PlayStation Official Magazine – UK

Official UK PlayStation Magazine

Issue 108 (March 2004) – The final edition of Official UK PlayStation Magazine, with Lara Croft on the cover.
Editor-in-Chief	Steve Jarratt (issue 1 to 7) Rob Pegley (issue 8 to 42) Mike Goldsmith (issue 43 to 63) Mark Donald (issue 64 to 76) Richard Keith (issue 77 to 97) Ryan Butt (issue 98 to 108)
Categories	Gaming
Frequency	13 issues a year
Publisher	Future Publishing UK
First issue	November 1995
Final issue Number	March 2004 108
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Official UK PlayStation Magazine is a now-defunct magazine, launched in November 1995 to coincide with the launch of the PlayStation console. It ran for 108 issues, with the last hitting news stands in March 2004. The first issue sold 37,000 copies. Roughly midway through its run the abbreviations in the magazine changed from PSM to OPM (this was mainly because another magazine by the name of PSM2 was launched in the 4th quarter of 2000, and so as not to cause confusion, the abbreviations of the official mag were changed to OPM). It had 3 design changes in its lifetime: 1 to 51, 52 to 72, and finally 73 to 108.

The first game to be reviewed was Wipeout, which received 8/10. The last game to be reviewed was Ford Truck Mania, which garnered 7/10.

The magazine would go on to become not only the best selling PlayStation magazine in the United Kingdom, but the best selling videogames magazine in the world.[4][5] By mid-1997, PSM was selling over 150,000 issues a month. In the month of February 1999, issue 42 (cover game: Metal Gear Solid), according to ABC the magazine managed a record 453,571, beating the UK's biggest lads magazines FHM, Maxim and Loaded.

Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine (often abbreviated to OPS2) was launched in December 2000 as the sequel publication to the Official UK PlayStation Magazine, originally priced £4.99, to coincide with the launch of the PlayStation 2 console. Each month the magazine came with a cover-mounted playable demo DVD. It ran for 100 issues, with the last going on sale in the month of July 2008. The magazine was commonly abbreviated OPS2. It had four design changes in its lifetime: 1 to 25, 26 to 41, 42 to 89, and finally 90 to 100.

The first game to be reviewed was Tekken Tag Tournament, which received 8/10. The last game to be reviewed was SBK-08: Superbike World Championship, which earned 7/10. The magazine would go on to become the UK's best selling PlayStation 2 magazine, peaking with 197,348 readers in 2002.

• In 2004, OPSM2 won the prestigious Industry Dinner Magazine of the Year Award.
• In 2004, OPSM2 publication won MCV's Magazine Team of the Year Award.
• In 1998 and 1999, OPSM won the prestigious Industry Dinner Magazine of the Year Award.

The magazine's design follows the same approximate structure each issue. Recurring segments include:

• The Big 10, in which the ten most momentous PlayStation-related pieces of news are discussed.
• Agenda, which contains the game sales charts for all three major PlayStation platforms as well as a Personal column and regulars like Culture, where PlayStation super fans show off their art, models and tributes. It also shows off the latest Sony gadgets (mainly phones and cameras) as well as "Lust have kit".
• Previews and reviews sections.
• Blu-ray movies section in which the latest Blu-ray releases are reviewed.
• Contact, in which letters and emails from readers are shown and replied to, this section also includes a corner dedicated to "what's on my hard drive" where people talk about what games, videos, music, photos and friends are on their PS3 and several wall posts from the Official PlayStation Magazine US Facebook page.
• Directory, which houses a "Buyer's Guide" for games for the main platforms as well as for HDTVs.

Each month the publication comes with a cover mounted playable demo disc — a first for a console magazine. The disc contains game demos and other PlayStation-related content which have to be downloaded and installed onto the PS3's hard drive.

Although some of the demos are also available on the PlayStation Network, there will be some exclusive content on certain discs. It has also been stated that the magazine will receive exclusive content in the future to be published on the disc.

Usually, one member of the team is assigned to review a certain new game, although on occasion other staff members will provide "2up" or a second opinion. Sometimes there are also pie charts to describe the contents, or what you do in the game. Also used are score poles to compare reviews, as well as describing the influences. And as with the "2up" segment, there is a "dev talk" article giving a short statement from the games developer. Reviews are scored out of ten.

The magazine also presents its "highest accolade", the Gold Award, to any game that its staff believe "demonstrates significant innovation, near-flawless gameplay, great graphics and long-lasting appeal." Games do not necessarily have to have a perfect 10 out of 10 score to receive it; those that have received this award include FIFA 09, FIFA 11, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots,[7] Mirror's Edge, Grand Theft Auto IV, Warhawk, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Siren: Blood Curse, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Soulcalibur IV, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time, Infamous, BioShock, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Killzone 2, Assassin's Creed II, Heavy Rain, and Red Dead Redemption for the PlayStation 3; Tomb Raider: Anniversary for the PlayStation 2; and God of War: Chains of Olympus and Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions for the PlayStation Portable.

The only game to receive a 0 rating was the DVD version of Time Traveler.

As of Issue 140, the team listed on the magazine's first page consists of:

• Ian Dean – Editor
• Milford Coppock – Managing art editor
• Miriam McDonald – Operations editor
• Oscar Taylor-Kent – Games editor
• Jessica Kinghorn – Staff writer

In issue 50, the magazine published the results of the readers poll on the greatest PlayStation title ever released.[8]

In the final March 2004 issue, the magazine published their list of the official top 10 PlayStation games of all time.[9]

With the new look, the magazine published their Hall of Fame for each platform.[10]

• Official website
• Archived Official PlayStation UK Magazines on the Internet Archive