Last week gamers, and the gaming industry, lost arguably the best gaming magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), to the downturn in the economy.

EGM was a publication of Ziff Davis, and was largely integrated with gaming website 1UP.com, but when UGO.com and parent company Hearst Communications bought 1UP from Ziff Davis, Ziff closed EGM, resulting in major lay-offs.

1UP and EGM were not just integrated, they were nearly one in the same, as much of the staff of EGM wrote for 1UP, starred in their podcasts and “1UP Show” and visa versa. Some 30 people were laid off, the extremely popular “1UP Show” and “1UP Yours” podcast were cancelled and many, many fans of the site, magazine, show and podcasts were outraged.

As detailed by now former employees of 1UP and EGM, Ziff had been trying to dump 1UP and EGM for quite a while, and it was just a matter of time. The last issue of EGM is officially the January issue, even though the fourth coming February issue, which would mark the 20th anniversary of the magazine, was nearly complete.

During the initial announcement of the buy-out of 1UP and subsequent closure of EGM by Davis, many readers lashed out at UGO. Yet the remaining staff or 1UP alongside the former staff or 1UP and EGM have since been stressing that had UGO had not bought 1UP, that in time things would likely have been much worse an outcome.

EGM was a healthy magazine, with a subscriber base of over 600,000 readers. According to 1UP director Sam Kennedy, Ziff was worried about continuing EGM into 2009 past the fruitful holiday season where ad revenue is at its strongest. 1UP at large was losing money, as content like the 1UP Show and 1UP's video sub-site, GameVideos.com, were spending more than they were making.

1UP and EGM have long been heralded for their journalistic integrity and quality content and luckily UGO and Hearst have no plans to change that. UGO is much more a mainstream gaming lifestyle website, where as 1UP has long been a focus gaming publication. Fortunately that is why UGO chose to buy 1UP, and what remains of 1UP will continue to do what they do best. The last thing the now former staffers hope outraged 1UP and EGM readers will do is simply give the new 1UP a chance.

To keep up with the laid off staffers of 1UP and EGM, a new podcast has been created by the crew that had been producing the 1UP podcast “1UP FM”. The new podcast is called “Rebel FM” and can be found, at the number one spot in the video game section no less, on iTunes.