Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Games for Windows: The Official Magazine is a monthly computer game magazine published by Ziff Davis Media and the Microsoft Corporation. It is the successor to Computer Gaming World. The publication date of its first issue was released in November 2006. [1]

According to Ziff Davis, the magazine is to be a "rebirth" of the Computer Gaming World magazine, which has lost news stand presence over the past few years[citation needed]. Furthermore, according to the editorial staff of CGW/GFW, the magazine will essentially remain unchanged and is in no way subject to Microsoft's influence, something reflected in the language of the legal agreement between Ziff Davis and Microsoft (akin to how to how the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine's (OPM) content was not influenced by Sony in any way, outside of what's in the demo discs).

For the last several years, Computer Gaming World' coverage has overwhelmingly been on Windows-only games[citation needed] due to the relative lack of games which support other operating systems. According to the editors of the magazine from an August 2006 podcast, the idea of a Windows Games-exclusive magazine began when Microsoft sought to establish Windows as a viable gaming platform (particularly at E3 2006), akin to its console brother, the Xbox. The editors of CGW approached Microsoft with the idea of a platform-focused magazine not unlike OPM or Nintendo Power, who then started a bidding war among different publishers for the rights to do so. Eventually, Ziff-Davis won the rights and because the company already had a computer gaming-based magazine, sought to re-launch the current publication in its current form.

The editorial staff currently includes Editor-in-Chief Jeff Green, senior editor Sean Molloy, news editor Shawn Elliot, reviews editor Ryan Scott, and features editor Darren Gladstone.

The cover of the premiere issue of GFW is considered an homage to the cover of the first issue of CGW, with the prominence of a dragon on both covers.

The magazine also a numerical ratings system, this time modelled after 1Up.com and EGM, with rankings based between 1 and 10, with 0.5 intervals in between.

Located at 1up.com, the magazine also has an hour-long GFW Podcast, uploaded to the site usually around Tuesdays or Wednesdays hosted by the editorial staff which discusses many issues surrounding PC Gaming and all the latest games, previews and reviews.

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