Nintendo Power Ceasing Publication After 24 Years

[Scarim Coral]

At least it does get a final farewell unlike this British magazine I know (how is it that Computer and Video game magazine, the first video game mag in the UK simply got bought out by its competitor and they simply stop pressing it just like that?). I wounder if the UK counterpart (Official Nintendo Magazine will bare the same fate in the future?

 

[MrBrightside919]

This is a very sad day in the world of gaming...

 

[rayen020]

Now instead of looking in a magazine for game clues, we'll just have to use a web bowser.

I think that killed me a little bit inside.

I miss hankman. he always had the best puns... stupid content quota we have to meet...

So the nintendo power is going out?

 

[Ashhearth]

Tis a sad day. That's some childhood ending right there. Remember this?

Spoiler

This little free gift brought me so much happiness as a kid.

Why? Why would you make me so sad by posting that?

Tis a sad day indeed without Nintendo Power. It will be sorely missed by all I'm sure.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

This was the only magazine I ever subscribed to, but that was back in middle school in the 90's.

After the N64 came out, I stopped buying it, and after I got my PS1 I pretty much stopped buying all but a few games for each new Nintendo console generation.

At the time it was an awesome magazine. Now gaming mags are terribly antiquated. They tell you "news" weeks after it breaks, give you tips you could get in 3 seconds online, have letters to the editor that are a poor substitute for a forum (like this one) and you get only whatever THEY deem as being worth previewing or reviewing.

Most previews are in TRAILER form these days. Most reviews have an AV component. Also print can't be easily edited when you give out false info or make an error.

And of course its neither free to print all that out nor for you to read.

Its just as bad as your local news. You only watch that, and then you will never know ANYTHING that is going on more than 2 counties away.

With the internet moving at the pace of reality, waiting an entire month to read old news (inbetween full page ads spanning 30% of each issue for crap) is probably the poorest use of anyone's money. And then you are left with paper garbage.

While I'm shocked that NP was still in print, I'm sad to see it go.

 

[JSoup]

I was actually just doing my monthly check to see if I could get a sub for under $10. Cheap bathroom reading is cheap bathroom reading.

I'd be more sad to hear this if it wasn't that the book stopped being fun to read around the time the N64 died.

 

[yunabomb]

The news was originally reported by Ars Technica, and confirmed by Nintendo Power Senior Editor Chris Hoffman on Twitter. Like many publications in the magazine industry, Nintendo Power struggled as online news sources became more and more popular.

This is all your fault, escapist.

 

[vxicepickxv]

I still have my copy of Dragon Warrior, delivered by nintendo power.

God damn that game was great.

Also, FF1 Strategy Guide!

God damn I miss those days.

Sometimes I miss those days too, sometimes. That strategy guide for FF1 was issue 17 or 18. It was the most abused issue of the NPs that I had, starting at issue 2. I had a subscription from then until 1995, when I picked up this brand new device Sony put out called a Playstation. It was one of the first gen NA models, with a SN of 37.

 

[Two-A]

Goodbye, Nintendo Power. You were an awesome magazine. ;-;

I wonder if they would try to launch an online spin-off, like Cracked did.

 

[PinkiePyro]

I loved NP anyone have another physically existing game magazine for me to read (sorry escapist but I only care for the videos and forum here) and no suggesting game informer tried and disliked it

 

[sethisjimmy]

I was a little late being a subscriber to these guys, so I missed the era of using Nintendo Power for cheats and such, but I loved it for different reasons. The sense of humor these guys had was great, always a ton of in-jokes and funny features. I always liked reading the section where people sent in letters, because the editor who responded always had something silly to say, and there were always people sending in their crazy Nintendo creations. I also used to like the art section immediately after that.

I definitely noticed an unfortunate decline around the time Future became their publisher. The price stayed the same, while the magazine itself got smaller and smaller. I ended my subscription probably 4-5 years ago. I ended up giving most of my collection away to good will. I kind of regret that. It'd be nice to have a big collection throughout the years, just to read all the old news, and the articles that will be long forgotten, not like on the internet where everything is archived, these magazines will be unfortunately forgotten too soon.

I might just have to pick up their last few issues, just for old time's sake.

 

[SomebodyNowhere]

I cancelled my subscription a year or so back. In the last few years the magazine stopped being as interesting as it used to be back when Nintendo published it.

 

[Twilight_guy]

This is terrible, Nintendo Power meant so much to me as a kid. This is depressing. I'm going to go be sad now.

 

[iniudan]

Tis a sad day. That's some childhood ending right there. Remember this?

Spoiler

This little free gift brought me so much happiness as a kid.

I got the Mojora's Mask soundtrack (which was the gift of my last subscription, for in 2001 I got my first very own computer and a PC gamers since that day), a promotional preview tape of the N64 (from E3 I think, no idea how well it would show up, didn't play that VHS tape in over 12 years) and quite a few game in-depth game guide from subscription, favorite among those guide been what I use to consider my cheat bible [don't have it on hand for title since among the stuff that came to stay at parent house] which I actually got with my first subscription (March 1995 was my first issue if I remember right).

 

[scorptatious]

What?! No!

Such a shame... I remember reading a bunch of their magazines when I was little. I remember one particular cover stood out to me:

Spoiler

Good times.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

A shame. Though Nintendo Power is really, REALLY superfluous nowadays with the easy access to the Internets, it's kind of a antiquity and a charm in itself, and it'll be sad to let it go.

Nice having it around, though.

 

[bandman232]

Oh no! That mag was awesome! But not as awesome as GMR, if anyone remembers that one. It was kinda shot lived.

 

[Gmans uncle]

And then, a piece of my childhood died...

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

I never was a subscriber. Even before the internet was what it was, I wanted to read about upcoming games for all the consoles as opposed to just one, and that was when nintendo was actually a competitor when it came to good games. Given the sea of shovelware games that come out for the wii and(3)ds I could only imagine how strapped a modern iteration would be for legitimately interesting content. Also nothing is going to be a more blatant source of bias than a magazine published by the company who's games it reviews. Might as well just be a retail catalog.

It sucks for the people that lost their jobs, but honestly, that's the only tragedy here. As printed magazines as a whole start to become obsolete in the wake of the internet, something as niche as a gaming magazine that only focuses on the most casual console will be completely rightly put to rest.