Rumor: Nintendo Power Shutting Down?

[Bigfoot]

http://wii.ign.com/articles/788/788281p1.html

I mean, I guess I can see why. It's not like you can never get exclusive on the minute news or anything that can't be found on the internet.

Oh well, the way I looked at it is instead of getting a free item(like a t-shirt) with the subscription, I looked at it vice-versa.

[bouncerboy15]

I hope this isn't true.....but it seems like it. =(

[Critical Hit]

I was there for the first 100 issues or so, but lost interest in the magazine shortly after (mainly because they were well set into the N64 (and shortly after the GCN) which I didn't own at the time. I tried to re-subscribe later, but felt that the magazine had lost its charm on me.

Hopefully it'll just be getting a face-lift though; not a complete shutdown. Ah well. Only time will tell.

[Penfold]

I was there for the first 100 issues or so, but lost interest in the magazine shortly after (mainly because they were well set into the N64 (and shortly after the GCN) which I didn't own at the time. I tried to re-subscribe later, but felt that the magazine had lost its charm on me.

Hopefully it'll just be getting a face-lift though; not a complete shutdown. Ah well. Only time will tell.

Yeah, I can understand that. I had NP way back in the day too, and one of my favorite things about it was the monthy comic section (I remember the Star Fox one was great). Exclusive material such as that really made it worthwhile back in the day (I still have my full sets of Super Metroid and Mega Man X pogs ). I stopped renewing for the same reason you did: I didn't own (or, at the time, want) a 64. Anyway, I resubscribed last year when I got my DS but when it came time to renew, I just let it go for whatever reason. I may resubscribe eventually here, if they have a free gift thing I really want .

[Fritz the Cat]

I don't trust a magazine that won't print critical mail.

[Arek the Absolute]

Sucks, but what can you do.

I stopped focusing on game magazines after "Tips and tricks" started to be blah back in 00 anyways.

As the internet grows bigger, people really aren't focusing on the magazines as much.

/salute Nintendo power

[Evilhead]

Wow, a magazine/advertisement with an extremely biased viewpoint hawking their own company's games with a very limited scope going out of business? OH MY GOD! Seriously though, if you are devoted to Nintendo games and all that's perfectly fine, but why pay for a monthly commercial? Yeah, I guess if you are too lazy to look for walkthroughs and codes online it's worth it, but for reviews and actual opinions? LOL. Nintendo Power is corporate garbage. It's like subscribing to the Playstation Underground or whatever it was called and not getting the free demos and extras every month. Even the Xbox magazine made sure to give you a demo disc with each issue. Nintendo power is shit. Good riddance.

[Arek the Absolute]

Wow, a magazine/advertisement with an extremely biased viewpoint hawking their own company's games with a very limited scope going out of business?

Yet PSM stays strong.

Go figure

[Penfold]

Wow, a magazine/advertisement with an extremely biased viewpoint hawking their own company's games with a very limited scope going out of business? OH MY GOD! Seriously though, if you are devoted to Nintendo games and all that's perfectly fine, but why pay for a monthly commercial? Yeah, I guess if you are too lazy to look for walkthroughs and codes online it's worth it, but for reviews and actual opinions? LOL. Nintendo Power is corporate garbage. It's like subscribing to the Playstation Underground or whatever it was called and not getting the free demos and extras every month. Even the Xbox magazine made sure to give you a demo disc with each issue. Nintendo power is shit. Good riddance.

That wasn't really the point back in the day, and the main reason I resubscribed last yr was because of the nostalgia factor. At any rate, I like Bigfoot's point-of-view...honestly, if I were to resubscribe it'd be for the free gift (ie, if they have available something I'd want to get anyway, I may as well essentially buy it and get a free yearly subscription ).

[Black Mage]

I do have fond memories of getting the monthly Nintendo Power when I was younger (I still have all of them in my closet, issues 21 on through 130-something). The old ones are still fun to look through, but when I got three free issues earlier this year (for registering three Nintendo products) I was disappointed with the whole thing.

I guess such things are best enjoyed as nostalgia.

If it is true, then NP...I salute you!

[Broken]

Well to NP's defense, it was the best place to get strictly Nintendo News. When I was younger I didn't give a shit about Playstation or Xbox and I was happy just to read news about Nintendo without browsing the web or anything. (I didn't know about Gamespot back then BTW)

I know it sounds dumb and biased but sometimes having less choice makes you more comfortable. Less clutter anyway.

[Zophar (insert new name)]

I used to look forward to Nintendo Power every month until it got too Pokemon heavy in '99, and then I lost interest altogether after Rogue Squadron III came out.

[EdgeCrusher]

Back in the day, Nintendo Power was like the bible for me. I loved the day that shit came in the mail. I had all of them, strategy guides you got for subscribing, special edition issues, all of them. Then I moved, and lost a large part of my collection. I did find the old nintendo power trading cards a few months ago though in a shoe box.

Thing about it though was, as I got older, I had transitions in game magazines. Game Players was a great mag until it died out, and when the n64 came around, I lost all interest in anything Nintendo related. So NP pretty much was dead to me up till a couple years ago, when I got a free subscription from Game Crazy. Reading it now is just a reminder of the greatness that they lost. Its no where near interesting anymore. A bland magazine. So maybe its best for them to bow out and call it a day.

