Although it began as an advertising supplement to sell imported video games, primarily from Japan, the small text reviews and descriptions drew attention for a lack of refinement and a sense of passion.

The anonymized approach allowed certain editors like Dave Halverson to write multiple reviews of the same game under different pseudonyms.

[3] GameFan's official explanation was that a rogue employee had sabotaged the magazine in order to alienate its Japanese audience and fan base.

Monitaur's main storylines were his struggles against The Blowmeister, who represented the leadership of rival magazines such as Electronic Gaming Monthly.

After the bankruptcy of Fusion Publishing and the closure of Play, Dave Halverson began work on a relaunch of GameFan.

The magazine returned to newsstands in April 2010, headed by Halverson and a few key staffers from Play with Rob Duenas serving as the new art director.

Issue 7 was assembled by only three people - editor-in-chief Dave Halverson, art director and graphic designer Rob Duenas, and managing editor James Bacon - and was released in December 2011.

The reason for his departure was due to an overwhelming workload; Duenas stated that he worked "20 hours a day for two weeks straight and [he was] still short cover art".

[15] Despite the stressful working conditions, Duenas harbored no ill will towards Halverson or the magazine, stating that he would have still been willing to contribute with cover illustrations or provide assistance with layouts.

A press release was issued on April 18, 2012, highlighting the supposed future of Paper Planet brands: GameFan and Girls of Gaming.

Former Destructoid editor Wesley Ruscher was named the magazine's new editor-in-chief but resigned shortly after the release of issue 8, stating that it "lacked the necessities to keep food in [his] belly and a roof over [his] head.

The initial plan was to bring back the dual-cover format from the first two issues, but instead of a MovieFan portion, it would be exclusive content created by Destructoid for the magazine.