Research and Planning: Textual Analysis of a Magazine Front Cover

I have decided to analyse a copy of the front cover of Official Xbox Magazine. I have chosen to analyse this magazine because it is mainly aimed at teenagers a similar age to myself that obviously play video games. This magazine is aimed at teenage boys aged 15 to early 20’s. I think is a suitable age range because it most people of these ages that play video games and they are most likely to buy this magazine.

At the very top of the magazine there is a cover line saying ‘ breaking details on the next must-play RPG!’ this appeals to gamers because they will know that an RPG is powerful rocket launcher on many shooting games. This cover line will make them think that there is a new shooting game coming out soon, and if they’re fans of shooting games they might buy the magazine to see what it is and when it will be out. The masthead contains the Xbox logo, which makes this magazine appeal to people with Xbox’s only because if you have a PlayStation you are not going to buy an Xbox magazine. The headline on this magazine says ‘Exclusive! Fallout 3’ most gamers know that the Fallout games are very popular and this will make them want to buy the magazine to read about how this new game will be different from the previous ones. The word exclusive also makes it sound like it is a one off and this will be the only chance you will be able to read about this. The central image is a picture of a character from the game Fallout 3. This is a good central image because if the magazine was on a shelf you might not be able to read the headline but if you can see the picture and you know what the character is from it might make you want to go and see what the article is about. This central image is also good because the character is running away from the explosion behind him and he has a gun these things connote war and fighting which are things linked to the game. The background colours look like an explosion this connotes danger and war. This attracts your attention to the magazine because they are bright colours and it makes you want to see what is going on.

There are three cover lines on this magazine cover and they all appeal to gamers in a big way because they are things related to very popular games or popular things to do with gaming.

There is a plug at the bottom of the page saying that there is a pullout booklet inside that shows you how to customize you controllers this will appeal to lots of gamers because lots of people attempt to do this anyway and they might be interested in how to do it properly.