Binns is well known within the company, having been there for 18 years. His role expanded early last year to include GamesRadar.com, CVG and sites for Official Nintendo Magazine and Official Xbox Magazine.

Richard Keith is to return to Future and fill Binns’s role with immediate effect. Keith left Future in June 2010 to launch TheGamesTribe, a blog network.

Said Binns: “Through my years at Future I’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the finest, smartest people I’ll ever know, and on brands I’ve really loved. Over all that time I wouldn’t change a thing… apart from switching from Left4Dead to Left4Dead 2 sooner. Now, after 18 amazing years, it’s time for new adventures.”

To the Binnsinator: we salute you. Best of luck to Richard in the new job.

Future Publishing’s announced that ex-Official PlayStation Magazine editor-in-chief Tim Clark is to become the company’s new EiC of its gaming arm.

Current OPM editor-in-chief Ben Wilson will maintain his role, but will take over Clark’s previous duties. FirstPlay associate editor Nathan Ditum will report to Wilson.

Future also announced more additional senior roles within the games arm, with former GamesMaster and OPS2M art editor Graham Dalzell to become the group’s art director.

James Binns, head of PC Gamer and Edge International, has had his role expanded to now include overseeing GamesRadar and CVG, as well as two of the company’s flagship gaming magazines, Official Nintendo Magazine and Official Xbox 360 Magazine.

Binns will continue to head up PC Gamer and Edge.

Mark Wynne will now head up a three-man art team working on the Edge brand, having previously been the art editor for OPM. Steve Gallagher will be come the new art editor of the magazine, having previously been deputy art editor.

“The two new editorial appointments are an important strategic step for the Games portfolio. With the experience and expertise that Tim and Graham bring with them we will see our brands go from strength to strength and further cement their sector leading status,” said Future’s group publisher, Simon Maxwell.

“James has unrivalled experience and understanding of the games business and his recent brilliant work launching the all-conquering PCGamer.com makes me confident that he will take these properties to the next level of their development. We will be appointing an Associate Publisher to assist James in the near future as we look to expand the business and drive the brands forward.”

Fantastic scenes. Congrats to Tim and all the Future crew involved.

Future has announced the appointment of James Binns as Head of Edge International and PC Gaming and Simon Maxwell as Group Publisher, Console and Online.

Future’s UK games portfolio includes eleven monthly print titles, and sites GamesRadar,and CVG, along with FirstPlay, and the Golden Joystick Awards.

James Binns moves from his role as Publishing Director to oversee the international development of Edge, PC Gamer and PC Zone.

Simon Maxwell moves from his role as Group Publisher for Total Film, SFX and DVD Review, to oversee official and independent console titles as well as websites CVG and GamesRadar. Simon has over ten years publishing experience from roles with Future, IPC and Cabal Communications.

He joined Future in 2004, and Nial Ferguson, Publishing Director for Entertainment and Tech Lifestyle, will assume responsibility for the film portfolio while recruitment for a new Group Publisher is underway.

“The introduction of two new senior roles in our games portfolio will help us to further build our position as a world-leading games media company and expand our business across print, online, events and on-console,” said Future chief executive Robert Price. “Simon is a great fit for this new role overseeing our console and online brands: he has proven, outstanding commercial acumen and leadership skills, having led in building Future’s film portfolio into a high-profile and commercially successful business.

“James’ games industry expertise is second-to-none and his new role will enable him to focus on growing Edge into a truly international brand and on managing the next stage for our PC gaming portfolio.”

Earlier in the week, Future announced FirstPlay, an interactive magazine for PSN similar to the US version of Qore.

Weekly episodes will be available to buy at £8.99 on a three-month sub or 99p per episode.

Apart from Edge. Which is up less than half a percent year-on-year.

Future Publishing’s first ABC result for a year have shown a heavy slide for its entire games portfolio, with all but one of its magazines falling year-on-year for the 12 months ending December.

The PlayStation Official mag and OXM both dropped, and PC Zone suffered a 12-month decline of more than 40 percent.

Here’s the lot:

• Edge: 29,007 (+0.4%)
• Games Master: 34,313 (-16.2%)
• OXM: 60,834 (-4.8%)
• Xbox World 360: 25,874 (-16.6%)
• OPM: 47,033 (-12.3%)
• PSM 3: 21,224 (-19%)
• PC Zone: 11,357 (-40.3%)
• PC Gamer: 26,487 (-18.8%)
• Official Nintendo Magazine: 51,271 (-12.8%)
• N Gamer: 12,499 (-29.8%)

Publishing head James Binns told us on the phone this afternoon that Future would ABC on an annual basis from now on.

