Next Generation was an American video game magazine that was published by Imagine Media (now Future US). It was affiliated to and shared content with the UK's Edge magazine. Next Generation ran from January 1995 until January 2002. It was published by Jonathan Simpson-Bint and edited by Neil West. Other editors included Chris Charla, Tom Russo, and Blake Fischer.
Next Generation initially covered the 32-bit consoles including 3DO, Atari Jaguar, and the then-still unreleased Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Unlike competitors GamePro and Electronic Gaming Monthly, the magazine was directed towards a different readership by focusing on the industry itself rather than individual games.
Publication history The magazine was first published by GP Publications up until May 1995 when the publisher rebranded as Imagine Media.
In September 1999, Next Generation was redesigned, and its cover name shortened NextGen. A year later, in September 2000, the magazine's width was increased from its standard 8 inches to 9 inches. This wider format lasted less than a year.
The brand was resurrected in 2005 by Future Publishing USA as an industry-led website, Next-Gen.biz. It carried much the same articles and editorial as the print magazine, and reprinted many articles from Edge, the UK-based sister magazine to Next-Gen. In July 2008, Next-Gen.biz was rebranded as Edge-Online.com. Previous subscribers of NextGen Magazine started receiving copies of PlayStation magazine at the end of its life-cycle.
Content
Next Generations content did not focus on screenshots, walkthroughs, and cheat codes. Instead the content was more focused on game development from an artistic perspective. Interviews with people in the video game industry often featured questions about gaming in general rather than about the details of the latest game or game system they were working on.
Next Generation was first published prior to the North American launch of the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation, and much of the early content was in anticipation of those consoles.
Apart from the regular columns, the magazine did not use bylines. The editors explained that they felt the magazine's entire staff should share the credit or responsibility for each article and review, even those written by individuals.
The review ranking system was based on a number of stars (1 through 5) that ranked games based on their merits overall compared to what games were already out there.
Next Generation had a few editorial sections like "The Way Games Ought To Be" (originally written every month by game designer Chris Crawford) that would attempt to provide constructive criticism on standard practices in the video game industry.
The magazine's construction and design was decidedly simple and clean, its back cover having no advertising on it initially, a departure from most other gaming magazines. The first several years of Next Generation had a heavy matte laminated finish cover stock, unlike the glossy paper covers of its competitors. The magazine moved away from this cover style in early 1999, only for it to return again in late 2000.
Issue history Lifecycle 1Lifecycle 2
Issue Featurev1 #1 (January 1995) New game consolesv1 #2 (February 1995) Online gamingv1 #3 (March 1995) PlayStationv1 #4 (April 1995) Atari Jaguarv1 #5 (May 1995) Ultra 64v1 #6 (June 1995) Crossfirev1 #7 (July 1995) Wipeoutv1 #8 (August 1995) Sega Saturn TV Commercialsv1 #9 (September 1995) Destruction Derbyv1 #10 (October 1995) Madden NFL '96 v1 #11 (November 1995) Virtua Fighter'''s Sarah Bryant |- |v1 #12 (December 1995) || 32-bit Videogame Report |- |v2 #13 (January 1996) || Ridge Racer Revolution|- |v2 #14 (February 1996) || Ultra 64 |- |v2 #15 (March 1996) || Next Generation 1996 Lexicon |- |v2 #16 (April 1996) || How to get a job in the video game industry |- |v2 #17 (May 1996) || Codename: Tenka |- |v2 #18 (June 1996) || Microsoft future for gaming: DirectX |- |v2 #19 (July 1996) || Past, present, and future of online gaming |- |v2 #20 (August 1996) || Super Mario 64|- |v2 #21 (September 1996) || Next Generation's Top 100 Games of All-time |- |v2 #22 (October 1996) || Venture capital in game development |- |v2 #23 (November 1996) || Artificial Life |- |v2 #24 (December 1996) || PlayStation vs Nintendo 64 vs Sega Saturn |- |v3 #25 (January 1997) || Net Yaroze |- |v3 #26 (February 1997) || Videogame Myths |- |v3 #27 (March 1997) || Top 10 online gaming sites |- |v3 #28 (April 1997) || Retrogaming |- |v3 #29 (May 1997) || Something is wrong with the Nintendo 64 |- |v3 #30 (June 1997) || Why does a game cost $50 |- |v3 #31 (July 1997) || What makes a Good Game |- |v3 #32 (August 1997) || Video game packaging |- |v3 #33 (September 1997) || Design documents |- |v3 #34 (October 1997) || The future of game consoles |- |v3 #35 (November 1997) || 25 Breakthrough Games |- |v3 #36 (December 1997) || Independent game developers |- |v4 #37 (January 1998) || The most important people in the American video game industry |- |v4 #38 (February 1998) || hardcore gaming |- |v4 #39 (March 1998) || How to get a job in the video game industry |- |v4 #40 (April 1998) || What the Hell Happened? |- |v4 #41 (May 1998) || The Fall of BMG Interactive |- |v4 #42 (June 1998) || How games will conquer the world |- |v4 #43 (July 1998) || The Licensing Game |- |v4 #44 (August 1998) || The Console Wars of 1999 |- |v4 #45 (September 1998) || Dreamcast: The Full Story |- |v4 #46 (October 1998) || A Question of Character |- |v4 #47 (November 1998) || The secret of Namco's success |- |v4 #48 (December 1998) || Do video games stand a chance in Hollywood |- |v5 #49 (January 1999) || What did Super Mario 64'' do for video gamesv5 #50 (February 1999) Dreamcast Countdownv5 #51 (March 1999) Physics Mattersv5 #52 (April 1999) Learning Curvesv5 #53 (May 1999) Man versus machinev5 #54 (June 1999) Dreamcast versus PlayStation 2v5 #55 (July 1999) Building the Futurev5 #56 (August 1999) Rare's Triple Threat
Issue Featurev1 #1 (September 1999) Dreamcast Arrivesv1 #2 (October 1999) Hooray for Hollywoodv1 #3 (November 1999) PlayStation 2 arrivesv1 #4 (December 1999) The War for the Living Roomv2 #1 (January 2000) Crunch timev2 #2 (February 2000) The Games of 2000 Will Blow Your Mindv2 #3 (March 2000) Raising the Barv2 #4 (April 2000) PlayStation 2: Hands-On Reportv2 #5 (May 2000) Sega's new dealv2 #6 (June 2000) Ready for warv2 #7 (July 2000) Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Libertyv2 #8 (August 2000) The Making of the Xboxv2 #9 (September 2000) Dreamcast: The First Anniversaryv2 #10 (October 2000) Broadband Gamingv2 #11 (November 2000) GameCube: Can Nintendo Competev2 #12 (December 2000) 2001 PlayStation 2 gamesv3 #1 (January 2001) Got Talent: First Party Developersv3 #2 (February 2001) Games Grow Upv3 #3 (March 2001) Start your own game companyv3 #4 (April 2001) Field of Indremav3 #5 (May 2001) Old Systems, New Gamesv3 #6 (June 2001) Sega's Next Movev3 #7 (July 2001) Eidos on Edgev3 #8 (August 2001) GameCube Exposedv3 #9 (September 2001) Video Game Uv3 #10 (October 2001) 25 Power Playersv3 #11 (November 2001) Xbox arrivesv3 #12 (December 2001) Nintendo's GameCube is herev4 #1 (January 2002) Xbox review
References
External links Complete collection of 85 front-cover images Next Generation Wayback link for Next Generation Online Wayback link for Imagine Publishing Archived Next Generation Magazines on the Internet Archive Archived Next Generation Magazines on Retro CDN Archived issues at Video Game History Foundation