Club Nintendo

[JWeinCom]

RolStoppable said:

JWeinCom said:

On the off chance this is real, a lot of people would rather own something than borrow it, for reasons so obvious it would feel ridiculous to explain it. There are also people who would rather not lend their games out. I still haven't gotten back my copy of Resident Evil 4 on Gamecube, but I also have a friend's copy of Xenosaga, so I guess the universe is in balance.

It is likely that a significant number of the five million people or so who bought 3D World would be interested in Bowser's Fury, and would prefer to own it. It would have cost Nintendo next to nothing to release Bowser's Fury as a standalone digital title, except for the money they would forego from people who would otherwise repurchase 3D WOrld to play it. It is a purely anti-consumer move that's kind of impossible to defend on any ground besides Nintendo wants to make that skrilla and if you want to own Bowser's Fury you gotta give Wario his coins. If they had released a standalone version, anyone who would rather borrow it can still do so, and the mooch market would be unperturbed. More options is never a bad thing.

You don't own digital games, hence why you can't lend them to anyone. For those who really want to own it, there's always the used market, in case they don't have any friends who want to part with their copy.

I can explain how more options can be a bad thing based on your proposal of a digital-only standalone release. The people who want to actually own it, still can't do so AND will be upset that Nintendo wants to push people towards digital games with their digital-only policy, which is anti-consumer. But your post isn't about what's pro- or anti-consumer anyway, it's a bad excuse to rant about how Nintendo didn't arrange things to serve you specifically. You are basically saying that you are against the idea of lending and borrowing games, the oldest and simplest way to get access to more free and legal games than what you can or are willing to buy on your own.

When someone says "you are basically saying" you can be assured that what follows will bear no resemblance to what you actually said. No, I did not say I'm against lending, and I don't care at all whether someone wants to lend out their games. I don't know why that needed to be said.

You have not explained anything, you're just being pedantic about the word "own". Owning a digital license to a game comes with certain benefits that borrowing does not have. I think this option should have been available for Bowser's Fury so that people who already owned 3D world could have those benefits without paying for 3D World again. Ideally, I would like it to be available physically as well, but physical production comes with costs, and it might not make sense for the relatively small market of 3D World owners who did not want to double dip, so I don't really blame Nintendo for not making a physical version. On the other hand, releasing a digital version of Bowser's Fury would have cost next to nothing, so there was no reason not to, except to encourage people to double dip.

If Nintendo had released a digital version, any who didn't want to buy that would be in exactly the same position they would have been in otherwise. So, it is not a bad thing for any consumer. Anyone who is upset that other people could choose to buy a game in a format they don't approve of is irrational and stupid. I suppose upsetting irrational stupid people could be considered a bad thing, but that's not what I meant. I meant an actual monetary detriment to a consumer or potential consumer.

Last edited by JWeinCom - on 15 September 2022