Don’t be alarmed – Game Informer is here now and we’re hard at work at getting the magazine back up and running (sign up for an account to be alerted to when we will be selling subscriptions again!). But back in August, we were unexpectedly shut down and at the time, we had made significant progress on the next issue, an issue that would ultimately never see the light of day.
I made reference to the fact that we were about 70% done with the next issue when the publication was closed, and many mistakenly assumed I was referring to our Casting of Frank Stone issue, which was not the case. That issue was completed and went out to subscribers.
The issue that we never got a chance to bring to the finish line was going to feature Metaphor: ReFantazio on the cover. We were ecstatic to feature an Atlas game on the cover. A few months prior we had been speaking with Atlas about potentially featuring Persona 3: Reload as the cover story. Timing didn’t quite work out for that, but Metaphor would finally give us a chance to feature Shigenori Soejima’s amazing character art on the cover.
We locked in the cover story and Brian Shea traveled to Japan to see the game and interview the team. When we learned Game Informer was shutting down, Brian had already fully written the expansive cover story. It was in the process of being edited and laid out. The issue never came to be, but Brian was able to share some of that planned content via his own channels. Now, however, you can read the whole story here on GameInformer.com (you can also read it here on Brian’s personal Medium account).
Brian also created a pair of videos about the trip, one with Soejima sketching characters from the game (seen below), and another about exploring Toky with Soejima and game director Katsura Hashino.
The cover story was the main attraction, but we had a few other features that were well on their way, too. Some of the freelance pieces we were working on were able to find new homes. Mike Futter, former news editor for Game Informer, was poised to make his return to the publication with a large piece about the troubled state of the game industry. That piece was later published on gamesindusty.biz, and you can read it here.
Freelancer Elijah Beam had been speaking with the developers behind Gearbox’s Alien: Colonial Marines for a large retrospective. That piece found a home with Unwinnable. You can read an excerpt for it here and find the full piece in issue #179 of the publication.
Former part-timer, now full-time associate editor Charles Harte, had made significant progress on a piece about Baldur’s Gate 3. Charles had spoken at length with developer Larian Studios about the state of the game a year later. Thankfully, that piece eventually landed at IGN. You can read the piece here, or watch a video version embedded below.
Alongside the cover story, Brian had also been speaking with Sega for a feature on the then-upcoming Sonic X Shadow Generations. Similar to the cover story, you can find that piece right here.
Other sections of the magazine were in progress. We likely would have had reviews for Star Wars: Outlaws and Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess in that issue, and I had spoken with Mike Laidlaw about the then-not-yet-released Eternal Strands for a larger hands-on preview of the game.
The conditions may have been unique, but this isn’t actually the first time Game Informer “lost” a nearly-completed cover story. Back in 2006, a game called The Lord of the Rings: The White Council was planned for reveal on the cover of the magazine. The full cover story was written and in the process of being layed out. As the story goes, in fact, the team was getting ready to leave for the weekend when former editor-in-chief Andy McNamara received a Friday afternoon call that there was no indication what the future of the game would be which meant the cover story was off.
We may have had games on the cover that were eventually cancelled (e.g. Fear & Respect, Rainbow Six: Patriots, and Tiberium), but we didn’t know those games were going to be cancelled when we published those issues. You can read more about The Lord of the Rings: The White Council in issue #294 of the magazine, the Middle-earth: Shadow of War issue, which you have free access to as long as you have an account with gameinformer.com. Please sign up if you haven’t already!
