Fan-Written Magazine Sega Mania Shuts Down

Sega Mania, a bi-monthly English magazine based in Somerset, dedicated solely to news concerned with SEGA and its games has closed down after a little more than a year of running. The decision was announced by Tim Hugall in a post on Mailchimp. Tim is one of the magazine’s founders.

MAJOR TAKEAWAYS

• Sega Mania, founded 18 months ago in 2021, has been shut down. The decision was announced by the magazine’s founder Tim Hugall.
• The magazine was dedicated to SEGA games of the 90s era.
• He said several factors forces him to shut the magazine down.
• All pre-orders and subscriptions have been refunded.
• The magazine published 7 issues in its 18-month run.

Sega Mania was one of a multitude of fan-written magazines covering Sega news. It was said to be inspired by 90s SEGA magazines such as Sega XS, Mean Machines Sega, and Sega Pro. It aimed to relive the experience of 90s publications by covering the news from that era.

Each Sega Mania issue used to cover publications from one year of the 90s era, starting with 1991. The magazine was available in print as well as in digital form. They covered all classic SEGA game series from Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

According to Tim’s post, several things going against them forced them to come to that decision. Even though he did not specifically mention them in his post. He also said that the magazine was never meant for their profit as “every penny” they “made was sunk back into the project” to keep it running. This was purely a “passion project.”

Announcing the decision Tim wrote,

This evening I made the incredibly difficult decision to bring Sega Mania Magazine to an end. It has been an incredible 18 months, but a multitude of factors have prompted me not to continue.”

He further said that all the writers writing for Sega Mania were never paid. They wrote solely out of their passion for writing and their love for SEGA. Tim thanked those writers for enabling the magazine to keep running for as long as it did.

The magazine published 7 issues in its 18-month run. Tim said all the preorders and subscriptions have been refunded. And the purchases made for 6 months through PayPal will be repaid manually.

He also thanked the readers who kept supporting them till the end. About what the future holds for him and his team, Tim Wrote,

It may be the end of Sega Mania but not the end of us. With such an incredible pool of talent at our fingertips, it would be mad for us not to try something a little different in the future. We don’t know if we will yet and if we do, what it may be, but we’ll be sure to let you know if we figure it out.”

Even though Tim did not specify the reason for shutting Sega Mania down, it could have been due to the non-profit nature of the magazine. Publishing a magazine is time-consuming. And it’s hard to sustain it without stable earnings.

What other factors do you think contributed to the closure of Sega Mania? Drop your opinions in the comments section below.