Havent read NP in years, but subscribed as a kid... had the first issue for years before i finally tossed it. Glad all the contributors to the mag seem to have a job still.
Nintendo Power shutting down
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
[UPDATE] Source says "difficult-to-work-with" Nintendo not interested in renewing contract with Future Publishing for monthly magazine; Nintendo confirms end of magazine with December issue.
[UPDATE] Following the publication of this story, a Nintendo representative confirmed Nintendo Power will cease to exist after its December issue. The company said those with questions regarding their subscriptions should follow up with the magazine's customer service department.
"Nintendo can confirm that Future US will end the production of Nintendo Power magazine with the last issue slated for December 2012," reads the statement.
Nintendo Power may soon be no more. A source has told Ars Technica that the monthly's publisher--Future Publishing--will cease production of the magazine.
Nintendo Power was produced and distributed by Nintendo from 1988 to 2007, at which time the Mario maker tapped Future Publishing to handle the magazine. According to the site's source, Nintendo was not interested in renewing its contract with Future or participating in a range of "digital initiatives that Future saw as necessary for the long-term health of the brand."
The source said Nintendo had always been "difficult to work with" and added that the Wii U maker has no interest in reclaiming direct control of the magazine. As of press time, neither Future nor Nintendo had responded to GameSpot's requests for comment.
Nintendo Power writers and staffers were informed of the magazine's closure last week, according to the source. These people are now being moved to other Future labels, including GamesRadar and MacLife. The closure of Nintendo Power should not affect Future's other gaming-focused magazines, including Best Buy's @Gamer, Edge, Official Xbox Magazine, PlayStation: The Official Magazine, and PC Gamer.
Nintendo Power editor Phil Theobald confirmed the magazine's closure on Twitter following the publication of Ars Technica's story, writing, "Well, that got out." He also teased that the editorial staff has "something pretty sweet" planned for the final issue.
According to official press materials, Nintendo Power has a total readership of 475,000. It is unclear how subscribers will be compensated for their subscription fees when the magazine ceases publication.
Last November, GamePro shut down. That monthly magazine launched in 1989 and closed as a result of a lack of advertising money.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
278 comments
I still subscribe to the magazine and I'm very sad to hear that it will soon be gone. I have been camping for the last week and had not heard the news until now. Seeing this mag in my mailbox each month was always exciting for me. This sucks.
Hope it doesn't completely die out and it still comes out as a site or something. Hope Nintendo gives it a thought. I remembered when EGM stopped. Felt something died.
I'll cast my vote for the original Nintendo Power magazine when NES games were being covered. Great times and memories - wish the younger of you would have been born by then so you could have enjoyed those early days with the rest of us ; )
1 Like Everyone keeps listing Game Informer as their favorite magazine. I just wanted to throw out that EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly) and PC Gamer are my favorite gaming magazines. I was EXTREMELY sad to see EGM go under some years ago, and was elated to see it was being brought back under new ownership. I subscribe to both and am always VERY excited to see them in my mailbox. I think print is still viable if operated the right way, and wouldn't read even 10% of the gaming stories I do now if I was forced to read them online. As I said before, there is just something about having that physical paper in your hands that makes reading so much more enjoyable........
"digital initiatives that Future saw as necessary for the long-term health of the brand."
That was the disagreement with Nintendo and it makes sense. As much as I love ole Ninty, they are stuck in the past. The limited tech and online capabilities of the Wii and 3DS attest to that. They make it so difficult for third party developers to make games for these systems with limited resources and wonky controls.
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1 Like lol Nintendo Power? Seriously? hahahahah Good riddance.
The ONLY game magazine worth subscribing to is Game Informer. Everything else I have read was total crap. Especially for the price.
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Nintendo Power used to be awesome. We used to be very excited waiting around for it to come, and would save issues as long as you could save anything in our house. This doesn't seem like sad news to me though, it has been a long time since I thought magazines served any purpose at all.
1 Like Wow this is very sad news. Best of luck to everyone working at Nintendo Power hunt for employment, I wish you well.
1 Like I think I have a really old Nintendo Power from the early 90s... wonder if it is worth anything. but this is sad. I used to read Official Playstation Magazine (prior to the current rag by that name) and Electronic Gamer Monthly, but they both folded. I had a subscription to the xbox mag, but I didn't renew when it expired half a year ago... and the last 6 issues I recieved, I have not even opened yet. I used to prefer a magazine over a website like Gamespot but that has changed. I still prefer an article to a video though, unless it is something like a feature (start/select, escape from mount stupid, etc.)
3 Like I guess you can only write so many articles on Wii Bowling before grandma gets bored ;-)
@nintendoboy16 @saltbalsak Why the hell would anyone read an issue of nintendo power anyway? Oh right... they aren't. Hence the closure.
