Next Generation Magazine

Next Generation Magazine

The cover of the January '95 issue of Next Generation.
Frequency	Monthly
First issue	January 1995
Final issue — Number	January 2002 Volume 4 No.13
Company	Imagine Media
Country	USA
ISSN	1078-9693

Next Generation Magazine (also known as NextGen) was a video game magazine that was made by Imagine Media publishing company (now Future Network USA).^[1] It was affiliated to and shared editorial with the UK's Edge magazine. Next Generation ran from January 1995 until January 2002. It was published by Jonathan Simpson-Bint and edited by Neil West. Unlike its competitors GamePro and Electronic Gaming Monthly, Next Generation was directed towards a different readership by focusing on the industry itself rather than individual games.

Lifecycle 2

In September 1999, Next Generation was redesigned, its cover name shortened to simply NextGen. This would start what was known as "Lifecycle 2" of the magazine. A year later, in September 2000, the magazine's width was increased from its standard 8 inches to 9 inches, however this wider format lasted less than a year. Subscribers of Next-Gen Magazine received issues of PlayStation Magazine when the magazine's life-cycle was terminated.

The brand was resurrected in 2005 by Future Publishing USA as an industry-led website, at http://www.next-gen.biz/.

Differences between Next-Gen and its contemporaries

Notable differences between Next Generation and other video game magazines of the time:

• Most video game magazines rank a game in several different categories (graphics, sound, gameplay, etc.) and sometimes provide an average score based on those numbers. Next Generation's review ranking system, on the other hand, was based on a number of stars (1 through 5), that ranked games based on their merits overall compared to what games were already out there.
• Its content didn't focus on screenshots, walkthroughs, and cheat codes. Instead the content was more focused on the game industry from an artistic perspective.
• Its interviews with people in the gaming industry often featured questions about gaming in general rather than about the details of the latest game or game system they were working on.
• Next Generation had a few editorial sections like "The Way Games Ought To Be" (originally written every month by game designer Chris Crawford) that would attempt to provide constructive criticism on standard practices in the video game industry.
• The magazine's construction and design also differed from its competitors. The design was decidedly simple and clean, its back cover having no advertising on it initially, a departure from most other gaming magazines. The first several years of Next Generation had a heavy matte finish cover stock, unlike the glossy paper covers of its competitors. The magazine moved away from this cover style in early 1999, only for it to return again in late 2000.

Issue history

Lifecycle 1

Lifecycle 2

Issue Feature v1 #1 (January 1995) New game consoles v1 #2 (February 1995) Online gaming v1 #3 (March 1995) PlayStation v1 #4 (April 1995) Atari Jaguar v1 #5 (May 1995) Ultra 64 v1 #6 (June 1995) Crossfire v1 #7 (July 1995) Wipeout v1 #8 (August 1995) Sega Saturn TV Commercials v1 #9 (September 1995) Destruction Derby v1 #10 (October 1995) Madden NFL '96 v1 #11 (November 1995) Virtua Fighter's Sarah Bryant v1 #12 (December 1995) 32-bit Videogame Report v2 #13 (January 1996) Ridge Racer Revolution v2 #14 (February 1996) Ultra 64 v2 #15 (March 1996) Next Generation 1996 Lexicon v2 #16 (April 1996) How to get a job in the game industry v2 #17 (May 1996) Codename: Tenka v2 #18 (June 1996) Microsoft future for gaming: DirectX v2 #19 (July 1996) Past, present, and future of online gaming v2 #20 (August 1996) Super Mario 64 v2 #21 (September 1996) Next Generation's Top 100 Games of All-time v2 #22 (October 1996) Venture capital in game development v2 #23 (November 1996) Artificial Life v2 #24 (December 1996) PlayStation vs Nintendo 64 vs Sega Saturn v3 #25 (January 1997) Net Yaroze v3 #26 (February 1997) Videogame Myths v3 #27 (March 1997) Top 10 online gaming sites v3 #28 (April 1997) Retrogaming v3 #29 (May 1997) Something is wrong with the Nintendo 64 v3 #30 (June 1997) Why does a game cost $50 v3 #31 (July 1997) What makes a Good Game v3 #32 (August 1997) Video game packaging v3 #33 (September 1997) Design documents v3 #34 (October 1997) The future of game consoles v3 #35 (November 1997) 25 Breakthrough Games v3 #36 (December 1997) Independent game developers v4 #37 (January 1998) The most important people in the American video game industry v4 #38 (February 1998) hardcore gaming v4 #39 (March 1998) How to get a job in the game industry v4 #40 (April 1998) What the Hell Happened? v4 #41 (May 1998) The Fall of BMG Interactive v4 #42 (June 1998) How games will conquer the world v4 #43 (July 1998) The Licensing Game v4 #44 (August 1998) The Console Wars of 1999 v4 #45 (September 1998) Dreamcast: The Full Story v4 #46 (October 1998) A Question of Character v4 #47 (November 1998) The secret of Namco's success v4 #48 (December 1998) Do video games stand a chance in Hollywood v5 #49 (January 1999) What did Super Mario 64 do for video games v5 #50 (February 1999) Dreamcast Countdown v5 #51 (March 1999) Physics Matters v5 #52 (April 1999) Learning Curves v5 #53 (May 1999) Man versus machine v5 #54 (June 1999) Dreamcast versus PlayStation 2 v5 #55 (July 1999) Building the Future v5 #56 (August 1999) Rare's Triple Threat