“A lot of media owners do annual ABCs, and some of our competitors do annual ABCs, so it’s not crazily out of context,” he said.

He added: “We chosed to do annual because it’s what our nearest rival did, and obviously we didn’t feel there was a lot of point in spending all that money at that point halfway through the year and doing an ABC, but we maintain the fact that you should be open with your numbers. That’s why we’ve ABC’d all our mags, big and small.”

Binns said that annual figures also help strip out the “seasonality” of the first half of the year traditionally being slower than the Christmas period.

Future showed a 12 percent decline in revenues to £36 million for the first quarter yesterday.

Keep an eye out for the full interview with James tomorrow.

Future has confirmed to VG247 that longstanding UK PlayStation mag PSW has closed.

It had a final ABC of 24,118.

The publisher has redeployed one member of the team within the business and is currently in consultation with the magazine’s other four team members.

“It’s always incredibly sad when we close a title as established as PSW, but the decision was taken in response to decreasing demand,” said Future games boss James Binns.

“By focusing our efforts on Official PlayStation Magazine and a single independent PlayStation title in PSM3, we can strengthen our position in delivering the number one and number two print titles in the sector.

“We continue to invest in our traditional print brands, but games is a rapidly changing sector, so our portfolio needs to constantly evolve to meet the needs of consumers in a vibrant and diverse market.”

The publication was launched by Computec in 2000, and was later bought by Future in 2003 along with Computec UK’s other games titles, such as Xbox World.

Future said yesterday that it is declining to publish six monthly ABC figures this year.

Future games portfolio boss James Binns has told VG247 that the publisher’s decision to not audit its magazines this summer is a matter of saving money.

“We’re not auditing our Games portfolio this half-year – instead we will be publishing full year figures for Jan-Dec 09 at the start of 2010,” said the exec.

“On a company-wide level, Future made the decision to ABC only three titles from our UK portfolio. Our choices to ABC are always taken to reflect the commercial requirements of each magazine.

“Like many businesses, our particular focus this year is on aggressive cost-management, so we have only paid for those titles with a very clear commercial need to be audited.”

It was reported earlier that Future had made the decision to keep its sixth monthly figures private. As far as we’re aware, this is the first time in the company’s history – it was formed in 1985 – it has failed to publish these figures for its games titles.

Still. Roll on 2010, eh?

Edge publishing director James Binns said today that moving control of Edge Online to the UK from San Francisco and installing a new editor and news ed would allow for “effective planning and more flexibility in news gathering”.

Former EIC Colin Cambell left the site on Friday, as did staffers Kris Graft and Rob Crossley. Campbell this morning posted an blistering view of the situation on his new site, GameBizBlog.

Here’s the Future statement in full. There’s a word there from Edge editor Tony Mott as well.

James Binns, Publishing Director of Edge, said:

“Any brand needs a strong, consistent voice across multiple media. We’re focused on developing the best quality content from the ground up that works well in print and online, and has a true global voice. That means effective planning and more flexibility in news gathering. The changes to the team that we’re making will put us in a stronger position to achieve this.

“As we wish three of Edge Online’s freelance contributors the best of luck in their next roles, we’re pleased to announce two full-time appointments for the site, both of whom offer cross-media skills and experience with the Edge brand. Alex Wiltshire, previously deputy editor of Edge magazine, moves into the role of editor, Edge Online, while Tom Ivan, an Edge Online veteran, becomes the site’s news editor.”

Tony Mott, Editor in Chief of Edge, added:

“Following our issue-200 print promotion and a period of consistent audience and traffic growth on our website, the Edge brand is in a great position, and our strategy for Edge Online – strengthening the core editorial team to work across print and web, while continuing to expand our network of reporters globally – will help us to maintain this momentum throughout 2009.”

GamesRadar‘s been renamed TombRadar for today as a marketing thing to celebrate the release of Tomb Raider: Underworld.

“Tomb Raider: Underworld is a great game, well worth the 9/10 scores it is picking up across gaming websites and magazines,” said James Binns, Future’s publishing director.

“Getting the message out there on launch day is essential in the games market and this takeover gives Eidos unprecedented cut through.”

The game, however, appears to have only received two 9s, one at “ConsoleMonster” and one at Future’s PC Gamer, as seen there on TombRadar.com.

It has a MetaCritic average of 78 percent.

Just saying.