Nintendo’s “free” crane game for the 3DS requires a dollar for every five tries with the crane. Some companies would just tell you to pay and leave it at that. Not Nintendo. They have got a cartoon rabbit ready to explain to you why Nintendo needs to do this.
All screenshots here are from the game/app/3DS-decorating program Nintendo Badge Arcade, which was released in Japan last year and made it to North America and Europe yesterday.
The blue word balloons in the shot above and this next one represent the player’s dialogue choices.
Bear in mind, folks, Nintendo is also the company that releases a baseball-themed microtransaction-based game that featured a depressed dog with whom you could haggle in order to lower the real-world price of various purchasable items.
Oh, Nintendo. You are so… you.
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15 responses to “Nintendo Explains Microtransactions In The Most Nintendo Way Possible”
If anyone else had trouble finding it in the eShop, it’s because it isn’t out for us yet. It comes out tomorrow.
http://www.nintendo.com.au/index.php?action=news&nid=3716&pageID=6
Boooo, microtransaction. Just like in the regular arcade where the crane is dodgy….
Where’s the Rusty Real Deal Baseball game anyway?
The 3DS is a weird thing isn’t it. Throw something at the wall and see what sticks. When this works it’s the good kind of weird. When it doesn’t……..
Look, micro-transactions are not yet the new normal. Apple recently delineated the ‘buy this thing and only spend money once’ genre on the App Store, so that’s a welcome development.
Companies will experiment with it – like this – and implement what works, and trash what doesn’t.
You’re the key.
I’ve long been hoping for Rusty’s to get a local release, though I doubt it’ll happen this far removed.
Love how he goes “lets be real” and then turns into a real rabbit xD
“invest…in new products!” – a picture of Mario
Oy.
and the NES Mario at that..
It still doesn’t explain why they needed microtransactions. It’s not like a real arcade (as they equate it) in which you have to pay for electricity, staff, rates, rent, maintenance and other ongoing real world concerns. It’s a program that has initial development, distribution and marketing costs which you can still recoup by having a fixed price that generates profit after a certain number of copies are sold (Either way, you still need people to pay a certain amount) but doesn’t have as many ongoing costs. Further additions can be sold as DLC packs to cover the additional costs associated with creating the content without needing to be used as an excuse to squeeze more money out of people’s wallets than necessary.
Microtransactions of this nature are just a way of disguising the fact that instead of letting a person pay $10.00 for fun any time they want, Nintendo would rather have them pay $100.00 for 500 turns of “fun”.
Would you rather spend $20 on badge-picking up simulator or get it for free and occasionally check back to get free stuff?
“fun any time they want”
The fun of pressing a button, watching the lights and sounds do their little dance, and then receiving a thing at the end?
I thought this program existed so players could pimp their Home screens, not so they could have fun.
Edit: Badge Arcade includes a Practice Catcher mode, whereby players can have all the fun they want without paying a cent. They won’t receive badges in this mode.
Let’s say I pay a single $1, and I get my badges, what comes next? Do I use these badges for a set of different games, kinda like a virtual amiibo?
That’s a load of sh!t. Just charge 1 price for a game like normal games. Instead you treat people like slot machines… expecting them to pay every time. Free to play and micro transactions need to go and quietly die in the corner.
Players need to recognise that they don’t have to play games with micro-transactions, and if they choose to play those games they absolutely do not have to engage with the micro-transaction system.
Moneybags from Spyro 2 was clearly a sign of things to come.
Yep. Man, I always hated that guy!