Nintendo Switch

Hashil speaks the truth.

I wouldn't call amiibos a variant on lootboxes, but they are definitely a different kind of predatory. Let's also not forget that Nintendo is the champion of One Game for the Price of Two (or three, or four).

I wouldn't put amiibo in the same category as lootboxes, considering that once you buy the amiibo, whatever it unlocks is yours forever and you don't have to pay the cost of the amiibo every time you want to use said functions.

And you either know exactly what you're going to get or you can just use the same amiibo however many times it takes to get what you want at no extra cost. They're basically DLC with feelies that can be used in multiple games. Personally, I view them as collectibles that can also interact with a bunch of games.

In the case of Pokemon, I've heard that the Two Games For The Price Of One usage is seen differently in Japan. It's a Socialization Bonus and you're not supposed to buy all the games.

Yeah, that's the intent. With the advent of WiFi and online play, it's also not a big deal no matter where you are.

I mostly get the amiibo as something cool to display on my shelf >_> I think most of the issues with supply for products originate from scalpers, not Nintendo deliberately undersupplying merchandise

I'll take Pragmatic Villainy over Pyrrhic Villainy any day. Nintendo is out to make money, but at least they're not burning down their own house and then blaming the customers like EA.

Or just resorting to Pachinko games.

Nothing is wrong with wanting to make money if you're not a scumbug about it. Nintendo has some issues but they're still better than most of the industry.

My issue with amiibos is that they entice people to pay $15 for in-game features that wouldn't come close to $15 worth of DLC if handled normally. It's nice that it's a $15 flat fee per amiibo instead of a persistent lure to buy the same feature over and over again, but it's still a scummy practice IMO.

I can understand collecting them just as figurines rather than for their in-game features, but even then, I'd argue that a lot of the early amiibo (especially the first few waves of Smash) looked and felt cheaply made. They've been better lately - I can't name a turning point, but I will say that at least the Switch era amiibo (eg. the Breath of the Wild ones) do actually feel like $15 collectibles.

Well that's the thing, if you get the amiibos primarily for the in-game benefits, then yeah, they're a bit of a ripoff. If you view it as buying an official collectible figure that also happens to unlock bonus content in some games, not so much. The price definitely isn't worth the in-game content, but I don't think that's where most of the value is meant to lie, anyway.

Edited by JapaneseTeeth on Nov 11th 2018 at 1:04:47 PM

It's also notable in that Amiibo are used for more than just one game. So if you have Amiibo before you get a new game, you may have already purchased DLC for said game. It's a typical idea being used outside the box.

The problem crops up when several Nintendo games come out that have their own unique amiibo that don't get used in other titles, meaning it's still a ~$15 cost for a single game. Like that Chibi-Robo one.

Nintendo tries to curtail this by making it so that amiibo not made specifically for certain games can still have unlocked content by using your other amiibo, but it's not a good solution.

I personally have no interest in owning little plastic statues that unlock stuff, so I've been hoping for a while that Nintendo would allow customers to use a cheaper option to get the stuff amiibo usually unlocks. Dunno if they'll ever get around to it, amiibo is a pretty big success.

Amiibo works by not having much value in the games. Which means Nintendo isn't obligated to make more of them for the sake of having more. That way they only release when they feel it's appropriate and will sell. Does anyone care about the gameplay functionalities of Ridley's Smash amiibo? Probably not. But it's going to sell because Smash amiibo sell mad numbers.

When I was referring to lootboxes, I meant the microtransactions in Animal Crossing's mobile title, Fire Emblem Heroes, and Dragalia Lost, all of which use an identical model to games that have notoriously cost some customers with bad impulse control or gambling problems anywhere from hundreds to tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Pokemon case is especially insidious because the practice of releasing two nearly identical titles has been normalized and is considered acceptable now even though it's entirely superfluous in an era where internet access is everywhere and the socialization aspect is virtually nonexistent. They even sell double packs, because they know a not insignificant portion of their customer base will buy both.

The fact that everything from special features to entire game modes can be locked behind Amiibo, many of which see the exact same Nintendo enforced supply and demand problem the Switch console and some of their games either do or did means it's very possible late adopters will miss out on significant amounts of content unless they're willing to wait for reprints or pay through the nose. I was just throwing out a number earlier when I mentioned the roughly hundred dollar price tag to get all the equipment, Epona, Wolf Link, etc. in Breath of the Wild...

but given some of the more popular Amiibo associated with these features are largely out of print, it's actually closer to 300 dollars now through sites like Amazon. You don't need them to enjoy the game, but it's a crying shame that I need to spend close to 80 dollars if I want Wolf Link and the Fierce Deity armor set.

And that's before we get into things like Nintendo draconian Youtube policies, their refusal to listen to feedback and modernize in ways consumers enjoy, how quick they are to shut down any and all fan projects, and other niggling bits of baggage that comes with enjoying their products.

I'm not calling Nintendo the devil, but they're not the Good Guy of the game industry by any stretch of the imagination.

The game industry has no "good guy" just, the "less bad guy." On the company scale at least.

Edited by JapaneseTeeth on Nov 11th 2018 at 3:23:42 AM

I dunno, Hal Laboratory, Inc has been proving itself to be the messiah with its post-release support for Kirby Star Allies.

My favorite example of good guy devs would be Re-Logic, who made Terraria in 2011 and are still updating it for free.

How predatory Nintendo's mobile games are tends to vary from game to game. I know the Pokemon and Kirby free-to-play games put a hard cap on how much money you're allowed to spend on it, which is usually no more than $40.

Dragalia Lost is also a really freaking good mobile game. I haven't put a single penny into it yet I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything since there are usually alternative ways to get the event units that cost absolutely nothing and have no real limit. That it's also just a great game in general. First time I've ever actually wanted to put money toward a mobile game.

And as far as stuff like free pulls and giving away orbs goes, Fire Emblem Heroes is the single most generous gacha game I’ve ever seen. It still is one, but it’s not at all hard to play for free.

They're all designed that way. Every single one of them. Generous with their currency, but with low enough rates to still encourage people to spend money here and there, and more and more they include special deals and bundles that require real money.

Their being good games just makes them worse I'd argue: it means you're that much more invested and, for the aforementioned group of people prone to addiction and bad decision making, or who are hooked on seeing those 5 or 6 star items and characters pop up in the gacha, that much more at risk at being taken advantage of.

I dunno about that but I've gotten a lot of 4 and 5-star units in Dragalia Lost. It helps that 5-star units, while nice, aren't even remotely necessary to complete even the hardest stages and all story units are 4-star.

True.

Eh, they're not deceptive about it, and it's not like it's mandatory.

Actually known, just suspected, or merely accused? Those words do not mean the same thing. And underestimating demand does not mean anything is being done deliberately.

False.