Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) was a magazine published every month in the United States. It provided news about video games, reports on events in the video game industry, interviews with important people in the gaming world, articles and opinions from the magazine's writers, and reviews of video game products.

History

The magazine was started in 1988 as Electronic Gaming Monthly under Sendai Publications. In 1994, EGM created a new version called EGM², which focused on detailed guides and tricks for video games. This version later became Expert Gamer and then GameNOW, which is no longer active. After 83 issues, with the last one in June 1996, EGM changed publishers from Sendai Publishing to Ziff Davis. Until January 2009, EGM only covered games played on consoles and computer systems.

In 2002, the number of people who subscribed to the magazine increased by more than 25 percent.

Ziff Davis stopped publishing the magazine in January 2009 after selling 1UP.com to UGO Networks. The February 2009 issue had already been completed but was not released.

In May 2009, EGM founder Steve Harris bought the magazine and its assets from Ziff Davis. In April 2010, Harris relaunched the magazine through his new company, EGM Media, LLC, and expanded its coverage to include games played on personal computers and mobile devices.

Many well-known writers and editors have contributed to Electronic Gaming Monthly, including Martin Alessi, Ken Williams (as Sushi-X), Jim Allee, Terry Minnich, Andrew Baran, Danyon Carpenter, Marc Camron, Mark LeFebvre, Todd Rogers, Mike Weigand, Mike Desmond, Al Manuel, Howard Grossman, Mark Hain, Mike Vallas, Jason Streetz, Tim Davis, Ken Badziak, Scott Augustyn, Chris Johnston, Che Chou, Dave Ruchala, Crispin Boyer, Greg Sewart, Jeanne Trais, Jennifer Tsao, artist Jeremy Norm Scott, Game Scholar Leonard Herman, Shawn Smith, Kelly Rickards, Kraig Kujawa, Dean Hager, Jeremy Parish, and Mark Macdonald. Some of these contributors later held leadership roles at other publications. Writers who also worked as editors include Ed Semrad, Joe Funk, John Davison, James Mielke, artist Jeremy "Norm" Scott, Dan "Shoe" Hsu, and Seanbaby. Writers from related magazines, such as GameNow, Computer Gaming World, and Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, also contributed to EGM.

The magazine is known for playing jokes on April Fools' Day. In April 1992, an issue of the magazine included a joke about a character named Sheng Long from the video game Street Fighter II: The World Warrior.

In March 2019, EGM announced plans to relaunch later that year with a new look and focus on detailed articles, original reporting, and thoughtful analysis. The magazine’s new name is an abbreviation for "Enjoy Games More."

In April 2020, editor Josh Harmon said the website would no longer publish long articles, leading people to think the publication had closed. Harmon later changed the message to say the site would continue with some daily news coverage.

In October 2024, EGM started a Kickstarter campaign to create a book about the magazine’s history, titled The Electronic Gaming Monthly Compendium. The campaign reached its goal of $35,000 within less than 24 hours.

Magazine structure

The magazine includes the following sections:

• Insert Coin – A letter from the editor, reader letters, and responses from the magazine.
• Press Start – A general article about video gaming. EGM RoundTable – Discussions about video games. The Buzz – Industry rumors. EGM Hot List – Background information about a highly praised game.
• Features – Long articles. EGM Interview – Interviews with people in the gaming industry. Cover Story – A preview of the game on the magazine cover. Next Wave – Previews of upcoming games. Launch Point – Short previews of upcoming games.
• Review Crew – A section where games are reviewed. Review Recap – A summary of review scores from the previous issue.
• Game Over – Articles that discuss topics related to video gaming.

The magazine uses a letter grade system to rate games based on their quality. Most games are reviewed by one person, though earlier, teams of four or three people reviewed games until 2008. For major games, a group of editors called "The Review Crew" reviews them. Each reviewer gives a grade and writes a short opinion about the game. The magazine considers a grade of C to be average.

Awards are given to games with high average grades:
– Silver – For games with average grades from B− to B+.
– Gold – For games with average grades from A− to A.
– Platinum – For games that receive three A+ grades.

