Future Axes Xbox World and PSM3 Magazines

Future Publishing's rocky road to digital continues, as the company today announced the closure of two more magazines in its gaming portfolio. Xbox World and PSM3 follow in the recently deceased carbon footprints of NGamer - the final issues for both will be released on December 12.

Affected staff are promised to be "redeployed... across the business," according to a report on CVG. The move to shutter the two unofficial magazines is said to be an aim to focus on digital growth - which has long been a challenge for traditional media companies to transition to.

However, the company's Head of Entertainment, Clair Porteus, remains optimistic. "Future's gaming portfolio saw over 14m unique users for October 2012 - up over 20% on October 2011. We intend and fully expect there to be no redundancies and will be looking to redeploy all staff within the business."

At least that's something - the timing of the magazine closures isn't particularly brilliant, and the situation would have been made worse if there were redundancies so close to the Christmas holidays. SPOnG wishes the best for everyone affected in the closures.