PC Zone magazine is to shut after 17 years

[DorsetBoy]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10641398

Britain's first ever magazine dedicated to PC gaming is to cease publication after 17 years.

PC Zone magazine, the sometimes anarchic and irreverent monthly journal, is set to close after 225 issues on 2 September 2010.

Future Publishing, which owns the title, said the closure comes in the wake of a strategic review of its PC games portfolio

At its last audit, PC Zone was only selling about 11,000 copies a month.

The magazine started life in a rather dank and dusty basement in Central London.

It rose from the ashes of Zero, a monthly multi-format games magazine that, like PC Zone, was full of off-beat humour, adolescent jokes and, on occasion, courted controversy.

Zero closed down on October 1992. However, most of the staff were retained and formed the core staff of the new, single-format magazine, PC Zone......(more)

  I must have led a sheltered life............. don't think I have ever seen or heard of this magazine before today 

[Niall]

I'm glad they're going. I used to buy it about 15 years ago (but stopped when I got an internet connection as there's nothing in those magazines that isn't online), then suddenly their unbiased reviews took an extremely biased view on certain products and games, which were very poor. For example, when Nvidia brought out awful 5700 range of cards that magazine (and PC Format) started raving about them when they were appallingly bad, when every test going clearly showed they were bad and the drivers were cheating in benchmarks.

Certain games that were bug ridden with nothing going for them, and every online review slated them, they were still saying they were good

If you have to be paid to give reviews you might as well just become an MP if you're going to be corrupt

[Technical Ben]

Well, when your paid it's ok. When your paid by the advertisers who advertise the product your reviewing... well. 
I also agree the reviews went out the window a long time ago. However a lot of other things did as well. The info was lacklustre, the articles shrunk (to be replaced by more and bigger adds).
The price increased. AND the pictures were often missing or wrong. Such as one games pics being on the page for anthers.
Edge is a truly delightful magazine to read. Always has been, and still is. Keeps the quality, art and writing well done. However, the day of printed news is coming to an end, just like the chalk board did. It will be a pity to loose Edge mag if it ever happens.