Future Publishing has announced the closure of "Official Nintendo Magazine" and its attendant website, with the last issue, the 114th, to go on sale this month. The website will be shut down on November 11, Polygon reported.
The magazine's subscribers will have their subscriptions transferred automatically to "Gamesmaster" magazine if they're not canceled before October 17. Future has promised to try and find ONM staff jobs elsewhere in the company, maintaining that the closure is not part of the recent wave of layoffs that have occurred at the company.
"The last issue of 'Official Nintendo Magazine,' which launched in the UK in 2002, will be in stores on 14th October," according to a statement on the ONM website.
"Throughout its tenure, 'Official Nintendo Magazine' has continued to bring fans, news, interviews, previews, and reviews on both new and retro Nintendo hardware and software. Nintendo will continue to speak directly to fans via Nintendo Direct, our social media and online channels and public events. Nintendo UK and Future will continue to work closely on future projects across Gamesradar.com, CVG, Edge, Kotaku UK and Gamesmaster."
I must say that I always get a bit unnerved when another video game magazine bites the dust. Yes, I fully understand that digital is future and is the cheaper/quicker alternative and all that, but I grew up reading a wide variety of gaming mags, and I dislike seeing that almost all of them have now gone the way of the dodo.
As the late, great Kurt Vonnegut once wrote: "So it goes."
