Edge (magazine)


Edge is a multi-format video game magazine published by Future plc in the United Kingdom, which publishes 13 issues of the magazine per year.

History

The magazine was launched in October 1993 by Steve Jarratt, a long-time video games journalist who has launched several other magazines for Future.
The artwork for the cover of the magazine's 100th issue was specially provided by Shigeru Miyamoto. The 200th issue was released in March 2009 with 200 different covers, each commemorating a single game; 199 variants were in general circulation, and one was exclusive to subscribers. Only 200 magazines were printed with each cover, sufficient to more than satisfy Edges circulation of 28,898.
In October 2003, the then-editor of Edge, João Diniz-Sanches, left the magazine along with deputy editor David McCarthy and other staff writers. After the walkout, the editorship of Edge passed back to Tony Mott, who had been editor prior to Diniz-Sanches. The only team member to remain was Margaret Robertson, who in 2006 replaced Mott as editor. In May 2007, Robertson stepped down as editor and was replaced by Tony Mott, taking over as editor for the third time. Alex Wiltshire was the magazine's editor from May 2012 to March 2013, followed by Nathan Brown. Jen Simpkins took over the editor's role from Nathan Brown in April 2020.
Between 1995 and 2002, some of the content from the UK edition of Edge was published in the United States as Next Generation. In 2007, Future's US subsidiary, Future US began re-publishing selected recent Edge features on the Next Generation website; the Edge website and blog were subsequently incorporated into the NextGen site. In July 2008, the whole site was rebranded under the Edge title, as that was the senior of the two brands. In May 2014 it was reported that Future intended to close the websites of Edge, Computer and Video Games and their other videogame publications; in December 2014, it was confirmed that the C&VG website would close and its content would instead be published at GamesRadar, and in January 2015, it was announced that the same would happen to the Edge website. Between 2015 and 2018, Edge articles were occasionally republished on Kotaku UK.
Edge has been redesigned three times since the magazine launched. The first redesign occurred in 1999; the second in 2004; and the third in 2011. The first redesign altered the magazine's dimensions to be wider than the original shape. The latest design changes the magazine's physical dimensions for the second time, and introduces a higher quality of paper stock than was previously used.

Features

Each issue includes a "Making-of" article on a particular game, usually including an interview with one of the original developers. Issue 143 introduced the "Time Extend" series of retrospective articles. Like the "making-of" series, each focuses on a single game and, with the benefit of hindsight, gives an in-depth examination of its most interesting or innovative attributes.
"Codeshop" examines more technical subjects such as 3D modelling programs or physics middleware, while "Studio Profile" and "University Profile" are single-page summaries of particular developers or publishers, and game-related courses at higher education institutions.
Although an overall list of contributors is printed in each issue's indicia, the magazine typically has not used bylines to credit individual writers to specific reviews and articles, instead only referring to the anonymous Edge as a whole. Since 2014, some contributed features are credited with a byline. The magazine's regular columnists have been consistently credited throughout the magazine's run. The current columnists are James Leach, Clint Hocking and Tadhg Kelly. In addition, several columnists appear toward the beginning of the magazine to talk about the game industry as a whole, rather than focusing on specific game design topics. They are Trigger Happy author Steven Poole, Leigh Alexander, and Brian Howe, whose parody article section "You're Playing It Wrong" began with the new redesign.
Previous columnists have included Paul Rose, Toshihiro Nagoshi of Sega's Amusement Vision, author Tim Guest, N'Gai Croal, and game developer Jeff Minter. In addition, numerous columns were published anonymously under the pseudonym "RedEye", and several Japanese writers contributed to a regular feature called "Something About Japan".
James Hutchinson's comic strip Crashlander was featured in Edge between issues 143 and 193.

Scoring

Edge scores games on a ten-point scale, from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 10, with five as ostensibly the average rating. For much of the magazine's run, the magazine's review policy stated that the scores broadly correspond to one of the following "sentiments":
  1. disastrous
  2. appalling
  3. severely flawed
  4. disappointing
  5. average
  6. competent
  7. distinguished
  8. excellent
  9. astounding
  10. revolutionary
However, with issue 143 the scoring system was changed to a simple list of "10 = ten, 9 = nine..." and so on, a tongue-in-cheek reference to people who read too much into review scores. It was almost three years before Edge gave a game a rating of ten out of ten, and to date the score has been given to twenty-two games:
TitlePlatformsIssueYear
Super Mario 64Nintendo 64E0351996
Gran TurismoPlayStationE0551998
'Nintendo 64E0661998
'XboxE1052001
Half-Life 2WindowsE1432004
Halo 3Xbox 360E1812007
The Orange BoxWindows, Xbox 360E1822007
Super Mario GalaxyWiiE1832007
Grand Theft Auto IVPlayStation 3, Xbox 360E1892008
LittleBigPlanetPlayStation 3E1952008
BayonettaXbox 360E2092009
Super Mario Galaxy 2WiiE2152010
Rock Band 3PlayStation 3, Xbox 360E2222010
'WiiE2342011
The Last of UsPlayStation 3E2552013
Grand Theft Auto VPlayStation 3, Xbox 360E2592013
Bayonetta 2Wii UE2722014
BloodbornePlayStation 4E2792015
'Nintendo Switch, Wii UE3042017
Super Mario OdysseyNintendo SwitchE3122017
Red Dead Redemption 2PlayStation 4, Xbox OneE3262018
DreamsPlayStation 4E3442020

