Sony Kills OPM In a brief statement just released by Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) it's been announced that they and Ziff Davis Group have agreed to terminate production of the Official U.S. Playstation Magazine - otherwise known as OPM - with the release of the January issue. Peter Dille, SVP of marketing for SCEA had this to say about the raw-deal:

"A key element of the OPM magazine was the playable PlayStation disc packed in with every magazine. With the launch of the PLAYSTATION(R)3 (PS3(TM)) computer entertainment system and its full network and Web capabilities, we are focused on delivering content via the PlayStation Network and PlayStation.com website, not discs," - "While we have enjoyed a very good run with the printed version of Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, we feel it is important to shift assets online to meet the needs of today's PlayStation consumer. This is a natural evolution of our content delivery strategy."

The release goes on to explain that the DVD content will now become available exclusively through the newly unveiled Playstation Site and the Playstation network via the PS3.

This is absolutely a raw deal for the Ziff group and for Playstation fans but the bigger question is what does this mean for other "official" magazines? One could presume the UK version will soon go as well. It's an odd move on Sony's part to kill an official print resource supporting their newly minted platform especially in light of Microsoft's recent move to make Computer Gaming World into Games for Windows.

Joe Dodson, of Game-Revolution, comments, "Makes sense to me, there's no reason to go to a store and buy a magazine when you can just read it on your game console." but then goes on to say, "I can't imagine reading reviews for PS3 games on my PS3."  Well put.  I can't imagine it either.  Now, we may know OPM's reviews were hardly unbiased but this definitely sounds a shift in strategy that should be noted.

Meanwhile, what a Merry Xmas that will be for the staff.  Hope they at least got a parting PS3!

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