How a FuncoLand giveaway became the biggest magazine in gaming
Game Informer started in 1991 as an in-house handout from FuncoLand, a Minnesota chain that sold used cartridges. The first issue was thin, free and written to move product off the shelf behind the counter.
The retail connection never went away, and it is the reason the numbers eventually got strange. GameStop inherited the magazine in 2000 when it absorbed FuncoLand's business, then folded a subscription into its paid loyalty tier. Every shopper who bought the upgraded membership became a subscriber.
That turned a store handout into a mass-circulation title. By 2011 Game Informer's circulation sat near 8 million, which The Washington Post described in 2024 as the third largest magazine in the nation.
Its rivals never got that lifeline. Electronic Gaming Monthly and Nintendo Power both stopped printing in the early 2010s, and cable's games coverage had already thinned out after TechTV disappeared. By 2024 Game Informer was the last multi-platform games magazine still printing in the United States.
Why did GameStop shut down Game Informer in 2024?
On Friday, August 2, 2024, the staff were called into a meeting with a GameStop human resources executive and told the publication was closing, effective immediately. Everyone was laid off the same day.
No reason was given. The notice went up on Game Informer's own social accounts and opened with a line that has been quoted ever since: "it is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of Game Informer," GameStop wrote in its August 2024 statement, after 33 years of publishing.
The staff made clear the goodbye was not theirs. The wording read like something generated rather than written, and the people who had actually made the magazine said they had no hand in it.
The business logic was a cost line. GameStop spent 2024 cutting everything that did not directly sell games, and a print magazine carrying paper, postage and a full editorial payroll was an easy target for a retailer shrinking its store count.
The last issue finished under GameStop put The Casting of Frank Stone on the cover. Its cover reveal had gone out days before the shutdown, so the magazine stopped mid-cycle rather than at a natural end.
What happened to 33 years of Game Informer articles?
The website was not simply frozen. Every URL on gameinformer.com was redirected to the closure statement, so a link to a 2007 review, a studio profile or a cover story all returned the same farewell page.
Reporters noticed the redirect the day after the announcement. Three decades of coverage of a secretive industry, including previews and developer interviews that exist nowhere else, went dark in an afternoon.
That is the part of the story that reversed most completely. In May 2025, two months after the sale, the new owner restored the digital archive and pushed it past where it had been, putting every issue back to the first one from 1991 online.
Game Informer credited the Video Game History Foundation, the scanning community at Retromags and individual collectors with tracking down the missing issues. The run is now readable free with a Game Informer account, and the Video Game History Foundation's own digital library carries most of the original run as well. The archive is in better shape than it was on the day GameStop owned it.
What is Gunzilla Games, the studio that bought the magazine?
Gunzilla Games is a European development studio best known for Off the Grid, a battle royale built around its own blockchain. Neill Blomkamp, who directed District 9, is a co-founder and the studio's chief creative officer.
On March 25, 2025, close to eight months after the shutdown, Gunzilla Games announced it had acquired Game Informer and rehired the staff, from editorial through production, with the publication set up as its own company.
Gunzilla Games chief executive Vlad Korolov framed the purchase as a rescue. The studio was proud to "join their fight to preserve the heart of video game journalism," he said in the March 2025 announcement.
The obvious problem is that a game developer now owns a review outlet. The announcement answered it directly: "Game Informer remains completely editorially independent," Gunzilla Games wrote, and editor in chief Matt Miller later told Aftermath that the magazine's content is "100% selected by our editorial team without any outside influence," the owners included.
The parent company has had its own turbulence. Aftermath reported in 2026 that some Gunzilla Games developers said they had gone months without pay, while Game Informer said its own work and pay had continued without interruption.
Is Game Informer still publishing in 2026?
Yes, in print and online. Print subscriptions reopened in June 2025 and the magazine runs 10 issues a year, each one released digitally to subscribers on the day it launches. A year costs $59.99 for print and digital together, or $39.99 for digital only.
In August 2026, Game Informer opened print subscriptions outside the United States for the first time since the relaunch, starting with Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe and saying more countries would follow.
New subscribers start with the Exodus issue, number 381, which doubles as the 35th anniversary edition. It carries a 14-page cover story and a 12-page retrospective of the magazine's covers with comments from staff and from developers including Ken Levine, Sean Murray, Yoshinori Kitase and Tony Hawk, plus a pack-in poster collecting the 380 covers that came before it.
So the status is unusual for anything in this archive. A print product from 1991 was killed, deleted from the web, and came back with a bigger archive, a wider subscriber map and a price list of its own.
Where to find one today
Reading the old material costs nothing: every issue from 1991 to 2024 is free with a Game Informer account, and the Video Game History Foundation's digital library holds most of the same run. A current subscription is the only route to the new print issues. For a physical back issue with the original ads, fold-outs and cover stock, collectors sell them singly and by the lot, usually for less than the price of a year's subscription, and Etsy's vintage Game Informer listings are the practical place to browse.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Game Informer still in print in 2026?
Yes. Game Informer returned to print in June 2025 under Gunzilla Games and publishes 10 print issues a year alongside daily coverage on its website. In August 2026 it extended print subscriptions to Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe, and issue 381 marks the magazine's 35th anniversary.
Why did GameStop shut down Game Informer?
GameStop closed Game Informer on August 2, 2024 without naming a reason, laying off the entire staff in one meeting and ending a 33-year run that began in 1991. The retailer was cutting costs across its business that year, and the magazine's paper, postage and editorial payroll were expenses it chose to stop paying.
Can you still read old Game Informer issues?
Yes, and for free. After Gunzilla Games bought Game Informer in March 2025, the magazine restored and expanded its digital archive in May 2025 so every issue from 1991 to 2024 can be read with a free account. The Video Game History Foundation's digital library carries most of the same run.