Computer and Video Games

Last updated

Computer and Video Games
Poison-4.png
March 1991 cover
EditorAndy Robinson
Categories Computer magazine
FrequencyMonthly
Circulation 106,000 (typical)
First issueNovember 1981
Final issueOctober 2004
Company Future Publishing
Country UK
Based inLondon
Website computerandvideogames.com (defunct)
ISSN 0261-3697

Computer and Video Games (also known as CVG, Computer & Video Games, C&VG, Computer + Video Games, or C+VG) was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. [1] Its offshoot website was launched in 1999 [2] and closed in February 2015. [3] CVG was the longest-running video game media brand in the world. [4] Several CVG writers led the creation of Video Games Chronicle in 2019. [5]

Contents

History

Computer and Video Games was established in 1981, being the first British video games magazine. [6] Initially published monthly between November 1981 [7] and October 2004 and solely web-based from 2004 onwards, [8] [9] the magazine was one of the first publications to capitalise on the growing home computing market, although it also covered arcade games. At the time of launch it was the world's first dedicated video games magazine. [10] The first issue featured articles on Space Invaders , Chess, Othello and advice on how to learn programming. [11] Featured computers mentioned on the front cover were PET, Apple, Tandy, Sinclair, Nascom and VIC.

Reviews featured a numerical score, with the highest rated games receiving the "C+VG Hit" award. This logo came to be seen as a selling point for games, big and small. [12] [ better source needed ]

The magazine had a typical ABC of 106,000. [13]

Website

Launched in August 1999, CVG was one of the UK and Europe's leading gaming web sites. Primarily known for its news service, CVG also features a mix of current and next-generation multi-format gaming reviews, previews, features and interviews, as well as a new emphasis on video and multimedia content.

CVG was originally owned by EMAP, before being bought by Dennis Publishing. In 2004 CVG was acquired by Future Publishing who remain its current owners. In 2006, the site underwent a major re-design and relaunch to bring it up to scratch for the so-called next generation of Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii gaming.

In 2007, CVG became the hub of a new CVG Network, hosting magazine sites for all of Future Publishing's unofficial gaming magazines including PC Gamer, PC Zone, Xbox World 360, PlayStation World, PSM3 and NGamer as well as long standing cheats site, CheatStation.

The CVG Network expanded further in May 2007 to include sites like Xbox 360 Magazine, Edge and Next Generation.biz. CVG also has a very popular forum with many users and topics. CVG has also had a cult following with an award thread they used to run known as the yakkies.[ citation needed ]

In May 2007, CVG submitted to electronic audit by the Audit Bureau of Circulation and registered 1.56 million monthly unique users and 11.4 million page impressions.

Future has since incorporated the forums of many of its other games related publications to ComputerAndVideoGames.com in addition to devoting sections to those that did not previously have a formal website, such as PC Gamer .

In early 2014, CVG, amongst other Future-operated websites, was earmarked for closure by management, [14] but instead received staff cuts in July. [15] Future announced the closure of the website in December 2014. [3] The website closed on 26 February 2015, with all pages redirecting to Gamesradar+, another Future publication. [16]

YouTube channel

Until the closure of CVG, their official YouTube channel provided a variety of video game related content, providing everything from walkthroughs of games to news regarding video game consoles [17] [18] and regarding gaming events. [19] Their second longest running series, GTA V O'clock [20] covered news and conspiracy theories regarding Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online . It was one of the few publications invited to see and play Grand Theft Auto V [21] before its release to the public on 17 September 2013 and re-release for PC [22] on 14 April 2015.

CVG Presents

CVG Presents
CVG 01 cover.jpg
Cover of issue 1 of CVG Presents
EditorSteven Williams
Categories Computer magazine
FrequencyBi-monthly
First issueApril 2008
Final issue2009
Company Future Publishing
Country UK
Website ComputerAndVideoGames.com (defunct)

When the magazine did reappear it was in a new form, titled CVG Presents, on 16 April 2008 with a bi-monthly release schedule. [23] The new format concentrates the whole magazine on a single subject. The first issue of the new format concentrated on the history of the Grand Theft Auto series of games. CVG Presents has not been published since 2009.

