EDGE (MAGAZINE)

'''Edge''' is a multi-format computer and video game magazine published by Future Publishing in the United Kingdom. It is known for its industry contacts, editorial stance, distinctive anonymous third-person writing style, yearly awards, and longevity.

Contents

History

Scoring

Posthumous awards

Special issues

Editorial history

Foreign editions

Australian

German

French

Italian

Spanish

References

External links

History

The magazine was launched by Steve Jarratt, a long-time video games journalist who has launched several other magazines for Future.
The magazine is very strict in its scoring; it was several years before any game was given a ten-out-of-ten rating and the scores it grants major games are often controversial.
The current editor is Tony Mott. Edge editor quits Future Other regular contributors to the magazine include Tim Guest (the author of ''My Life In Orange''), "Mr Biffo" (founder of ''Digitiser'') and game developer Jeff Minter. Previous columnists include ''Trigger Happy'' author Steven Poole (who chose to end his column after issue 148, April 2005) and Toshihiro Nagoshi of Sega's Amusement Vision (whose column has been on hiatus since issue 142, November 2004).
In 2003 the magazine celebrated its tenth anniversary. Artwork for the hundredth issue's cover was specially provided by Shigeru Miyamoto.
One of Edge's forerunners was ''ACE'', a notable competitor is ''games™''.^[2]
Between 1995 and 2002, some of the content from the UK edition of ''Edge'' was published in the United States as ''Next Generation''.

Scoring

It was almost three years before ''Edge'' gave a game a rating of "ten-out-of-ten". The magazine has only awarded this score—which prior to issue 143 was defined as "revolutionary"—to five games:^[3]

★ ''Super Mario 64'', Nintendo 64 (E35)

★ ''Gran Turismo'', Sony PlayStation (E55)

★ '', Nintendo 64 (E66)

★ '', Microsoft Xbox (E105)

★ ''Half-Life 2'', Windows PC (E143)

Posthumous awards

In December 2002, ''Edge'' awarded posthumous "ten-out-of-ten" ratings to the following titles:

★ ''Elite'' (originally released in 1984)

★ ''Exile'' (originally released in 1988)

★ ''Super Mario Bros'' (originally released in 1985)
In ''Edge's 10th anniversary issue in 2003, ''GoldenEye 007'' (1997) was included as one of the magazine's top ten shooters, along with a note that it was "the only other game" that should have received a "ten out of ten" rating. The game had originally been awarded a "nine out of ten", with the magazine later stating that "a ten was considered, but eventually rejected".
In contrast, only one title has received a one-out-of-ten rating, ''Kabuki Warriors''.

Special issues

A number of ''Edge'' special editions were published in the UK. These included:
;"The 100 most significant reviews from the first 100 issues" (2001):A collection of reprints of notable reviews from the magazine's history, along with retrospective commentary on each game. In addition to reviews of popular titles (including the three "ten out of ten" scores that had been awarded during that period), it also included ''Edge'''s comments on notable hyped disappointments such as ''Rise of the Robots'' and ''Daikatana''. The issue also included an index of the content of those 100 issues of the magazine.
;"Retro: The Guide to Classic Videogame Playing and Collection" (2002):This retrogaming-themed special issue applied the format of the standard edition of ''Edge'' to classic video games. This was the most fully-formed of the ''Edge'' specials, being an edition that only featured new material.
;"Retro: The Making Of... Special" (2002): The second edition in the Retro series was a collection of "Making of" features, most of which had run previously in the main magazine. These features usually contained interviews with the makers of classic video games talking about the process invoved in their title's creation.
;"Equip: PlayStation 2"
;"Equip: GameCube"
;"Equip: PC"
;"Equip: Xbox"
;Specials issue ten: "Retro: The Collector's Series": This final edition in the Retro series reprinted all of the "Collector's Series" of articles from the main magazine. Each feature focused on a specific video game console of yesteryear and examined its history and the collectors market surrounding its rare or collectable games. Unusually for ''Edge'', the majority of these articles were written by one video games journalist, Simon Parkin — a long-time freelance contributor to the magazine.^[4]
;"FILE Volume 1" (2006):A compilation of reprinted reviews and features from ''Edge'' issues 1 through 12.^[5]
;"FILE Volume 2" (2007):A continuation of the retrospective begun went on sale January 4 2007 and covers the second year of the magazine's publication.
;"FILE Volume 3" (2007):Went on sale March 1 2007, covering issues 25-36 (1995-1996). The introduction states that this will be the last ''Edge File'' special issue.
;"Edge Presents The Art Of Videogames" (2007):Went on sale April 26 2007 showcasing the visual aspect of gaming.^[6]
;"Edge Presents The 100 Best Videogames" (2007):Went on sale July 3 2007 listing the 100 games of all time from a poll of readers of Edge and industry experts.^[7]

Editorial history

In October 2003 the then-editor of ''Edge'', Joao Diniz-Sanches, left the magazine along with deputy editor David McCarthy and other staff writers. Senior EDGE staff quit After the walkout the editorship of ''Edge'' passed back to Tony Mott, who had been editor prior to Diniz-Sanches. The only team member to remain was Margaret Robertson, who in 2006 replaced Mott as editor. Margaret Robertson appointed Editor of Edge In May 2007 Robertson stepped down as editor and was replaced by Tony Mott who took over as editor for the third time.

Foreign editions

Australian

An Australian edition was briefly published in early 2004, for less than six months. The Australian edition consisted mostly of content from the UK edition, along with news on the local games industry.

German

In November 2005, a German translation was launched.
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French

A translated selection of articles are published with the french magazine Joypad .

Italian

In October 2004, an Italian localized edition was launched under the name "Videogiochi" and published by Future Italy. In December 2006, Future Italy was sold to Sprea Editori which renamed it "GAME PRO" in May 2007.

Spanish

A localised edition of ''Edge'' was launched in Spain on April 15, 2006 by publisher ''Globus'', which shares some staff from the "On/Off" editorial,^[8] a "Globus" magazine about DVD video and consumer technology, not in any way related to video games.^[9] It lacks some articles contained in the UK edition, such as the ''Virtua Fighter 5'' story which was omitted from the corresponding Spanish edition.^[10]

References

1. Further decline for print mags
2. Multi Format Magazines
3. Edge Online : Reviews Database
4. Chewing Pixels biog Simon Parkin
5. The history of interactive entertainment
6. Edge Presents The Art Of Videogames
7. Zelda game named 'greatest ever'
8. On/Off staff
9. On/Off Magazine
10. Spanish Edge issue 2 (May 2006)

External links

★ Official ''Edge'' site

★ ''Edge'' Online: Reviews Database

★ Biffovision - Paul Rose's blog

★ Steven Poole's web site Includes archive of the ''Trigger Happy'' columns he wrote for ''Edge''

★ ''Edge'' ''Halo'' review

★ Crashlander The comic strip printed monthly in ''Edge''