When I read on
Ars Technica that Future US (publisher of gaming magazines like PC Gamer, Nintendo Power and the Official Xbox Magazine) would be dedicating an entire magazine to World of WarCraft, please excuse while I chuckle with a little skepticism.
The magazine will be introduced at BlizzCon this weekend where fans can subscribe at an annual rate (at four issues a year mind you) of $39.95, £29.95, or €34.95. It will feature no ads, and be given Blizzard's blessing (so it's an official WoW magazine) and will only print as many copies as they have subscribers (so you won't see this at your local bookstore).
With the economy in the state it is though, $40 a year (quarterly, four issues a year) is a very tough sell. How can this magazine possibly have information that will not be found online on blogs like Project Lore? Item databases such as WoW Head are full of so much information and sites like Boss Killers have all the strategies needed and are all products of the millions of players in the WoW community. How can a WoW magazine possibly get a foothold in an arguably already crowded market of WoW related media?
The biggest help that this magazine has for it is that Blizzard is officially behind it and could possibly give them exclusive information and possibly even exclusive items (the latter would, I think, really sell magazines). The hope is that this will be an in-depth look at the game and get quotes from the developers themselves about news topics and important issues related to World of WarCraft. Their connection with Blizzard will also allow them to have a strong marketing angle, being able to sell your magazine right on the official World of WarCraft website, along with it (most likely) showing up in the launcher (maybe I'm the only one who still uses it?) could really help push copies.
There would have to be some pretty strong incentives to get me to cough up $40 a year for a magazine, much less one that only comes every three months. What do you think? Will you be picking this up? If not, what would they have to offer to get you to pick it up?
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