RETRO MAG AXES CGEUK STAND AS PUBLISHER TIGHTENS BELT
Event organiser Chris Millard broke the news that the event's major sponsor had bailed out on Live Publishing's own Retro Gamer forums on Monday morning, 8 August 2005.
The shock news comes just days after the Macclesfield-based publisher announced that Retro Gamer was going back to being published every two months rather than every month.
And in that very same week, the company also announced that PC Extreme was being axed and staff members had been laid off.
A source at Live Publishing told the Lair that Retro Gamer's withdrawal from CGEUK was simply down to bad timing. "Live was forced to restructure its operations only last week," said the source. "A PC magazine was closed and several staff lost their jobs."
"Things are being
shuffled around and outgoings have had to be slashed while the dust settles.
This includes having a stand at the expo. It's sad really because we had some
great plans for the stand."
Back in April, the
magazine announced that it would be running special promotions throughout
the day. "There will be a number of classic arcade machines on our
stand, and we'll be offering prizes to gamers who register the highest
scores," said editor Martyn Carroll at the time. "We'll also
have a collection of rare retro hardware on display."
Sadly, people attending the show in Croydon on Saturday 13 August won't now see any of those treats. But organisers are remaining upbeat and pointing to the fact that the empty space left by Retro Gamer has been filled by other exhibitors. They are also stressing it will still be a "fantastic" event.
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