Its a sad day for the gaming industry as IDG Entertainment announced today that it would be closing down its US based GamePro Magazine distribution, along with its online presence, GamePro.com. The site will be taken offline at noon on December 5th, and the existing GamePro staff and branding will be relocated to a sub-channel of PCWorld.com.

As a former employee of GamePro, I am saddened by this news, but I can't say that I am fully surprised. The market for Video Game News is incredibly "instant gratification" oriented, which makes it difficult for a print publication to stay current and fresh when it doesn't hit the news stands for almost a full month after the information is available on the internet.

To put things in context, GamePro Magazine began its publishing run 22 years ago, in 1989, which makes it older than one of GameGeex's writers. Many gamers of our generation, myself included, grew up with GamePro magazine and it's trademark "ProTips". While working for GamePro, I helped develop various parts of their site, particularly their Forums and Blogs. I also rebuilt and helped spearhead their offshoot BlogFaction blogging network, the spiritual forefather of the Blogomancer  blogging network that powers GameGeex.