Interactive Comms Magazine Review.
Joe Steele
Brief: Analyse and compare two well known gaming publications, compare and contrast them and compare against their online equivalents.
The two magazines I will be reviewing are magazines of the two main games consoles available on the market today: The Sony Playstation 3 and the Microsoft Xbox 360.
The magazines represent each console, Play Magazine and Official Xbox Magazine respectively.
The front cover of the Official Xbox Magazine evokes strong recognition of the actual Xbox console. This may be due to the fact that it is the official magazine. If the magazine was unofficial, the use of the theme colours of the Xbox console may be taken as copyright infringement by Microsoft.
The colours of the theme, white, grey and lime green are used consistently throughout the magazine. This is a very powerful visual cue which instantly informs the reader that the magazine is an Xbox magazine. Each next generation console has certain colours associated with them.
This is not only an aesthetic choice but a design decision that impacts the way that each console is viewed by potential buyers.
The Nintendo WII is usually associated with Blue and white; the baby blue and sky blue colours aswell as matte white are consistent with Nintendo’s family oriented target audience. The Xbox 360 is usually associated with green and white and the PS3 is usually black and blue. Each has a characteristic feel. The dark blue and black hues of Playstation are authoritarian. The Xbox 360 is vibrant, the colours associated with nature; this ties in with the organic design of the console itself with smooth curves and it’s aerodynamic aesthetic.
These schemes are usually consistent throughout games, hardware and the associated websites of the products, consistency in colour and design is key to creating an effective brand presence.
These colour schemes are also present in the magazines and the websites of each.
The official Xbox magazine has a large Xbox 360 Logo present on the cover. I believe this is so that potential readers can easily see the magazine when on a shelf in a newsagents. Nowadays there are hundreds of different types of magazines in large newsagents such as WHS Smith. There are magazines for every hobby or past time imaginable. Fishing, Remote control vehicle racing, hunting, model making.
Although these are rather niche hobbies, gaming is one of, if not THE most popular past time in the 21st century. There are dozens of different magazines for various console and platforms. Games magazines need a visual identifier that allows a potential customer to see the type of magazine at a glance among he hundreds of other publications on the shelf.
The large Xbox 360 logo coupled with the signature lime green is a very effective visual cue.
In contrast to the PLAY magazine, the Xbox magazine is much louder visualy. This may be a reflection of the demographic of the viewer for the particular magazine.
When researching age demographics for a given console, all of the evidence I found from online statistics databases and marketing research think tanks pointed towards the Xbox having a younger demographic than the PS3.
While this may not initially be of much notice when only looking at he front cover, the implications for the content of the magazine is surprising.
As discussed above, the demographic for the Playstation Magazine is slightly older than the Xbox.
This is reflected in the visual style of the front cover. The colours are a lot more toned down, overall the visual style is a lot darker than the Xbox Magazine. The interesting thing to note about the design of the Playstation magazine is the fact that they have adapted the primary colours of the magazine design from the main image of the page.
The feature game, Metal Gear Solid consist mainly of grey, black blue and white hues. This is adapted into the colours of the magazine. The main font of the cover is white. This gives visual impact contrasted against the darkened hues of the image and the headers of each miniature headline on the page is coloured ice blue. Again, this is adapted from colours present in the actual image.
The layout of the various text pieces on the page is also catered towards the central image. The various text pieces are arranged in two vertical columns on either side of the central image.
Content-wise, there is a lovely pun on the cover. The central image of cyborg Raiden has electrical lightning bolts surging down his arms. Underneath
the image of the electricity is a small line of text that reads” Shocking secrets of Playstation’s biggest series” Nice word play, PLAY.
Similar to the Xbox magazines attention grabbing technique of using the Xbox logo, the PLAY magazine features a graphical logo which contains the buttons on the Playstation pad. Triangle, square, circle, X. These symbols are iconic and instantly recognisable to gamers across the world.
An interesting note is the fact that the primary age demographic of the Sony Playstation 3 is a bracket of young males between 18 and 24. If we go back to the launch of Sony Playstation 1 in 1994 it seems highly plausible that the current user base of the Playstation 3 grew up with the first Playstation as children. This generation of young gamers would have been bought the new console for christmas or birthday and spent many hours playing Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the dragon.
Now those little kids are older and earning money of their own. What better gadget to splash their disposable income on other than the Sony nostalgia machine they grew up with as children?
Inside the front cover of each magazine is an advert for feature games of 2011. The Official Xbox magazine features a 4 page pull-out spread for Assassin’s Creed Revelations. After this advertisement is a double page spread for ID software’s RAGE. This advert is present in the Playstaiton 3 magazine also with a few subtle differences, namely the logo of the respective console which the magazine represents.
One subtle advantage that the Xbox Magazine has when it comes to advertisements is the fact that the RAGE advert featured in official Xbox Magazine also features a logo for Games for Windows which is a PC based software publisher. Technically Microsoft has the upper hand here because it is not only advertising a game for one platform but two.
The page layout and design of each magazine is markedly different. The Xbox magazine features bright attention grabbing colours and columns of text which are similar in format to menus on a computer. This concise, efficient way of displaying information is better suited to younger audiences who can read at a glance. The lime green and white colour scheme is also still consistent throughout the magazine aswell as the website.
Microsoft may have seen fit to retain the visual identity for consistency in design. In addition the magazine also contains orange sections which pertain to the Xbox Live service provided by Microsoft for the console. Xbox users will immediately recognise this scheme and realise that the sections in orange refer to the Xbox Live service.
The PLAY website is much of the same. A similar colour scheme is used to the magazine, the overall tone again is darker and more mature.
The content presented on the homepage is formatted in a similar fashion to the magazine. Thumbnail image give an idea of the image, then the accompanying article goes into depth.
A common feature used in both magazines is the inclusion of small sections which have information from social networking sites. In this respect, magazines are trying more and more to imitate electronic media, specifically websites. These little social networking widgets are present on practically every website in existence now.
Facebook and twitter are closely integrated with written media now, aswell as the online counterparts of the gaming publications.
At this point the difference in target market is clear. Every aspect of design and content for each publication, aswell as their online counterpart is tailor made to specific parameters which entice the respective target audience.
Despite having their own specific age categories, both magazines have a wider group to cater for that falls under the umbrella term of gamer.
Gamers, despite differences in age, have similar things in common. Zombies, sci-fi, robots etc. are the geeky domain of gamers the world over. Online companies take advantage of the common love of gamers by aiming merchandise towards them. Regular soft drinks marketed as zombie blood and health potions appeal to the eccentric taste of gamers.
Despite their unique appearance, these items are usually just regular products, packaged differently and sold at thrice the price. This displays an ability on behalf of the publishers and affiliates to capitalise on nearly aspect of gaming culture. Magazines advertise costume and science fiction conventions, gaming related merchandise aswell as games themselves. Gaming peripherals such as controllers, speakers and specialist gaming headsets are all displayed alongside the feature games they take their image from.
Evidently, gaming magazines are not necessarily informative and entertaining publications for reading about ones favourite hobby; first and foremost they’re a breeding ground for advertising an marketing personnel.
Words- Joe Steele
Images – Respective Copyright Owners
Sources:
http://cdn.gamerant.com/wp-content/uploads/ESRB-Video-Game-Facts-Demographics-Infographic.jpg
http://www.play-mag.co.uk/magazine-issues/play-212-mass-effect-3-exclusive/
http://www.oxm.co.uk/
http://www.nintendo.com/wii/console
http://press2reset.com/2011/12/05/sony-to-aim-ps3-at-younger-demographic-in-2012/
