The end of ONM - and an era of Nintendo Magazines

Feeling a bit sad today as ONM's on its last legs. I actually meant to bring this up two weeks ago when Matthew Castle tweeted that he was moving back to Bath, despite ONM's offices being in London, but I thought perhaps Future is simply moving ONM to Bath to save costs.

But over the last few days more evidence cropped up suggesting that ONM is indeed going to be shuttered. Firstly we had the departure of KateGrey to Official Xbox Magazine -- a recent hire to the ONM team -- but also this tweet from Alex Dalé, whereby he is now deputy editor at OXM. Joe Skrebels also moved to OXM.

But the latest issue which landed this week also adds to this OXM shift, whereby the final paragraph (on Fantasy Life Dream Jobs), clearly written by Matthew Castle considering he is the only member of staff left to actually write the main bits of the mag reads:

Bad Dream Jobs: Staff Writer. Mash A to write 10k words on Link's Haircut in HW. Press X to consume caffeine. Press Up Up Down Left to speculate wildly on a fuzzy leaked screenshot. Press Reset to defect to Official Xbox. Skill: weeping pitifully.


 

Poor Matthew, left to write the magazine by himself with only help from contributors. It seems he'll join the rest at OXM. There's also no subscribe page in the latest issue, and the credits column features the following:

Production Editor: Sadly not‏
Art editor: Again, no‏
Turncoat: Kate Gray‏
Due to Kate leaving we don't even have a staff writer to come up with jokes for this page‏

Tom Acton: Campaign Manager and Manisha Lamba: Commercial Buyer Names are also crossed out.

In typical Matthew Castle fashion he's at least making the most of this to turn ONM's demise into a satire. He seems to be running the magazine by himself with help with the usual contributors.

There's also page 36:


"ONM goes apocalyptic" suggests the next issue will be its last, with the top 100 games feature also seeming like last issue material, and 730 hours being the period of about a month.

I'm sure there's more evidence but it's clear the writing has been on the wall for ONM, probably since this decision from Future. There wasn't an ONM podcast this month (a post on the forums saw Matthew Castle say that since he's essentially writing most the mag, he has to get his priorities right) for example.

All in all it's the end of an era for Nintendo magazines, and no doubt Nintendo's poor performance this generation hasn't helped things either: if NGamer could barely survive during a good generation for Nintendo, what hope is there for a more successful magazine during a bad period?

The team will still be over at OXM (and Matthew Castle may well be editor which is great news). I may try OXM once I buy an Xbox One for D4 and Forza Horizon 2, but again it will never be the same: Nintendo has a rich culture and heritage that Sony and Microsoft simply do not have. That team N64/NGC/NGamer/new ONM manage to write so many words during periods with so little games and news says it all really.

Edit: This forum thread at ONM is relevant, even if it's from an old friend of ours.

Sad, but inevitable, really. There's definitely an "all the staff have left", "nobody buys print magazines any more" undertone to this issue.

I hope I'm wrong, but I'm getting the same feeling I had during the final weeks of Nintendo Gamer. The ONM website is rarely updated and now has an out of date security certificate.

Tim453 in JohnWilliam? Did your magic mod.-as-was powers tell you that?

Anyway, another Nintendo magazine spirals sadly down the drain. I have no idea whether it's all print journalism going the way of the dodo, or just Nintendo magazines, with the rats (meaning nothing derogatory - very intelligent rodents, and surprisingly clean) leaping onto what may be a ship that's just sinking a bit less slowly. It might even just be Future, seeing as CVG too has only one main member of UK staff left and was teetering on the brink recently.

Whatever the reason, while I can't possibly be as sad as I was when NGamer bit the dust, I'll be sorry to see it go. I'm especially sorry to see Matthew Castle go - the man has been an institution of Nintendo print journalism in his own right, heading both Nintendo Gamer and ONM in fine and funny fashion.

And it was a pretty good issue this month too.

Balladeer wrote:

Tim453 in JohnWilliam?  Did your magic mod.-as-was powers tell you that?

Just as I edit my post your post goes up! My mistake, I simply placed the wrong link there.

Crescendo, Dead Lemon, Pixe1, Stu... I'm getting all nostalgic again!

The presumed loss of Matthew Castle from Nintendo journalism is properly sad, as Balla has said. It's pretty clear to me that it's going, which is genuinely sad, and a poor reflection on Nintendo's performance this generation. My only question is this: what's happened to all the OXM staff, if some management type has done a big cut and paste of staff from ONM?!

Yeah, that's reading like an end times thing. Nintendo's dip has caused the numbers to drop, I guess.

