A few days ago, we were given the saddest of news from Nintendo. Since the summer of 1988, Nintendo Power has given us juicy news from many of Nintendo's systems. But effective after December of this year, Nintendo Power will be no more.
Gamers of a certain age likely remember the days when their main fix
of information about new and upcoming video games came in the form of
the monthly Nintendo Power magazine that was delivered directly
to their mailbox. That experience is set to become yet another relic of
a past era, as Ars Technica has learned that Future Publishing is
planning to stop publishing the magazine.
Nintendo Power is one of the longest-running game magazines
in the country, having been published continuously since the summer of
1988, when it started as a bi-monthly outgrowth of the previous Nintendo
Fun Club newsletter. the magazine went monthly in 1990, with Nintendo
producing articles that were often just thinly veiled marketing copy
through late 2007, when it started contracting the brand out for a more
independent angle from tech-and-game-focused Future Publishing.
And after only 5 years of possessing Nintendo Power, it seems Future Publishing has given up on it. Why is that?
But our source says that Nintendo, which was always "difficult to
work with," was uninterested in renewing that contract or in taking part
in a number of digital initiatives that Future saw as necessary for the
long-term health of the brand. He added that Nintendo doesn't seem
interested in taking over direct control of the magazine again (Nintendo
and Future representatives did not immediately respond to a request for
comment for this story).
Nintendo Power editors and staffers were told of the
magazine's impending shuttering last week, the source said, and are
currently being transitioned to work on other Future properties,
including GamesRadar and MacLife magazine. The move should not
affect Future's other gaming magazines, which include official
periodicals for the PlayStation and Xbox brands, as well as Best Buy's @Gamer.
It's unclear exactly how many more issues of Nintendo Power are planned after the recently published August issue (its 281st), or how current subscribers will be compensated. Nintendo Power enjoys a total monthly readership of 475,000, according to Future press materials.
Nintendo Power's shuttering comes during a time of continuing struggles for the US magazine industry, which saw overall circulation numbers decline 10 percent
in the first half of 2012. Gamers have increasingly come to rely on
online sources for more timely and less space-limited gaming coverage,
leading the venerable GamePro magazine to stop publishing late last year after 23 years in print.
A sad day in the world of Nintendo. After the December 2012 issue, Nintendo Power will be no more. And in the age of the internet, where you can get your information off a website, is there no longer a need for a video game magazine?
There is at least one bright spot in the world of printed game magazines. Game Informer rose to become the third most popular magazine in the country
this year, with nearly 6 million subscribers that were mostly gained
through its point-of-sale relationship with mega-retailer GameStop.
Well, maybe so. But even the greatest can fall in the end.
Works Cited:
Ars Technica
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