RankSeriesNumber of 10/10 scoresDeveloperTimescale
1Super Mario4Nintendo EAD/EPD1996–2017
2The Legend of Zelda3Nintendo EAD/EPD1998–2017
3Bayonetta2PlatinumGames2009–2014
3Grand Theft Auto2Rockstar North2008–2013
3Half-Life 2Valve2004–2007
3Halo2Bungie2001–2007

In contrast, only two titles have received a one-out-of-ten rating, Kabuki Warriors and .

Retrospective awards

In a December 2002 retro gaming special, Edge retrospectively awarded ten-out-of-ten ratings to two titles released before the magazine's launch:
Edge also awarded a 10/10 score in one of the regular retrospective reviews in the magazine's normal run:
In Edges 10th anniversary issue in 2003, GoldenEye 007 was included as one of the magazine's top ten shooters, along with a note that it was perhaps "the only other game" that should have received a ten out of ten rating. The game had originally been awarded a nine out of ten, with the magazine later stating that "a ten was considered, but eventually rejected".
Resident Evil 4, which came second in Edge Presents The 100 Best Videogames, originally obtained a nine, but according to the 100 Best Videogames issue, it came "as near as dammit to the sixth Edge ten".
The 20th anniversary issue published in August 2013 carried a feature called "The Ten Amendments", in which the following seven games' scores were retrospectively adjusted to ten-out-of-ten. A rationale was provided for each.
A number of Edge special editions were published in the UK. These included:
;"1996 essential hardware guide"
;"Essential hardware guide 2000"
;"The 100 most significant reviews from the first 100 issues"
;"Retro: The guide to classic videogame playing and collecting"
;"Retro: 'The making of...' special"
;"Edge presents Equip: PlayStation 2 edition"
;"Edge presents Equip: GameCube edition"
;"Edge presents Equip: PC edition"
;"Edge presents Equip: Xbox edition"
;Specials issue ten: "Retro: The Collector's Series": This final edition in the Retro series reprinted all of the "Collector's Series" of articles from the main magazine. Each feature focused on a specific video game console of yesteryear and examined its history and the collectors market surrounding its rare or collectable games. Unusually for Edge, the majority of these articles were written by one video games journalist: Simon Parkin, a long-time freelance contributor to the magazine.
;"Edge presents FILE Volume 1 - Issues 1-12: The birth of a new generation"
;"Edge presents FILE Volume 2 - Issues 13-24: The new generation shows its strength"
;"Edge presents FILE Volume 3 - Issues 25-36: Videogame culture enters a new era"
;"Edge presents... The Art Of Videogames"
;"Edge presents... The 100 Best Videogames"
;An Edge Special Edition - "the 100 greatest videogames"
;An Edge Special Edition - "the 100 greatest videogames" - 2016 edition

Foreign editions

Australia

An Australian edition was briefly published in early 2004, for less than six months. The Australian edition consisted mostly of content from the UK edition, along with news on the local games industry.

Brazil

The Brazilian edition was launched in Brazil in May 2009. It includes articles translated from the UK magazine alongside original local content. The magazine was cancelled in November 2010, with 18 issues.

France

A translated selection of articles are published with the French magazine.
In 2017, La Financière de Loisirs licensed the title for France, starting with a 200 pages special issue about popular games that changed the gaming industry, as well AAA as indies.

Germany

In November 2005, a German translation was launched by the publishing house Computec Media AG. The German edition was thinner than the English original, the covers were slightly changed and the ratings raised. In January 2007 it was changed to a bi-monthly schedule and in July 2007 it was finally shut down.

Italian

In October 2004, an Italian localised edition was launched under the name Videogiochi and published by Future Italy. In December 2006, Future Italy was sold to Sprea Editori which renamed it Game Pro in May 2007. Last issue: September 2009.

Spanish

A localised edition of Edge was launched in Spain on 15 April 2006 by publisher Globus, which shares some staff from the On/Off editorial, a Globus magazine about DVD video and consumer technology, not in any way related to video games. It lacks some articles contained in the UK edition, such as the Virtua Fighter 5 story which was omitted from the corresponding Spanish edition.
At the end of May 2009, a post in the official Edge Spanish forums made by the main administrator, stated that Globus was about to close its video game division, which meant the closure of the Spanish edition of Edge and NGamer.
In October 2017, a new official is released. A new number comes every two months.