The staff of completionist.com are grief-stricken at the moment. First, we had to say goodbye to the beloved Sixaxis controller….well, beloved by Chris anyways. Now we’re saying goodbye to Game For Windows: The Official Magazine.

Ziff Davis media, the publishers of GFW and companion console magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), have announced that they are discontinuing the print production of the magazine in favour of shifting all the content online. I have a feeling this has something to do with the fact that ZD has recently restructured due to some financial problems.

Perhaps not. Maybe they are waking up to the fact that print is a dying medium. I recently took up a newspaper on their offer of a three month trial during which I maybe read it five times. I felt bad for wasting a lot of trees but hey, they all made it into the recycling box eventually. The point of the anecdote being that people don’t spend a lot of time sitting and reading anymore. Well, not with anything tactile anyways. You reading this article proves my point. Ha! I might as well disable comments on this article since that point is 100% proven. Maybe not.

To be clear, I don’t actually subscribe to GFW (that might also be part of the problem). I have bought a couple of their mags over the years, back to the time when it was called Computer Gaming World. It’s been around since 1981, coincidentally about the same time I started reaching 100% as a completionist. 27 years is a pretty long haul, far exceeding the lifespan of my now completely useless stack of Compute!’s Gazettes.

The sad part about the end of GFW in print is that a couple of the people from the art department lost their jobs. Bummer. The good news is that all the people responsible for the content in the magazine will be sticking around to bolster the PC-related online content for 1up.com. I think Shawn Elliot is the funniest part of the 1Up Yours podcast, along with sharing a similar diction as yours truly…in my opinion anyways. Jeff Green is always good for a laugh on his blog or when he guest spots on the podcast. The somewhat crappy news of GFW’s cancellation is made more palatable by the fact that these guys are still going to be around.

It’s also unfortunate timing that they are pulling the plug since I seem to be on a bit of a PC gaming kick of late. Oh well, I’m sure the consoles will take me back with open arms. Nothing is being said about it right now but I can’t help but to be a little bit concerned about my EGM subscription…

If the company who owns the most popular (in my opinion) online gaming news site is running into financial problems, I can’t imagine it’ll be long before they’re charging people for “premium content”. First it was IGN Insider, then Gamespot Complete. Nobody likes to leave a cash cow un-milked.

ps – I love to read. Just not magazines, because they’re always going to be a little behind the internet. Internet is instant, and magazines take time to layout, print, etc. Also, for the record, I despise podcasts.