Nintendo knows what they’re doing, and it feels so cynical. The Animal Crossing audience is a totally different one than the N64/Genesis audience. No one is expecting 10-year-olds to play M.U.S.H.A. in between visits to the Animal Crossing coffee bar. But by looping them in together to justify increasing the price of an existing service 150% is weak.
This is all weird retail psychology. Like sure, rationally, I think Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Star Fox, and Paper Mario are worth a least total of $50… as long as I can buy it and play it forever. But not to rent for a year, and then pay another $50 next year for it to sit on my digital shelf collecting dust. I have physical games collecting dust for free!
It’s one thing if they’re consistently putting out good stuff you want to play, but while the platform is gaining all this value, me as the gamer might not be. I’m definitely going to wait and see if they’re putting out games consitently before I make the jump, and knowing they prorate the cost tells me I should definitely wait. I hope people start waking up to the idea that Subscription gaming is a lot less valuable than just outright owning a game and don’t forgive Nintendo because they can play Banjo Kazooie again.