gamers love being abused (nintendo/switch 2 rant)

this is gonna be a pretty long rant that i'd ideally like to turn into a youtube video in the near future, but i figured i'd go ahead and get all of my thoughts out there before then.

just to give some background for anyone who may not know; in the nintendo switch 2 direct, nintendo revealed that mario kart world was gonna be retailing for $80, as well as the rest of their first-party games for the new-gen console. this was pretty widely seen as a malicious decision that, if it worked for nintendo, would ripple through the gaming industry to become the new standard. then, leading up to the switch 2 pre-orders going live, we learned that nintendo had implemented some kind of kill-switch (no pun intended) in the new console that would allow them to remotely brick your switch 2 if they detected that you were doing something with it that they didn't approve of, like hacking the hardware, running un-signed code, and potentially even using un-authorized parts for repairs. many people were outraged by these decisions and many were outspoken about said decisions when they were revealed. the obvious move here would be for gamers to send a message to nintendo, telling them that they would not accept this kind of treatment, by refusing to purchase the switch 2, any of the new games, and potentially cancelling nintendo online memberships.

but, of course, gamers love the abuse.

i wasn't at all surprised when the pre-orders sold out, but i was insanely disappointed. and it went like clockwork that, after the pre-orders sold out, microsoft announced that they'd be raising the price of their games from $60-$70 to $80, just like we all said would happen. the pre-order sales sent a clear message to the rest of the industry that gamers were totally fine with this price gouging. it also sent the message that consumers are perfectly happy paying full price to borrow hardware from a company. if a company has the ability to nuke your device after you paid full price for it, then you do not own it; that company does. that's not how sales and ownership are suppose to work, and by happily purchasing the switch 2, gamers let the tech industry know that they are perfectly happy with this new "you'll own nothing and be happy" reality. nintendo made it very clear that they wanted to maliciously have control over something you paid $450 for and charge you more for games just because they can, and gamers said "yes, please!"

but that's not even what upsets me most.

i've been looking at a lot of reactions to the console now that it's out, and i've seen a couple different responses. for instance, i have a co-worker who pre-ordered the switch 2. i explained to him everything that they did prior to the pre-orders going live, and he didn't really care. he thinks nintendo has the right to do whatever they want with the console, regardless of whether someone bought it or not, because it's "their property." while that's just factually incorrect, as you gain the rights to an individual product once you purchase it, he has the right to believe what he believes. it's frustrating that he didn't care, but he's enjoying the new console and i don't wanna ruin that for him. so, while it frustrates me, i can understand that people wanna enjoy it. however, there's another camp of people who bought it that genuinely infuriate me; the people who bought it, but detest(ed) what nintendo did with it. for instance, take a look at the wan show episode from june 6th, or the situation with the youtuber someordinarygamers; in the case of the wan show, luke and linus both bought a switch 2. they're talking about the new console and how excited they are for it, which is totally fine. that is, until, some of their chatters brought up the concerns i've mentioned throughout this post, and their answers were essentially "yea what nintendo is doing is completely unacceptable and horrible.. but i just really like nintendo games." like, dawg, you cannot try to play both sides here. it doesn't matter even a little bit what you say in your podcast, in a youtube video, or on social media; you told nintendo that you were perfectly fine with the decisions they made because you gave them the $450 that says so. if you really saw it as being horrible and unacceptable, you would've voted with your wallets. in the case of someordinarygamers, he had been covering these concerns leading up to the switch 2's launch, even actively saying that he would not buy one because of these decisions nintendo had made. but then, on the launch day of the new console, he makes a video showing that he purchased one. after criticizing nintendo again and again for these malicious practices, he just ended up telling them "yes, keep doing this!" i'd rather people in this camp just admit that they don't care, rather than trying to act like these concerns mean anything to them at all. if they genuinely believed that these decisions were horrible and unacceptable, they wouldn't have given nintendo any money.

i do not care at all what you say about a company on the internet; the only message you can ever send that will ever matter to a large company like this is one with money. you withhold your money to say no, and you give your money to say yes. that's it.

now look, don't get me wrong, i'm not just some belligerent nintendo hater; i've been a huge nintendo fan my whole life. go look at my youtube channel, you'll see all my many ds/3ds videos. i put hundreds of hours into my animal crossing edition switch and my wii/wii u back in the day. i have a relatively large amiibo collection too, like i genuinely love nintendo and their franchises. this is all coming from a place of frustration, seeing a company i use to love be this evil towards its community, and seeing said community just happily roll over and take it. i was seriously excited for the switch 2 and was ready to upgrade from my first gen switch. but, when i saw everything that nintendo was doing, the malicious practices they were indulging in, i changed my mind and got a steam deck instead. i'm not trying to say i'm "holier than thou" or anything like that, i'm just trying to hit home that if you genuinely believe in something then you act on that belief. i'm bummed that i won't get to play new nintendo games, cause i know they're all gonna be amazing, but sometimes you gotta sacrifice things you love in order to stand for your beliefs.

but, gamers don't believe in that. they'd rather take their abuse in exchange for their entertainment. entertainment trumps all, standing on beliefs takes a backseat. this industry will continue to become more malicious towards its community until gamers stop virtue signaling and actually start putting their money where their mouth is.