EGM Media, the creator of the Electronic Gaming Monthly Compendium, has issued an update after growing concern from backers over the delivery of the physical book.

If you cast your mind back to 2024, you may remember hearing about The Electronic Gaming Monthly Compendium. Heck, you may have even heard about it from this very site.

Said to feature "meticulously curated excerpts from the magazine with new insights and never-before-told stories", it easily beat its Kickstarter goal, smashing its initial target in under 24 hours and raising a whopping $1.8 million from backers. Yet, despite that, it has failed to deliver a physical book (the digital edition was delivered back in December of last year), with a July 8th, 2026 update suggesting physical orders were supposed to start shipping on September 14th, 2026.

When that failed to happen, backers inevitably grew concerned, with the Kickstarter going strangely silent when asked what the holdup was, leading to an Aftermath article entitled "EGM 'Compendium' Kickstarter Raises $1.8 Million, Has Yet To Actually Deliver The Book," published on September 18th, 2026. After reading that article, I tried to reach out to EGM owner Steve Harris, the campaign owner, for a statement on the delay, but heard nothing back. I then reached out to the PR company that originally handled the book's announcement to see if they could put me in touch with Harris for an update (which they agreed to, despite no longer being on the project), only to receive an email a few hours later, making us aware of a new update published on Kickstarter.

It's unclear whether this statement was in the works since the Aftermath piece went live, or prompted by our enquiries, but the timing is certainly peculiar. It begins by apologising for the lack of communication and pinning the delay on issues with the printer raising the price of printing, which prompted the publisher to look into different solutions:

"First and foremost, we want to apologise for the lack of communication over the past weeks. We have been working to resolve problems with wrapping up this project and wanted to wait until we knew what the path forward looked like before posting an update to avoid creating more questions than we answered. We understand that communicating clearly and openly is important, especially when we’ve already asked you to wait so long on a project that was successfully funded.

"When we made our updates that the printer was found and the books were printing, we had paid an advance and were given a schedule that was acceptable. Problems arose shortly thereafter, however, when we were told that the agreed price would be higher. This caused production to stop, and we gave ourselves a short window to investigate alternative options. We thought this would be a quick process since we had already spoken with other printers prior to selecting the one that we picked.

"Unfortunately, the size of the project and what we needed – which includes not only printing but packaging and bundling services across multiple products – was beyond what we could get done quickly from a different source. After examining the options, we determined that the best course of action to deliver the books as fast as possible was to stay with the printer we had originally selected."

As the statement explains, EGM Media has now paid the additional amount the original printer required and is moving ahead again, with the next available print window on October 16th, which will reportedly also be the date of the next update. Those who prefer at this point to request a refund, however, rather than waiting can apparently do so through Kickstarter messages, with the company writing, "We’re hopeful that you’ll give us the additional time we need but understand if you do not want to wait and would prefer to cancel your pledge."

In another part of the update, EGM also seeks to shift the blame away from the EGM editorial director Josh Harmon and EGM editor Mollie Patterson, who have both been subject to online criticism (and in some cases abuse) along with Harris for the project's delay, with this statement reading:

"Please know that Josh and Mollie are not responsible for the ongoing delay, were not privy to the back-and-forth with the printer, are not the ones who selected the printer, and at this point can’t do anything to expedite the process. We’d ask all our backers to please refrain from acting like they do. This is not their fault."

The statement concludes:

Again, we’re sorry that this celebration of something that meant so much to so many has encountered so many difficulties, and we take responsibility for the ongoing delays. We’re committed to delivering exactly what was promised.

Our belief that this would be like publishing an issue of a magazine, something we have done hundreds of times, was quite simply wrong. And the delays are a result of this and our choices, and we simply took way too much time trying to complete a process that, while complicated, should not have taken nearly so long. We bear full responsibility for where we’re at. We’ll work as hard as we can, get this to the finish line, and appreciate everyone who is there with us when the project is completed."

We'll be keeping an eye on the project over the next couple of weeks to see whether EGM sticks to this schedule, but in the meantime, we'd be interested to hear from backers in the comments.

What do you make of this latest statement? Are you confident the project will deliver now? Or are you reserving judgement for later?

Disclosure: The author of this piece briefly freelanced for EGM Media.