PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries. The magazine features news on developments in the video game industry, previews of new games, and reviews of the latest popular PC games, along with other features relating to hardware, mods, "classic" games and various other topics.

Review system

PC Gamer reviews are written by the magazine's editors and freelance writers, and rate games on a percent scale. In the US edition, no game has yet received a rating higher than 98% (Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Half-Life 2, and Crysis), while the UK edition has never awarded more than 96% (Civilization II, Half-Life, Half-Life 2 and Quake II).

In the UK edition, the lowest numerical score was 2%, awarded to Big Brother 1. The sequel, Big Brother 2, was given an even lower score of N/A%, the review explaining they "put as much effort into reviewing it as they did in making the game". In the US edition, the lowest score awarded was 4%, given to Mad Dog McCree, unseating the previously lowest-rated game, Skydive!, given 5%.

Editions

There are two main editions of PC Gamer, a British version and an American version, both are published by Future Publishing. Founded in the United Kingdom in November 1993, the American sister version was launched a year later in June 1994.

There are also numerous local editions that mainly use the materials of one of the two editions, typically the British one, including a Malaysian and Russian edition. The Swedish edition, though rooted in its UK counterpart, has grown to be more independent, largely due to the immense popularity of PC games compared to console games in Sweden, and now produces most of its own material. An Australian edition was published monthly by Perth-based Conspiracy Publishing since August 1998, but it appears to have been discontinued in mid-late 2004.

Both American and British magazines are published thirteen times per year (twice in December), although there are sometimes variations.

Magazine

The British edition of PC Gamer has been in constant monthly publication since 1993. Subscribers get a special edition of the magazine with no headlines on the front cover (only the masthead, BBFC rating and barcode).

Almost exclusively devoted to PC games, the magazine has a reputation for giving in-depth reviews.

The magazine originally shipped with an accompanying floppy disk. A CD demo disc (labelled CD Gamer) was released alongside the floppy disk edition from issue 11 onwards with the first CD Gamer containing all the content from the previous 10 issues' floppy disks. The single CD was later expanded to two CDs.