Gamertell

Three more game-relate print pubs have crumbled under the force of an economic recession and inexpensive online competition.

Fusion Publishing, Inc., recently filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, essentially shutting down Geek Monthly Magazine, Play Magazine and Girls of Gaming.

As a now former (and partially unpaid) Contributing Editor for Geek, on February 1, 2010, I received a “Notice of a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Case, Meeting of Creditors and Deadlines” concerning Fusion Publishing. The meeting of creditors is scheduled for 11 a.m., March 1, 2010, at 21051 Warner Center Lane, #105, Woodland Hills, CA 91367 (case number 1:10-bk-10979-GM).

The company has not been responding to inquiries from fans, subscribers and former writers so most of the news about the publications being shuttered comes from former writers. I can confirm from online contact with Geek‘s former Editor, Jeff Bond, that Geek has officially been shut down and Fusion employees are no longer being paid.

For now the domains of each publication still have content but all of the subscription and back issue sections (even for digital editions) have been deactivated.

The last issue of Geek was published November 2009, although many people on the mag’s Facebook Group have indicated the company sold subscriptions for Christmas. Others indicated they did not even receive the final issue and were only able to purchase the digital version. While not specifically a gaming magazine, Geek did often feature game reviews, anime and other stuff a game-lovin’ geek could drool over for hours. New posts stopped appearing on Geek‘s blog in October 2009.

On the other end of the spectrum is Play, which was entirely dedicated to game and game culture, often trying to pontificate about pixels at a level slightly higher than your average mag. Many of the writers from Play often contributed to the game sections of Geek. New posts stopped appearing on the Play site until late January 2010.

Finally there’s Girls of Gaming, a gratuitous pub that lived up to its name by offering photos of video game women wearing skimpy outfits and in sexy poses. The final issue appears to be the dual-covered #7.

There is an inkling of hope that something will emerge from Fusion’s rubble. If you believe this forum thread, Fusion’s founder, Dave Halverson, is already working on a mid-March 2010 revival of GameFan Magazine (one of his previous creations) that will feature games and movies. Unfortunately, the original source of the forum post (here) does not appear to be active at the time of this writing.

Site [Fusion Publishing, Inc.]