New EPUB Edition, Updates on the Print Edition, Archive, and Much, Much More
5 months ago
– Wed, Jan 28, 2026 at 03:13:54 AM
Quick Update: If anyone is having issues getting the EPUB version onto their Kindle, to our knowledge Amazon only allows you to import EPUB files into your library through its Send to Kindle service, accessible at http://amazon.com/sendtokindle. You can simply download the file from BackerKit, upload it here (you may need first to log into the Amazon account associated with your device), and after a brief wait the Compendium should appear in your device's library for download alongside your other books.
Original Post: Welcome to 2026!
First off, we hope all of you had a happy and safe holiday season. We ourselves took the chance to spend some time with our families and friends—and maybe do a bit of gaming here and there—but throughout all of that, we’ve still been hard at work. So, we wanted to bring you an update on the progress we’ve made since we last talked.
Print Edition
Delivering the digital version of The EGM Compendium has been a hugely rewarding experience for everyone on our team. We’ve truly enjoyed hearing the feedback from those of you who’ve started (or finished!) reading it.
But we also know that many of you are eager to get your hands on the print edition, and some of you are waiting to read the book for the first time in that form. Rest assured that we’ve been moving forward on physical production so we can make that happen as soon as possible.
As the final intermediate step before the full print run begins, the printer is currently assembling sample versions of all editions of The EGM Compendium. Each sample is a complete printing of the entire book, a test run we can review to ensure all text on every page is readable and all graphics are clear and match our expectations. We’ll share photos of these physical rewards in an update once they arrive—we expect to be able to do so in next week’s update, as the samples should ship to us quickly once they’re done.
After we give the sign-off on the samples, we’ll begin the full production run. The books will be finished and packed at the printer with your other rewards, then shipped to our fulfillment partner where they’ll be swiftly forwarded along to you. We’ll update you as we reach these milestones as well, so you’ll have a clear expectation of where your order is on its way to you.
Mistaeks Happen
We also know that some readers have spotted and shared a few typos in the initial digital release. (No, the Sega Saturn did not cost over $4,000 at launch in Japan. Thanks, Rhody.) While we obviously worked hard to ensure the initial release was clean—four separate people reviewed each page—with a project of this scope and size and a team as small as ours, it was inevitable some mistakes would slip through. That’s why we really appreciate anyone who’s brought a typo to our attention—we’ve implemented fixes for each and every one, and continued looking through the book ourselves to ensure the full print run is as clean as possible. We can’t promise perfection, but we can safely say we’ll be much closer than we were a few weeks ago.
These revisions will be reflected in the final print edition—we’ve been maintaining an updated set of printer-ready files that will be ready to use the moment we receive and review the samples. They’re also reflected in the Digital Edition of the book—including the version you can read online at https://egmcompendium.com/books/the-egm-compendium/ and the downloadable PDF available on both the site and through your BackerKit digital rewards. (As a reminder, you can always access your BackerKit and your downloads by visiting https://egmcompendium.backerkit.com/ and entering the email address associated with your pledge.) These revisions are also reflected in the new reflowable EPUB edition of the book, out today.
Reflowable EPUB Edition
Starting today, you can download an EPUB version of The EGM Compendium from BackerKit. (In fact, you may have already gotten an email informing you of a new digital reward.)
This version of the book has been reformatted in its entirety to offer the best possible experience on e-readers like the Kindle or Nook. The PDF and print editions of the book emphasize the visual design quite heavily. The EPUB version is, by necessity, a different experience. We’ve still included hundreds of images—some to provide required context, some just for fun—but we were careful not to go overboard, both to keep the file size manageable and to avoid cluttering the reading experience. And the text, of course, is a near-exact match with the print edition.
Why "near-exact"? Well, we went through and modified any references to page numbers to instead be direct links that take you to the referenced content. Though the book isn’t particularly dense with them, we also took advantage of footnotes and other EPUB-native features to ensure this version of The EGM Compendium feels purpose-built for e-readers, rather than something we just tossed out there with the minimum possible effort.
