Worth Reading: Nintendo’s World of Play

Remap Radio

Tv & Film, Leisure, Society & Culture

4.9 • 964 Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2026

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome back to Worth Reading, where Patrick chats with people doing interesting writing, reporting, and criticism in the world of video games. This week, Patrick’s talking with longtime video game reporter Keza MacDonald, who is currently the games editor at The Guardian and, despite being a parent to several children, also the author of a new book about Nintendo. Is Nintendo a technology company? Why is “play” so important to the company’s longevity?

Make sure to check out Keza’s book, Super Nintendo: The Game-Changing Company That Unlocked the Power of Play, which is available wherever books are sold https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/753986/super-nintendo-by-keza-macdonald/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everyone back to another installment remap's new podcast series, Worth Reading.
0:24.3	Years ago, Worth Reading was a long-running feature of some of my previous homes, including
0:27.5	Giant Bomb and Kataku, where I tried to highlight interesting writing, reporting, and criticism
0:31.1	in the world of video games. I've been looking for an excuse to bring Worth Reading back in a new
0:34.9	format, and so I figured, hey, why not do it as a podcast? So welcome back to Worth Reading, a short form podcast, at least by remap standards anyway, where I chat with people who are doing interesting writing, reporting, and criticism in the world of video games. I'm happier here, and I'm especially happy to welcome an old friend of mine, an old colleague, Kazan McDonald, who is currently the games editor at The Guardian, and despite being the parents of several children, somehow also
0:58.7	the author of a new and wonderful book called Super Nintendo, the Game Changing Company,
1:03.9	that unlocked the power of play.
1:06.0	Keza, welcome to Worth Reading.
1:08.2	Hello, Patrick.
1:09.1	I'm so glad this book is done.
1:10.4	Can I just put it out there? I feel like I was
1:12.3	complaining about writing it for about two years. And now it's finally out. I couldn't be happier.
1:18.9	It is out. I've read a huge amount of the book. I'm really enjoying it. I cannot recommend it
1:24.4	more highly. Even if you feel like you understand Nintendo, I think this is a
1:27.9	really wonderful sort of, it's a different kind of journey through their history, which is kind of
1:33.1	where I wanted to start with. You probably have a near encyclopedic knowledge of Nintendo. It's one of your
1:38.6	favorite companies. It's one of my favorite companies. I feel like I know a lot about them.
1:43.1	Then why did you want to write a book about
1:44.9	a really well-covered company that's had many, many, many, many books written about them?
1:51.2	What did you want to unpack in yours? Like, what was the novel angle you thought you had
1:56.3	on what makes this company tick? So I had never read the Nintendo book that I wanted.
2:02.2	I've read, you know, I've read, there's some real classics, David Schiff's book about
	...

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