Golden Joystick Awards

CVG hosted the annual Golden Joystick Awards, the longest running gaming ceremony in the world and widely acknowledged as one of the most prestigious, as they're voted for solely by the general gaming public. Originally created in 1982 as the CVG magazine's annual awards ceremony, the awards moved onto the web with CVG.com in 1999. [24]

In April 1983, the magazine published the results of its first Golden Joystick Awards, along with pictures from the ceremony in Berkeley Square. DJ Dave Lee Travis presented the award for best game of the year to Jetpac. [25]

The 2006 Golden Joystick awards attracted over 540,000 votes and were webcast for the first time. The Golden Joystick Awards entered their 25th Silver Anniversary year in 2007 and attracted over 750,000 votes from gamers around the world, with Microsoft's Gears of War winning four Joysticks including Ultimate Game of the Year.

Editors of ComputerAndVideoGames.com

Editor-in-Chief

Related Research Articles

<i>Grand Theft Auto: Vice City</i> 2002 video game

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a 2002 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the fourth main game in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 2001's Grand Theft Auto III, and the sixth entry overall. Set in 1986 within the fictional Vice City, the single-player story follows mobster Tommy Vercetti's rise to power after being released from prison and becoming caught up in an ambushed drug deal. While seeking out those responsible, Tommy gradually builds a criminal empire by seizing power from other criminal organisations in the city.

<i>Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas</i> 2004 video game

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the fifth main game in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and the seventh entry overall. Set within the fictional U.S. state of San Andreas, the game follows Carl "CJ" Johnson, who returns home after his mother's murder and finds his old street gang has lost much of their territory. Over the course of the game, he attempts to rebuild the gang, clashes with corrupt authorities and powerful criminals, and gradually unravels the truth behind his mother's murder.

<i>Jetpac</i> 1983 arcade-style shooter video game

Jetpac is a shooter video game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game and released for the ZX Spectrum and VIC-20 in 1983 and the BBC Micro in 1984. It is the first game to be released by Ultimate Play the Game, the company which later became Rare. The game follows Jetman as he must rebuild his rocket in order to explore different planets, while simultaneously defending against hostile aliens. It was written by Ultimate co-founder Chris Stamper with graphics designed by his brother, Tim Stamper. Reviewers praised Jetpac's presentation and gameplay, and it won "Game of the Year" at the Golden Joystick Awards in 1983.

<i>Klax</i> (video game) 1990 video game

Klax is a puzzle video game released in arcades in 1990 by Atari Games while Namco distributed the game in Japanese markets. It was designed and animated by Mark Stephen Pierce with the software engineering done by Dave Akers. The object is to catch colored blocks tumbling down a machine and arrange them in colored rows and patterns to make them disappear. Klax was originally published as a coin-op follow-up to Tetris, about which Atari Games was in a legal dispute at the time.

<i>Edge</i> (magazine) UK video game magazine

Edge is a multi-format video game magazine published by Future plc. It is a UK-based magazine and publishes 13 issues annually. The magazine was launched by Steve Jarratt. It has also released foreign editions in Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

<i>The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay</i> 2004 video game

The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay is a first-person action and stealth video game developed by Starbreeze Studios and Tigon Studios and published by Vivendi Universal Games. Released for the Xbox and Microsoft Windows in 2004, the game's story is a prequel to the futuristic science fiction film Pitch Black. Actor Vin Diesel—who was involved in the game's development—reprises his role as that film's protagonist, Richard B. Riddick.

<i>Grand Theft Auto</i> Video game series

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is an action-adventure video game series created by David Jones and Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan and Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut. It is primarily developed by British development house Rockstar North, and published by its American parent company, Rockstar Games. The name of the series is a term for motor vehicle theft in the United States.

<i>Official Xbox Magazine</i> Monthly video game magazine

Official Xbox Magazine (OXM) was a British monthly video game magazine which started in November 2001 around the launch of the original Xbox. A preview issue was released at E3 2001, with another preview issue in November 2001. The magazine was bundled with a disc that included game demos, preview videos and trailers, and other content, such as game or Xbox updates and free gamerpics. The discs also provided the software for the Xbox 360 for backward compatibility of original Xbox games for those without broadband and Xbox Live access. From January 2012, OXM no longer included a demo disc. In mid-2014, the U.S. version was merged into the UK version on the website, which lasted only a few months until Future plc announced that it was closing its website along with all the other websites that Future has published, including Edge and Computer and Video Games. In February 2015, OXM and all of Future's video game websites were redirected into GamesRadar.

