Nintendo shares climbed as much as 6.8% on Tuesday for the third straight day, with Bandai Namco and Konami each up more than 9% as Japanese investors rotated out of AI-cohort names.
Obligatory hating on Nintendo for everything they’ve ever done in a courtroom.
I do have to appreciate their distinct lack of enshittification in some of this. Like they don’t have a “AI or bust” mentality, their non-old games are just regular games mostly, not gatcha/pay to win BS. And a lot of them ship fairly complete. It’s a fucking low bar these days but they’re not like nonstop below the bar which is something.
But really fuck those guys for so many fucking reasons. Subscribe monthly to play a few old games i already own? Fuck right off
Thats because they don’t really change much of anything and if they do they take entire generations to commit. Even if they were considering AI it would take them at least 5 years before we heard or saw something. Take their online experience. It’s still a shitshow compared to others and it took them nearly a decade over the others before providing anything at all.
Nintendo: Consistently makes the most unique game systems of all time, leaning heavily into capabilities that other developers won’t touch like motion controls, portability, dual screens, 3D capability without the need for a headset. Puts out games that, while may be reusing the same IPs, regularly adds and introduces new gameplay mechanics that are highly praised and quickly become industry standards due to how well they work.
Randoms on the internet: “tHEy dOnT REalLy CHanGe muCh oF aNyTHing”
Remember the Mario NFT? The Crypto-Rupee? Nintendo may be frustrating for a lot of reasons but their adoption of new technology does seem to be primarily focused on providing what they think will be a better experience for players and not investors. Not all of them are hits (shout out Alarmo) but if you take a bunch of big swings then they can’t all be
Nintendo has always been generally consistent with their approach to things: they try their best to make good stuff (with some exceptions to “their best” like the Pokémon company), and then charge premium prices for it.
As a customer it is more expensive than other videogame companies but there are usually no bad surprises with their business model. You just pay for what you want (if they provide it). Their ugly side is usually detached from the relationship with customers.
To make a stupid comparison, Ubisoft/EA and the sort are like a playground with some broken toys and occasionally some meth users or a pedophile. Nintendo is a private fenced off park where every toy is in pristine condition and is protected by snipers who shoot any adult or non-paying kid that gets too close.
I started writing this comment with the intention of praising Nintendo for what they do well, but after the comparison I realized that “at least their toys aren’t broke or a risk” is also a very privileged thing to say…
Obligatory hating on Nintendo for everything they’ve ever done in a courtroom.
I do have to appreciate their distinct lack of enshittification in some of this. Like they don’t have a “AI or bust” mentality, their non-old games are just regular games mostly, not gatcha/pay to win BS. And a lot of them ship fairly complete. It’s a fucking low bar these days but they’re not like nonstop below the bar which is something.
But really fuck those guys for so many fucking reasons. Subscribe monthly to play a few old games i already own? Fuck right off
Don’t forget, they hilariously used the ROM same copies ripped by hacker’s for their NES/GB/SNES and other systems lol.
Thats because they don’t really change much of anything and if they do they take entire generations to commit. Even if they were considering AI it would take them at least 5 years before we heard or saw something. Take their online experience. It’s still a shitshow compared to others and it took them nearly a decade over the others before providing anything at all.
Nintendo: Consistently makes the most unique game systems of all time, leaning heavily into capabilities that other developers won’t touch like motion controls, portability, dual screens, 3D capability without the need for a headset. Puts out games that, while may be reusing the same IPs, regularly adds and introduces new gameplay mechanics that are highly praised and quickly become industry standards due to how well they work.
Randoms on the internet: “tHEy dOnT REalLy CHanGe muCh oF aNyTHing”
Remember the Mario NFT? The Crypto-Rupee? Nintendo may be frustrating for a lot of reasons but their adoption of new technology does seem to be primarily focused on providing what they think will be a better experience for players and not investors. Not all of them are hits (shout out Alarmo) but if you take a bunch of big swings then they can’t all be
Nintendo has always been generally consistent with their approach to things: they try their best to make good stuff (with some exceptions to “their best” like the Pokémon company), and then charge premium prices for it.
As a customer it is more expensive than other videogame companies but there are usually no bad surprises with their business model. You just pay for what you want (if they provide it). Their ugly side is usually detached from the relationship with customers.
To make a stupid comparison, Ubisoft/EA and the sort are like a playground with some broken toys and occasionally some meth users or a pedophile. Nintendo is a private fenced off park where every toy is in pristine condition and is protected by snipers who shoot any adult or non-paying kid that gets too close.
Nintendo does. They let TPCi and Game Freak do what they want because they make so much money doing it.
I started writing this comment with the intention of praising Nintendo for what they do well, but after the comparison I realized that “at least their toys aren’t broke or a risk” is also a very privileged thing to say…