Our indy mags will beat Future's, says Imagine Publishing boss

Imagine Publishing MD Damian Butt has told GamesIndustry.biz that sales of the publisher's independent games titles are set to top Future's when the ABC figures are released tomorrow.

Butt said that Play and X360 have both achieved healthy readership numbers in recent months, which will make Imagine the market leader in the unofficial magazine sector.

"According to sales across the periods, Imagine should secure the number one independent videogames magazine slots for both PlayStation and Xbox 360, which we would be incredibly happy with," he stated.

However, Butt declined to offer further comment on the company's ABC figures until rival Future has published its results. "Whilst I should have some great news tomorrow, I wouldn't want to pre-empt the actual results in case there has been some unexplained movements in sales figures to sway the results either way," he said.

Future's last ABC report was released in August, revealing a drop in readership for the company's official mags but steady sales for Edge and Games Master and a rise for unofficial title Xbox World 360.

Imagine was criticised by Future for declining to release six-monthly figures for Play and Games TM but Butt defended the decision to stick with annual reports, claiming that they offer "a more reliable long term view of the magazine market".