User:Hellknowz/Sandbox2
Game World Navigator / ru:Навигатор игрового мира (Navigator Igrovova Mira).
Finally got around to this one. While being one of the Russia's main ones, they are independent/self-published, so their PR suffers and I have trouble finding publisher-related information. They do get mentioned a lot in passing in Russian sources, like [1]. Not a whole lot in English sources.
The magazine is second-oldest Russian print magazine starting March 1997 and still active today with monthly releases (although there have been gaps). It appears to have a steady audience with self-reported circulation numbers peaking at 65k in 2000s and 20-30k since. It's listed on Russian VG/RS equivalent as a reliable source.
The content (some examples) is mainly PC video game based with previews, full (2+ pages) and short (columns) reviews. Reviews are on a scale of 10.0 with breakdowns in later versions and seem to have broad score range (71 according to MC). Usually around ~200 pages, earlier ones up to 100. Earlier versions also had guides and such. Later versions also cover some indie games. They also cover hardware, industry, esports, and such. As of 2012, the magazine went from PC-only to multi-platform [2][3].
According to the intro in their first issue, before the journal, the people behind it were doing various work in leading Russian publications, including making their own computer game catalogue [4] (I think this is the one, searching for offline "video game catalogue" is useless) for almost 10 years. So they had experience, but not a full editorial team to make a journal, which they finally managed in 1997. They also say "not for money, but because they enjoy it". They keep printing editor's column each issue. I have to say, their first issue is better than most magazines manage, although it's fairly average for existing magazines.
The magazine was founded by editor-in-chief Denis Dadydov (Денис Давыдов), who had worked on other magazines before and later moved on to Igromania, which sounds like the experience and credentials they claim. They team does not appear to fluctuate and same people are working consistently. Current chief editor is Igor Boyko (Игорь Бойко), who was second-in-chief to Dadydov and took over. He is recently the first Russian judge to join Gamescon [5][6], which likely speaks to his credentials. He has an interview at [7].
They are published by Navigator Publishing (Навигатор Паблишинг)[8], which is their own independent publisher. They published 11 issues of Console (Консоль) magazine (some examples) during 2006-2007, which was their console counter-part reaching 15k circulation [9], though it didn't take off (apparently because no one cares about consoles, even though magazine's quality was on par). It seems to follow the same layout/content as the main magazine. Apparently, they also printed some other minor now-defunct publications, but it's impossible to find.
They also have an online version at nim.ru, though mostly to mark their online presence checkbox (Boyko says print magazine is priority in his interview). I can't find any (legal) repository of magazine scans online, but I have most of the issues for reference (including Console). Some extra stuff I used for references [10][11][12].
Computerra / Компьютерра magazine and website
Computerra (Компьютерра) was a Russian print magazine running from December 1992 to December 2009.
The magazine was established by Dmitriy Mendrelyuk (Дмитрий Мендрелюк) 1992, who stayed as chief editor. He also founded (same name) publishing house Computerra (history) which has 5 defunct and 1 active magazines. Within first years it got 60-120k prints/months. He left the journal in 1998 to focus on the publishing house.[13] Since, the journal had several chief editors, some of them notable in WP terms.
The magazine was stopped in 2009 (site) and replaced by the 1997-founded online version at [14].
Some of their stuff is pretty high-brow opinion pieces. But we're really interested in reviews, technical info, and such.
Video Games (Germany)
de:Video Games was an earlier German print magazine from January 1991 to March 2001. It was the first multi-platform one. Published first by de:Markt+Technik, then de:WEKA Holding and finally de:Future plc. Both M+T German and WEKA German-based international publishers look like big names and have many magazines published, so I don't think their reliability is in question. And Future is Future. Editors also appear notable (as seen on German wiki) and afterwards well-known. It does not appear that there is any list on German Wikipedia for to mathc VG/RS. Internet Archive scans here, cover list here. They feature detailed reviews and 100% score bar. Their content seems solid and on par with other magazines [15]. They seem to be overall one of German counter-parts to English magazines. I think it's a reliable source unless there are any issues with it in which case I can dig further (although their name is a pain to search).