Future plc is a media company. In 2006, it was ranked as the sixth-largest media corporation in the United Kingdom. It publishes more than 30 magazines in fields such as video games, technology, films, photography, and sport. Future is the official magazine company of two out of the three major games console manufacturers with Official Nintendo Magazine ceased publishing in October 2014. It is a constituent of the FTSE Fledgling Index. The company also owns the US company Future US.
The company was founded as Future Publishing in Somerton, Somerset in 1985 by Chris Anderson with the sole magazine Amstrad Action. An early innovation was the inclusion of free software on magazine covers, the first company to do so.
Anderson sold Future to Pearson PLC for £52.7m in 1994, but bought it back in 1998, with Future chief executive Greg Ingham and Apax Venture Partners, for £142m. In 2001 Anderson left Future.
In 2007 the State of Texas filed a lawsuit against Future plc for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The lawsuit alleges that the Future plc owned website GamesRadar "failed to include necessary disclosures and obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from children." The owner of the other websited settled in March 2008, though the final disposition against Future plc is not public record.