Issue Feature v1 #1 (September 1999) Dreamcast Arrives v1 #2 (October 1999) Hooray for Hollywood v1 #3 (November 1999) PlayStation 2 arrives v1 #4 (December 1999) The War for the Living Room v2 #1 (January 2000) Crunch time v2 #2 (February 2000) The Games of 2000 Will Blow Your Mind v2 #3 (March 2000) Raising the Bar v2 #4 (April 2000) PlayStation 2: Hands-On Report v2 #5 (May 2000) Sega's new deal v2 #6 (June 2000) Ready for war v2 #7 (July 2000) Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty v2 #8 (August 2000) The Making of the Xbox v2 #9 (September 2000) Dreamcast: The First Anniversary v2 #10 (October 2000) Broadband Gaming v2 #11 (November 2000) Nintendo GameCube: Can Nintendo Compete v2 #12 (December 2000) 2001 PlayStation 2 games v3 #1 (January 2001) Got Talent: First Party Developers v3 #2 (February 2001) Games Grow Up v3 #3 (March 2001) Start your own game company v3 #4 (April 2001) Field of Indrema v3 #5 (May 2001) Old Systems, New Games v3 #6 (June 2001) Sega's Next Move v3 #7 (July 2001) Eidos on Edge v3 #8 (August 2001) GameCube Exposed v3 #9 (September 2001) Video Game U v3 #10 (October 2001) 25 Power Players v3 #11 (November 2001) Xbox arrives v3 #12 (December 2001) Nintendo's GameCube is here v4 #13 (January 2002) Xbox review

Current state

When the company publishing Next-Gen was forced to make cutbacks, the magazine ceased print. The brand was later revived and moved online. The website, Next-Gen.biz, carries much the same articles and editorial as the print magazine, and in fact reprints many articles from Edge, the UK-based sister magazine to Next-Gen. In July 2008, Next-Gen.biz was rebranded as Edge-Online.com^[2].

References

1. ^ "Imagine Media is now Future Network USA". Future Network USA. 2005-01-22. Archived from the original on 2005-02-10. http://web.archive.org/web/20050210132617/http://www.futurenetworkusa.com/home_nf.html. Retrieved 2007-01-30. 
2. ^ Future to rebrand Next Gen website as Edge // News // GamesIndustry.biz

External links

• Complete collection of 85 front-cover images Next Geneartion
• Wayback link for Next Generation Online
• Wayback link for Imagine Publishing
• Rumor site about the end of Next Generation magazine and Imagine Media
• Next-Gen Podcast
• Current Next-Gen website