United States · 1997–2007
The first games magazine to put a playable demo disc in every issue — turning a magazine into a delivery mechanism for the games themselves.
Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, universally known as OPM, was published monthly by Ziff Davis. Its first issue was cover-dated October 1997 and appeared on 23 September 1997, and its defining innovation arrived with it: every single issue shipped with a disc containing playable demos and video content for PlayStation games. OPM was the first gaming magazine to do this, and it fundamentally changed what buying a magazine meant. The premiere disc set the template, carrying playable demos of Intelligent Qube, PaRappa the Rapper, Fighting Force, Air Combat 2, Tomb Raider 2 and NFL GameDay 98 — a genuinely strong lineup that was, for many readers, worth the cover price on its own regardless of the editorial content wrapped around it. In an era before broadband made downloading demos practical, the disc was the only realistic way most players would ever try a game before buying it, and OPM became for a generation less a magazine than a monthly subscription to the PlayStation itself. The demo disc model was rapidly copied across the industry and remained standard until digital distribution rendered it obsolete.