We hope anyone reading the book in this format enjoys it just as much as the PDF version. (But hey, we’d recommend flipping through the PDF or print version too—some of those visuals are neat!)
The Digital Archive
While much of our focus in the past few months has been on The EGM Compendium itself, that doesn’t mean we’ve been ignoring the EGM Digital Archive.
In fact, some of the work that we’ve done on the book has translated into improvements on the site as well. As one example, a handful of the issue covers on the Digital Archive were subscriber versions, which had an empty white box that covered up part of the cover to accommodate the printing of a mailing address. As a part of sourcing better versions of such covers for the book, we’ve now replaced those covers on the website as well.
Along with that, we’ve now answered one of the biggest questions that had been lingering about the Digital Archive: Where was the download for EGM #109? As that issue’s scan had numerous quality issues, we hadn’t wanted to put up a download for it just yet. Now, however, if you head over to the site, you’ll find that we’ve given EGM #109 a fantastic new scan, both for the digital version you can read directly from the site and for the PDF download that is now available. At the same time, we’ve also been fixing various problems with some of the other issues as well. There are still some we need to address, but work continues on that as we try to make the archive we’ve built for the history of EGM even better.
Roadmap for Other Rewards
Obviously, our print production team will continue to move forward to get your physical rewards out to you, but with that process now underway, Josh and Mollie are freed up to turn their attention to other outstanding rewards and bonuses. Here’s a quick look at what we’ll be working on, in the tentative order we’ll be working on it (though many of these efforts will be underway simultaneously).
Compendium Hub Pages on the Archive
We’ll be working on building out the Hub Pages on the Archive, accessible via the codes in the book. This expanded content will allow you to quickly jump to relevant material in the magazine archive (for anyone with a full, paid Archive membership), and in many cases offer additional material like extended interviews and expanded content (for all backers). Expect these to begin going up in the next couple of weeks.
EGM #265
Planning and tentative layout work is already underway for the all-new issue of EGM that we unlocked as our final original stretch goal. We’ll now be ramping up our efforts on this, concurrent with our work on the other projects on this list. (In fact, we’ve already assigned out—and received back—a couple of articles from EGM alumni.) We’ll share more behind-the-scenes details as the issue comes together.
(If you applied to review in the issue as part of the Review Crew Survivor stretch goal, don’t worry—we haven’t reviewed those messages yet and will be in touch shortly to let you know if you’ve been selected.)
EGM2 Archive + Specials Archive
After all the Hub pages are live, we’ll begin to index issues of EGM2 and get them live on the Digital Archive site to read and navigate exactly like EGM issues. Our current plan is to put issues live as they’re completed (or in small batches at regular intervals) rather than waiting to complete all indexing, so we can minimize the wait time.
We plan to dig into the Specials after EGM2, as these will need to be handled on a case-by-case basis and will take a little more legwork to get live. But we’ve already begun to procure copies of some specials that have never been digitized anywhere before, so that we can preserve them for you on the Archive.
Podcasts
If you’ve already started reading the Compendium’s oral history sections, you know we spoke to dozens of former EGM editors to get their memories for the book, and we tried to fit as much of those stories onto the page as possible. But even still, so much more had to be left on the cutting room floor. As we announced late last year, we’ll be editing the interview audio into podcasts and making them available to backers. Our plan is to release these as they’re finished and begin producing them once the most time-consuming work on EGM #265 is finished.
Digital Archive Full Text Conversion
This is the longest-term item on the list: Our stretch goal to convert articles on the Digital Archive into HTML, so you can toggle between reading it in the original layout and in a more browser-friendly text format. We’ve begun exploring OCR tools that will help us speed up and streamline the process, but even then, we expect this to be an ongoing effort that will take some time. It’ll likely be the last item on this list to finish.
As you can see, we’ve got a lot of exciting things lined up for 2026, even beyond the delivery of your physical copy of The EGM Compendium. And we’ll continue working hard to get it out to you.
Thanks again to each and every one of you for your support and patience.
The EGM Compendium Will Now Arrive Digitally Next Week
7 months ago
– Fri, Nov 28, 2025 at 12:18:01 PM
To cut to the chase, it'll be a few more days on the digital version of The EGM Compendium book. You can expect it download and read it next week.
