Ed!
9 months ago
– Fri, Jul 18, 2025 at 12:42:48 PM
Hello and thanks again to you, our backers!
We had a quick but exciting update we wanted to share. Since we first launched the campaign, many backers have been asking whether Ed Semrad would be participating in the book.
For any of you who may not be aware, Ed was a part of EGM from the very first edition all the way until issue 105. As the first Editor-in-Chief to follow founder Steve Harris, he played a pivotal role in building the magazine into the institution it became. We obviously wanted to include him if at all possible.
We’d first attempted to get in touch with Ed six months before the start of the campaign, with no luck. Each time we spoke to anyone who worked alongside Ed, we asked if they had any current contact information. Again, nothing panned out.
As we realized the window for Ed to participate was coming to a close, we tried again, cold calling one final phone number we were able to dig up. We got an answering machine, started to leave a message and then… Ed picked up!
We scheduled an interview, and Ed ended up speaking with us for more than two-and-a-half hours, sharing his wealth of memories and perspective on the near-decade he spent working on the magazine. We’re delighted we’ll be able to include him in the book.
Read the first preview of The EGM Compendium—right now!
9 months ago
– Tue, Jul 15, 2025 at 09:05:14 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
New updates on The Compendium, the Digital Archive, and EGM #265
9 months ago
– Mon, Jun 30, 2025 at 04:54:21 PM
Hello, and thanks again for your support of The EGM Compendium. As we round the final corner, there’s plenty of ground to cover in this update, so let’s get started.
Updated Timing for The EGM Compendium
Let’s hit the most important part of this update first: We now expect to ship the The EGM Compendium to you a bit later than the July date previously announced. For reasons we’ll explain below, we’ll need 60 more days to finish up the book and other rewards (that’s the end of September for everyone keeping track). Everything is progressing nicely, albeit a bit slower than we had originally anticipated. Our goal has always been to deliver the best book possible, and this delay is almost entirely due to that fact.
Rest assured, we’ve put the extra time since our previous delay to good use by overhauling layouts, upping the page count (again), and continuing to work hard to line up even more interviews (including one much-requested name we’d been trying to get in touch with for over a year). Buttoning up all that extra work, while simultaneously launching an even more robust version of the Digital Archive than we’d originally planned (more on the Archive below) has simply taken longer than we anticipated.
Also, there is one issue that remains out of our control: We underestimated the amount of time it would take to get everyone’s responses to the backer participation elements of the book. We’ve still got over 1,000 surveys outstanding, including nearly 400 backers who paid to have their name in the book. We’re also waiting on around half of the I Am Sushi-X tier bios, letter art, and letters. We’ve sent out regular reminders and will continue to do so, but we’re quickly approaching a point when anyone who’s yet to submit their info will lose out on their chance to be in the book. We’re announcing today that the deadline is July 11th. This applies to anyone who needs to submit a name to be credited in the book (through the BackerKit survey) or a submission for your reward tier (via email). If you’re one of the folks who’s yet to respond, please do whatever you can to get your submission in before then. We don't want to leave anyone out.
We know the added wait isn’t ideal, but we’re committed to making the book the best it can be and we wanted to keep you, our biggest supporters, in the loop. We promise The EGM Compendium will be the best version of itself when you get your hands on it.
To help make the wait a little more tolerable, we’ll be putting out preview pages in an update next week, so you'll actually have a piece of the book to read and enjoy in the meantime. Stay tuned!
EGM Digital Archive Issue Downloads
…are now live.
We’ve actually been rolling out the feature over the past few weeks unannounced, to gauge how the servers would hold up to the added load of issue downloads. Everyone should now have access to nearly all of the original print issues for download in PDF format. You can find the download links on each issue page, below the cover art. We’ll get the remaining issues up in the days ahead. We’re performing additional cleanup work on the scans and in some cases rescanning material to ensure the PDFs are of the best possible quality.
To prevent abuse, each paid account has a limit of three downloads per issue of the magazine. This is not a hard-and-fast lifetime limit, but a preventative measure that we may well decide to modify in the future. If you encounter a problem with the limit and need your download counter reset on any issue for any reason, you can just send a note to [email protected] and we’ll help you out.
As a reminder, these downloads are DRM-free, so once you’ve grabbed them you can make as many copies and transfer them to as many of your personal devices as you’d like. However, please note that they’re not copyright-free. Please don’t upload the PDFs anywhere for the general public to download.
EGM Compendium Backer Voting Results
Earlier this year, we opened voting for the franchises you wanted to see spotlighted in The EGM Compendium. Now, the results are in.
Here are the winners:
Top Three Licensed Franchises
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Star Wars
Marvel
Top Five Additional Franchises
Castlevania
Metroid
Mega Man
Doom
Super Smash Bros.