This letter grade system replaced a 0–10 scale in the April 2008 issue. Before that, Silver was given to games with average scores from 8 to 9, Gold to games with scores from 9 to 10, and Platinum to games that received only 10s. Until 1998, reviewers rarely gave scores of 10 or Platinum awards. This changed in 1998 when Metal Gear Solid received four 10s, and the magazine announced a new policy.

The magazine also gives a "Game of the Month" award to the game with the highest average score in each issue. If a game wins this award on one console and later comes out on another, the new version is not eligible for the same month’s award. For example, Resident Evil 4 won the award for the Nintendo GameCube version, but the PlayStation 2 version was not considered for the same month.

In 2002, the magazine started giving a "Shame of the Month" award to games that received very low scores. This award is only given when a game qualifies.

Originally, four editors reviewed all games. Over time, the magazine added more reviewers so that no single person reviewed all games in a month.

On the previous 0–10 scale, scores rarely reached zero, except for games like Mortal Kombat Advance, The Guy Game, and Ping Pals.

At the end of every magazine published during the Hsu period, there is a funny or random message after the final text (such as copyright information) on the last page.

International expansion

EGM en Español was released in Mexico in November 2002. It was published by Editorial Televisa and had a different editorial team. At times, the content focused more on Latin American gaming interests, such as paying greater attention to soccer games compared to NASCAR or American football games. The magazine also included humor and features related to the Mexican community, and sometimes included posters to support game releases. Adrián Carbajal, known as "Carqui," was the editor-in-chief for the entire publication. He previously worked for other Mexican gaming magazines, including Club Nintendo and Atomix, which are now competitors. A weekly podcast called "Playtime!" was hosted by most of the editorial staff. EGM en Español stopped being published in December 2008 because of financial problems faced by Ziff Davis Media.

EGM Italia was published in Italy by Edizioni Star Comics S.r.l. from 2001 to 2003. EGM was also published in Brazil as EGM Brasil by Conrad Editora starting in April 2002. From the last quarter of 2005, EGM Brasil was published by Futuro Comunicação. When sales of the U.S. version of EGM stopped, the Brazilian edition changed its name to EGW (Entertainment + Game World).

In 2006, three other international editions of EGM were published: EGM Thailand by Future Gamer Company Ltd., EGM Singapore by MediaCorp Publishing, and EGM Turkey by Merkez Dergi. EGM Turkey closed in January 2009 due to a financial crisis.

Internet presence

In 1995, EGM's first online website was called nuke.com. In 1996, it merged with GameSpot after Ziff-Davis bought Sendai Media Group. In 2003, EGM created a new website, 1UP.com, after GameSpot was sold to CNET Networks. Since the magazine restarted in 2010, its connected website has been egmnow.com.

EGM Live was a podcast hosted every Monday by EGM editors on 1UP.com. The podcast could be downloaded from 1UP.com or the iTunes music store. Like other podcasts on the 1UP network, it included discussions about message board topics, analysis of new games, a mailbag section, updates about the magazine, or interviews with guests such as Marcus Henderson and Ted Lange from Harmonix and Cliff Bleszinski from Epic Games. The "*" in EGM Live's name showed that the podcast was not "live" in the usual media sense. Later, it was replaced by 1UPFM, another weekly Monday podcast hosted by 1UP members Nick Suttner and Phil Kollar, along with other 1UP staff.

EGM2

EGM2 (also known as EGM) was a video game magazine published by Sendai Publishing from July 1994 to July 1998. It was created as a separate publication from Electronic Gaming Monthly. Unlike EGM, EGM2 did not include a section for game reviews and focused more on games imported from other countries.

In August 1998, EGM2 changed its name to Expert Gamer, often shortened to XG. Even though the name changed, XG kept the same numbering system as EGM2. XG was published for 39 issues and lasted until October 2001, with the final issue labeled XG #88.

The first issue of EGM2 appeared in July 1994. The magazine was published for 49 issues, with the last issue under its original name released in July 1998. When the name changed, the magazine received a new design that looked more organized. However, the content of the magazine remained unchanged.

Reception

In 2014, Polygon wrote: "For 20 years, EGM played an important role in the world of game journalism. Before the internet existed, the magazine was a key source of information for American readers who enjoyed playing video games." In 2025, Time Extension added EGM2 to their list of "10 Forgotten Gaming Magazines That Are Worth Remembering."