The company was established when Future plc acquired struggling Greensboro (N.C.) video game magazine publisher GP Publications, publisher of Game Players magazine, in 1994.[3]
The company launched a number of titles including PC Gamer, and relocated from North Carolina to the San Francisco Bay Area, occupying various properties in Burlingame and South San Francisco. When Chris Anderson, the founder of Future plc, sold Future to Pearson plc he retained GP, renamed Imagine Media, Inc. in June 1995, and operated it as his sole company for a few years.[4]
Buoyed by the Internet economy and the success of Business 2.0 in the US (and subsequently in the UK, France, Italy and Germany), Future rode the boom of the late nineties. During this period the company won the exclusive worldwide rights to produce the official magazine for Microsoft's Xboxvideo game console and cemented its position as a leader in the games market. In the spring of 2001, buffeted by economic factors and the market downturn, Future Network USA went through a strategic reset of its business that included the closure of some titles and Internet operations and the sale of Business 2.0toAOL/Time Warner.[5]
On September 19, 2007, Nintendo and Future announced that Future US would obtain the publishing rights to Nintendo Power magazine. This came into effect with the creation of issue #222 (December 2007).[6]
On October 1, 2007, it was announced that Future US would be making PlayStation: The Official Magazine, which ended up replacing PSM and first hit newsstands in November 2007. With this launch, Future US became the publisher of the official magazines of all three major console manufacturers in the US. PlayStation: The Official Magazine closed in 2012.[7]
In 2012, NewBay Media bought the Music division of Future US.[8]
In 2018, Future reacquired majority of the assets previously sold to NewBay by buying NewBay outright for US$13.8 million.[9] Future used this acquisition to expand its US footprint, particularly in B2B segment.[10][11]