<i>Grand Theft Auto IV</i> 2008 video game

Grand Theft Auto IV is a 2008 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the sixth main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 2004's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and the eleventh entry overall. Set in the fictional Liberty City, based on New York City, the single-player story follows Eastern European war veteran Niko Bellic and his attempts to escape his past while under pressure from high-profile criminals. The open world design lets players freely roam Liberty City, consisting of three main islands, and the neighbouring state of Alderney, which is based on New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockstar Vienna</span> Austrian video game developer

Rockstar Vienna was an Austrian video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Vienna. Peter Baustädter, Niki Laber, and Hannes Seifert founded the studio as Neo Software in January 1993 as they neared the completion of Whale's Voyage. The game led Neo Software to early success, as did 1994's The Clue!, which sold over a million copies, and enabled the company to relocate from Seifert's house in Hirtenberg to offices in Vienna. After Neo Software's Alien Nations sold more than a million copies in 1999, Computec Media acquired a majority stake in the company, seeking it to produce online games. It then sold the studio and several other businesses to Gameplay.com in February 2000, which sold Neo Software to Take-Two Interactive in January 2001 as part of a subsidiary exchange.

<i>GamesRadar+</i> Video game website

GamesRadar+ is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites Total Film, SFX, Edge and Computer and Video Games were merged into GamesRadar, with the resulting, expanded website being renamed GamesRadar+ in November that year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Joystick Awards</span> Annual video game award ceremony

The Golden Joystick Awards, also known as the People's Gaming Awards, is a video game award ceremony; it awards the best video games of the year, as voted for originally by the British general public, but is now a global event that can be voted online via GamesRadar+. As of 2023, the ceremony was in its 41st year. It is the longest-running video game award ceremony, launched in 1983, and the second-oldest video game award ceremony after the Arcade Awards, launched in 1981.

<i>Minecraft</i> 2011 video game

Minecraft is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by Swedish video game developer Mojang Studios. Originally created by Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java programming language, the first public beta build was released on 17 May 2009. The game would be continuously developed from then on, receiving a full release on 18 November 2011. Afterwards, Persson left Mojang and gave Jens "Jeb" Bergensten control over the game's development. In the years since its release, it has been ported to several platforms, including smartphones, tablets, and various video game consoles. In 2014, Mojang and the Minecraft intellectual property were purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion. Minecraft has since become the best-selling video game of all-time, with over 300 million copies sold and nearly 170 million monthly active players as of 2024.

<i>Grand Theft Auto V</i> 2013 video game

Grand Theft Auto V is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the seventh main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 2008's Grand Theft Auto IV, and the fifteenth instalment overall. Set within the fictional state of San Andreas, based on Southern California, the single-player story follows three protagonists—retired bank robber Michael De Santa, street gangster Franklin Clinton, and drug dealer and gunrunner Trevor Philips, and their attempts to commit heists while under pressure from a corrupt government agency and powerful criminals. Players freely roam San Andreas's open world countryside and fictional city of Los Santos, based on Los Angeles.

<i>Dark Souls II</i> 2014 video game

Dark Souls II is a 2014 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware. The second installment of the Dark Souls series, it was released for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 by FromSoftware in Japan and Bandai Namco Games internationally. Taking place in the kingdom of Drangleic, the game follows a cursed undead character searching for a cure to their affliction. Dark Souls II was released in March 2014 after some initial delays, with the Windows version being released the following month.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gamer Network</span> British digital media company

Gamer Network Limited is a British digital media company based in London. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and other video game businesses. Its flagship website, Eurogamer, was launched alongside the company. It began hosting the video game trade show EGX in 2008. ReedPop acquired Gamer Network in 2018 and sold it to IGN Entertainment in 2024.

Development of <i>Grand Theft Auto V</i> Development of 2013 video game

A team of approximately 1,000 people developed Grand Theft Auto V over several years. Rockstar Games released the action-adventure game in September 2013 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, in November 2014 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, in April 2015 for Windows, and in March 2022 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The first main Grand Theft Auto series entry since Grand Theft Auto IV, its development was led by Rockstar North's core 360-person team, who collaborated with several other international Rockstar studios. The team considered the game a spiritual successor to many of their previous projects like Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3. After its unexpected announcement in 2011, the game was fervently promoted with press showings, cinematic trailers, viral marketing strategies and special editions. Its release date, though subject to several delays, was widely anticipated.

