Future Publishing has officially retired its Official PlayStation Magazine UK, ending the last official games magazine after fifteen years of publication. The news went out in a note to subscribers on Friday and was tweeted by Lara Jackson. Future announced that the magazine would be rebranding itself as Play, and would keep the same editorial team. No official reason was given for the change, though there is speculation that Future did not renew its license with Sony.

The rebranding marks the end of the last official games magazine after they started publication 33 years ago. Official Nintendo Magazine was shuttered in October of 2014, the US version of Official PlayStation Magazine closed in 2012 Official Xbox Magazine ceased operations in April of 2020. All of those magazines were also published by Future. Future also owns GamesRadar, PC Gamer, Retro Gamer, and EDGE. The first official games magazine was Nintendo’s own Nintendo Power, which ran from July of 1988 to December 2012.

Official PlayStation Magazine UK’s fifteen-year run was impressive. The magazine’s first issue came out in the winter 2006. For a while, it was the best-selling games magazine in the world. The good news is that this is essentially just a rebranding. The same editorial staff, writers, and designers will be the team behind Play.

Future reaffirmed its commitment to its PlayStation coverage in an email to subscribers, writing “Our aim is for Play to go farther and deeper than ever before into the world of PlayStation gaming. And crucially, it’s made by the same team of writers, editors and designers, with the same deep industry access, quality writing, and pass for all things PlayStation.”

Say whaaaaat?! Goodnight, OPM. Looking forward to what's next! pic.twitter.com/g7d63zzWxr

— Lara Jackson (@ByLaraJackson) April 30, 2021

The Pokémon Company International’s Heather Dalgleish stated, “We’re delighted to be collaborating with leading publisher, Future. Their extensive reach in the market ensures that the Official Pokémon Magazine can be enjoyed by Pokémon fans across the United Kingdom.”

Meanwhile, Future’s Lee Nutter commented on the matter stating that, “It is absolutely fantastic for Future to partner with an international brand as renowned as Pokémon and to be provided with the opportunity to bring the official magazine to the UK market.

“Pokémon has never been bigger and more relevant than it is today and the magazine will serve as the voice for its UK audience.”

The magazine will be have 13 issues published a year with a free gift in bundled with each issue.

In its pearl anniversary, the Golden Joysticks have been around longer than the vast majority of gamers, especially impressive in an industry still in the throes of infancy. This rare occasion to pay tribute to games is riddled with the tendrils of advertising from bow to stern; the Golden Joysticks are anything but about games.

Before the reasonably priced champagne had even been poured, the award winners were announced via press release, under embargo until after the winners had been announced. An utterly bizarre set of circumstances which means we knew who the winners were before they were officially announced and, yet couldn’t publicise this fact until they were, undermining the very form and function of a ceremony intended as a celebration of games. Such a sterile approach serves to allow press outlets to publicise a full list of winners at 4pm on the dot, in disgustingly uniform fashion, which seems utterly disrespectful to everyone involved in the creative process.

Presiding over the Joysticks was rent-a-joke Ed Byrne, awkwardly creaking along with lukewarm observational comedy slurry, interspersed by brief outbursts of video games. When Byrne wasn’t pitifully yammering on about the state of airline baggage, there was a series of distressingly obnoxious game trailers mid-ceremony. At some point there were some awards for achievements in video games, or something, but nobody was really paying attention. When Future Publishing’s Head of Entertainment Group Claire Porteous took to the stage, beginning the show, the audience were so disinterested, they had to be forcibly shushed into submission.

The various winners of the 19 awards weren’t even afforded so much as an audible ‘thank you’ to those who made the game in question possible, abruptly thrust to one side for an awkward photo opportunity with Byrne, then shoved off stage like stray dogs. Steven Fry’s vaguely embarrassing robot likeness was given more stage time than several award recipients combined, each sponsor’s name bellowed more proudly and boldy than the winners. Not only is this grossly disrespectful to the game makers themselves, the nature of the public vote makes it an even greater disservice to the fans.

The hotly contested Best Downloadable Game category was sponsored by the Official Xbox 360 Magazine and won by an Xbox 360 ‘exclusive’ Minecraft. Whilst one of the many categories voted for by the public, is this not, in any way, a conflict of interest? Not to mention hilarious if, say, a PlayStation 3 exclusive masterpiece like Journey would have won, a hypothetical which sadly only exists in my head.

Voted for by the consumers, The Golden Joysticks are unique in that exclusively through the official website. Fundamentally a fantastic idea at heart, especially when involving over 4,000,000 votes; truly representative of the man on the street. Well, the man in an Ikea desk chair at least.

Who’s fault is it? Future’s, perhaps, the Joysticks after all are a means of revenue foremost and a celebration of the medium second, or perhaps even third. This is the typical of an event devoid of an impartial board; set up initially with the purest of motives, financial constraints inevitably lead to the introduction of corporate sponsorship and from there a nauseating spiral into a hideous abyss. It’s a shame no other award ceremony of this magnitude takes the views of the public into direct consideration, but it’s ultimately toxic for the consumer. We simply shouldn’t stand for this car crash, simply don’t tune in and instead opt for something altogether more wholesome, like the British Academy Game Awards.