Fuck no. Bowser can lose his job for all I care, and the Switch 2 can flop like the Wii U.
I can also not help but suspect, with all of these anti-consumer tactics, that my thoughts that Nintendo is back to their 1980's price fixing practices as well are right on the money. Let's look at the physical market.
* How much was Breath of the Wild in 2017? $60
* How much is Breath of the Wild in 2025? $60
Eight years, no price drop. That's rather unusual. But wait! Name ANY 1st (or even 2nd) party Switch game that has seen a price drop in stores outside buying used? I'll wait.
Ahh, I see you pointed out Black Friday! A time where a 1st party game may drop in price for 1 weekend by $20...then go right back to normal on Monday or Tuesday. Any other times? I ask because stores will regularly drop the price on products (going on sale) to dump excess inventory that's not selling to make room for something new that will.
Beyond MK8DX, which had years of expansion passes added to it to keep the game relevant, where is Super Mario Odyssey on the Top 100 sellers list? BotW? Princess Peach Showtime? Mario Party Whatever? Metroid Dread? Luigi's Mansion 2 & 3? Exactly. Yet...where are the games?
Right there on the shelf for the original MSRP where they've sat since launch.
That isn't normal.
Now, what was the "price fixing of the 1980's" I speak of? In simple terms, Nintendo of America was found guilty in court of breaking certain laws by telling retailers to never drop the price of their games, or put their games on sale, or they would stop supplying the store with their games. Which would be blow to the business - imagine Walmart no longer able to sell Coka Cola products, but the Safeway next door does - where are people going to shop? Exactly. Then, Nintendo of America would use "secret shoppers" to investigate stores periodically to
ensure their games never went on sale (thereby "increasing the perceived value/demand" of the game as "only games that don't sell go on sale"), and report to NoA when they find an offending retailer.
Doesn't that seem awfully familiar?
The only thing that would cement the Switch 2 as the most anti-consumer product of all time ever is if it's revealed/discovered that physical NS2 games, once put into the system, can only
ever be played on that system, with the only way to "share games" is with the "Virtual Game Cards" that allow the (original) owner of a game to temporarily share the
digital game with a family member.
Don't think Nintendo would go that far? Then let me ask you three questions:
* How far did Nintendo go to fight game renting in the 80's?
* Do any of the upcoming NS2 games only come with a Licensing Key on the cart, with the rest of the game requiring a digital download, which could then be potentially shared via "VGC"?
* How hard does Nintendo hit when it comes to emulation & courts...especially after they recently went after Switch emulators with legal notices only to state a short time later that they recognize the
emulator as legal but not giving a rats ass?
Nintendo is ushering in a dark age on the industry. I can only hope that consumers will turn their noses up at the system, seeing it as the anti-consumer fraud & scam that it is, and resist the "fear of missing out" psycho-phenomenon.
