Is Nintendo “anti-consumer?” Considering that the company has been with many of us from childhood into adulthood, punctuating our lives with classic games that have a habit of aging very well, some find “The Big N” difficult to criticize. However, recent decisions from the company have raised eyebrows, and as we recently reported, Ninty has been accused of taking advantage of its fans as a result.
Zelda: Skyward Sword HD locks a big quality-of-life improvement behind a $25 amiibo. In the original Wii game, jumping from the surface to the sky required players to venture to a travel point on the map. However, in the upcoming Switch version, players can use the Loftwing amiibo to teleport into the air at any point. This removes one of the more tedious aspects of the game, but only for those who pay extra.
Normally I’m a huge Nintendo guy, but I have to call it like I see it
This is a $60 port of a game, with a great feature that improves the game… locked behind buying a figure
That seems pretty anti-consumer when this should just be a standard improvement https://t.co/B6zkjk3Xqo
— Saltydkdan (@saltydkdan) May 19, 2021
Then there are some of its other controversial decisions. Super Mario’s 35th-anniversary celebrations were made awkward by the fact Nintendo released the half-hearted Super Mario 3D All-Stars, which it then chose to make artificially scarce by making it a limited-time release. This artificial scarcity was also employed for the NES and SNES Classic, while amiibo have suffered this same fate for years.
All of this has been adding up to paint a picture of a beloved company that knows exactly how beloved it is, and is using previous goodwill in order to make some obvious cash grabs. These cash grabs are arguably unbefitting of a company of Nintendo’s stature, but due to the almost impenetrable force field surrounding it, it avoids the level of controversy reserved for lesser respected developers.
But what do you think? Is Nintendo “anti-consumer” at heart these days? Has it just been making a few questionable decisions? Or are all of its money-making moves justifiable? Let us know in the comments below.
