Nintendo asking partner phone developers to avoid gouging gamers on in-app purchases

[LukeSavenije]

sources: appleinsider arstechnica

 

in a quite interesting move Nintendo reportedly tells partner iPhone developers not to gouge in-app purchases in. a interesting move, but why?

 

appleinsider:

Quote

The company is mostly interested in drawing attention to popular console franchises like Mario and "Fire Emblem," and doesn't want to damage its brand by milking players the way many mobile apps do, sources told the Wall Street Journal. A number of so-called "free-to-play" games can in truth be very expensive, forcing players to spend real money on in-game currency or speeding up essential actions if they want to make progress. More innocuous examples limit transactions to cosmetic items.

 

Quote

"Nintendo is not interested in making a large amount of revenue from a single smartphone game," one official said. "If we managed the game alone, we would have made a lot more."

A Nintendo spokesman simply confirmed that the company discusses "various things, not just limited to payments, to deliver high-quality fun to consumers."

 

arstechnica:

Quote

The company clarified things even further to the WSJ, alleging that Nintendo responded to players' complaints about Dragalia's loot box economy by asking the developer to "adjust the game" to reduce how much a player might spend in the game to progress normally.

 

“Nintendo is not interested in making a large amount of revenue from a single smartphone game,” a CyberAgent representative told the WSJ. “If we managed the game alone, we would have made a lot more.”

 

it seems like quite a interesting move to me. Nintendo generally didn't join the big dlc hype yet, but yet this is surprising to read if it's true. 

 

and with Super Mario run, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp struggle according to developer DeNA, will there be any changes made that can set the next project Dr Mario world apart from these games?

Edited March 7, 2019 by LukeSavenije

[Master Disaster]

Why are you surprised?

 

Saturo Iwata twice took a pay cut (one was for 50%) when Nintendo failed to meet expectations as to make his employees feel safe in their jobs.

 

Honestly none of the 3 first party console houses have a vested interest in acting like any third party developer would. When you want to sell hardware using software to profiteer is very bad for business.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Another one from Ars Technica: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/03/nintendo-to-smartphone-game-makers-you-can-only-gouge-our-players-so-much/ It's not limited to iPhone developers, but mobile in general.

 

I do like how the developer is complaining about not making as much money from gacchas and loot boxes though:

Quote

The company clarified things even further to the WSJ, alleging that Nintendo responded to players' complaints about Dragalia's loot box economy by asking the developer to "adjust the game" to reduce how much a player might spend in the game to progress normally.

 

“Nintendo is not interested in making a large amount of revenue from a single smartphone game,” a CyberAgent representative told the WSJ. “If we managed the game alone, we would have made a lot more.”

 

[LukeSavenije]

1 minute ago, Master Disaster said:

Why are you surprised?

 

Saturo Iwata twice took a pay cut (one was for 50%) when Nintendo failed to meet expectations as to make his employees feel safe in their jobs.

 

Honestly none of the 3 first party console houses have a vested interest in acting like any third party developer would. When you want to sell hardware using software to profiteer is very bad for business.

I'm surprised in this day and time miracles still happen. Nintendo is one of the first i would think of, but still. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

6 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Saturo Iwata twice took a pay cut (one was for 50%) when Nintendo failed to meet expectations as to make his employees feel safe in their jobs.

 

Honestly none of the 3 first party console houses have a vested interest in acting like any third party developer would. When you want to sell hardware using software to profiteer is very bad for business.

I'd argue this is more of a cultural thing.

• According to Japan Times, Japanese CEOs tend to be underpaid (https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/01/06/business/japans-ceos-underpaid-underwhelming/).
• The CEO of JAL is paid less than the pilots and takes public transportation to work (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-airline-boss-sets-exec-example/)
• When a news anchor for NHK was caught in some fraud valued at $1.8 million, the executives publicly apologized and at least one took a voluntary pay cut (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/embezzlement-scandal-at-japans-nhk-869048)

Whereas CEOs in America tend to get severance packages and or other perks when they fuck up big time, with their only public statement being "I'm sorry we got caught"

[Arika]

Nintendo is one of the very few game companies i trust not to make a shit game and throw unnecessary MTX into it.

[Master Disaster]

1 minute ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

I'd argue this is more of a cultural thing.

• According to Japan Times, Japanese CEOs tend to be underpaid (https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/01/06/business/japans-ceos-underpaid-underwhelming/).
• The CEO of JAL is paid less than the pilots and takes public transportation to work (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-airline-boss-sets-exec-example/)
• When a news anchor for NHK was caught in some fraud valued at $1.8 million, the executives publicly apologized and at least one took a voluntary pay cut (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/embezzlement-scandal-at-japans-nhk-869048)

Whereas CEOs in America tend to get severance packages and or other perks when they fuck up big time.

