Who's to Blame for Nintendo Power's Death?

The dearly departed.

I stumbled across BitMob a few weeks ago, and I’ve been an addict ever since. There are plenty of reasons for me to keep coming back; solid original content, a sincere interest in stories that are off the beaten path, the acceptance of uppity newbie writers like me. But there is only one reason for why I stayed on the site the first day I found it—that reason is named Shoe Hsu.

It’s not the most common of names, at least not in suburban Phoenix where I was raised. And it certainly isn’t a name I have given any thought to in the last half-decade or so. But 11 year old me would’ve recognized it instantly.

The guy from Electronic Gaming Monthly! The guy with a weird enough name (no offense) that it would stick out even to a kid like me, who only picked up the magazine for the cool pictures and the Hsu & Chan comic. And because of that, Shoe became what I viewed as the quintessential game journalist, the one name I could easily pick out in all the reviews and previews I read as a kid. But I haven’t read a video game magazine in years, and as time passed so too did any memory of the great Shoe.

Which is why it came as quite a shock to see his name underneath the “Editor-in-Chief” title at BitMob. Suddenly it all came back to me: the glory days of magazines like EGM, Nintendo Power, and Game Informer stacked waist high in my room, dog eared and bookmarked. Begging my parents for the newest copy of whatever was out that week, reading it more times than would ever be necessary, not really understanding that my addiction to gaming was growing stronger by the article and not really caring either.

And then of course, OF COURSE, as soon as I start thinking that it may be time to renew some subscriptions, Nintendo Power goes belly up. You can blame the growth of mobile gaming, which has created an audience that doesn’t really give a crap about the next iPhone game. You can blame Xboxs and Playstations and PCs for stealing the limelight. You can even blame Nintendo itself for letting one of its oldest and most beloved connections to its audience die out.

Or you could blame the true culprit: Shoe Hsu.

Well, not Shoe exactly. It’s more about what he represents to me: the transition from videogame publications to videogame websites.

It makes perfect sense that with the growth of the internet would come the decline of publishing. We’ve seen it with newspapers and books, and videogame journalism is no different. Like I said earlier, I haven’t even picked up a game magazine in years, and why would I? I’ve got IGN and Destructoid and Kotaku and hundreds of other sources to turn to for my gaming info needs. And over time it seems that people have divided into two camps; one set on preserving the glory days of gaming journalism, and the other embracing the new digital age. Oh how the flame wars have been fought.

But the fact is that the transition from publications to internet doesn’t represent two completely different worlds coming into conflict. In fact, it’s just the opposite: gaming websites are the natural evolution of game magazines. Sure, the internet is more vulnerable to crazies and trolls, but it’s also the most open platform for discussion ever created by mankind. It’s a place where, cliché’s aside, we can come together and express our love of gaming. I would’ve given anything as a kid to see my name next to Shoe Hsu’s, to write about gaming for an audience as addicted to it as I was. And now look! Here I am doing just that!

So don’t hate Shoe, and don’t hate the internet. It’s nobody’s fault that Nintendo Power is gone, and I guarantee it won’t be the last game magazine to fall. But as long as excellent writers like Shoe, the rest of the BM staff, and even schlubs like me want to talk about videogames, the spirit of Nintendo Power lives on.

Tags: BWY Magazines

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David Serrano

August 30, 2012

"It’s nobody’s fault that Nintendo Power is gone..."

As someone with more than 20 years of consumer magazine publishing experience, I can tell you Nintendo Power went out of business for the same reason that so many other magazines have failed since the recession began. The people who owned and operated the magazines failed to accept an inconvenient truth about advertising: all advertising revenue based publishing models will eventually fail. And when they do, the only magazines that will survive are those owned by companies with deep pockets and are willing to continue publishing at a loss until adjustments in the business strategy can be made. This applies to the smallest trade magazines to the largest international consumer magazines.

So Nintendo Power has been forced to close because the business and circulation execs failed to adjust their business model and strategy before it was too late. They refused to accept the short term reduction in profitability, or losses that would have allowed the magazines to prepare for and survive future trends and changes in the market.

"But the fact is that the transition from publications to internet doesn’t represent two completely different worlds coming into conflict."

When content delivery transitions away from a medium that primarily focuses on providing consumers with objective content they value enough to pay for, and content delivery transitions towards a medium that primarily focuses on creating vehicles for advertisers to market their products and services to consumers... it absolutely does represent two completely different worlds coming into conflict. And when they do, consumers pay the price.

If you don't understand why this is so problematic, simply read (or re-read) the editorial Dan Hsu wrote back in 2005: http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=6228583&publicUserId=5379799 This type of behavior is not the exception to the rule, it is the reason why the large gaming sites like IGN and Game Informer exist. In print, there was a church - state separation between the objectivity of editorial reporting and opinion and the business interests of advertisers. A separation which the vast majority of editors and publishers voluntarily honored. In new media, this separation and honor system has never existed.