Surprised no one's mentioned this yet. With the demise of Nintendo Power (I still need to get my copy of the last issue), a bunch of high-profile Nintendo site owners and journalists have gotten together to form a spiritual successor, called Nintendo Force Take a look here. I think it shows a lot of promise - they've got a seriously good team. RMC from GoNintendo, Lucas Thomas from IGN, Brawl in the Family's Matthew Taranto...lots of Nintendo fansites represented as well including Nintendo World Report, NintendoLife, and Nintendojo. Definitely going to keep an eye out for this, though I'm surprised Nintendo seems to be okay with it.
I need to get my issue, too. :/ Yeah, it looks pretty nice. I'll reserve judgment for when they actually release the first issue, but it seems promising.
First issue is now available. Holy crap, $4.99 for a digital copy and $17.99 for a print copy. That's one issue. Just...wtf. I realize it's a startup and there's probably no advertising, but still. :|
Honestly, I don't really see the point of this. I mean, I'm glad they're pushing the digital copy but I think magazines are honestly a thing of the past. I would only see the digital part being viable (if printed media were still that viable, Nintendo wouldn't have pulled the plug on their own publication) and even then... why go to all that effort--and only monthly releases--when everything about media nowadays screams "right now!" I'm not gonna wait for a magazine issue to get news when I can probably get the same news as it breaks from gaming blogs. I know it must have a certain charm but I just feel like it's inefficient and in this day and age, in the direction the internet has taken us, the format just seems entirely unsalvagable and outdated. Plus with price points like that (digital magazine issues go for $2-4 on Amazon, at least, and it's unheard of for a printed magazine to be that much--even the Shonen Jump monthly comic magazine here was only $5-8 an issue and it was ridiculously thick, albeit also in black and white).
Even moreso since the content is largely echoed on the websites on the magazine's creators to begin with. That price is just too steep to look at other people's fan art and read the magazine's answers to fan's questions - and even then, the appeal of Nintendo Power was that it was Nintendo. And a kid you go "omg Nintendo answered my question!" "The guys from GoNintendo, IGN, and Nintendojo actually answered my question" isn't special and they'll likely do it anyway for free if you go through their site instead. They should just make a nicely themed portal that's themed to the layout of the magazine and put the content there.
... It ought to be $4.99 for a copy, and $17.99 for a subscription or something. :/ That's too much. Still, the magazine seems nice enough.
