Edge (magazine)
Edge magazine launched in October 1993, born from the vision of Steve Jarratt, a long-time video games journalist who had already helped create several magazines for Future plc. The title had a single, clear purpose: to cover video games with the kind of seriousness that other critics applied to film or literature. What followed was more than three decades of a publication that refused to be ordinary, that withheld perfect scores for years at a time, and that printed 200 distinct cover variants to mark a single anniversary issue. How did one UK magazine, published just 13 times a year, become a benchmark by which the games industry measured itself?
Almost three years passed after Edge's launch before it awarded a game a perfect score. Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64 earned that first ten in 1996, in issue E035. The gap between a nine and a ten at Edge was not a formality; it was a deliberate editorial statement. For much of the magazine's run, reviews carried explicit sentiment labels, from "disastrous" at the bottom to "revolutionary" at the top. Starting with issue 143, the magazine replaced those labels with a dry, self-aware notation: "10 = ten, 9 = nine," and so on. The editors described it as a tongue-in-cheek response to readers who read too much into scores.
By 2025, only 28 games had ever received a ten. The list included titles spanning nearly three decades: Gran Turismo in 1998, Halo: Combat Evolved in 2001, Half-Life 2 in 2004, and as recently as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 in 2025 in issue E411. At the opposite extreme, only two games earned a one-out-of-ten rating: Kabuki Warriors and FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction. The Super Mario series leads all franchises with four perfect scores, followed by several series with two, including The Legend of Zelda, Bayonetta, Grand Theft Auto, the Half-Life line, and Halo.
In a December 2002 retro gaming special, Edge went back in time and awarded ten-out-of-ten scores to two games released before the magazine existed. Elite, originally from 1984, and Exile, from 1988, received that honor. The magazine later gave a retrospective ten to Super Mario Bros., originally released in 1985.
GoldenEye 007 from 1997 presented a more complicated case. In Edge's 10th anniversary issue in 2003, editors noted that GoldenEye was perhaps the only other game that should have received a ten, acknowledging that "a ten was considered, but eventually rejected." That situation resolved in the 20th anniversary issue, E258, published in August 2013. A feature called "The Ten Amendments" formally revised seven scores upward to ten-out-of-ten, including GoldenEye, Advance Wars, Resident Evil 4, Drop7, Red Dead Redemption, Super Street Fighter IV, and Dark Souls. Each revision came with a written rationale.
October 2003 brought an abrupt editorial crisis. Editor João Diniz-Sanches left the magazine, taking deputy editor David McCarthy and several staff writers with him in what became known as a walkout. The editorship reverted to Tony Mott, who had held the role before Diniz-Sanches. Of the departing team, only Margaret Robertson stayed on, and in 2006 she succeeded Mott as editor.
That arrangement also proved temporary. Robertson stepped down in May 2007, and Mott returned for a third term as editor. Alex Wiltshire then led the magazine from May 2012 to March 2013, followed by Nathan Brown. Jen Simpkins took over from Brown in April 2020. Throughout this editorial churn, a persistent editorial quirk survived: most reviews and articles carried no bylines, crediting only the anonymous collective identity of Edge as a whole. That began to change in 2014, when some contributed features started carrying individual credits.
Issue 143 introduced a recurring feature called "Time Extend," which applies in-depth retrospective analysis to single games, much in the spirit of the magazine's "Making-of" series. "Codeshop" addresses technical topics like 3D modelling or physics middleware, while "Studio Profile" and "University Profile" condense developer and academic subjects into single-page formats, described internally as "like Top Trumps, but for game dev."
James Hutchinson's comic strip Crashlander appeared in the magazine across issues 143 through 193. The columnist roster over the years included Toshihiro Nagoshi of Sega's Amusement Vision, Trigger Happy author Steven Poole, and game developer Jeff Minter. Paul Rose, known by the pen name Mr Biffo and the founder of Digitiser, also contributed a column. Numerous pieces ran anonymously under the pseudonym RedEye, and a regular feature called "Something About Japan" drew on contributions from Japanese writers.
Shigeru Miyamoto personally provided the cover artwork for Edge's 100th issue, a gesture that underscored the magazine's standing in the global games industry. The 200th issue, released in March 2009, went much further. It came with 200 different covers, each one commemorating a separate game. Of those, 199 variants entered general circulation, while one was reserved exclusively for subscribers. Crucially, only 200 copies of each cover were printed, a figure the editorial team noted was "sufficient to more than satisfy" the magazine's then-circulation of 28,898.
Edge extended its reach through foreign editions in Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. The Australian edition lasted less than six months in early 2004. Brazil's edition launched in May 2009 and ran to 18 issues before closing in November 2010. Germany's translation began in November 2005 under Computec Media AG, shifted to a bi-monthly schedule in January 2007, and folded in July 2007. Italy's edition debuted in October 2004 under the name Videogiochi, changed hands when Future Italy was sold to Sprea Editori in December 2006, was renamed Game Pro in May 2007, and published its last issue in September 2009.
Between 1995 and 2002, content from the UK edition reached American readers through a publication called Next Generation. In July 2008 that website was rebranded under the Edge name, since Edge was judged the senior brand. In May 2014, Future announced plans to close the Edge website along with several other gaming sites. By January 2015 it was confirmed the Edge site would merge into GamesRadar, and between 2015 and 2018, Edge articles occasionally resurfaced on Kotaku UK. The 30th anniversary special edition published in 2023 placed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at the top of Edge's 100 greatest games of the magazine's lifetime, with Dark Souls second and Super Mario 64 third.
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Common questions
When was Edge magazine founded and who started it?
Edge magazine launched in October 1993, founded by Steve Jarratt, a long-time video games journalist working for Future plc. Jarratt had previously launched several other magazines for the same publisher.
How many games have received a perfect 10/10 score from Edge magazine?
As of 2025, Edge has awarded a perfect ten-out-of-ten to 28 games. The first was Super Mario 64 in 1996, and the most recent on the list is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, reviewed in issue E411 in 2025.
What is Edge magazine's scoring system and how does it work?
Edge scores games on a scale of one to ten, with five as the nominal average. For most of its history the scores carried descriptive labels ranging from "disastrous" to "revolutionary." Starting with issue 143 the labels were replaced by a deadpan list acknowledging the scale plainly, a response to readers who over-analyzed the numbers.
Which game series has the most 10/10 scores from Edge magazine?
The Super Mario series leads with four perfect scores from Edge, awarded across games released between 1996 and 2017. Several series, including The Legend of Zelda, Bayonetta, Grand Theft Auto, Half-Life, and Halo, each hold two perfect scores.
What happened during the Edge magazine editorial walkout in 2003?
In October 2003, editor João Diniz-Sanches left Edge along with deputy editor David McCarthy and other staff writers. The editorship returned to Tony Mott, who had previously held the role, and Margaret Robertson was the only member of the departing team who remained at the magazine.
What was special about Edge magazine's 200th issue?
The 200th issue, released in March 2009, featured 200 different covers, each commemorating a separate game. Only 200 copies of each cover variant were printed; 199 went into general circulation and one was reserved for subscribers. The magazine's circulation at the time was 28,898.