Yep, we're eight years old now. What were our past successes? What does our future hold? A letter from the director awaits you.http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=13154March 7 is a very special date around these parts. It's the day when we take a look at ourselves and realize that we've been around another year. Yep, it's our birthday. Unlike the last couple of bashes, however, this one isn't celebrating the birthday of Planet GameCube. If you've been following the site for a while you'll know that we only recently changed our name (and our look) to Nintendo World Report. The history of this site goes all the way back to 1999, which officially makes us eight years old.
(Okay, so today isn't exactly our birthday. It was actually last week, so we're a bit late with it. Then again, there were more important things to attend to, so I hope you can forgive us for keeping the cake in the refrigerator for a few extra days.)
In the weeks leading up to our birthday, I wondered about the best way to celebrate it. In talking with our Reviews Editor (and former Director) Jonathan Metts, he suggested that we take a look back at some of the highlights of the site's history. I agreed. After all, a lot of our new readers may not know how we got to where we are today. Plus, it's always fun to take a trip down memory lane.
I suppose the best place to start would be the beginning. This is what the site looked like in 1999 back when we were known as PlanetN2000, and Billy Berghammer was running the show. Though we were a startup fansite back then, our community grew quickly thanks in part to the interaction we offered our readers, like regular trivia competitions and mailbag updates, two things we still do today.
After Nintendo revealed that the name of their new system would be GameCube, we changed our name accordingly. Here's what we looked like in 2001. Right away we made our new name known by scoring a major coup; we were the first to reveal the GameCube's logo. Planet GameCube immediately became known for its tough reviews, our first one being the 7.5 we gave Super Mario Advance. (A week later, it got a 6.5 in a second review.)
The next year, we started a new trend in the online gaming journalism field. After E3 2002, we produced a DVD set of the show. It wasn't just any show; it was the monumental year when Nintendo brought Mario Sunshine, Metroid Prime and Zelda: Wind Waker to the same event. We had video of all of them, as well as the Nintendo press conference. We put that footage on to the DVD and sold a lot them. The other major gaming sites took notice and started offering E3 DVDs of their own the following years. And they didn't even thank us for the idea!
(On a related note, former staffer Adam Kontras, who produced the DVD for us, has moved on to bigger and better things, working for CBSnews.com ... and he might be going bigger than that in the near future.)
As the years ticked by and as our purple facade gained more recognition, something strange happened. Microsoft invited us to come up to their Redmond offices to test drive their new Xbox system, specifically Billy. Why would they invite the head of a major Nintendo video game site to try out the Xbox? According to MS, we were “a pillar in the gaming community," that's why. Billy being Billy, he convinced Microsoft to let him stay in Redmond for a few extra days to visit a friend. That turned out to be our first visit to Nintendo of America, and most certainly not our last.
Eventually the site's reputation became so big that Game Informer Magazine took notice and offered Billy the managing editor job for their website. He (reluctantly) accepted, and left PGC in the capable hands of the aforementioned Jonny Metts.
At E3 2004, we were the first to break the name and logo of the Nintendo DS. I remember Jonny calling Billy after this happened, leaving a simple voicemail of “logo get!" Billy remembered the GameCube logo exclusive well, and seeing as he was crazy about importing Super Mario Sunshine we figured that was all he needed to understand that we were doing just fine without him. He got the message.
Between then and now, we toughed out the GameCube drought and continued to provide news and review coverage of anything we could get our hands on. The launch of the DS marked the start of a new era of Nintendo's history. As the Revolution train started gaining steam, we switched gears and put the majority of our effort into bring you any news we could find, including the true name of the console. (That was sure an epic talkback thread, wasn't it?)
With the Wii launch on the horizon, we had to make some changes. We changed directors. We changed our name. We changed our look. But you know what? The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Planet GameCube was the best, and Nintendo World Report is still the best Nintendo news and information site on the Internet. You know why that is? It's because of you. You, dear reader, are why we've only been growing during the past eight years, and why we will continue to grow in the future. You keep coming back for our news, our reviews, our Radio Free Nintendo podcast, our Virtual Console Mondays news feature and our wall-to-wall events coverage. We thank you for that.
But as I look back on the stuff we've done in the past (and will continue to do, of course), I can't help but be nagged by a personal belief of mine. I believe that although one should respect his past, one must understand that it is in the past. In other words, all that we've done in the past eight years, while important to us, is not as important to where we are now and where we're going in the future.
So here's the deal. I personally want to recommit ourselves to being the best Nintendo site out there, starting now. We're still going to bring you the news, reviews and other stuff you've come to expect from us, but from this point forward we're going to leave no stone unturned.
Our preview coverage has been lacking recently, but no more. We're going to take previews as seriously as we do the news—we're going to give you the straight skinny on upcoming games, without bias or opinion. Games should not be overhyped or criticized before they are released, so we won't do either. We'll just tell you what to expect from a game by telling you what's in it, and nothing more. That's our preview philosophy, and you're going to see a lot more of it in the near future.
Additionally, original content is the real reason people come back to a website. While we've got plenty of it already, we're not satisfied with what we have. GameCube Tribute Week and our massive Greatest GameCube Games list is just the start the special features you'll see us bring you in the future. No one knows Nintendo, and all of video games, like we do. Just wait until you see what we've got up our sleeves.
And finally, I just want to say that our staff is ready to take on this challenge. This recommitment to excellence on the outside is being accompanied by a reorganization on the inside, meant to streamline our operations and make it easier for us to bring you the information you want. There's a lot to do behind the scenes, and now that we're better prepared to take on the increased workload we can't wait to take on the challenge.
2007, our ninth year, is going to be an interesting one. It'll be interesting for Nintendo, interesting for the entire video game industry, and interesting for this site. Why don't you stick with us so we can experience it together?
Topic: Happy 8th Birthday, Nintendo World Report (Read 6324 times)
