Wii-U thoughts so far

[KalessinDB]

So they found 2 more ways to be super cheap, cut down the amiibo molds, then stick the code number on the inside cover art of the case. Oh the trees! The amount of support they're getting on WiiU, it might save a whole christmas tree lot worth of wood.

Wait, a company is trying to save money/maximize profits? STOP THE PRESSES!!

Most of it is petty and makes them look bad imo, but who cares what the public thinks!

I guess I don't see it.

I'm sad about the lack of physical manuals in most new releases, but that's every publisher, not just Ninty. Complaining that a code, which you use once (generally within an hour or so of opening a game) and never touch again, is now on the back of the cover instead of on a separate piece of paper? That just... makes no sense to me.

I can't speak to the amiibo figs thing because I have zero personal experience with that, but I'm seriously confused why "the public" thinks that moving the club nintendo code (A freebie that MS and Sony don't have a comparable to as far as I'm aware) to the back of the cover "makes them look bad".

[Kidpanda]

I guess I don't see it.

I'm sad about the lack of physical manuals in most new releases, but that's every publisher, not just Ninty. Complaining that a code, which you use once (generally within an hour or so of opening a game) and never touch again, is now on the back of the cover instead of on a separate piece of paper? That just... makes no sense to me.

I can't speak to the amiibo figs thing because I have zero personal experience with that, but I'm seriously confused why "the public" thinks that moving the club nintendo code (A freebie that MS and Sony don't have a comparable to as far as I'm aware) to the back of the cover "makes them look bad".

I guess my biggest problem is the fact I can see it through the missing plastic they took out of the case to save even more money. But I for one can say that is a first world problem

[ZeroAX]

What people don't understand with the cheapness of game packaging is that games are actually muuuuuuch cheaper than what they cost in the 80s and 90s. But because gamers don't understand inflation, and they would see any price hike as the publishers trying to gouge them, the gaming industry is stuck selling us games at a much lower price than they'd want to.


....do I care? fuck no, I'm so cheap I wait a year+ to buy everything 10-20 euro, but I DO understand why they are doing it.

[Tanooki]

I dunno man, I just found it funny the way you said it, no offense intended honestly. But you just seem to love being in here and ragging on Nintendo at every possible opportunity, and I don't see why. If you hate them and their business decisions so much, it seems like it'd be easier just to ignore it altogether.

I don't enjoy it, it's my venting having blown my money on this system and getting little value out of their first HD outing on the back of a system I also bought day one and got railroaded on by developers from all angles too and disgusted to the point I sold it which I never do with systems. I just wish they'd extract their head from their ass and do something right before its too late and they're finished. I've had that WiiU back for weeks now and have not used it once and have lost the interest to so I'm unsure what I'll do with it at this rate. The fact they've escalated their cheap skate behavior just worries me more. It was one thing to cut a budget at a cap and then fail to deliver, but then when they start losing so much cash they resort to pussing out on Club Nintendo physical rewards, to yearly chopping of the quality and amount of plastic in the game boxes to reduced sized manual to sheets and now shit on the back of the box art because the plastic is so bad you can see through it doesn't bode well. That usually is the sign you see in any business that's up against the wall and about to do massive cuts or eat the shit sandwich and die, or at least mostly die to have the corpse bought up and revified into something far more shittier as some game studios have done.


Hazerd got it, that's basically it, and somehow this turned into pointing out cheap Chinese product which by some warped means is somehow crapping on a race of people...whatever. It's like gamergate morphing of the rage to take some weak political soapbox that has no relation to the complaint.

The thing here, the code within the back of the cover art flap is just the latest piece in a pile of legos turning into something just not good. At first they bootlicked greenpeace hippies and quit with the gameboy/snes game plastic sleeve/cases, then went with cheaper boxes (n64) and labels (later snes into n64), then you got cheaper paper manuals with lower quality inks, to then cutting out more and more plastic from cases, then using weaker stuff that breaks easily and is super flimsy and increasingly so while removing manuals to info fold outs to cutting those and now any paper in there (like Sony does with any Vita release.) It's the whole downward spiral, not some stupid one off code.

[MrPopo]

Again, game prices have been static since the start of the CD era, nearly 20 years ago. The handy dandy inflation calculator from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics shows that $60 back in '97 had the same buying power as $90 now. Add to that the fact that games require a lot more people to produce these days (and I'm assuming salaries are the same after adjusting for inflation) and it's clear why companies are shaving costs in non-game related places.

[Kidpanda]

Game makers are getting too big for their britches. Whatever happened to 10 man teams?

[pepharytheworm]

That usually is the sign you see in any business that's up against the wall and about to do massive cuts or eat the shit sandwich and die

So that means all three game companies are in the same boat.

[BogusMeatFactory]

I don't understand why people would be complaining that the registration codes are on the back of the cover art. Does the actual games suck? Are you seeing a drop in game quality and entertainment? Why is this worth arguing over? This isn't on-disc DLC here...it is a piece of paper.

I don't know how a company reducing paper costs is a bad thing? Screw the environment, I need that piece of paper.

[Jmustang1968]

Lol at the defending of chinese goods. They do not have some of the same manufacturing standards and skilled labor. But really, you get what you pay for. The items are cheap to buy and arent as durable. More expensive and higher quality items last longer typically. But this has allowed many items that used to be exclusive to the wealthier populations to be accessible to the masses.

The companies I work for do not allow chinese castings for many of their steel piping and valve bodies. Just the way it is.

Capitalism also doesn't breed shoddy workmanship prephary. Capitalism breeds maximizing value. If you can get a $100 hammer to last you 12000 work hours or a $20 hammer to last you 2000, which do you buy? The craftsman buys the expensive one while the casual user buys the cheap one. But there is almost always a place for quality and value. Shoddy made products get bad rep and don't sell as well.

Capitalism gives incentive to produce quality things. Recall the USSR, and of all things, Chinese goods? They had quotas to make items with certain amount of materials, and not with quality standards.

[pepharytheworm]

If you can get a $100 hammer to last you 1200 work hours or a $20 hammer to last you 2000, which do you buy? The craftsman buys the expensive one while the casual user buys the cheap one.

What are even trying to imply? That a craftman would buy the most expensive item that won't last as long? Even if that is a typo that is pretty true that a lot of people equate a price tag to quality.