PC Games

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PC Games
PC-Games-Logo neu.png
description Computer game magazine
language German
publishing company Computec Media
Headquarters Fuerth
First edition October 1, 1992
Frequency of publication per month
Widespread edition 35,120 (I / 2015) copies
( IVW )
Range 0.96 million readers
( MA 2011 I )
Editor-in-chief Sascha Lohmüller
editor Juerg Marquard
Web link www.pcgames.de
ISSN (print) 0946-6304
Old logo until February 2016

The PC Games (short PCG) is a German computer games magazine , by the Computec Media from Fürth is issued. PC Games appears monthly, usually on the last Wednesday of the previous month, and has 116 pages per issue in the magazine version or 132 pages in the extended version. A sister magazine that focuses more on hardware aspects has been published under the title PC Games Hardware since 2000.

history

With the regular issue 10/1992, a PC game magazine appeared for the first time at the beginning of October 1992, which was regularly accompanied by a 3.5 ″ diskette with demo versions.

From issue 1/1995 PC Games appeared for the first time with a cover CD, from issue 5/1998 consistently as a double CD. From the 11/2000 edition onwards, a DVD was also used as a storage medium outside of the subscription. With the 7/2003 edition it was replaced by a double-sided DVD .

In 2000, based on the hardware section of PC Games, the trade journal PC Games Hardware (first edition 11/2000) was created as an independent magazine that also appears on a monthly basis. The hardware part remained an integral part of the PC Games despite the magazine offshoot.

Since mid-2004 it has been possible to view the game videos on DVD not only as individual videos, but also as an editorially prepared compilation in the reportage style called PC Games Reporter . Upcoming games are presented using trailers , game excerpts and developer interviews . In addition, current events in the computer game scene (e.g. trade exhibitions E3 or Games Convention ) are regularly reported.

Since the magazine was founded, the readers' letter corner ( Rossi's lumber room ) has enjoyed greater popularity. Since the first edition, Rainer Rosshirt (previously working for Amiga Games magazine and also for Play Time ) has been answering questions from readers that are not always about PC games or the magazine in a chatty tone.

Editorial management

The editors-in-chief were at the beginning (from the first edition in October 1992 to March 1998) Oliver Menne and Thomas Borovskis. From April 1998 to February 2000 Thomas Borovskis was the head of the magazine. From March 2000 to June 2001 the editor-in-chief consisted of Florian Stangl and Petra Fröhlich (née Maueröder). In July 2001, Stangl was replaced by Christian Müller. From March 2004 to the end of 2014, Petra Fröhlich was the sole editor-in-chief of PC Games.

Output types

  • PC Games Magazin (normal edition without DVD)
  • PC Games DVD from 16 years of age (DVD also contains demos with an age restriction from 16 years)
  • PC Games DVD from 18 years (DVD also contains demos or videos with an age restriction from 18 years, only available by subscription , or outside of Germany at the kiosk)
  • PC Games Extended (normal edition of PC Games DVD from 16 with another DVD as well as 32 bonus pages and posters (rarely 48 pages without poster) on a topic that usually relates to a current game; has been published monthly since issue 10/2006)
  • PC Games Premium (Contains PC Games Extended from 16 with numerous additional gimmicks, on a topic that usually relates to a current game; appears quarterly; for the first time as issue 11/2006)
  • PC Games MMORE (only deals with the online role-playing game World of Warcraft )

content

magazine

The most important categories of the print edition of PC Games are:

  • News from the PC computer game scene.
  • Previews of PC computer games that are still in development.
  • PC Games Sneak Peek , at which readers are invited to the editorial office to test a game that is soon to be released and to ask the developer for improvements.
  • Tests of current PC computer games (recently published or about to be released ).
  • Articles on current PC hardware components related to computer games (e.g. graphics cards , joysticks and computer mice ).
  • Tips, cheats , mod descriptions and solutions (in the sense of a computer game, e.g. step-by-step instructions ( walkthrough ) for playing through a current computer game).
  • A buyer's guide with the 100 top rated games, broken down by genre .
  • A magazine section with letters to the editor, columns and a “10 years ago” retro page.

Booklet DVD

DVD type: DVD-10 (both sides of the DVD are written with a maximum of 4.7 GB of data each)
The data carrier enclosed with the booklet contains demos , videos , mods , patches , drivers and full versions of computer games.

Scoring system

A specially developed rating system is used for the game tests. Since the February 2006 edition, an average fun value has been calculated using a motivation curve. The motivation curve is on a scale from 1 (insufficient) to 10 (excellent). The game tester / editor awards game fun points for individual game sections (e.g. levels or missions) during the game . The average of these points is rounded to whole numbers between 0 and 100 and gives the overall grade.

PC Games awards various awards for a special game quality:

  • PC Games Award (for games with a fun rating of 85 points or more)
  • PC Games Editors' Choice (for games that are unreservedly recommended by the editors - "completely independent of rating, price or age")

PC Games used to give other awards:

  • PC Games Gold Award (for games with a fun rating of 90 points or more)
  • PC Games Silver Award (for games with a fun rating of 85 points or more)
  • Technik Award (for technically pioneering products that were considered a reference class for new releases)
  • Sound Award (for games that offered an extraordinary sound experience) - the Sound Award was sponsored by the company Creative and carried their logo.

The highest ratings to date were achieved by Strike Commander (Edition 7/1993), Wing Commander 3 (Edition 2/1995) and Half-Life 2 (Edition 12/2004) with 96 points each.

Podcast

Since July 10, 2009, the PC Games editorial team has been broadcasting a podcast every Monday in which current game topics are discussed. It is available free of charge on iTunes .

Circulation statistics

In the second quarter of 2015, the publisher stopped reporting the circulation to the IVW . Most recently, the average monthly circulation according to IVW in the fourth quarter of 2014 was 32,500 copies. That was 34.13 percent (16,839 issues) less than in the same quarter of the previous year. The number of subscribers fell within one year by 16.10 percent to 17,283 subscribers. At the end of 2014, 53.17 percent of readers were subscribing to the magazine.

The magazine was removed from the IVW census in 2015. The publisher stated a circulation of 38,000 copies in 2017, which was reduced to 30,400 copies for 2020.

Issues distributed monthly

Subscriptions sold monthly

Online offer

On the PC Games website you can find news about current events on the PC games market, new game updates and mods, and a forum for PC gamers.

At the end of December 2015, it merged with the websites of the magazines Widescreen and SFT, also published by Computec Media . Since then, the latest cinema, DVD and Blu-ray news, film reviews, trailers and videos, technology news, the editorial staff's own film contributions and a weekly special on selected topics have been available on pcgames.de/filme and pcgames.de/technik .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ PCGH print and website celebrate birthday: A look back. In: PC Games Hardware. October 6, 2014, accessed August 22, 2015 .
  2. ↑ Petra Fröhlich leaves Computec. In: GamersGlobal. November 24, 2014, accessed August 22, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Rossi's World: Bye-bye and thank you, Petra Fröhlich. In: PC Games. December 29, 2014, accessed August 22, 2015 .
  4. ↑ An industry capitulates: Almost all games magazines leave the IVW after the circulation has fallen . meedia .de; accessed on February 10, 2017
  5. ↑ Media data 2017 ( Memento of the original dated February 11, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) Computec.de; accessed on February 10, 2017 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.computec.de
  6. ↑ Computec.de: Media data 2020 , accessed on December 8, 2019