Farewell N*Revolution, We Hardly Knew Ye
Magazine publications shutting down are nothing new in this day and age. The Internet’s domination over news (more specifically within the videogame industry) has made them all but redundant to a huge swathe of gamers. What makes the end of British Nintendo magazine N*Revolution different is that its managing director has specifically attributed the magazine’s decline to Nintendo’s focus on non-traditional gaming.
N*Revolution’s MD Damian Butt (don’t laugh) specifically stated to MCV that Nintendo have “…moved increasingly away from the hardcore gaming community…”
It shouldn’t come as any great surprise that with the Wii in particular having such a low attach rate, these kinds of specialist magazines that serve a more devoted gamer could fall into decline. No official response has yet been reported by Nintendo and one seems unlikely given the magazine’s relatively obscure status. It’s definitely an interesting development given Nintendo’s claims at E3 ’08 to still be dedicated to hardcore gamers.
Yeah, same thing is has happened to Ziff Davis and the fear of my one and only subscribtion to a magazine (Electronic Gaming Monthly) might be on its way out. =/
It doesn’t suprise me and I think it’s refreshng that this guy is being honest about why it’s happened. I’m surprised it hasn’t happened to more of the single console magazines, I find a lot of them too biased to be worth reading, the Nintendo magazines in particular. The only games magazine I still get is Games(TM) and I only really get that for the features.