Game Informer

• 1. Introduction

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  Game Informer debuted in August 1991 not as a magazine but as an in-house newsletter, the kind of thing a retail chain prints to move merchandise. FuncoLand owner David R. Pomijie wanted a better way to spend advertising dollars, and a publication aimed at customers browsing the store seemed like the answer. Nobody expected it to outlast the retailer that created it, let alone become one of the largest magazines in the United States. By 2011, Game Informer was circulating more than 8 million copies a month, surpassing Time, Sports Illustrated, and Playboy. Then, on the 2nd of August 2024, after 33 years and 368 issues, it was gone. What built a newsletter into a publishing giant, and what finally brought it down?

• 2. From Newsletter to Newsstand

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  Elizabeth Olson served as the first editor-in-chief when Game Informer launched, with Andy McNamara working as her editorial assistant. The two co-led the publication together starting in 1993. With the release of issue sixteen, McNamara became the sole editor-in-chief, a position he would hold for decades. For its first three years, the magazine published every two months. In November 1994, it shifted to monthly publication, a signal that it was maturing into something more substantial than a store flyer.

  The publication's early format covered news, strategy, and reviews of video games and consoles, tracking the industry through the 16-bit era. The review system used a 1 to 10 scale with quarter-point intervals. A score of 1 to 5 meant terrible; 6 to 7 was average but playable; a 10 was rare, an outstanding and nearly perfect game. A section called "Classic GI" ran brief retrospective reviews of older games, three per issue, comparing each against its original score. That section ran until 2009.

• 3. The GameStop Years

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  In 2000, Barnes and Noble acquired and merged several companies, leading to the formation of GameStop Corp. FuncoLand and Game Informer were both purchased by GameStop that same year. The acquisition changed the magazine's trajectory entirely. GameStop used the publication as a cornerstone of its Power Up Rewards customer loyalty program, giving subscribers a built-in reason to stay engaged with the store. Cathy Preston became publisher in 2001, having joined the production team the year before. It was under her leadership that the magazine's ties to GameStop deepened into something that helped drive its circulation numbers upward.

  By 2010, Game Informer had reached 5 million copies sold, making it the fifth-largest magazine in the US. A year later it climbed to third, clearing 8 million copies. The figures reflected a specific competitive advantage: the lack of serious gaming-magazine competition, a strong relationship with game publishers, and the steady promotional muscle of GameStop's retail network. The subscription program launched in March 2024, standalone from Power Up Rewards, offered 10 print issues per year at a special annual price of $19.91, a deliberate nod to the founding year.

• 4. Layoffs and Leadership Shifts

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  In August 2019, about half of Game Informer's staff were let go as part of a broader cut of more than 120 jobs across GameStop. Some of those dismissed had worked at the publication for over a decade. Some were on vacation when the layoffs happened. The departures triggered a secondary wave; other staff left voluntarily, including video editor Ben Hanson, who went on to start a podcast called MinnMax and recruited some of the laid-off Game Informer staff.

  In March 2020, another round of cuts hit departments outside the editorial team. Then in late June 2020, McNamara announced he was leaving to become Global Director of Integrated Comms for Shooters and Star Wars at Electronic Arts. His final act at the publication was returning to write one last review: The Last of Us Part II. McNamara later acknowledged that the layoffs had heavily influenced his decision to move on. Former senior editor Andrew Reiner replaced him as editor-in-chief, then left in September 2022 to become a game developer, leaving Game Informer without any of its original staff. Matt Miller, who had worked there since 2004, was promoted to editor-in-chief. In July 2022, John Carson, Wesley LeBlanc, and Creative Director Jeff Akervik, who had been at the publication for over 14 years, were also let go.

• 5. Shutdown and the Digital Erasure

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  On the 2nd of August 2024, GameStop leadership shut down Game Informer abruptly and laid off the remaining staff. The July 2024 issue was the 368th and final print edition. The publication's website was replaced with a static farewell page, making years of articles and reviews unreachable. According to a report by Morgan Park of PC Gamer, GameStop announced the closure publicly through the Game Informer social media account. Former staff members indicated they had no involvement in that statement, with some describing it as reading like machine-generated text.

  On the 5th of August 2024, a former staffer briefly took over the Game Informer account to post a proper goodbye, including images of the magazine's masthead. Shortly after, the account was wiped entirely. The digital archive, which had been part of Game Informer Online since its redesign in September 2003, was also removed. Game Informer Online had originally launched in August 1996; it was shut down around January 2001 during the GameStop transition, revived in September 2003, and then rebuilt again with a full redesign that went live on the 1st of October 2009, the same day the podcast The Game Informer Show launched. Independent archival projects were reported to be underway following the 2024 closure.

• 6. Relaunch Under Gunzilla

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  On the 19th of March 2025, Game Informer posted a cryptic short video on social media. The video contained code resembling an arcade game at the bottom of the screen along with the word "Continue" and flashed the date March 25. Former director Brian Shea shared the video but said he could not comment at the time. Six days later, on the 25th of March 2025, the announcement arrived: Gunzilla Games, developers of Off the Grid, had purchased Game Informer and hired back the staff that had been laid off at the original shutdown.

  The relaunch restored the website and the digital archive, which had been wiped in August 2024. New articles and reviews for games released during the shutdown period went up alongside the archived material. In June 2025, the print magazine resumed publication. The staff that returned were the same people GameStop had dismissed, and the business was re-established as its own independent entity rather than as a retail arm.

• 7. Traditions and Annual Features

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  Every April, Game Informer published Game Infarcer, its April Fools' Day edition. The cover substituted "World's #1 Pretend Magazine" for the standard "World's #1 Video Game Magazine", with the word "Parody" printed at the bottom. Articles ran under the byline of a fictional editor-in-chief named Darth Clark. Hate mail addressed to Darth Clark arrived every year, and the most heated responses were often reprinted in later issues.

  Four times over the publication's run, Game Informer produced what it called "Sacred Cow Barbecues", events described as similar in style to a celebrity roast, meant to knock gaming's most revered icons off their pedestals. The first appeared in issue 158, the June 2006 edition. Subsequent Sacred Cow Barbecues ran in issue 183 (July 2008), issue 211 (November 2010), and issue 261 (January 2015). The Game of the Year award, handed out annually, tracked the industry's most acclaimed releases over more than three decades, from Street Fighter II in 1992 to Astro Bot in 2024 and Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 in 2025.