When did you first start visiting Eurogamer? Do you remember what it looked like?
Over the course of its 25 years, Eurogamer has gone through at least six major design shifts. With archive.org’s Wayback Machine, we’re able to practice a kind of digital archaeology—returning to these earlier layouts to see what web design trends looked like at different points in time. That might mean the 11-point Verdana style of the late ’90s, the rounded corners that showed up in the early 2000s, or Proxima Nova gaining momentum in the early 2010s.
Still, what if we went a bit further? Instead of only studying still images from the past, what if you could actually engage with any Eurogamer article through a live recreation of those earlier designs?
To mark Eurogamer’s 25th anniversary, we’ve done exactly that.
If you’re viewing the desktop version, you’ll see a theme switcher at the top of the page. It lets you read Eurogamer stories the way they appeared during different stages of its history.
Interested in how the site looked and felt in its earliest days? Choose version one. Want a brighter, more energetic (and honestly, the best) take on Eurogamer? Switch to version three!
If you’re curious about web development—or just want to understand what’s happening under the hood—here’s a quick breakdown. We took inspiration from “CSS Zen Garden” and built a set of CSS themes that reinterpret the site. The HTML stays the same for every version, which was a hurdle we had to work around as we reconstructed some of the older layouts!—and we also used a number of neat tricks, including img::content, to swap out the logos without changing a single piece of markup.
We’ve aimed to reproduce each design as faithfully as we can. They might not be perfectly pixel-matched, but they do capture the character of the style from those eras. One more thing: because many of these designs came before modern smartphones, you’ll notice the mobile experience isn’t supported. (Does anyone remember the WAP version of Eurogamer?!)
Special thanks to Erin Young, who led the implementation, and to the wider product and engineering team for their testing, feedback, and ongoing support.
As for when each design appeared and how it evolved, here’s an approximate timeline of Eurogamer’s design journey.
Version one – 1999-2000
The original version of the site introduced dark mode long before it became widely popular.
At the time, 800×600 displays were the norm, and web fonts were limited—so Verdana became the go-to typeface. The blend of slate blues and yellows delivers a satisfying contrast. Take note of the italicized logo and the accompanying imagery from Unreal Tournament. A fantastic start.
Version two – 2000-2003
What’s black, white, and red all over? Eurogamer’s second version.
It isn’t my personal favorite. I get a fairly serious, newspaper-like vibe from it, but the pixel-art icons along the right side add a touch of appeal. I also remember this edition using color-coded headers tied to content type or platform. I’m glad that “Trebuchet MS” was only used for headlines briefly.
Version three – 2003-2005
Eurogamer at its most attractive. I really love this one.
You can see the smart use of Arial, with compact letter spacing in the headers. The double colons in the breadcrumb trail. The refined greys and oranges. The pixel art is especially well done. The main navigation is strong and clear. Truly impressive. Internally, we even gave it the affectionate name “puddle of wee,” thanks to the odd yellow shadow below the globe in the logo.
Version four – 2005-2011
This era was unusually steady when it came to visual changes. The version lasted six years, which is a long run by internet standards. It’s also the version many people on the current Eurogamer team first experienced—including me.
Rounded corners were a big trend during this stretch. However, because the border-radius CSS property wasn’t widely supported at the time, a lot of those shapes had to be built manually using small spacer images—an approach that turned out to be rather time-consuming. This design uses my favorite Eurogamer blue, hex #0069F4. And don’t miss the sidebar promoting “Eurogamers”—our attempt at building a gaming social network.
Version five – 2011-2018
This layout came with plenty of strong points.
It’s packed with subtle details that are easy to overlook—textured backgrounds, borders with a double edge, and inset shadows. Some might say it looks visually busy and slightly disjointed. It was also the broadest version of the site so far, at 1280 pixels, driven by the steady increase in average monitor sizes. It brought in Proxima Nova as our main font too, which was a very popular choice during that period of web design.
Version six – 2018-Present
The modern-day Eurogamer you’re looking at right now. It launched in 2018, so it’s been around for six years—probably ready for a refresh!
This version feels more restrained visually, with less texture than earlier iterations. It was developed to read as more serious and grown-up. I remember us brainstorming ideas like “what if The Guardian, but games” during the build. It’s been engineered to be easier to maintain across both mobile and desktop, using Gibson as its typeface. In this release, Eurogamer blue was adjusted slightly deeper to strengthen color contrast.
It’s been a real pleasure revisiting and recreating the earlier versions of Eurogamer—I’m personally excited to see what other designs we might explore over the next 25 years.
Thanks to everyone who has helped shape Eurogamer’s different designs throughout the years. Not in any particular order: Mark Kennedy, Martin Taylor, Karl Cox, Lucy Grimwood, Jacob Jones, Sam Hayes, Erin Young, Chris Ward – and countless others.
Test out our theme switcher, and let us know in the comments which design you like most—and why!