[anclunn]

Used to have comics, trading cards, strategy sections on games people actually played (not games they were trying to push on you), but not anymore. Never got demo disks like the other official magazines. The internet makes information so available that the magazine always has dated news. I can see why it'd go.

[KyleJCrb]

Wow, a magazine/advertisement with an extremely biased viewpoint hawking their own company's games with a very limited scope going out of business? OH MY GOD! Seriously though, if you are devoted to Nintendo games and all that's perfectly fine, but why pay for a monthly commercial? Yeah, I guess if you are too lazy to look for walkthroughs and codes online it's worth it, but for reviews and actual opinions? LOL. Nintendo Power is corporate garbage. It's like subscribing to the Playstation Underground or whatever it was called and not getting the free demos and extras every month. Even the Xbox magazine made sure to give you a demo disc with each issue. Nintendo power is shit. Good riddance.

Nintendo Power used to be that way, but they've become a more worthwhile magazine in the last few years. They actually do negatively review games nowadays.

[Evilhead]

Yet PSM stays strong.

Go figure

Well, PSM is an independant publication. I'm not vouching for their accuracy and most of the PSM staff are undoubtedly Playstation fanboys, but having a magazine dedicated to one system or family of systems is a totally different animal than a magazine published BY the company who makes the games. PSM, as well as an exclusively Xbox magazine etc., frequently gives low scores to games and is critical of certain aspects of the systems. It's just makes more sense to buy, say, a PS2 only magazine when the only system you own is a PS2, etc.

As for Nintendo Power getting better, maybe it has since I haven't read an issue in about 3 years, but the last one I saw just had a bunch of old news and shameless plugs for crappy games. No thanks! If it came free with a system purchase or something it would be worthwhile, but as something you pay for, that's just silly.

I know it sounds dumb and biased but sometimes having less choice makes you more comfortable.

LOLOLOL

[atmuh]

i stopped getting the "new" nintendo power

i liked the old retarded biased one

it was funny!

[Zup]

I like the new one. Mostly for the Mr. T and Chuck Norris jokes. I only stopped getting it because I grew up and went to college.

[Broken]

LOLOLOL

Way to be a jackass, Evilhead. I just gave my opinion and a reason behind it. But I guess I couldn't expect an actual thoughtful response for my effort.

You come off like you have a personal vendeta against fan service. No one forced you to buy the magazine at gun-point, and you're not going to change any fanboy's mind by bitching about the magazine, so chill out.

[Arek the Absolute]

children please

[yangfeili]

I've got old issues back to Volume 26, and it was pretty cool back in the NES/SNES days, when it had pages and pages of maps of levels from sidescrolling stages, which to my mind is a fascinating and bizarre phenomenon.

Some of the "bonus strategy guides" were good, especially the Mario Mania one, which was about half Super Mario World strategy guide and half history of Mario. I actually first subscribed on on the deal where you got the NES, Gameboy, SNES, and Mario Mania guides for signing up.

It really went downhill around the time of Pokemon/N64 though. The shocking day eventually came when I did not renew my subscription. I got three free issues a while back for registering some stuff at Nintendo.com, and it was depressing to see how low the magazine had sunk.

[SirChadlyOC]

I'm looking at this as part of a bigger picture, here. The Internet, in general, has started to replace print forms of media, especially among younger generations (I.E. those who play video games). However, I think there will always be a place for magazines, and NP needs to figure those reasons out ASAP.

Magazines, newspapers and the like are meant for giving in-depth news, not breaking news. For example, I shouldn't expect NP to be the first to tell me when Super Smash Brothers Brawl comes out, but it should specialize in telling me things like game mechanics and what was implemented in the time of delay. I think NP just needs to consider themselves more as a print media that tells readers more about fine details of Nintendo products that can't be found elsewhere.

[Antipode]

Both the internet and game news sites have been around for a long time. Why hasn't NP started doing something like that already? Why not five years ago?

Anyway, they also need to start including something in each magazine that can't be found online. Something physical - some freebie, maybe just a couple tracks of music from some released game, maybe game demo discs, maybe coupons, something, but they need to start and keep doing it.

[CH]

It's time has passed. I let my subscription run out a while back.

[Specter]

I'm looking at this as part of a bigger picture, here. The Internet, in general, has started to replace print forms of media, especially among younger generations (I.E. those who play video games). However, I think there will always be a place for magazines, and NP needs to figure those reasons out ASAP.

Magazines, newspapers and the like are meant for giving in-depth news, not breaking news. For example, I shouldn't expect NP to be the first to tell me when Super Smash Brothers Brawl comes out, but it should specialize in telling me things like game mechanics and what was implemented in the time of delay. I think NP just needs to consider themselves more as a print media that tells readers more about fine details of Nintendo products that can't be found elsewhere.

Yeah, I was just listening to a podcast talking about this kind of thing. Basically, print magazines used to be something that people needed because there was no other way to get news. However, now that the internet has sped up news delivery exponentially, magazines need to be something that people want to buy instead of need to buy, which is probably how NP faltered.