The Golden Joystick Award for Game of the Year is an award presented annually at the Golden Joystick Awards ceremony, which has its winners voted in by the British general public. The award is given in honor to the best video game released in a particular year. The first Golden Joystick Awards were held in 1983, with the Ultimate Play the Game–developed shooter Jetpac winning Game of the Year.

A video game walkthrough is a guide aimed towards improving a player's skill within a particular video game and often designed to assist players in completing either an entire video game or specific elements. Walkthroughs may alternatively be set up as a playthrough, where players record themselves playing through a game and upload or live-stream it to the internet. Walkthroughs may be considered guides on helping to enhance the experience of players, to assist towards unlocking game achievements or simply as a means to socialise with like-minded individuals as a distraction from everyday life.

References

  1. ↑ Tuukka Taarluoto (Fall 2007). "Writing Games. A Study of Finnish Video Game Journalism". University of Tampere. Archived from the original on 11 June 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  2. ↑ Lee, Dave (21 May 2014). "Computer and Video Games online magazine facing closure". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2 October 2016. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Official: Future will close CVG website, news and reviews now coming to GamesRadar+ | Games industry news | MCV". Archived from the original on 21 January 2016. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
  4. ↑ "Future will close CVG". MCV. 1 December 2014. Archived from the original on 1 December 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  5. ↑ Dring, Christopher (4 April 2019). "CVG team reunite for new games media website". GamesIndustry.biz . Gamer Network. Archived from the original on 29 November 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
  6. ↑ Di Hand; Steve Middleditch (10 July 2014). Design for Media: A Handbook for Students and Professionals in Journalism, PR, and Advertising. Routledge. p. 8. ISBN   978-1-317-86402-8. Archived from the original on 3 June 2016. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  7. ↑ "Computer & Video Games". Computer & Video Games. November 1981. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  8. ↑ "The new CVG site - .net magazine". 9 January 2007. Archived from the original on 6 December 2010. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  9. ↑ "Computer & Video Games returns to the newsstand « Future PLC". Futureplc. Archived from the original on 3 November 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  10. ↑ Plunkett, Luke. "The World's Oldest Video Game Publication Is Closing [UPDATE: Maybe Not?] Archived 23 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine " Kotaku . 29 May 2014.
  11. ↑ Brook, Stephen (4 April 2008). "World's first gaming mag revived". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  12. ↑ https://worldofspectrum.org//pub/sinclair/games-adverts/b/Batman-TheMovie.jpg [ bare URL image file ]
  13. ↑ "Archive - Magazine viewer". World of Spectrum. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  14. ↑ "Games website CVG faces closure as part of drastic Future cuts". MCV. Archived from the original on 10 July 2014. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
  15. ↑ "CVG saved but at a cost". MCV. 23 June 2014. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
  16. ↑ May 2013, GamesRadar Staff 16 (16 May 2013). "New look, quicker CVG is now live". gamesradar. Retrieved 26 September 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  17. ↑ "PlayStation 4: News and gameplay - YouTube". YouTube. Archived from the original on 13 February 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
  18. ↑ "Xbox One: News and gameplay - YouTube". YouTube. Archived from the original on 13 February 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
  19. ↑ "E3 2013 - YouTube". YouTube. Archived from the original on 13 February 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
  20. ↑ "Wednesdays: GTA 5 o' Clock - YouTube". YouTube. Archived from the original on 13 February 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
  21. ↑ CVG (2 May 2013), GTA V - GTA 5 o'clock: GTA V - We've seen it! Exclusive Preview, archived from the original on 13 February 2017, retrieved 7 February 2017
  22. ↑ "GTA V O'clock goes hands on with GTA 5 on PC - 'It's the definitive edition'". gamesradar. Archived from the original on 6 November 2016. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
  23. ↑ "News: CVG Magazine returns!". ComputerAndVideoGames.com. 3 April 2008. Archived from the original on 24 May 2010. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  24. ↑ "CVG Magazine Archives : Free Texts : Free Download, Borrow and Streaming : Internet Archive". archive.org. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
  25. ↑ "Archive - Magazine viewer". World of Spectrum. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.