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Phil King

Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2003 3:16 pm
by Fab
According to Gordon's Where Are They Now page, Phil King "is now Numero Uno at the online games mag, PowerStation". I searched totalgames.net a bit, and it seems that now Phil is numero uno at Cube Solutions, another mag from the same publishing house. Don't know when and why the change happened, though.

http://www.paragon.co.uk/mags/cubesolutions.html also shows how Phil is looking now.

Re: Phil King

Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2003 9:16 am
by gordon
Fab wrote:http://www.paragon.co.uk/mags/cubesolutions.html also shows how Phil is looking now.
Cheers for that. I'll update my site.

Nice pic, too :)

g.

Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2003 9:28 am
by LeeT
At least the dodgy 'tache has gone! :lol:

Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2003 1:16 pm
by gordon
LeeT wrote:At least the dodgy 'tache has gone! :lol:
Yeah, I think he looks quite distinguished now. And, oddly, a bit like my accountant.

g.

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2003 7:38 pm
by LeeT
Sidetsepping slightly, Nick Roberts (ex CRASH) is now Managing Ed at Games TM) - Another Paragon title!

Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 5:50 pm
by Mangram's Tippex Thinner
"Hoo hoo, not 'alf!"

Sorry, couldn't resist a quick Phil impersonation!

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 6:46 pm
by So Long Ago
LeeT wrote:Sidetsepping slightly, Nick Roberts (ex CRASH) is now Managing Ed at Games TM) - Another Paragon title!
I believe he is due to be a dad this year having got married last summer

Mark Kendrick is no longer at paragon

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 5:58 pm
by CraigGrannell
Mark left Paragon in August.

It'll be interesting to see what happens to the company's games mags now Future's running the show.

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 7:17 pm
by LeeT
CraigGrannell wrote:Mark left Paragon in August.

It'll be interesting to see what happens to the company's games mags now Future's running the show.
I'm guessing that they will simply close all of the Highbury/Paragon gaming titles, and that the takeover is to get rid of a major competitior. Maybe they will spare Games(TM) though with EDGE and GM, it's probably hard to justify a third multi-format title, despite it being a bit more 'highbrow' than the above two (as EDGE seems to have been 'dumbed down')?

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 8:10 pm
by CraigGrannell
LeeT wrote:I'm guessing that they will simply close all of the Highbury/Paragon gaming titles, and that the takeover is to get rid of a major competitior.
Which would be one of the most stupid business decisions, well, ever. You don't spend nearly £100m (think about it—one *hundred* million pounds) just to close down all the magazines—you buy them because you think some of them may make you a profit.

The likelihood is that Future will keep all those making a profit, axe those that are doing very poorly, and place those doing not entirely well on to "kill or cure". games™ should be safe—it has a dedicated 20,000 readership and makes money. And bear in mind that Future already has a number of "competing" titles anyway in various fields.

My interest was more to do with any repositioning of the magazines—in other words, will games™ change to fit better into Future's portfolio? (Apparently, at the moment, there haven't been any real changes, apart from the change in ownership.)

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 9:21 pm
by So Long Ago
LeeT wrote: I'm guessing that they will simply close all of the Highbury/Paragon gaming titles, and that the takeover is to get rid of a major competitior. Maybe they will spare Games(TM) though with EDGE and GM, it's probably hard to justify a third multi-format title, despite it being a bit more 'highbrow' than the above two (as EDGE seems to have been 'dumbed down')?
hmmm all that would do is create a gap in the market that would be very quickly filled by all the ex Highbury/Paragon people.

I suspect Craig is right they will conduct a review and a few titles may well disappear

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 10:12 pm
by CraigGrannell
That's actually another good reason for the Future buyout: to keep other publishers out of the market. Shutting down the popular multiformat rivals of Edge would mean Live, EMAP and others could immediately launch their own version. However, if Future has three or four magazines in that space—all with a dedicated readership—it makes it that much harder for rivals to gain any kind of foothold, so much so that the likelihood is that no-one will bother.

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 2:57 am
by LeeT
I agree that it would be probably stupid to close them all down for that much wonga spent. However, it remains to be seen how many of the Highbury staff will want to move to Bath (unless they keep the Bournemouth office open as an 'annexe'), and therefore would XBM just become a clone of Future's other Xbox mag(s?) if the Bath people took over the editorial? (ie they close down the Future Xbox mag and produce XBM to look like the Future mag (if it adheres to the Future in-house style)).

(Sorry I might not be making myself too clear but its nearly 3am!).

I would like to see Games(TM) maybe bought by some of the Highbury people and for them to continue to produce as the previous three years. I'm guessing if Future wanted to continue it, they would have to take it upmarket (and its above most of the competition already!) so I'm not sure how that would work?

I really can't see any other publisher wanting to produce mags to fill the gaps if Future did close them down - EMAP are almost out of the games mags these days and Live seem to only be able to produce anything PC related (even RG seems to head in that direction somehow!), and I'm not sure if any other major mag publishers would want to enter the gaming world, this late in the day?

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 11:41 am
by CraigGrannell
The Bournemouth office is now classed as a Future office, and it's to remain open. How many staff remains stationed there and which magazines are produced there will depend on how well the magazines do. I used to write for Cre@te Online - "the designer's bible" - which was produced in Future's London office... until it became to expensive, whereupon it was moved to Bath.

Personally, I'm not sure there is a "Future style". Again, I write for a number of Future magazines, and they all have their own "feel", which is largely dictated by the editor. That said, I'm not very familiar with Future's gaming mags (apart from the po-faced, overly serious Edge), so perhaps their copy is more regimented.

I doubt games™ would survive as an indie in the current market. However, as the magazine is profitable, I very much doubt Future will do anything to it. I don't see why the magazine would have to be taken "upmarket".

I do, however, agree that this pretty much closes the chapter on games mags in the UK, unless something very drastic happens. No other publisher is going to go up against Future's titles now - it's just too risky.

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 2:56 pm
by So Long Ago
CraigGrannell wrote: I do, however, agree that this pretty much closes the chapter on games mags in the UK, unless something very drastic happens. No other publisher is going to go up against Future's titles now - it's just too risky.
For existing formats maybe. But as new formats emerge the market is open unless Future choose to flood the market with lots of titles but that makes things less profitable.

The other thing to bear in mind is that smaller/new publishers may have lower operating costs. An organisation like Future would attract a lot of ancillary/support costs that a small organisation wouldn't require (ie HR departments, Accounts departments etc.) They may also be prepared to settle for less profit per title.