xbox"
Specials issue ten: "Retro: The Collector's Series"
This final edition in the Retro series reprinted all of the "Collector's Series" of articles from the main magazine. Each feature focused on a specific video game console of yesteryear and examined its history and the collectors market surrounding its rare or collectable games. Unusually for Edge, the majority of these articles were written by one video games journalist, Simon Parkin — a long-time freelance contributor to the magazine.[13]
"FILE Volume 1" (2006)
"FILE Volume 2" (2007)
"FILE Volume 3" (2007)
Three "File" editions reprinted selected content originally published between 1993 and 1996 in Edge issues 1–36. Each volume of "File" covered 12 issues.[14]
"Edge Presents The Art Of Videogames" (2007)
This went on sale April 26, 2007 showcasing the visual aspect of gaming.[15]
"Edge Presents The 100 Best Videogames" (2007)
On sale from July 3, 2007. The list was compiled through a combination of suggestions from Edge readers, Edge staff and additional "industry experts". Each game in the list had a retrospective article, a full-page illustration, and a sidebar listing readers' comments. In addition, the volume contained reprints of the magazine's previous "Top 100" lists from 2000 (issue 80) and 2003 (issue 128).[16]

[edit] Foreign editions

[edit] Australian

An Australian edition was briefly published in early 2004, for less than six months. The Australian edition consisted mostly of content from the UK edition, along with news on the local games industry.

[edit] German

In November 2005, a German translation was launched by the publishing house Computec Media AG. The German edition was thinner then the English original, the covers were slightly changed and the ratings raised. In January 2007 it was changed to a bi-monthly schedule and in July 2007 it was finally shut down.

[edit] French

A translated selection of articles are published with the French magazine Joypad .

[edit] Italian

In October 2004, an Italian localized edition was launched under the name "Videogiochi and published by Future Italy. In December 2006, Future Italy was sold to Sprea Editori which renamed it GAME PRO in May 2007.

[edit] Spanish

A localised edition of Edge was launched in Spain on April 15, 2006 by publisher Globus, which shares some staff from the On/Off editorial,[17] a Globus magazine about DVD video and consumer technology, not in any way related to video games.[18] It lacks some articles contained in the UK edition, such as the Virtua Fighter 5 story which was omitted from the corresponding Spanish edition.[19]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Standard Certificate of Circulation - Edge. ABC. Retrieved on 2008-06-12.
  2. ^ Multi Format Magazines. Retrogames. Retrieved on 2006-05-23.
  3. ^ Bramwell, Tom (2003-10-30). Senior EDGE staff quit. Gamesindustry.biz. Retrieved on 2006-12-13.
  4. ^ "Margaret Robertson appointed Editor of Edge", gamesindustry.biz, April 20, 2006. 
  5. ^ "Edge editor quits Future", gamesindustry.biz, May 21, 2007. 
  6. ^ Edge Section : Next Generation. Future US (2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-24.
  7. ^ Welcome to the new Edge blog : Next Generation - Interactive Entertainment Today, Video Game and Industry News - Home of Edge Online
  8. ^ Examples of "The Making Of..." articles available online: System Shock 2
  9. ^ Examples of "Time Extend" articles available online: NiGHTS Into Dreams, Second Sight, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
  10. ^ Archive of "Trigger Happy" columns at Steven Poole's website
  11. ^ "Does a perfect score mean a perfect game?" Games Radar
  12. ^ Edge Online : Reviews Database. Edge Magazine. Future. Retrieved on 2006-05-23.
  13. ^ Simon Parkin. Chewing Pixels biog. Retrieved on 2006-09-19.
  14. ^ The history of interactive entertainment. Future. Retrieved on 2006-12-10.
  15. ^ Edge Presents The Art Of Videogames. Edge Online. Future. Retrieved on 2007-05-07.
  16. ^ The 100 Best Videogames. Future Publishing (2007-07-02). Retrieved on 2007-09-24.
  17. ^ On/Off staff. Retrieved on 2006-05-30.
  18. ^ On/Off Magazine. Retrieved on 2006-05-30.
  19. ^ Spanish Edge issue 2 (May 2006). Retrieved on 2006-05-30.

[edit] External links