The economic situation was very delicate for the company. Future has announced cuts in the salaries of top managers.
The veteran Official Xbox Magazine has closed its doors, according to sources consulted by Eurogamer. The publication, which began operating in stores internationally in 2001 on the occasion of the premiere of the original Xbox, joins the sadly numerous group of video game magazines that are saying goodbye to newsstands.
"Like many organizations right now, we are forced to make difficult decisions."
The company Future Publishing, the parent of OXM, has ceased the activity of a total of six of its publications so far active, which will make it possible to offset the economic losses that they were registering due to the decline in sales of video games in physical format, which It has had a full impact on the net circulation number of magazines sold each month from the publisher.
Future, in a statement for the British media, accuses the gravity of the situation as a trigger not only for the closure of the magazine, but also in a reduction in the salary of the main executive positions to keep these "at absolute minimums."
Official Xbox Magazine in the April 2020 issue
"Like many organizations right now, we are forced to make tough decisions," they begin by saying. “We have a duty to take care of our entire team during this time and we focus on protecting the business for them and for our customers. We have introduced various measures to keep the number of layoffs to an absolute minimum, including cutting wages for our executive team. Although the decline in retail sales has an impact on the magazine business, we have a good digital audience and diversified revenues to continue to offer the products to the current changing needs of our customers. ”
The closing of the magazine coincides with the end of the current generation. It will be at Christmas 2020 when Xbox Series X opens, Microsoft's big bet in the market for the next cycle of home consoles.
OXM came to have a website, but like other parent publications – whose content ended up migrating on the GamesRadar website – the change to digital has precipitated a change in the business model and for content creation. It has not transpired what will happen now with the editors, editors and other workers of Official Xbox Magazine.
