We all know that magazines are on the way out, and recent events have cast doubt on the feasibility of the major gaming websites and their writers...
So what's next? Personally, I'm expecting some sort of crowdsourced, app based solution. Don't know how it'd work, but I suspect that the gaming journalism world is getting just right for disruption from a Uber like company. Perhaps instead of sites with actual writers, we'll get gaming sites where all the articles and content is user submitted with some sort of incentive system, like a forum/social network cross or something like Medium.
But what do you think?
I see it being all youtube, facebook, and twitter in the future and seldom more if anything at all.
Probably. Because as I explain below, people on those sites are seen as less... corrupt than those in the supposed 'media'. I wouldn't be surprised if crowdsourced stuff on social media completely replaced formal writers at some point, simply due to it being seen as harder to 'corrupt' and acting more in the interests of the majority.
I don't see major gaming websites going out anytime soon. Yeah, they may have biased reviews, but they're still a good stop for general gaming announcements, if not for deep thoughts on gaming in general. I expect things will continue just as they have for the last few years. Big name websites, niche websites, forums... Gaming media is spread all across the internet, good and bad.
I'm sad the gaming magazines are heading out though. I really enjoy owning physical media, but gaming and technology news just translates so much better through the internet. It's faster, snappier, easier to update as things change and evolve. Easier to correct when things are misreported, which good or bad, means journalists can take more risks with what's said. Magazines may still be going strong in some fields (I have a digital art magazine I subscribe too that has a really strong install base, and art works well through magazine/book formats) but they just don't seem a good fit for gaming- everything changes too fast for the printed word.
EDIT: WOO! 800 posts! XD
Gaming magazines are doomed for the same reason that website design/programming books are doomed, they're outdated before they hit the shelves. It's also why newspapers will pretty much die completely when the older generation starts dying off, since the internet and quick access to news means that waiting a whole day for it is completely pointless.
Am I disappointed? Yes, a lot of old school magazines had their charm. I especially miss the Official Nintendo Magazine, which has just now gone out of business for good:
http://nintendo3dsdaily.com/nintendoarticles/official-nintendo-magazine-is-now-no-more/
But it was going to happen. It's inevitable, and it's likely permanent; the gaming magazine is dead and buried.
As for your point about big name gaming sites... I don't agree. I think people had already started to get extremely skeptical about them and their ties to the industry, and the gamergate (and prior to that, doritogate) controversies just blew up the issue. As a result, individuals and small groups on sites like Youtube, Twitter, Tumblr, more personal blogs, etc are thriving, because they're seen as more like 'us'. More relatable, less ivory tower, more common man on the street. I think that's the big thing that scares the gaming media at the moment, the idea that the mass market/general population will take away their power and influence and start building their own fanbases and followers.
Kind of like the situation in the non gaming media. People don't trust it very much any more, and they're starting to associate it with large corporations and government influence.
Put simply, I think the gaming media are going to lose out big to Youtubers and social media celebrities, because their reputations have just about hit rock bottom. I think news will get much less centralised now.
