We were five years into the mag’s life at Imagine by this point and it was obvious we weren’t going anywhere. Sales and subscriptions were extremely healthy and while the market for magazines was becoming trickier, we were weathering the storm well.
We were fresh off a redesign 76 had a cover supporting Microsoft’s incoming (apparently the first time a digital Xbox 360 game had appeared on a games cover), we did an awesome advent calendar to celebrate the plumber’s 25th anniversary for 82 and a follow-up cover for 83 that was infamously referred to by Ryan King as ‘the Goatse cover’ (don’t Google it). Another cool cover we did was make 81’s cover look like a game box (I think that was Damian’s suggestion). We finished off 2010 with a win at the Games Media Awards, which was delightful. Part of ’s success during this period was definitely thanks to the talented production editors behind the scenes, which included Matt Hoddy, Olly Williams and Rebecca Richards. If you’ve ever read any of Darran’s Twitter posts, you’ll be well aware of the Herculean task they had on their hands.
