I'm not against Nintendo doing DLC, I'm just against how they do it.
Hey there everyone, Happy Gamer here, and ReviewTechUSA recently made a video about Nintendo locking content in the upcoming Metroid game behind Amiibos. As is to be expected, people are kind of upset about it, and Rich says "this is just the gaming industry today, companies lock content behind DLC and Nintendo is just joining the party."
Yeah...about that. See, I'm a bit of an Amiibo collector. I try to get all the smash amiibo I can, and some of the others I'm interested in. I'm also pretty sure you said at one point "I don't like Amiibo." So allow me to enlighten you on one complain every Amiibo collector has, NINTENDO DOESN'T KEEP AMIIBO STOCKED!
See, I quite like the idea of Amiibo. They are one time purchases, are compatible with multiple games, and give you something physical. One thing I don't like about DLC is that it's digital (hence the "D" in DLC). I buy my games physical whenever I can so I have something to display. Conventional DLC can't be displayed though, because it's digital. Amiibo on the other hand, can be displayed, and I quite like how my Amiibo look around my TV and on my store display rack. They're also single purchases compatible across multiple games. I can buy 1 figure, and it can work on multiple games. If I guy a call of duty 4 map pack, it only works on call of duty 4. If I buy a Super Mario Amiibo, it works on over 30 games. Even if Nintendo charged $0.50 for each piece of unlockable content on each of those games, it still would be cheaper to just buy a $13 figure, that's going to continue unlocking content in the future. It's actually a really great way to distribute DLC, in concept.
See, here's the Achilles Heel of Amiibo. While conventional DLC doesn't have the benefits of Amiibo, it does have 1 benefit that Nintendo just can't seem to remedy, it's UNLIMITED. If I want to buy that call of duty map pack, I go to the xbox/playstation/steam store, add the DLC to my digital cart, download it, and that's it. I don't have to call 20 gamestops, best buys, toys r us, targets, meijers, and walmarts to see if they have that map pack in stock ultimately to find out they're out of stock. If I want the character skin in street fighter, I just get it from the digital marketplace without any problem. I don't have to buy the DLC months before it's even announced speculating that I'll want the game, just because I know if I don't buy it within the first couple days of release it'll be gone forever. If I want to get the season pass for a game, I just buy the season pass from the unlimited digital reserve. I don't have to pre-order the day pre-orders are announced because the pre-orders are going to sell out the next day. How is that even a thing? Pre-orders are supposed to gauge how much demand there's going to be, and you ship some multiple of the pre-orders to the stores. You don't say "we're only allowing this much demand for this product, consumers be damned." There is an entire sub-reddit dedicated to "how to find amiibo." You don't see that with any other DLC.
Look, I like Amiibo. They are a great concept, as I mentioned above. But if you go to the Amiibo section of the store and it isn't completely empty (as I've seen multiple times), you'll find 1 or 2 common smash series, a booster pack of cards, animal crossing (except villager), and maybe a splatoon. You won't find Kirby series, Zelda series, Mario series, 8-bit series, yarn series, or 80% of the smash series. The Metroid game in the video that uses smash series Samaus and Zero Suit? Good luck finding both full suit and zero suit in stores. Just bought Splatoon 2 and want the unlockable content with the Splatoon 3-pack amiibo? Unless you bought them over 2 years ago, the best you'll be able to do is the Splatoon 2 3-pack, if you're lucky. Little Timmy asks Santa for a Turbo Charged Donkey Kong Amiibo because it can be used in Skylanders, well sorry Timmy, Santa couldn't get you that Amiibo because Santa didn't go to Meijer at midnight because the following morning was the morning of the big presentation. I understand the store's perspective of "I don't want these to sit here for months" (like the Animal Crossing series), but I don't understand why Nintendo won't do more print runs of the really popular ones, especially when new games come out that use them.
In the early days one of the arguments I got frequently from Nintendo apologists was "they're just collectables, like other limited print action figures, it's not like you're missing out on anything if you don't get them." Well, now they're legit DLC, and Nintendo isn't allowing customers to buy it. This has been Happy Gamer, signing off, and instead of Milking us dry, Nintendo is just teasing us. Bye.
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