In 2006, Ziff announced it would be refocused as Games for Windows, before moving it to solely online format, and then shutting down completely later the same year.

[10] These early bimonthly issues[6] were typically 40–50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings (SSI), Dan Bunten (Ozark Software), and Chris Crawford.

[citation needed] Also, early covers were not always directly related to the magazine's contents, but rather featured work by artist Tim Finkas.

[citation needed] In January/February 1986 CGW increased its publication cycle to nine times a year,[6] and the editorial staff included popular writers such as Scorpia, Charles Ardai, and M. Evan Brooks.

[14][15] On August 2, 2006, Ziff Davis and Microsoft jointly announced that CGW would be replaced with Games for Windows: The Official Magazine.

[2] On April 8, 2008, 1UP Network announced the print edition of Games for Windows: The Official Magazine had ceased, and that all content would be moved online.

[17] At the GFW Radio Penny Arcade Expo reunion, Jeff Green claimed that the deal with Microsoft allowed CGW/GFW to continue operating, and that if it had not occurred, Ziff Davis would have shut down CGW.

Although Ziff Davis has taken its CGW Archive site offline, the magazines can be downloaded from the Computer Gaming World Museum.

For many years, CGW never assigned scores to reviews, preferring to let readers rate their favorite games through a monthly poll.

In May of the same year, CGW changed the name of its review section to "Viewpoint", and began evaluating games on a more diverse combination of factors than a its content.

Webster commented that "I strongly recommend this magazine to computer gamers, and just one reason alone will (in my opinion) suffice: You can now start getting from just one publication the information that you've been having to dig out of three or four or five (or six...).

[28] In 1998, journalist Stuart Campbell described PC Gaming World as a publication with a predominantly American bent, thanks to its "sober, serious, text-heavy style".

[30] In July 2000, Ziff Davis sold its publishing arm in Europe to Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen (VNU), including three magazines in Germany, three in France and four in the United Kingdom.

[31][32] At the time, The Register reported that VNU saw PC Gaming World as a poor match for its business model, which left the magazine's future uncertain.

[31] The publisher sold PC Gaming World to Computec Media a month after the purchase,[28] citing its lack of synergy with VNU's existing brand.