Play magazine is definitely done. As for GameFan...yeah we'll see. Maybe Halverson will pull a rabbit out of a hat again.

I hate to see Play die as it was the only Magazine I thought did well. 

I had a very low opinion of Play's editorial during the one year I subscribed to it.  The bias was so obvious that I couldn't even bring myself to finish an issue.  For example, they gave Afro Samurai and Golden Axe: Beast Rider RAVE reviews.  Friggin' shameful.  Granted, there were some well written articles which were unfortunately tainted by the terrible previews and reviews that surrounded them.

All of my best to those who lost their jobs and were negatively affected by this move.  If the rumours about Halverson's transgressions are true, that dude's got a lot of karmic backlash a-comin;.

@Demain: Any ideas where to go next for this story? I have done very little actually investigative work in the past.

How would I even go about trying to contact Dave Halverson or someone who worked at Play?

Any help would be much appreciated. I know I can get a bit snarky about Play, but I really am interested in finding out the truth about what happened here and don't know much about Dave Halverson's history with publications.

Any tips, ideas or comments would be hugely appreciated!

@Chris: Well, Dave Halverson kind of overshadowed everyone else writing, and he was/is so extremely prone to hyperbole and getting rabid over games. I think it is fine to like things that aren't universally loved, but calling a game like the next gen version of Golden Axe near perfect makes me think he might have a screw loose... or be on the take.

I actually liked that Dave is into platformers and isn't afraid to enjoy kids games, I just thought he badly needed an editorial staff that would step up to him... or at least actually edit the content of the mag.

I think it could have been great if it had been more than just Dave Halverson The Magazine.

BTW- Here is a link to this story on Digg. If you guys would Digg this I would really appreciate it!

http://digg.com/gaming_news/Play_Magazine_The_Quiet_Death_of_Another_Gaming_Publication/

N4G.com link coming as soon as it gets approved.

That's sad, I enjoyed their artwork and designs, as well as their flatout balls to do whatever they wanted -- like abolish the scores. Still, that crew launched so many magazines all of the time. When I was subscribed for a year awhile back, they launched 2 magazines in that time span, Rocket and Geek. I think Rocket died in only a few months and gave way to Geek. Is that still around now?

Anyway, it's always sad to see a gaming mag die, but Dave Halverson might have driven it into the ground with his willy-nilly magazine launching practices.

Wow interesting find.  Nice work man!

@Frank - http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=57493

You could try getting in touch with former staffers if you want. Greg Orlando, Brady Feichter, etc. As to how to do that, a little Internet sleuthing usually reveals a way. Facebook, twitter, etc.

Had some good time w/ Play magazine in the past, but the reality is I have hot picked up the mag in years.

@Demian: Thanks! That link was really helpful. I wonder why no news outlets carried this story? Hopefully this post will catch on though.

I will get to sleuthing ASAP!

PS- Does this update make the post look like crap?

I'm not very familiar with Play, but it's always a shame when a game mag closes operations.

I was really upset when I heard about play last month. It was hands-down my favourite gaming magazine. But I'm having an even harder time understanding how so many posters here are ragging on it. Bias? Poor content? This simply shocks me. For a long time, I simply refused to buy gaming magazines. I'd read them in Borders and was rarely impressed at the level of writing. Sure, those guys knew what they were talking about, but I just felt like they were treating me like a 16 year-old Sony/ XBOX fanboy.

When I stumbled upon play for the first time (early last year I believe) I finally felt like I'd found video games journalism that actually treated me like an adult--that's not to say I haven't found great sources of writing since then (I love what Bitmob has going on here!). I mean, come on, getting rid of scores in favour of a review system that actually requires me to *gasp* read?! Crazy! A double-page preview/interview about Muramasa, one of the most under-rated titles of 2009?! Epic!

Am I alone in my play idolatry? Now, reading about all of this business with Halverson, is very troubling, and perhaps I need to do some more of my research into the matter...

I had been a subscriber to Play for a number of years.  Still have them in my closet.  For most of those years I found Play to be a breath of fresh air in games journalism--as others have mentioned they often went where others didn't bother to go.  They continued to explore coverage of platformers and quirky single-player epics, while many other mags devoted their love to shooters and online multiplayer.

True, sometimes their editorial slant was a bit more bent towards evangelism and drumming up support for underdog games than giving them true objective analysis.  Very often a rosy preview would be followed by a lukewarm review (well after street date in many cases).  But I appreciated the diversity of viewpoint they brought to the table.  And their commitment to quality screenshot and art representation was not always matched by their commitment to proofing and making sure that text box was big enough to include the last sentence of an article or review wrap-up.  :P

Sadly these flaws multiplied, and reviews seemed to become less objective, while EGM garnered more respect (and publisher ire) by bringing objectivity to previews of "terrrrible" games.  I had my fill when the Sonic 2006 review was published, to be perfectly frank.  I let the subscription lapse after another year.  Dave wrote that one, and he rightly caught a lot of shit for it--at the same time EGM was making due without any preview material from Ubisoft because they had their panties in a bunch over the Assassin's Creed review.  It became clear to me which publication was truly looking out for my hard-earned dollar.

Stil, the unique viewpoint they represented, in honest moments, will be missed.

Good catch, Frank. I somehow missed this news too. Your post was the first I heard of it.

@Ben: Do you remember where you heard this? A link would be awesome! Thanks!

@Ben: Do you remember where you heard this? A link would be awesome! Thanks!

Yeah, it was posted in a link on Tiny Cartridge:

http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2010/02/play-magazine-is-probably-dead.html

@Demain: I somehow missed that you might be able to get me in touch with some of the staff. That would be awesome!

God I must be going crazy as I thought I read that Brady Fleitcher was on board with the new EGM but now that I pour through the press releases I see no sign of that news I must have imagined I read.