Remember when Nintendo was a must-buy company and whatever they released was pure fun? I remember that time fondly. What I'm seeing happening to my beloved gaming company in the last few months is alarming to say the least. Is Nintendo becoming... greedy?
I think we are at a very critical moment in time when the games industry is about to make a bet: can we milk the gamers more or will the rebel? We have somehow tolerated paid online features, botched releases, DLCs that should have been part fo the base game, and the vulturous monetization that spreads like cancer throughout the industry. There always was a somewhat-sensible reason for those like "we need monetization to keep the development sustainable" (fair) or "hardware is more expensive because it uses newest technology" (fair), or "we are sorry the game didn't work at launch but here is a dozen of DLCs that we clearly cut out to have something more to sell you" (ehhh).
With the newest Switch 2 release I feel like the camel back is broken. It will cost almost as much as much more powerful competition and Nintendo made a series of unfortunate pricing decisions, each one boiling my piss:
I think we are at a very critical moment in time when the games industry is about to make a bet: can we milk the gamers more or will the rebel? We have somehow tolerated paid online features, botched releases, DLCs that should have been part fo the base game, and the vulturous monetization that spreads like cancer throughout the industry. There always was a somewhat-sensible reason for those like "we need monetization to keep the development sustainable" (fair) or "hardware is more expensive because it uses newest technology" (fair), or "we are sorry the game didn't work at launch but here is a dozen of DLCs that we clearly cut out to have something more to sell you" (ehhh).
With the newest Switch 2 release I feel like the camel back is broken. It will cost almost as much as much more powerful competition and Nintendo made a series of unfortunate pricing decisions, each one boiling my piss:
- System demo is a paid game now?!
- New games costing how much now?!
- What even are those key cards?
Point 1: The absurdity of paying for a system demo
You are supposed to pay for the little "system demo" game that shows your JoyCons can vibrate or you can use them as mouse. Things that ARE. SUPPOSED. TO. GUIDE. YOU. into your new gaming system. Imagine going to the store to buy your new, I don't know, microwave. And the clerk has the gall to say "by the way, this model comes with grill and steam function but if you want to learn more about those features you will have to pay 5€ to 10€ more". I can guarantee you, there would be laugh, but there wouldn't be a sale.
How unhinged must be Nintendo to believe people want to pay real money to learn things that they should be shown for free? Previous generations had complete games like Wii Sports, and competition has Atrobot Playground that feels and plays like a real game (it's really good btw. a hidden Playstation 5 gem!)
How unhinged must be Nintendo to believe people want to pay real money to learn things that they should be shown for free? Previous generations had complete games like Wii Sports, and competition has Atrobot Playground that feels and plays like a real game (it's really good btw. a hidden Playstation 5 gem!)
Point 2: Games cost now too much
New Mario Kart World costs 80€ digitally or 90€ physically. Ooof.
I just can't understand how a company can expect that much money for a game, no matter how much you look at it. Imagine paying 90€ for a new Mario Kart with a whopping amount of 30 courses and a revolutionizing Grand Prix mode where you drive in a straight line from track to track unleashing whatever power up you can find for... what exactly? Just give me a loading screen so I can go take a piss. Because I'm sure Nintendo takes one on all of us with that insane pricing.
I just can't understand how a company can expect that much money for a game, no matter how much you look at it. Imagine paying 90€ for a new Mario Kart with a whopping amount of 30 courses and a revolutionizing Grand Prix mode where you drive in a straight line from track to track unleashing whatever power up you can find for... what exactly? Just give me a loading screen so I can go take a piss. Because I'm sure Nintendo takes one on all of us with that insane pricing.
Point 3: You will own nothing and you will be happy
Nintendo announced that some of the new games (but it turns out now many games) will come with an empty game card in the box that acts as a "digital key" that will allow us to download the game digitaly. What the heck?!
They claim "it's so you can lend the game in the family" but I call BS on that. If I wanted to share my game I would just login with my Nintendo Account on all of my consoles, download the games wherever I want and call it a day. It would be so simple. We don't need yet another gimmick and a source of failure.
If you aren't convinced, imagine that down the line, one beautiful day, the servers responsible for saying "Yes, key card, I bless you with the license to play the game" will stop responding. Or the servers get hacked. Or there's no Internet and they are simply unreachable. And your 90€ game is not even a paper weight because it weights nothing. And I bet they will skip on making them taste terrible too.
They claim "it's so you can lend the game in the family" but I call BS on that. If I wanted to share my game I would just login with my Nintendo Account on all of my consoles, download the games wherever I want and call it a day. It would be so simple. We don't need yet another gimmick and a source of failure.
If you aren't convinced, imagine that down the line, one beautiful day, the servers responsible for saying "Yes, key card, I bless you with the license to play the game" will stop responding. Or the servers get hacked. Or there's no Internet and they are simply unreachable. And your 90€ game is not even a paper weight because it weights nothing. And I bet they will skip on making them taste terrible too.
...and the worst point: Nintendo comes with CONTEMPT now
So what is the response from Nintendo to the criticism? "iF yOu cAnNoT aFfOrD tHe NeW sWiTcH 2, mAyBe StAy WiTh ThE oLd OnE"— in other words: "unless you pony up, sucker, you're worthless to us."
I hate that narrative. It's reductive. It's spinning the narrative that "only poor people criticize the new changes, har har har" and that is simply not true. I'm regularly dropping 100€+ on little army boys that don't even come painted (or assembled) but I refuse to be treated like a cattle. Gaming should be all happy moments full of rainbows and unicorns, and NOT CONTEMPT.
So, dear Nintendo. Go sit on a cactus because I will not only NOT buy your overpriced drifty piece of junk but I will also advise my friends from buying from you. I already did.
I hate that narrative. It's reductive. It's spinning the narrative that "only poor people criticize the new changes, har har har" and that is simply not true. I'm regularly dropping 100€+ on little army boys that don't even come painted (or assembled) but I refuse to be treated like a cattle. Gaming should be all happy moments full of rainbows and unicorns, and NOT CONTEMPT.
So, dear Nintendo. Go sit on a cactus because I will not only NOT buy your overpriced drifty piece of junk but I will also advise my friends from buying from you. I already did.
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