It is going to be the end of an era when the magazine Nintendo Power shuts down in the coming months. The dedicated guide on the hottest tips, tricks and news will be ending their run after an impressive stint.

First released in 1988, it was the model for what many gaming magazines and websites talk about today. What has changed from then to now? Well, for starters, it was released in a time when most households only had one gaming system to choose from. Nowadays it is more common for families to have multiple systems in their homes and the variety of software is staggering.

Nintendo Power has been produced under Future Publishing since 2007 in order to grow the brand with a more independent style.  According to the source, Nintendo has been “difficult to work with,” and did not want to pursue growth of the publication in digital initiatives that would help the brand in the long run.

The editors and staff were told that the magazine would be shutting down last week. Many of the employees are being funneled into other publications and facets of Future currently and the reorganization should help the other properties do even better in terms of content and writing quality.

To date, there is no official last issue set in writing or what will be offered to current subscribers. But expect to see more on that subject to follow.

The state of gaming magazines in the US has been on the decline for the last decade. More and more are turning to online sources which have faster updates and almost instantaneous returns of data.

The news of this is bittersweet to many who remember getting their NES with a coupon for a free issue of Nintendo Power to see unreleased games that we have never heard about. The magic of diving into each issue was in some cases like Christmas every month. The news of Nintendo Power closing down also makes the life that it had even more special to those of us that were able to see the beginning of it all up to today.

[Source]