Bonus Review Crew Bookmark
Final Fantasy VII
EGM #265
We’re also in the very earliest stages of planning for the new issue of EGM, so we’ll be able to hit the ground running as soon as the book is delivered to the printer and ensure you’ll get the magazine shipped to you alongside the book. There’s not much to share yet, but there is one exciting announcement we can make today.
If you’ll recall, our final bonus stretch goal was to give the magazine a fold-out cover inspired by the original EGM #100 artwork. That classic cover featured a montage of some of the most iconic game characters in history at that point. Our new version will take the same concept but update the selection of characters with a more modern lineup.
Today, we can announce that we’re working with the very same artist who drew the EGM #100 cover, Allan Ditzig. Following his working on the original cover, Allan has built an impressive career in the game industry, working as a designer, creative director, and art director at studios such as Midway, THQ, Zynga, and Boss Fight Entertainment. At Midway, he worked with Ed Boon to reinvent classic Mortal Kombat characters for Deadly Alliance and designed the now-iconic blind swordsman Kenshi.
We’ve already seen his sketch for the new cover, and it’s nothing short of incredible. Working with Allan to deliver a new take on the same cover concept he illustrated back in 1997, with decades more experience under his belt, is one more special moment in a project that’s been packed with them. We can’t wait for you to see the finished piece.
That’s all for today. Thanks again, and be sure to keep an eye out for next week’s update, when we’ll be sharing the preview chapter of the book.
Some Official Business, and a Fun Update on Recapturing the Past
11 months ago
– Mon, May 19, 2025 at 01:15:15 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Vote to Feature Your Favorites in the Compendium (Plus Updates on the Archive and Tariffs)
12 months ago
– Mon, Apr 14, 2025 at 09:08:19 PM
Thanks again for your support of Electronic Gaming Monthly as we deliver your first reward—the EGM Archive—and continue work on the rest of the project. We’ve got a lot to share today, so let’s get to it.
Voting for The EGM Compendium Is Now Live
Thanks to the stretch goals unlocked by the backers during the initial campaign, our community will be voting on some of the franchises that will be highlighted in The EGM Compendium and the game featured on the final Review Crew bookmark.
Today we’re officially opening up voting on those stretch goals. Go here and make your voice heard now!
We plan to leave the voting open for at least two weeks to allow as many backers as possible to vote. We’ll follow up again with a reminder and let you know the final deadline as it approaches.
Please note that the voting form also includes a handful of optional survey questions, so we can gauge how you’re feeling about the project so far, how we can improve, and what might interest you in the future.
The EGM Archive
Separately, we’d like to thank everyone who has taken the time to check out the beta version of the EGM Archive. Given the volume of new signups we’ve experienced over the last week, things went far smoother than even we hoped for, and we’ve already made some tweaks to improve the site’s performance and usability in response to backer feedback. We’ve read all the kind words you’ve shared about the Archive, and it’s immensely gratifying to know you appreciate the work we put into building it.
By now, any existing backers who paid for access to the Archive should have received a code. If you haven’t seen it, please check your email (including the spam folder) for a message with the subject line "New Digital Content for The Electronic Gaming Monthly Compendium on BackerKit."
If you still can’t find your code, it’s also accessible at the end of your BackerKit survey, via a button on the survey confirmation page marked "Get Your Digital Downloads." You can get back to your BackerKit survey at any time by entering the email address associated with the Kickstarter account you used to back the EGM Compendium at egmcompendium.backerkit.com.
We’ve also distributed codes for "backer" accounts to everyone who did not purchase Archive access. This account will allow you to view the Review database we unlocked as a stretch goal during the campaign.
If you’re interested in seeing everything the Archive has to offer, you’ll be able to upgrade after registering your "backer" account. You’ll find a link to Shopify, where you can purchase the upgrade, on your account page or when trying to navigate to paid areas of the site. The pricing will be $10, the same as if had you included Archive access during the original campaign.
Upgrading will provide you with access to the entire run of Electronic Gaming Monthly in a searchable and indexed format that allows you to locate specific content by game name, franchise, platform, writer, and more. You can also read entire issues from nearly the whole 264-issue print run—we’re saving 237 until physical copies ship—on desktop, mobile, and tablets.
And remember: We also plan to continue improving and expanding the Archive in the weeks and months ahead, so it’ll get even more content from here.
Tariffs and The EGM Compendium Project
We’ve received some questions from backers and potential backers about the issue of tariffs and how they could impact The EGM Compendium. We know there is a lot of uncertainty on this question, and it’s understandable that some of you may have questions about how this could effect the production and shipping of the project.
If you’re a backer who lives outside of the U.S., and your government imposes any additional tariffs, you should be aware that this may increase the cost you’d have to pay to the courier on your end to receive your book (or however else your country handles import taxes on international shipments). We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. To state the obvious, the situation is beyond our control, and we do not receive any of the import taxes that may be collected in your jurisdiction. Please consult your local tax authority if you have any questions.
Finally, we feel obligated to once again thank everyone who has supported EGM and the campaign. It is very much appreciated!
