Nintendo Power will see its last issue in December 2012
Nintendo has confirmed that it will discontinue its publication of Nintendo Power magazine after 24 years. The last issue will release December 2012, the magazine’s 281st issue, then it will be no more according to Future Publishing.
Having first been published in 1988, Nintendo Power is one of the longest-running gaming magazines in the country. The magazine turned monthly in 1990 and since then has supplied gamers of all ages with the latest gaming news.
The magazine can even be credited with the franchise boom of Super Mario, Nintendo’s poster child, as the loveable plumber often graced the magazine’s cover in the last two decades.
But with the US magazine industry facing a 10% decline in the first half of 2012, Nintendo Power has decided to close its doors on the publication after Nintendo failed to express interest in adapting the magazine with changing technological times.
Rumor has it that Nintendo was ‘difficult to work with” and did little to help expand Nintendo Power on the web, as many publications did to survive in recent years.
Not even the monthly readership of 475,000 was enough for Nintendo to take control of the decades-long publication.
Wednesday, Nintendo Power’s senior editor Chris Hoffman tweeted that he was “sad to see Nintendo Power go,” and vows to “try to make the last issues memorable.”
Editors and staffers for Nintendo Power are being transitioned to work on other Future publications following the last issue slated for December 2012.
With Nintendo Power going the way of the dodo, gamers can still rely on gaming publication Game Informer, which rose to the third most popular magazine in the country this year. Part of Game Informer’s success as a publication comes in partnership with the magazine’s relationship video game retailer GameStop, which offers customers subscriptions to Game Informer as part of its rewards program.
If Nintendo exercised as much determination in upholding its magazine as Super Mario did when repeatedly rescuing Princess Peach for 24 years, then Nintendo Power could still continue to enthrall readers and gamers alike, all the while stirring up school-yard debate on who can take who: Mario or Donkey Kong?
