Nintendo Does a Silly

As the gaming industry grows, so too do the methods which we get games. Steam was, if I recall, the first to really bring the digital distribution concept to life. It was rough at first as Steam wasn’t the streamlined process it was today. But it was the first and it allowed PC gamers to get their games easily, sometimes cheaper, with automatic updates and patching, and was generally a good thing to bring into the world of gaming. Following suit, other PC digital distributors emerged like GreenManGaming, GOG, Origin, Amazon, Desura, etc. Each having a different kind of offer or deal to incentivize you buying through them instead of Steam. Lots of great competition on a single space to try and get the most for your dollar (unless you buy through Origin… more on that in a moment).

The console market, always behind the PC, eventually caught on to the idea and copied it move for move, mostly. Digital distribution became a bigger aspect to the PS3 and the Xbox360. XboxLive Acrade and Games on Demand allowed gamers to download smaller indie games as well as triple-A titles without the need for a physical copy. This was aided with the ability to save to the cloud, allowing players to access their account on any device and then play their game on said device, not being locked into a single entity. Again, like Steam, it wasn’t perfect at first (and arguably still isn’t) but it’s certainly come a long way from when the features were first introduced.

Now that we’re currently starting the next generation of gaming with the WiiU and following with the PS4 and Xbone, we have to wonder where it will go from here. Well, if Nintendo’s recent quote tells us anything, we’re still in for the same bullshit we’ve been getting with no real changes. It’s good to see a new generation of gaming means the same garbage as before. :D

The quote was in response to being questioned why their digital games aren’t cheaper. Nintendo’s response was, <When people see a Mario or Zelda game, to expect a certain level of quality. We don’t want to lower the value of that quality, which is why the games are priced the way they are>. While that’s all well and good, we (and I) called out EA for saying pretty much the exact same thing almost a year ago and none of us agreed with such anti-consumer logic back then either. Valuing your product more than your costumer is a flawed concept. Because without the customer, you’re product has no value. Thus, such value should be determined by the consumer itself.

What I’m getting at is that while I don’t mind if Mario or Zelda are more expensive than what I’d expect the average digital game to be, charging full retail price for a digital copy of a game on ANY platform doesn’t make any sense whatsoever and here’s why.

First, there’s no resale value. I can’t sell, share, or trade a digital game. Ergo, it should be cheaper simply for lack of what I can do with it after having purchased it. Second, there’s no shipping, manufacturing, packaging, or even shelving costs for the game. You put it online on your server and people download it. With that much less work involved in getting the game to the consumer, the cost should be down from that as well. Let’s also not forget that the WiiU sales are hurting right now… like, a lot. By making your games on the WiiU that can be bought digitally CHEAPER, you could improve sales and balance out the cost of the WiiU people feel the need to bitch about (despite it being the cheapest NextGen console on the market).

But let me take this backwards logic a step farther. Nintendo has an XboxLive Arcade set up as well called “Virtual Console” which is much better than the arcade services of either other console simply because I can play my old NES, Genesis, and SNES games without the shitty cartridges from the old days. Games on there are generally between $5 -$10. That’s not a bad price. Some have complained that it might be too expensive, but I don’t mind paying such a small amount for games I find more engaging and missed out on when I was a kid.

HOWEVER if Nintendo truly believes the logic behind not wanting to devalue the games by cheapening their prices, then these games should be the most expensive products they own. They weren’t always $10 or lower, costing $40-$50 back when they were originally released and money was harder to come by because of lower minimum wage. Many of these games are often MORE VALUED than Nintendo’s more current games simply for nostalgia, but also because, in some cases, they were just better or more interesting than what we have now. Chrono Trigger, Super Mario Bros 3, Link to the Past, Donkey Kong Country, Final Fantasy VI (or 3), Secret of Mana, Megaman, Sonic the Hedgehog, and many many others are games people love and continue to hold high over their current gen counter parts (or don’t have any current gen counter parts).  Hell, Earthbound and Chrono Trigger alone should be damn near $60 by that logic because they are some of the best games in the stable. The former of which is also rare as fuck outside of Japan.

They don’t charge insane amounts for digital copies of their virtual console games though. So do these games that many people prefer and enjoy not have value? Or is this just exposing what I’ve pretty much been hitting at this whole time, that Nintendo’s quote is just the same bullshit EA was spewing. In truth, they just won’t lower prices for their newer digital releases because all they want is to make money, like any other company, sure. But the fact they can’t just say that point blank is insulting. The fact they have to lie and make it a secret damages Nintendo’s image to me more than anything else they could have said. It doesn’t damage my image of EA because they were already the lowest shit on the totem pole anyway. But Nintendo had some good will among it. It was doing some good out there.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate Nintendo. I don’t necessarily hate them either. Like every other company out there with the exception of the few who really are more geared towards providing a better customer experience, they only care about their money and their product. We knew this when they were trying to sue websites for hosting images of upcoming Pokemon before the game was released back in Generation V. We knew this when they threatened to sue sites hosting fan-made games of popular Nintendo games without any plans to profit from those games. We knew this when they kept making updates for the Wii to remove the homebrew app, which I know many people used for modding Smash Bros Brawl because that game was kind of shit and needed mod improvement.

That’s all. I really don’t have suggestions or comments beyond what I’ve said. If Nintendo really wants to make sales for their console and really show they understand digital distribution, lowering their prices to a more reasonable amount is the first step. Giving us sales and incentives to buy those games digitally would be the next step, all of which could be aided by an account system. But they’re stubborn and I don’t see them changing their mind anytime soon. If anything, I just brought this up for everyone to think on, because I know I am. Going to see Thor in about 13 hours. It’s going to be hype.