I hope Tesco will be encouraging people to recycle the magazines when read; that is a lot of waste, otherwise.

Yes, I know millions of other magazines are made and sold weekly, but Tesco should certainly be in a great position to encourage it.

Yes, let 'em dessimate the Games Market...aslong as they recycle!!!!!

what the ?!$*!!!!!!!

@2: Dessimate the games market?

Its just a magazine. It won't be a very good one though because it sounds like it is aimed at parents - "who it is appropriate for" - and my dad would much rather play my xbox than read about it. Would probably do better as a free booklet in store for xmas so that parents can get an idea of what the big games are etc.

I'm refering to the way they crash the market value (ie selling below cost. See Tesco as a distributer comments), await the market share growth, then go to the publishers demanding better terms.

They had a big hand in the decline of music on the high street. Selling chart music at £7 (normal cost price £8+), the punter then thinks they're being ripped off by anyone selling over £10 (the actual value being £12). The result? Now we have HMV as the only real high street music specialist. No Music Zone, No MVC, No Fopp, No Virgin.

Lets hope the games market doesn't follow the same path.

It's a free magazine - there's a clue in the article. And it's not aimed at people who already play games I don't think.

With regards recycling, that's up to the individual. All the waste mags will get pulped.

Oh and you spell 'decimate' with a c.

@4: I don't think think you can put that much blame on Tesco for the collapse of music retailers in the high street.

Ever since people got the hang of downloading music the appeal of music stores has dropped quite steeply as there is no point paying extra for a cd and its box if your only interst is the music itself or maybe even just one song. (eg compare the cost of one single versus the price of that song on its own when downloaded).

They may be lowering the prices for games but they have to to compete with online retailers as well as high street retailers. I don't see the same thing happening with games until the games companies themselves stop using discs and start using downloads but thats a long way off.

@6 - I take it you don't work in the industry then... The collapse of the high street music retail happened long before the mass appeal of downloads.

Tesco (and other supermarkets) will try and kill off ANY competition with their loss leader sales techniques. There are plenty of specialist online retailers that can't/won't sell (games) at the same prices as the supermarkets. They aren't competing with price match techniques, they just enter a marketplace (be it with games, music, books, clothes, toys or garden furniture etc.) with the sole intention of wiping out any other business in existence.

Oh, BTW I (the poster of point 7 above) am not the same poster as comment 4. We both clearly want to remain anonymous.

@7: I do not work in the industry and while i am certainly not an advocater for what companies like tesco do within any market they enter I don't buy the idea of tesco or supermarkets in general destroying the high street music industry.

They may have been selling music in their stores before legal downloadable music was available but it has been being done illegally long before they entered the market. It was already in its decline by that time.

Just so long as Tim Edwards (PC Gamer), Ben Talbot (Official XBox360 magazine) and Steve Hogarty (PCZone) are NOT writting for them, this could be ok.

I can't believe how much those writers suck, yet still keep getting hired to write crappy reviews.

I do find it funny that Tesco are creating the "Biggest gaming magazine" when their gaming department sucks in every store I have been to. This is yet another case of Tesco showing it really is a jack of all trades, and jumping in on the bandwagon of other industries.

"Hey those guys are earning money over there. We already own loads, so lets take what little earning they have and full up our already overflowing pots of money".

I know its a free magazine, but for many people choosing between something that is free versus paying is no contest, so they ARE taking money form the magazine industry here

Will you have to pay to have your games featured in it, does anyone know?

...Tesco's bottom line.
It won't cost Tesco anything to do this mag - they'll be "encouraging" the publishing commnunity to invest in this mag as a trade off for listings and maybe the odd stock deal. Want to feature in my mag - it'll cost you :)
Don't be surprised to see the main products featured in this mag in prominent position in stores too.
How desperate will the publishing community be to feature??
Watch this space........

@12: considering tesco only old 3 different games of each format, competition from the publishers could be high.

one the other hand, it will just be the same as it has always been, football and movie tie in games are all that tesco will sell

@13: ??? - That may be all thats left on the shelves when you get to the shop but they definetely sell more than just football games and movie tie-ins.

@14: Oh yes they always have 10 copies of the latest exclusive game eg:Halo 3 or Lair. Slap my wrist for not being pedantic.

My point was they barely treat their games department in the same respect that other game exclusive shops do, and now they are doing a game magazine. Unless they only have articles about the games they stock, they will be sending their customers elsewhere to buy the mass market games.

If they do only have articles about teh few games they sell, it will show that they only care about their own profits, and the magazine will have no journalist integrity

With all due respect, why on earth would Tesco feature games in their magazine which weren't available to buy in their stores / online? Wouldn't make any commercial sense.

the future.....tesco's dictating the price publishers must sell at???