Question 1: Given that I am (like most of you I guess) multi-format now, but, when the inevitable decision between an XBone and PS4 happens, I will choose the latter (due to the slightly more enjoyable potential games list, and also MS's hubris), but I do have 360, is it worth me swapping to OXM?

Question 2 (probably the more important one) - and I don't know if this should be a separate topic: I am still primarily a Nintendo console person. Therefore... what is the ONE publication / site that can actually be relied to provide a review on anything that is released on a Nintendo console? A lot of multi-format places cherry-pick things; without NGamer/ONM III, I wouldn't have considered Little King's Story, Light Trax or Knytt Underground. Don't say Metacritic.


I know news on the internet is free, and I think it should be; however, for reviews and guides to products (this doesn't just limit itself to videogames) I do think that people should be paid for producing these, and end customers should pay these people for the service. If someone is employed by a company to review items, it's more likely that their employers have considered them to provide a balanced and sensible process in deciding how good a game is. It also means that they are much less likely to have any involvement in the "bribery" nonsense that has popped up on the internet over the last couple of months.

Jimbob wrote:

Question 2 (probably the more important one) - and I don't know if this should be a separate topic: I am still primarily a Nintendo console person. Therefore... what is the ONE publication / site that can actually be relied to provide a review on anything that is released on a Nintendo console? A lot of multi-format places cherry-pick things; without NGamer/ONM III, I wouldn't have considered Little King's Story, Light Trax or Knytt Underground. Don't say Metacritic.

I quite like godisageek.com even though they are multi format their Nintendo coverage/reviews are always good & the podcast is pretty good as well.

I'd recommend Nintendo Life.  They review almost everything, including eShop releases like Chubbins (ever heard of it?  Exactly) and VC releases.  Whether they're reliable or not, I'm still not sure; but they do hand out a good few sub-6/10 scores.

I've not read ONM for a while, but still sad news and that we no longer have dedicated mag for Nintendo, but going to OXM is fine but will that go in the end. As one of the reasons I don't buy print mags is reviews, news etc is all old due to the internet. I guess if you want a mag your going to have a look at EDGE, GamesMaster or GamesTM now if you want some Nintendo stuff.

Nintendo Life is decent enough and I also uses there sister sites pushsquare & purexbox, there's a few others like Nintendo Feed which I've only just found out about recently due to Fantasy Life & me following (whom also follows me) one of the guys that did the Bayonetta Wii U review without realising it. There's also Nintendo Enthusiast, they did the YouTube videos on all the eShop stuff coming. And there's Nintendo Insider & My Nintendo News. So there's a few options, so mnaybe check them all out find one you like the style of and stick with them, I follow them all on twitter and mainly go to NL on the web.

A shame to see, but it is alas inevitable. End of the print era and all that jazz. I haven't read anything print in years (although that also extends to online media as well) but it's still sad to see the end of this arrive.

I have defended print journalism in the past because, to me, it's tended to be more humorous and to contain more "non-news" features. With sites like the Escapist, and Chris Scullion bringing his writing style to CVG, these aren't really valid any more. So I'm left with "the feel of paper" and "once a week feels like a special event". With smartphones so ubiquitous now, even the "something to read on the toilet" defence no longer applies.

The videogames magazine is almost obsolete as a medium, but I'll still miss it.

Hello! Just had this thread pointed out to me on Twitter. Thanks for the kind words!

I can't say what's up with ONM - for various daft reasons - but I can offer an ambiguous glimmer of hope on the more generalised Nintendo front... I'm currently working on a side project (nothing major, but quite fun), with a couple of N64/NGamer alumni, which we hope to make live over the next week or so. Will be sure to flag it up here when it happens...

Thanks for stopping by, Matthew!  If Fronky's apocalyptic vision isn't wrong, my deepest condolences - but your new project sounds like fun, and I look forward to it!

(I hope it has Zy Nicholson.)

EDIT: A quick Google for Zy resulted in his LinkedIn page, and the "People also searched for..." bar is like a potted history of the magazine! There's a Timothy Weaver and a Tim Weaver, which is odd.

Good luck Matthew in your future efforts. Looking forward to the new project.

MatthewNG wrote:

Hello! Just had this thread pointed out to me on Twitter. Thanks for the kind words!

I can't say what's up with ONM - for various daft reasons - but I can offer an ambiguous glimmer of hope on the more generalised Nintendo front... I'm currently working on a side project (nothing major, but quite fun), with a couple of N64/NGamer alumni, which we hope to make live over the next week or so. Will be sure to flag it up here when it happens...

