Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Games for Windows: The Official Magazine was a monthly computer game magazine published by Ziff Davis Media, licensing the Games for Windows brand from Microsoft Corporation. It was the successor to Computer Gaming World. The first issue was released in November 2006. As of the April/May 2008 issue, the magazine is no longer offered in print and the editorial staff will be integrated with 1UP.

According to Ziff Davis, the magazine was to be a "rebirth" of the Computer Gaming World magazine, which had lost news stand presence over the past few years. Furthermore, according to the editorial staff of CGW/GFW, the magazine would essentially remain unchanged and was in no way subject to Microsoft's influence, something reflected in the language of the legal agreement between Ziff Davis and Microsoft (akin to how the content of Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine (OPM) was not influenced by Sony in any way, outside of demo disc content).

For the last several years, Computer Gaming World coverage had overwhelmingly been on Windows-only games due to the relative lack of games which support other operating systems. According to the editors of the magazine from an August 2006 podcast, the idea of a Windows Games-exclusive magazine began when Microsoft sought to establish Windows as a viable gaming platform (particularly at E3 2006), akin to its console brother, the Xbox. The editors of CGW approached Microsoft...
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