Tag Archives: future

Future’s share price has hit back after an all-time low of 9.5p yesterday, rising back to its Monday level of 14p.

That’s a whole 37 percent.

Future reported growth in both sales and profit today.

Future’s confirmed the name of its British Qore clone as Official PlayStation Magazine HD in a job posting for a content producer.

There’s no release date in there, but the “pay for demos” strategy is clearly in force for the vehicle’s trip to Europe: “Future is working with Sony on the project, which will contain hi-def video, game demos and other content.”

Full thing through there. Thanks, Kotaku.

Neil Long has left the editorship of MCV to take of the British Official Nintendo Mag.

Outgoing Editor Chandra Nair leaves Future following a handover with Neil to seek new opportunities in the games industry and further develop his burgeoning music career.

“As we seek to continue the phenemonal [sic] growth of Official Nintendo Magazine I’m delighted to welcome Neil to our team,” said ONM publisher Lee Nutter.

“With a strong background in the games industry and experience at the helm of a successful trade title, I’m confident he will bring a fresh set of ideas to further develop the magazine.”

Press release after the link.

More »

Ram Raider’s rumouring that longstanding PCZone editor Will Porter is to quit, following previous recent departures from Ed Zitron and Jamie Sefton.

Staffer Jon Blyth is also thought to be leaving.

The Future magazine has, according to the mysterious blogger, had its page count and budget reduced, and its frequency pushed up to 14 issues a year.

Anyone who’s ever spoken to any of these guys will know that none of this comes as a gigantic shock, frankly.

More through the link.

Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle, will host its upcoming Golden Joysticks, taking place on October 31 at the Park Lane Hilton in London.

“This year’s Golden Joystick Awards are shaping up to be the best yet, thanks to the support of our sponsor Virgin Media and Frankie Boyle signing up as host,” said event boss Emma Parkinson.

“The industry has always seen the Joysticks as a focal point of its calendar and long may this continue. Increasingly, it has become a focal point for mainstream press attention and a celebration of the games industry. As we aim for a million votes, we need the help of your fans and customers’ make the wider world proud of our industry.”

We’d care if we were going. We’re open to bribery if anyone has a spare ticket.

Future and SCEE have confirmed that a UK PSN magazine similar to the American PSN’s Qore is on the way.

The product is described as a “interactive high definition magazine” and has gone unnamed in today’s announcement.

The UK download will be weekly, as opposed to Qore’s monthly editions, and will launch early next year.

European versions are to be released following the UK roll-out.

No mention has been made of subscriptions.

Press release after the link.

More »

Future’s relaunched CVG, showing a streamlined site compared to the old blue design, and hanging a “beta” sign on the logo.

“This is really just the first pass of the new CVG, there’s plenty more to come in the next month and beyond,” said CVG’s tech lead, John Houlihan.

“In fact in many ways the real work begins after launch day, as we continue to add in all the new features and further additions which we couldn’t quite squeeze in for today’s Press of the Big Red Button.”

More through the link.

Future’s claimed that GamesRadar Network now reaches 7.3 million unique users per month, a figure drawn from HBX audits.

GamesRadar Network includes GamesRadar, CVG, Edge, OXM, ONM, PSM3, PSW, PC Gamer, XBW 360, NGamer and PC Zone – all of the publisher’s game sites.

The web traffic info was posted on the back of positive ABCs for some of Future’s mags. The official titles have fared well in the last six months. ONM is up 27.6% year-on-year to 61,159, while OPM is up 12% period-on-period to 51,533 copies.

OXM looks to have topped out a little, gaining 2.2% YoY to hit 67,097 copies a month.

The unofficials were also up, with PSM3 and PSW rising 29.5% and 33.7% year-on-year respectively. N-Gamer rose 19% period-on-period to 20,290.

“Future’s console business is in a fanastic [sic] place, with brilliant partnerships, growing audiences and fresh media offerings from our UK and US offices,” said Future publishing boss, James Binns.