I was simply making a tongue in cheek joke about the perception of the Wii being so popular in retirement homes. If my beloved EGM, the "#1 Video Game Magazine In The World" can somehow get shuttered by Ziff Davis 4 years ago, it's not long until they all go down or strictly digital. I realize EGM is back under new ownership and I am a subscriber, but it's now every other month and frankly, quite dull and a month behind what's happening :-( .The only exception to this trend is Game Informer since it's owned by Gamestop and is used as a marketing tool.
@VenkmanPHD @nintendoboy16 @saltbalsak Actually, the subscriber base was quite healthy. Lack of readership isn't the reason for closure.
1 Like Seriously I think Nintendo is difficult to work with across the board. I personally experienced that with Nintendo people in Australia.
1 Like If Nintendo took control back over, I'd totally buy Nintendo Power. That magazine was good back then.
Noooooooo! It's like a staple of gaming. I don't subscribe to it however, and GameInformer is my favorite magazine, but still sad to see it go. I think EGM went out early last year, now Nintendo Power? I still miss Sega Visions! Lol
3 Like I was buying magazines here and there until this year when I decided to subscribe. I was actually hoping they would begin publishing this magazine in some e-reader-capable format like they do with Official XBOX Magazine. Maybe Nintendo made such a transition difficult.
Anyways, I hate to see venerable, long-lived institutions in the gaming space disappear. I know that change is inevitable, but losing a 24-year-old gaming magazine is like losing a 600-year-old tree...you just feel like a piece of history has gone missing.
2 Like Bye, Nintendo Power...I'll miss your signature artwork, subscription fees, and all the space you take up in boxes. Makes me kind of teary-eyed when I think of trying to fill the space, like with Gamefaqs, which as you know takes up no physical space...
2 Like LMAO... I thought this magazine closed down over a decade ago lol. People still buy this magazine? What do they write about? Nintendo doesn't have many Wii games of interest for the last 2 years, at least not enough to make a magazine worth.
@Vodoo Exactly, the majority of people who wait with drool and lust in their eyes for a gaming magazine, are doing so for games people actually care about.
Sure, every once in a while we get a mario or zelda, but 90% of nintendo is straight jack bullcrap and no one cares to play it, let alone read about it.
1 Like Another bites the dust. I've been a subscriber of Nintendo Power from 1990-2000. Ahhh memories...
2 Like It sucks that NP's shutting down, but in this day and age I can't say I'm surprised. :/ I wasn't a regular subscriber but I had some issues here and there. The ones I remember fondly were the Sept.1991 vol. 28 which gave me a lot of info on the SNES and also the Super Mario 3 players guide.
5 Like Wow, end of an era. I remember when I was a kid waiting to get my next issue in the mail and see the maps with all the secrets on them. I tip my hat down to you Nintendo Power you will be missed.
1 Like Wow....still kind of downer to hear. Total bs though how Nintendo yet again doesn't even want to be flexible w/ publications that are trying to promote and change w/ the times (in terms of how most mags are doing either more digital things or moving to digital entirely). That's fucked up, honestly. :(
2 Like In my opinion, it is sad that most of the video games I see in the recent Nintendo Power on the Wii, DS, and 3DS are casual video games for casual gamers.
@interrasteral7 Yeah, that's the bad part about it.....as you can see those 'gamers' obviously didn't give a rat's ass about the magazine to even pay attention to content geared toward them.
But of course, that's simply just a reflection of Nintendo, in general, rather than Nintendo Power.
@PumpkinBoogie @interrasteral7 I think it's a reflection of the casual gamer really.
I mean, if you game on a casual basis. Why would you have an entire subscription dedicated to your casual activity.
Wow, I didnt even realize it was still around in the first place last issue i ever actually used was the Metroid one...and oh what a great issue that was.
1 Like 24 year run. Not bad. Sad to c it go though. Oh well. All good things must come to an end.
4 Like This is thanks to the Wii hole. Nothing but mediocre games not worthy of being reviewed or featured in a magazine. Nintendo did this to Nintendo Power.
3 Like @Trickymaster Wii Sports (not the shoddy sequel), Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, GoldenEye, Xenoblade, Last Story, Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2, and a few other games (especially the port of Resident Evil 4, considered to be by far the best version) would like to disagree with you.
At least it's not like the 360. Or worse, the Vita.
@IGFGAThrawn @Trickymaster You realize that you just further illustrated Trickymaster's point. You listed off every Wii game worth playing. The rest of the library is grade A diarrhoea.
@Trickymaster well true UNTIL we pushed em(project rainfall) to bring us Xenoblade and Last Story --- there are certainly exceptions to every rule.
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