Help them, GamesMaster!

It almost seems like lightning has struck twice for Future. The firm has spent the last few weeks telling publishers that its impressive new First Play on-console PS3 show is one of its best launches ever.

Now the swoop for the full licence to its distinguished (polite word for ‘old’, there) monthly suggests the firm is thinking up decent ways to shake off the idea that it is ‘just’ providing magazines and websites when it comes to consumer games editorial.

The GamesMaster magazine redesign is the less interesting part of the puzzle – the real potential is in that TV comeback, and whatever is planned for the ‘social media’ sphere.

Future is arguably one of the few with the scale and forcefulness to push forward a well-made terrestrial games show – the kind of mainstream coverage the industry has painfully lacked and tried to awkwardly pursue in the last decade.

And boy, does Future have to work to keep its rivals, partners, and commentators like me intrigued.

At a time when FarmVille on Facebook serves the number of people in a day some media firms would only dream of reaching in a month, companies like Future have to move quickly, or else be considered irrelevant.

(Future is a media company, I know – but many think Future and think of just the ABC graph with all the red arrows pointing to the ground).

So, if handled right, the plans for the GamesMaster brand as something bigger than a monthly magazine won’t just mean a classic show is back on TV – it could help Future live up to its name.