Nintendo's Empire of Secrets with Keza MacDonald

Factually! with Adam Conover

Headgum

Comedy

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2026

⏱️ 94 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The video game industry is in a state of chaos. Layoffs, buyouts, studio closures, mergers—the entire industry seems plagued. Except for Nintendo. The Japanese video game giant is over one hundred years old, and since they dominated the home console market in the 80s, they’ve been generally unwavering in their success, and all without succumbing to the pitfalls of other game companies. But they’re also tremendously secretive, operating with very little behind-the-scenes publicity and deploying their massively innovative games with relatively little lead-up. This week, Adam talks games with Keza MacDonald, a video game editor at The Guardian. Her new book, Super Nintendo: The Game-Changing Company That Unlocked the Power of Play, takes a look behind Nintendo’s curtain of secrecy to show how this company has been able to innovate and surprise for so long. Find Keza's book at factuallypod.com/books

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a Headgum podcast.
0:05.6	Hacks is back for its fifth and final season, and so is the Hacks podcast.
0:11.2	Join the Hacks creators and showrunners, Lucia and Yellow, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky
0:16.6	as they unpack the Emmy-winning comedy series.
0:19.8	On each episode, hear stories from the set,
0:22.4	what goes on in the writer's room,
0:23.8	and how these beloved characters close out their final season.
0:27.3	Watch Hacks streaming exclusively on HBO Max
0:31.5	and listen to The Hacks podcast on HBO Max
0:34.8	or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:55.8	I don't know the truth. I don't know the way. on HBO Max or wherever you get your podcasts. that's okay I don't know anything Hey there, welcome to Factually.
1:00.2	I'm Adam Conover.
1:01.2	Thank you so much for joining me.
1:02.8	This week we are going to be taking a break
1:04.8	from all the bad news and the serious topics
1:07.6	talk about something that's just nice and fun and pure and mostly good
1:13.3	in this fallen world.
1:14.6	Today, we are going to be talking about one of my favorite things on Earth, Nintendo.
1:19.7	You know, everyone is a mark for something, and for me, it's Nintendo.
1:23.6	I grew up in the heyday of the NES.
1:26.0	I had a subscription to Nintendo Power Magazine. I used to take the posters out of the NES. I had a subscription to Nintendo Power Magazine.
1:28.5	I used to take the posters out of the magazine and hang them up around my wall.
	...

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