Igromania
| Editor-in-chief | Yan Kuzovlev |
|---|---|
| Categories | Video games |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Publisher | 1997–April 2003 – Igromania-M (Игромания-M) May 2003–September 2013 – TekhnoMir (ТехноМир) October 2013–current – Igromedia (Игромедиа) |
| Total circulation (2009) |
~190,000 |
| Year founded | 1997 |
| First issue | September 1997 |
| Country | Russian Federation |
| Based in | Moscow |
| Language | Russian |
| Website | Igromania |
| ISSN | 1560-2583 |
Igromania (Russian: Игромания, Russian for "Game Mania") is a monthly Russian video game magazine published in Moscow and distributed in Russia and the CIS countries. It was started in September 1997. The circulation in June 2009 was 190,000 copies (the largest in Europe). Each issue contains 208 pages. The magazine comes with a poster, four stickers, and two DVD disks.
In its early years, Igromania focused mainly on solutions and guides to videogames gradually enlarging the variety of content topics and finally moving solutions and guides to the accompanying CD and later DVD.
The first issue of Igromania came out in September 1997. The magazine was founded by Evgeny Isupov and Alexander Parchuk who were both originally engaged in publishing books in Best Computer Games series and later decided to enter the magazine publishing business. Igromania is published by Igromedia publishing house, along with fantasy & science fiction magazine Mir Fantastiki.
The print run of the first issue was about 16,000 copies. Due to massive returns, the number of printed copies of consequent issues was significantly reduced. Originally, the magazine was black-and-white with only the cover being in color. Several issues were printed on a Risograph printer. It was planned to start full color printing in the summer of 1998 but the August crisis in the country forced to postpone such plans.
During the first years of publication, the editors could not decide upon the game platform preference of the magazine. If the first issue carried reviews of only a few PlayStation games, the following issue was entirely dedicated to games on this platform. Very soon the magazine focused on PC games and this focus continues to remain unchanged till now with the only exception of Videomania section on one of its DVDs.
In 1999, Denis Davydov, who had previously worked in Hacker magazine and even before that had created Game World Navigator magazine, became editor-in-chief of Igromania. He initiated dramatic reforms in the magazine and, by 2002, the magazine completely changed its looks and content. Guides and solutions gave way to the widest spectrum of content: game news, previews, reviews, articles about hardware, software, the Internet, game modding and development, features, editors' personal columns, online and desktop games, cheats, retro games, cybersport, computer game competitions, and three hotlines (software, games, and game modding).
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