Yesterday we brought you news that gaming website 1UP.com had been sold to UGO Entertainment and parent company Hearst Corporation. Since then it has been confirmed that Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), published as part of the 1UP Network by Ziff Davis, has been closed and is no longer in publication or circulation.

EGM has been around for 20 years now and so it comes as quite a shock that the January 2009 issue will be the final printed issue. Perhaps even sadder news is that Joystiq have revealed that a substantial number of 1UP and EGM staff have been laid off. An internal email sent to employees by CEO Jason Young, published by Gamasutra, explained the reasoning behind the closure of EGM.

“With this transaction happening, we have also made the decision to discontinue publication of EGM. The January 2009 issue will be the final issue of the publication. With demand for print continuing to decline amongst both advertisers and readers and the content being produced by 1UP no longer available for use in the publication, it simply did not make sense for us to move forward with this business any longer.”

Since then the last EGM editor-in-chief James Mielke has revealed the last unpublished cover of EGM on his blog. According to a post on Mielke’s blog, the “final, secret, unpublished issue of EGM” will be revealed on 1UP soon.

“You will be able to read every hi-res page, ads and all (last time I checked at least) on 1UP, to see the beautiful job that crew did, even with the guillotine hanging over our heads every minute of the day. I’m only posting the cover to it for now, but as you can tell, it’s quite an eye-catching, dynamic cover. I hope you enjoy the full, final issue.”