“There’s increased recognition and growing respect at large for video gaming and a desire to communication with our loyal readership. In a media landscape obsessed with the collapse of lads [sic] mags – the growth of our games portfolio is predominently [sic] fuelled by the same enthusiastic male audience.”

Press release after the link.

More »

Future and Tesco have announced plans to release a free games magazine in Tesco’s 425 UK branches.

The first mag to come out of the deal will be called Hot Summer Games, and will have a print run of 1 million copies. The Gamesradar team’s writing the copy.

“We are delighted to be working in partnership with Tesco on this landmark games magazine – utilising Future’s editorial expertise to inform and guide Tesco customers to the best games for them and their families,” said Future’s Lee Nutter.

“Working with the UK’s leading retailer further cements Future’s number one position in the games market.”

According to this, Future’s advertising for an associate publisher to work in Sydney, fuelling speculation tha the firm may be looking to set up Australian operations itself. Until recently, its mags were licensed to a third party called Derwent Howard.

In the year ending December 31 2007, Future’s combined games mags sales were up 23 percent over the same period in the previous year, the company announced today.

Winners for the group included Official Nintendo Magazine (up 37 per cent to 58,754) and Xbox 360: The Official Xbox Magazine (up 19 percent to 66,894). The recently launched Official PlayStation Magazine announced a first ABC of 46,018. The unofficial Xbox magazine Xbox World 360 increased 37 percent to 31,698.

Falling circulations continued to blight Future’s PC magazines, however. PC Gamer dropped 11 percent to 38,654, while PC Zone got a fairly serious kicking over the year, down 17 percent to 22,297.

Future’s multiformats also fared less well. Edge was down 11 percent to 31,304, with GamesMaster taking a slight hit, down 53,904 copies to 51,389.

PSM3 saw a slight rise of 1 per cent to 26,885, but PSW entered the killzone, down 16 per cent to 21,826.

It’s Euro web-war, kids. Gamespot UK today claimed it has 3.5 million unique users (UUs) in the UK, quoting ABCe figures from December.

“The gaming industry has seen explosive growth over the last 12 months, with new game launches such as Halo 3 far outstripping the majority of film openings in terms of first-day sales,” said GameSpot UK site manager Laura Jenner. “The UK gaming community is highly passionate and our experienced editorial team is dedicated to delivering the kind of targeted, in-depth and knowledgeable content that this community has come to expect. This audit confirms GameSpot UK’s position as the interactive gaming community of choice within the UK, and we look forward to building on this success further in 2008.”

The news comes on the back of recent figures from Eurogamer Network (1.8 million UUs across Eurogamer.net, Eurogamer.de and Eurogamer.fr) and Computec (1.39 million UUs across its German network, mainly on PCGames.de and Buffed.de). CVG’s last major figures-release was in last May, which claimed 1.56 million UUs across the CVG Network.

Future’s bought a stake in gamer news site N4G.com, the publisher’s just announced, meaning the site will join Future’s GamesRadar Network. No financial terms were disclosed. N4G now joins GamesRadar, FileRadar.net, Gloob.tv, OXMOnline “and the soon to be re-launched” PCGamer.com in Future’s stable of games sites.

N4G received 3.65 million visits in January 2008, according to the press release, with 17.8 million page views and nearly a million unique visitors.

“We are very excited about our newly formed partnership with Future US,” said Vegard Aure. ”This gives us a chance to grow our capabilities and traffic for what we feel is one of the web’s premiere social spots for gamers.”

UK magazine publisher Future has taken a revenue hit for the first three months of its fiscal year, down 1.5 percent over the same period for 2006. The company reported revenues of £40.6 million for the three months ending December 31 2007.

“Although we continue to take a cautious view of our markets, the current financial year has begun satisfactorily and the Group’s financial position is solid,” said Stevie Spring, chief executive at Future. “Our strategy remains firmly on track.”

The firm’s stock has rallied since December, when an eye-watering series of drops saw a price close to 27p. Future’s shares stood at 34.75p at the time of writing.