As we shared previously, we had wrapped up our work on the pages and were waiting on the final review. After that review, we needed to make some revisions, and we worked hard to get the requested changes finished as quickly as possible, up to and including working all day yesterday.
Unfortunately, the people who need to review the changes and put the final stamp of approval on the release are out because of the holiday and won't be able to sign off until they're back next week.
We understand that this is going to be upsetting, but there's nothing that can be done. We did, however, want to make sure everyone was fully informed and wanted to underscore once again that we're done and ready to go once this last step is checked off.
We can't reiterate enough how appreciative we are of everyone being understanding of the delays and we're sure that you'll agree, when you see the final product, that it was worth the wait. We understand many of you will not be pleased with this additional (however short) delay and apologize that our best laid plans got derailed here—but we are literally steps away from the finish line for the delivery of the digital book and hope you'll extend one last bit of understanding. We know you'll be as proud to have been a part of this project as we were making it for you.
Thank you again to everyone who has been part of this journey.
Your Digital Copy of The EGM Compendium Is Almost Here—Here’s How You’ll Get It
8 months ago
– Fri, Nov 21, 2025 at 01:41:41 PM
Hello and thank you again to our EGM Compendium backers!
We’re officially a week out from the release of the digital edition, and we wanted to share a bit more detail about how exactly we’ll be distributing your copy.
Download Details
To make the process as seamless as possible for you, there will be three ways to read the Compendium digitally. First, we’ll be putting it up on the EGM Digital Archive site, where you’ll be able to read it within our viewer. Second, you’ll be able to download your PDF copy directly from the Digital Archive site, just as you can with classic issues of EGM.
We do know that many of you have not yet set up your Digital Archive accounts at the backer or paid tier, so as a third option to reduce the number of steps, we’ll be distributing the PDF directly through BackerKit. Once we upload and send out the PDF, you’ll receive an email from BackerKit informing you that you have a new digital reward. A link inside will take you to your BackerKit survey page, where you’ll be able to download the PDF.
Like all of you, we play games, which means we also know how bad DRM can suck. That’s why we’re taking a light hand here. The PDF will have basic protections built in. You won’t be able to print it out—that’s what the physical book is for—and you won’t be able to copy and paste out all the text, since we want everyone to read this material in its intended context. Although there will be some security added to the file, we’re putting our trust in you to be respectful of the effort we’ve put into this project and the investment you and each of your fellow backers made to bring it to life. In short, please don’t distribute this to people who shouldn’t receive it.
Charging Cards on BackerKit
We’d also like to give you a heads-up that we’ll be charging cards on BackerKit as a final step in the minutes before we distribute the PDF. Because we’re now moving into production of physical goods, we need to ensure that our item counts are locked and final.
Note that if you backed on Kickstarter and did not add any add-ons while completing your BackerKit survey, you’re all set. There will be no further charges and you don’t need to worry about anything.
If you did choose new add-ons via the survey and provided your credit card information through BackerKit, your card on file will be charged for the outstanding balance on any rewards you added. Please take a moment in the next week to verify that your card on file is still valid to avoid any complications and to help ensure that you get the add-ons you wanted.
A Quick Note on Archive Codes
One more quick note before we go. As we announced during the initial campaign, The EGM Compendium also includes a few special codes that Digital Archive subscribers can use to go deeper on certain topics within the book. For example, if you’re reading about Sheng Long in the book, there will be a code you can plug in on the Archive site to visit a page that will let you quickly navigate to his appearances in the magazine and read extended interview material from the editors involved in his creation.
Because we’ve been laser-focused on getting the book out to you as fast as possible, and because we altered our plans to get you the digital version the moment it’s ready, these pages won’t be active right when your PDF of the book arrives. We’ll be working on setting them up after the book is distributed to you and sent to the printer, and we’ll follow up with an announcement once they’re live. We understand the book is the main priority for many of you, so we didn’t want these pages to impact how soon you could read it in any way.
Thanks again!
