Print magazines post lacklustre ABC results

It appears that the UK games magazine sector is in a continuing decline as the latest ABC figures reveal that while sales for some titles remain steady, non-official magazines have seen figures drop off significantly.

Future's Official PlayStation 2 magazine saw a decline of less than 1 per cent compared to figures published in August, with monthly sales standing at just over 132,000 copies. Sales of Official Xbox fell from 85,072 to 64,403 during the same period, while Official Nintendo is down from 44,195 in February of last year to 37,578.

Non-official titles have fared less well. PSM2 has lost nearly 5000 readers since August, with sales figures at 40,428, while year-on-year PSW is down from just over 70,000 in February 2005 to 43,708 - a drop of 37 per cent. Over the last 12 months, sales of Play magazine have fallen from almost 69,000 to just over 46,500, and NGC is down 23 per cent to 11,200.

There are some bright spots, however - Edge's readership has risen by more than 2000 since August, standing at just over 33,500. There are also slight increases for PC Gamer and PC Zone, with sales figures at 48,699 and 33,580 respectively. Sales for Games Master remain steady at just over 55,500, and PS2 Special Edition rose from 26,736 to nearly 32,000 over the course of the year.

The first figures are in for the Xbox 360 magazines - Future's Xbox World 360 sold more than 19,000 copies, while Uncooked's 360 Gamer trails behind with just over 10,000.

The Official Xbox 360 magazine was not audited, and nor were many Highbury titles following the collapse of the company last month. The rights to its titles were acquired by Imagine Publishing, which has now confirmed that Games TM, X360 and Play will survive. The company is "currently reviewing the viability" of the other magazines it acquired.

Imagine has confirmed that it will honour all subscriptions for those titles which it continues to publish, with MD Damian Butt commenting: âWe appreciate the confusion and frustration felt by many subscribers of Highbury Entertainmentâs magazines, and Imagine will do what it can to remedy the situation as quickly as possible."

"We have made a commitment to honour all subscriptions for magazines we intend to publish, and we are keen to retain the support and enthusiasm of our loyal subscribers. We will also offer an alternative offer for those with subscriptions for magazines that will not continue."