Started in 1988 as an expansion of the internal Nintendo Fun Club newsletter, Nintendo Power is nearing the end of its run.
The magazine has seen 281 volumes to date, and since it’ll run until December, that number will reach 285, a venerable number even if many gamers would hold the Nintendo Power as precious if it had only run for a 185 or even just 85 volumes.
After all, as the outpouring of nostalgia and disappointment since the news of the magazine’s end broke on August 21 makes clear, Nintendo Power was something magical. In an age before everyone was connected via the internet, it gave gamers a source of information that made them feel knowledgeable and powerful in their favourite past time: video games.
But why is the magazine closing? Since 2008, publication of Nintendo Power was contracted out to the tech and gaming-centric publisher, Future Publishing. However, Nintendo’s contract with this company runs out at the end of 2012, and Nintendo has made it clear that they have no interest in renewing the contract, or even in continuing the magazine (at least, as of August 22, as Ars Technica has reported).
Apparently, according to Ars Technica’s source, Future found Nintendo difficult to work with, suggesting that the gaming giant had lost interest in their publication. Considering that information can now be traded for free online by bloggers, gamers, and Nintendo themselves, ending the magazine makes sense from a business perspective. In fact, a statement Nintendo made to Ars Technica on August 22 supports this analysis: “Nintendo Power magazine is closing and is not moving to a new publisher.”
Maybe this is just a sign of the rough financial times that Nintendo has been going through, or of Nintendo’s indifference to something that it clearly doesn’t feel as enthusiastic about as it once did.
Or, maybe, this is a sign that Nintendo is trying to get its image to grow up.
Instead of being seen as the company with so many ties to gamers’ childhoods, and therefore being branded as a maker of childish things, perhaps the end of Nintendo Power is supposed to signal a shift in the company’s image just months before they launch their reportedly (and possibly paradoxically) hardcore/family-aimed Wii U. In fact, maybe this is why Nintendo was difficult to work with for Future: The company was going through a kind of image puberty, struggling with whether or not they really wanted to keep their long-lived and well-loved magazine outlet or if they wanted to move on.
Whatever the case, as long as they don’t try to round up all of the NES and SNES consoles (and their Japanese Famicom counterparts) in an effort to erase the past in a tyrannical push to get back on top of the video game industry, dropping Nintendo Power might just be exactly what the company needs to do to convincingly re-brand itself.
Author:Â Nicholas Zacharewicz
Nintendo Power Is Gone. Does Nintendo Want To Seem More Mature?
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