Future shutters PlayStation-focused Play magazine

One of the UK's last remaining print gaming magazines, Play, has been cancelled.

In a brief statement posted to its social media feed, Play said it was "with a heavy heart" that it must inform readers that the next issue of the Sony-centric magazine would be the "final" edition.

The UK's Official PlayStation Magazine (OPM) was retired after 25 years in May 2021, with Future Publishing replacing it with Play, a new publication with the same editorial team but without the official Sony branding.

Whilst the rebranding saw the magazine's numbering reset, Play was otherwise the spiritual successor to OPM, "made by the same team of writers, editors, and designers." It ran for four years, bringing the OPM/Play legacy to a close after 29 years.

"We all love to play – but the unfortunate truth is that at some point all games must come to an end, whether it’s because you got squashed by a rolling boulder, threw the controller down in frustration, or simply hit credits," editor Oscar Taylor-Kent wrote in a longer missive on publisher Future's flagship gaming site, GamesRadar+.

"That time has now come for Play as well," Taylor-Kent said, adding that he'd always "considered this version of the magazine a combo of the legacies of Official PlayStation Magazine, PSM, and Play," all prior UK gaming magazines that have shut down.

He then made a "special acknowledgement" to final team members Jessica Kinghorn, Miriam McDonald, and Milford Coppock, saying "they have made [his] years across OPM and Play a breeze."

In August, Game Informer has been shut down after 33 years in publication.