The gaming
industry is a huge industry that
consumes as much news space as any other widely known enterprise. It’s so large
in fact, if you take a walk down the aisle of any store that sells magazines,
you’ll find at least two or three gaming magazines to select from – and this
includes stores that you would least expect to find them in, like the Walgreens
Drug Store for Pete’s sake.
What’s even
better, is that regardless of what your skill level with games is, you can take
advantage of this news coverage and use what you learn to improve you
knowledge, your equipment, and your play. You can additionally find out about
gaming events that you can attend or even participate in.
To start, take
a trip to your local game shop. Game Crazy and Game Stop are two popular gaming
stores that regularly carry related magazines (although you may discover that
your local game shop carries only one). One of the things that you’ll want to
do while looking over these magazines is to compare prices of both games and
game systems. The Gamer Informer magazine shows no preference, and provides a
one to two inch thick critique of the newest stuff out there. Inside this
resource, you’ll find commentary on the Wii, EA games, the PS3, the Xbox 360, PC
games, the PS2, the PSP and the DS system.
As a no holes
barred manual to what’s hot and what’s not, gaming magazines show you how news
in the mainstream media affects game production and how it can affect not only
your purchase decisions, but the type of games you play as well. It isn’t
uncommon for a game to experience a rise in sales just from being mentioned in
the 5:00 news hour.
You could
learn what's happening with new and competitive gaming businesses before
investing in their products, however if you dig a little deeper, you can even
find out what's influencing the market that you’re a part of.
Here’s an
example of what we mean:
“Today, professional gaming took a giant leap forward.
DIRECTV, Inc., the nation's leading digital service provider and key partners
are taking the professional gaming industry to the next level with the creation
of a new video gaming professional sports league that will be the standard for
the industry and redefine the consumer gaming experience.”[1]
You can also
discover what influence the news has on gaming within an international level:
“The British Academy of Film and Television Arts today
announced that its 2007 British Academy Video Games Awards will be held on the
evening of Tuesday 23 October at Battersea Evolution in London.”[2]
Interested in
console specific information? How about Nintendo:
“Nintendo plans to boost Wii production (AP via Yahoo!
News) Nintendo's president acknowledged Friday that the shortage of the hit Wii
game machine was "abnormal," and promised production was being
boosted to increase deliveries by next month.”[3]
Of course,
there’s always the chance that you’ll find out things you’re weren’t exactly
supposed to find in the first place:
“Halo 3 gameplay leaked online (The Inquirer) A VIDEO
HAS has appeared online showing seven minutes of fresh, crisp Halo 3 gameplay.”[4]
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