MATTHEW'S NINTENDO FANZINE IS HAPPENING!

Excuse the caps. The star letter in the final issue makes more sense now (as Axis said), and Matthew joked about how he would make a Nintendo Fanzine if ONM ceased to exist.

Balladeer wrote:

I'd recommend Nintendo Life.  They review almost everything, including eShop releases like Chubbins (ever heard of it?  Exactly) and VC releases.  Whether they're reliable or not, I'm still not sure; but they do hand out a good few sub-6/10 scores.

Nintendo Life do good work, though I occasionally find their writing to be staid and the angles/topics chosen to be safe. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it lacks that "oomph" you get elsewhere.

This "elsewhere" has ceased to exist. I was reminded yesterday that now ONM and NGamer/Nintendo on CVG have wound down. Nintendo Life has no real competition anymore, not including hot news sites like GoNintendo. There aren't any Nintendo-centric sites that offer the same breadth as it, with a community of Nintendo fans to boot.

I'd love to see a Nintendo Life alternative. Matthew's project has me Very Excited.

Yeah any more Nintendo based sites is always good news.

Balladeer wrote:

(I hope it has Zy Nicholson.)

Sadly not. I've never actually met Zy - pretty sure he severed ties with Future long before I joined. I can't remember why but we weren't allowed to reprint any of this work (in the books of reprinted content that we gave away), which I always thought was a shame. Probably some contractual thing.

Oh, and don't get *too* excited for the project - it's only a silly little thing on the side. Though yes, I've always liked the idea of doing a fanzine - I'm not too fussed about the American ones. A little too Nintendo Power-y for my liking (he said, working for the corporate behemoth that is ONM).

I wasnae really expecting Zy to make an appearance, but it's really sad that nothing of his can be reprinted. Especially that SM64 review, natch.

A real shame to see this happen - it wasn't too long ago we had 3 dedicated Nintendo print magazines, and now there's none. It's difficult to decide whether this is an issue with print medium or with Nintendo itself, but it doesn't take away from the fact that the only print coverage Ninty's going to get in the UK is in multi-format mags... and that's sad.

Still, excited to see what you're planning Matthew - be sure to link us/inform us of whatever it may be when it comes to fruition.

Thanks for the reassurance, Matthew. Good luck in your next role!

All the best for the future, Matthew. I'm disappointed to hear that ONM looks like it's coming to an end, not just as a Nintendo fan but as someone who bought their first issue all the way back in 1997, and as someone who very recently made the decision that this was how he was going to replace Nintendo Gamer. Acht.

I was wondering about ONM, having recently tried and failed to find a copy of the latest issue at any shop I visited up and down the country on some work travels. Very sad news if it goes, but probably inevitable. All the best on whatever you do next Matthew, I've really enjoyed following your career and growing writing style over the years since *that* Red Steel review, and I'm sure I won't be the only one to follow what you write in the future (even if it not written at Future!)

Personally, I'm really sad because I've never really got into any nintendo websites over print magazines, despite a good long search when Nintendo Gamer kicked-it. I looked at following Nintendolife and so on and never really got into them. I had a long think about why and came to three main reasons:

1. I am a sucker for the monthly-physical format that I read growing up, and haven't moved with the times.

2. Website content is mostly news. Look at almost any gaming site and there is a constant flow of dull, 24hr-rolling news style updates, and very little in the way of full-bodies content. To wit, in a magazine you might see 5-10 pages of summed-up news to 70+ pages of previews, features, reviews etc.  This has several knock-on effects: news updates are often poorly written/and/or rushed, they dominate the conversation and tone, well written articles/reviews are buried very rapidly under the weight of updates, games are old-news the day they are released (while I often want to read/talk about them once I've played them and the mental dust has settled!), and there is a tendency to get caught in the moment/tone of the Gaming News (tm). Everything is A Big Deal, and HAPPENING RIGHT NOW, so humour, context and sometimes plain good writing goes out of the window.

3. Website layouts don't have amusing captions, box-outs or foot-notes. I loves me some footnotes, natch!

Sort of suspected something like this was coming for a while now, but it's still really sad. I've bought a Nintendo magazine every month for more than a decade and still have most of them. For me, the fleeting nature of online content means it will never be the same as holding a physical copy and knowing everyone else is reading it.

I've actually just ordered an Xbox one, to arrive with FIFA, so I might start picking up OXM to read the wonderful words of Kate, Joe and Matthew but there'll be a big Nintendo whole in my life. At least I'll have this place, and the few podcasts I listen to, but even so...


Curse this cruel world that couldn't allow something so beautiful to live.