My gripe with Nintendo
My gripe with Nintendo
I have been a long time gamer these past 25 years of my life, although I have been a little bit behind in times these past couple of years and have been primarily playing with last-gen consoles.
I purchased a 2DS a couple of weeks ago and recently decided that I didn't want to order a game from Amazon that would take a couple of days to arrive, and certainly did not want to go to a GameStop or a Best Buy due to bad weather. I decided, instead, to look into purchasing a copy of Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
I was quickly disappointed with what I found out: It is MORE expensive than its physical counterpart on Amazon.
Nintendo's eShop sells the AC:NL software for $29.99 while Amazon sells it for $24.57.
Now spending $5 won't make me, or most people, poor. But I have always imagined that downloading the software alone warrants at least a discount from its hardware counterpart. This is because Nintendo would not have to spend money on packaging and shipping anything and would solely rely on its eShop servers and the consumer's internet connection to download the game.
Not to mention the consumer has to spend money on SD cards for extra storage of games.
I have been gaming on Steam for about seven years, and one attraction that I have for purchasing games on Steam is their game discounts when compared to retail. I believe this is why PC gaming has been thriving over the last several years or so. No, not every game will be less expensive as a download, especially not brand new titles, but most of them are.
Nintendo needs to get its act together. Yes they have plenty of money from the Nintendo DS and Wii days, but the Wii U has been struggling and the 3DS has not been doing as great as previous handhelds. Nintendo needs to pay attention to the future and that is the direct downloading of video games. If they do not improve their pricing then, Mario or not, their future looks grim.
Having said that, the Nintendo 3DS is a genius product, and is Nintendo's finest and best handheld to date. If you are a gamer or have a son/daughter/niece/nephew who are gamers I highly suggest getting them one of these for the holidays.
What are your thoughts on Nintendo's eShop?
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AUTHORThank you, Sean. You're very right. While paying those extra $5 isn't a huge deal, and yes it is more convenient of course, it still does not make much sense to why Nintendo doesn't sell the game cheaper than the cartridge version since it is utilizing less resources that way.
I checked the Amazon listing out of curiosity and the game looks like it's on sale right now for $24.57. It normally runs for $29.99 as well.
I normally prefer physical copies, but I would actually choose the digital version of New Leaf, regardless of the $5 difference. The nature of the game is that you have to check up on your town pretty regularly so having it downloaded to your system means it's with you at all times and you won't have to fuss over witching cartridges constantly. Super Smash Bros. 3DS is another game that lends itself better to a digital purchase.
