When did you first visit Eurogamer? Do you remember what it looked like?
Over the past 25 years since Eurogamer launched, it has gone through at least six major layout and styling changes. Thanks to archive.org’s Wayback Machine, we can do a bit of digital archaeology and revisit earlier versions to see what was popular in web design at the time—whether that’s the 11-point Verdana of the late 90s, the rounded corners that showed up in the early 2000s, or the move toward Proxima Nova in the early twenty-teens.
Still, what if we could go beyond simply studying those old snapshots—what if you could read any Eurogamer story using a working recreation of our earlier site designs?
For Eurogamer’s 25th anniversary, we’ve done exactly that.
If you’re viewing the desktop edition of the site, you’ll spot a theme switcher near the top of the page. It lets you experience Eurogamer articles the way they looked at different points in the past.
Curious about the look and feel from the earliest days? Switch to version one. Want a brighter, more polished (and objectively the best) take on Eurogamer? Switch to version three!
If you’re the kind of person who enjoys web development and wants a bit of technical context, here’s the quick version. We drew inspiration from the “CSS Zen Garden” and built multiple CSS themes to restyle the site. The HTML doesn’t change between versions—a constraint that pushed us to think creatively when rebuilding some of the older layouts. We also used a few smart methods, including img::content, to adjust the logos without touching the underlying markup.
We set out to match each design as closely as we could. They may not be perfectly identical down to the pixel, but they do capture the spirit of the styles that were in vogue then. And because many of these versions came before modern smartphones, you’ll notice there’s no mobile support. (Does anyone remember the WAP edition of Eurogamer?!)
A big thank-you goes to Erin Young for driving the implementation, and to the rest of our product and engineering team for their testing, insights, and ongoing support.
As for how and when each design was produced, here’s my rough Eurogamer design timeline.
Version one – 1999-2000
The first version of the site introduced dark mode well before it became mainstream.
Back then, 800×600 monitors were the norm, and web font options were limited, which is why Verdana was the obvious choice. Slate blues and yellows created a satisfying contrast. Keep an eye on the italicized logo and the accompanying Unreal Tournament graphics. A charming start.
Version two – 2000-2003
What’s black, white, and red all over? Eurogamer’s second version.
This one isn’t my personal favorite—it feels a bit more formal, like a newspaper layout—but the pixel-art icons on the right bring a certain amount of charm. If I’m remembering correctly, this edition used color-coded headers depending on the content type or the platform the article covered. I’m also glad that choosing “Trebuchet MS” for headline typography didn’t last very long.
Version three – 2003-2005
The most attractive-looking Eurogamer design. I’ve always been a big fan.
Notice the thoughtful use of Arial with tight letter spacing for headings. The double colons in the breadcrumbs. The refined greys and oranges. The carefully made pixel art. The prominent primary navigation. It really is striking. Internally, we jokingly called it the “puddle of wee” version because of that unusual yellow shadow sitting under the globe in the logo.
Version four – 2005-2011
A particularly steady period for design updates—this version ran for six years, which is a long stretch in internet time. It’s also the design that many current members of the Eurogamer team, including me, first met.
Rounded corners were hugely fashionable during this phase, yet the border-radius CSS property wasn’t supported widely, so we had to build small rounded sections by hand using tiny spacer images. It was a bit of a chore. This layout includes my favorite shade of Eurogamer blue—hex code #0069F4. And don’t skip the sidebar highlighting “Eurogamers”—an early attempt to build a social space for gamers.
Version five – 2011-2018
This design came with plenty of appealing touches.
It’s full of subtler details that are easy to miss, including textured backgrounds, double-edged borders, and inset shadows. Some might say it looks a little busy or uneven? It was also the widest the site had ever been—1280 pixels—responding to the gradual increase in average monitor sizes. This period also introduced Proxima Nova as our main typeface, which was a very popular choice for web design at the time.
Version six – 2018-Present
This is today’s Eurogamer look, the one you’re using right now. It launched in 2018, and it’s now six years old—so it might be time for a refresh!
Compared with earlier versions, this one is more visually straightforward and far less textured. It was created to feel more serious and developed—I remember we floated ideas like “what if The Guardian was about games?” while it was being built. It’s engineered to be easier to maintain across both mobile and desktop layouts, using Gibson as the typeface. In this version, Eurogamer blue was slightly darkened to strengthen color contrast.
Revisiting and recreating those earlier Eurogamer versions has been a real pleasure—and I personally look forward to seeing what other designs we might bring back again in another 25 years.
A sincere thank-you to everyone who contributed to Eurogamer’s wide-ranging design journey over the years. No particular order: Mark Kennedy, Martin Taylor, Karl Cox, Lucy Grimwood, Jacob Jones, Sam Hayes, Erin Young, Chris Ward — and countless others.
Give our theme switcher a try, and tell us in the comments which design you like best and why!