A new Kickstarter project, Ninty Fresh Issue 1, opened for donations on June 1. In less than 24 hours, they had doubled their initial goal of £2,000 (approximately $2,500 USD).
The project has been so successful that they have since added three stretch goals, two of which have been already been reached after five days. The stretch goals each consist of an additional pin badge to be added to any pledge package with a print copy of the magazine included. The two stretch goals reached thus far include the NES and Famicom pins shown below with the third, yet-unreached goal being the top-loading NES model.
Center: NES pin badge
Right: Famicom pin badge
The pin badges will be added to those pledges which receive a print copy of the magazine, but there is a smaller donation amount should the asking price be too high or you simply do not want something taking up more space in your life. Here is a breakdown of the different pledge levels:
Please note: Original amounts are in pounds sterling (£), so USD amounts are approximations.
- $3: Digital Copy
- $7: Print Copy
- $12: Enamel “Certified Fresh” badge, double-sided poster, and cover art pin badge
- $32: Inclusion on a “Kick Stars” page within the magazine
For any of the above tiers, you will receive all the awards from the tiers below it as well. Also, as of now, all 64 slots for the $32 pledge have been filled, but could become available should someone choose to drop it.
There have not been many print magazines for gaming in recent years and the big names in Nintendo magazines have been discontinued for several years now. The group behind the project is not new to the magazine scene, however. While they may not have the size and notoriety of magazines like Nintendo Power or Official Nintendo Magazine, they have had a successful run of 40 issues with their other magazine, Switch Player, which is dedicated to the Nintendo Switch specifically.
Print magazines are an interesting artifact in a largely digital age. By and large, readers want to get their news and information like previews and reviews in as timely a fashion as possible, which means digital news sites tend to beat out their print competitors. Print magazines require a specific perspective and appeal that digital content cannot quite match in order to survive. While there will always be a subset of people who prefer to get their hands on something, whether it be written content, movies, or games, that consumer base is undeniably shrinking. It means moving away from a purely print release process, but also requires a much more focused funding directive to support the printing process.
It does, however, make endeavors such as these all the more special. Magazines like these are becoming less of an item to be thrown on a shelf and hope that they catch someone’s eye. Instead, they are a more focused product that explicitly caters to their readership in a much more focused way. Digital content may be the future, but at least for now, these types of projects clearly show that print still has its place in the industry.
Print is dead, long live print!
