Greedy Nintendo.

 A more fitting epithet doesn't exist. 

This is a personal one all right, call it a 'vendetta' blog; because I've got an axe to grind with a little-company-who-could called 'Nintendo'. You ever heard of them? Grandfathers of the platformer? beloved arbiters for the children's audience of video games? Got it's footing in the entertainment industry by manufacturing Hanafuda cards for the Japanese Yakuza so that they could circumvent a way-too-specific law about card-based organised gambling? Yeah, well I've got something to say to them about the way they do business! Although upon reflection, I suddenly don't feel as motivated to rant about it as I initially did when I started, might be that connection to the Yakuza I just mentioned. In light of my tempered emotions I'll going to present my level-headed treatise on exactly how Nintendo exploits it's position of legacy and childhood innocence to fleece their consumer base with zero actionable backlash.

First it's important to say that Nintendo are not the only video game company out for a quick buck, of course they're not. Heck, these days it feels like every company bigger than a single room of developers is trying their hardest to charm you with their dashing grill whilst their underlings pilfer your unguarded back pockets. Square and Sony in particular are exploiting their properties in the current generation to try and underhandedly drive up the standard price of this generation's premium pricing out of some utterly transparent bad-faith argument regarding the frozen inflation of the industry which is so pitiful it hardly even warrants a response. And yet I provide one every single time this topic comes up, because if we simply ignore the greedy, they'll continue to take. Never be too lazy to spit in their faces and tell them what they're trash is worth with the only voice that counts, the dusty, crumpled voice you carry around confined to your wallet.

But Nintendo, for their part, haven't gone that route. Yet. Remember that since the next generation launched, Nintendo have been stuck to their old Switch console from the last gen and have yet to put out one of their signature ear-arresting console seller games. Make no mistake that Nintendo will follow suite with the £10 price hike; the only question is whether it'll be when their first blockbuster hits or the Switch mark 2, whatever that ends up being called. And that is because it is in their very blood as a company to manipulate, mislead, cheat and do everything short of 'steal' in order to wring water from the stony grip of their consumer's thirsty hands. In their opinion, it is their right to treat us as misbehaving pay pigs. And who gives them this right? Well much in the vein of pay pigs; it comes from us, bundled in the small print right alongside that undying nostalgia.

Nostalgia, you see, is the glue which keeps the Nintendo fronting face static even after all of these years. Systems have changed, legends have come and gone, the very building blocks of what makes Nintendo have shifted, and we squint through it all to see the family friendly visage of Mario, the scion of childhood's everywhere, and thus hypnotise ourselves into thinking Nintendo are the company for families. It's a deception they prey upon. All of the flagship Nintendo franchises are 3+, their marketing always targets the familial unit and until recently they maintained a draconian hold on censorship rules so strict that it honestly weeded out the majority of independent developers willing to sell on their storefront. (The confusing porting process to the underperforming Wii U helped push the conflicted far away.) The message is clear, Nintendo is the place for kids. But does it need to be the home of moral mediocrity too?

We can start by looking at their online services, pitiful excuses that they are. In the current age of universal ports and social media avenues and communication software bursting out the floorboards, how is there not chat functionality built into the Switch's online suite? The Switch is supposed to be the most fully realised online capable console that Nintendo have ever bought out, and yet for the sheer virtue of what they represent as a legacy grandfather of the industry Nintendo know they can half-ass it's implantation, and the net code itself, with a smile and a wink. Which doesn't even touch on the fact that Nintendo feel this is worthy of charging for, with two different price tiers, despite it's vast inferiority to literally every other online service in the entertainment marketplace. Putting old N64 emulations behind a pricy subscription wall is just the cherry on that cake.

And of course the problem runs deeper than just the online offerings. Nintendo have married themselves to this idea that their games are evergreen, and a title which is half a decade old is fully justified for being flogged again for full price as the staunch exclusivity around their properties ensures that every one of their games are sold only on their marketplace giving Nintendo total control over the market price. As such, Nintendo will totally freeze their titles from value dropping with time, as literally everything else in every consumer industry is supposed to be subject to. Depreciation is a natural product of life and finance, it gives room for the new whilst allowing old inventory to be shifted easier. And whatsmore it's a way to be inclusive to those who don't have the disposable income to shift full price on new games. But Nintendo don't care about inclusivity, they want full price games straight from their store in total perpetuity.

Which brings us to their most insane method of enforcing perceived value; manufactured scarcity. Nintendo are well within their capabilities to ensure the vast demand of their products is neatly met, however if everyone has their needs met then you've got nothing to dangle over the public to keep them hungry and desperate. We've seen Nintendo artificially strangle stock with their Amiibo movement before that thankfully died down, and again with the Super Mario Bros 3D Allstars, which is a game they literally killed from the online storefront after an arbitrary sales period. Why? So that people stop complaining how these products never drop in price. And if this ends up feeding a predatory secondary market which scalps products and then dangles them over the heads of fans for vastly over-inflated price hikes, well that's not Nintendo's problem. They got the initial sale and that's as far as their purview on the matter ends.

I like the games that Nintendo puts out, I think their value proposition is stunningly high and consistent compared to literally every other studio in the industry today, but their business practices drive me away like the plague. I only engage when there's no other choice and even then I come away feeling dirty. Recently I ended up picking up 'Fire Emblem: The Three Houses', my first Fire Emblem game, after waiting for it to go on sale for every month since the game launched. Despite its success, Nintendo didn't print any more physical copies of the game outside of the initial batch and the online store front remained typically stagnant for years, even as a direct sequel for that title entered the hype cycle. When I finally found a used copy of the game a few weeks ago, the machinations of Nintendo had this second hand copy retailing at exactly full price. And you know what; I bought it. Because at that point I knew I was getting screwed, but I'd rather get screwed depriving Nintendo of my sale than kowtow to their grubby practices. This is the reality of dealing with the number one children's games developer, apparently.