Future Publishing has confirmed that the pages of the Official Nintendo Magazine will be closing for good after the next issue released on October 14th.
Issue 114 of ‘The Definitive Monthly Guide to Wii U & Nintendo 3DS‘ will be the last in the 12 year print history of the magazine known as the Official Nintendo Magazine – often abbreviated as ONM. The magazine was first published under this title by EMAP in 2002 before being taken over by Future in 2006 who have published the news and reviews magazine until its closure.
However there is a bit more of a history behind the Official Nintendo Magazine as we know it today.
Following the launch of the SEGA Mega Drive and SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) and during the console boom there was short lived magazine called Mean Machines which ran from 1990 to 1992.
Mean Machines was one of the earliest publications to be dedicated to growing 8-bit and 16-bit console market rather than home computers such as ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 which had been the main gaming platforms through the mid to late 80s.
After popularity of both the Nintendo and SEGA brands split gamer’s loyalties into allegiances that would last more than a decade, Mean Machines also split into two separate magazines – Mean Machines Sega and Nintendo Magazine System.
NMS would hit newsagent shelves in 1992 and just a short time later would become simply Nintendo Magazine, before rebranding into the more prestigiously titled Nintendo Official Magazine, and finally Official Nintendo Magazine in 2002 under the watch of EMAP where it reached its 100th issue last October.
With the Official Nintendo Magazine being put out of print this month Nintendo will stay in a working relationship with Future Publishing on a number of its websites including Games Radar which will soon join Total Film and SFX in a new ‘super entertainment destination’.
Also See: Total Film, SFX and Games Radar to Unite Forces Online