The wages thing, oh 100% agreed. The culture in Japan is the CEO takes responsibility, in the west it's blame the workers and protect the CEO.

 

On the dlc topic though, how many first party Sony or Microsoft games are stuffed with microtransactions?

[Nowak]

11 minutes ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

I do like how the developer is complaining about not making as much money from gacchas and loot boxes though:

Imagine being so greedy that you whine about not making as much money off of your F2P game because the IP holder doesn't support that business model.

[bcredeur97]

6 minutes ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

I'd argue this is more of a cultural thing.

• According to Japan Times, Japanese CEOs tend to be underpaid (https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/01/06/business/japans-ceos-underpaid-underwhelming/).
• The CEO of JAL is paid less than the pilots and takes public transportation to work (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-airline-boss-sets-exec-example/)
• When a news anchor for NHK was caught in some fraud valued at $1.8 million, the executives publicly apologized and at least one took a voluntary pay cut (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/embezzlement-scandal-at-japans-nhk-869048)

Whereas CEOs in America tend to get severance packages and or other perks when they fuck up big time, with their only public statement being "I'm sorry we got caught"

I wish everyone would have a humbleness like this sometimes. Wow.

[Taf the Ghost]

2 minutes ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

I'd argue this is more of a cultural thing.

• According to Japan Times, Japanese CEOs tend to be underpaid (https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/01/06/business/japans-ceos-underpaid-underwhelming/).
• The CEO of JAL is paid less than the pilots and takes public transportation to work (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-airline-boss-sets-exec-example/)
• When a news anchor for NHK was caught in some fraud valued at $1.8 million, the executives publicly apologized and at least one took a voluntary pay cut (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/embezzlement-scandal-at-japans-nhk-869048)

Whereas CEOs in America tend to get severance packages and or other perks when they fuck up big time, with their only public statement being "I'm sorry we got caught"

The current public view on big company CEOs is actually fairly recent, along with the Golden Parachute approach. The frank answer is an invasion of British Businessmen into executive positions starting in the late 1960s and the way it changed business schools was extremely negative. A lot of industries went Mercenary/Zero-Sum that didn't used to be true. No one else would ever work the way the Japanese do (they're an Island Nation and that utterly changes cultural approaches), but it really didn't used to be the case in the USA. Even to an extent, it actually isn't. It's really only the Finance or Finance-lite companies that do that.

 

As to Nintendo's perspective on this, they have to worry about being in business in 10 years. These mobile game companies probably won't exist in 3 years. Nintendo has "skin in the game" whereas the vultures don't. That matters and it's good for Nintendo to be in the business of keeping its customers for decades.

[Mira Yurizaki]

5 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

I wish everyone would have a humbleness like this sometimes. Wow.

Reading in the Japan Times article some more, there's actually an ulterior motive:

Quote

Current CEO wages are kept low because there is a “tacit understanding” corporate leaders will be kept on the payroll as advisers for many years after they step down. CEOs often think “if I fail, I can’t be an adviser and get the lifetime compensation that’s my due,” says Saito. “A lot of management’s based on not wanting to throw that away.”

 

2 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

As to Nintendo's perspective on this, they have to worry about being in business in 10 years. These mobile game companies probably won't exist in 3 years. Nintendo has "skin in the game" whereas the vultures don't. That matters and it's good for Nintendo to be in the business of keeping its customers for decades.

Then what about the other major game publishers? They too would have to worry about being relevant in 10 years.

 

Though I guess in their case they wouldn't really care. They'll just take in another demographic of suckers.

[Taf the Ghost]

2 minutes ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

Reading in the Japan Times article some more, there's actually an ulterior motive:

 

Then what about the other major game publishers? They too would have to worry about being relevant in 10 years.

 

Though I guess in their case they wouldn't really care. They'll just take in another demographic of suckers.

EA has actually always acted like a Vulture. That's why they bought up exclusive rights to Madden and FIFA. That's the only reason they're still in business. EA has killed every developer they've bought. What happened is they were the "First Mover" in the 90s to consolidate into a big company and gain monopoly control on products that'll always sell. 

 

Activision didn't used to have the reputation it does. What happened? They were bought by French Media Conglomerate Vivendi. Once you start having to turn out big revenue numbers, it really changes the way you approach your business. Nintendo has rarely ever lost any money, even during the Wii U era. (Nintendo is a well managed business.)  However, what they do is never have a loss-leader product. As long as their selling any hardware, they're going to make money. EA is really the only publisher that can do that, and that's due to spending a lot of money for control of several properties.

[TetraSky]

Quote

“If we managed the game alone, we would have made a lot more.”

Sure, with a ton of microtransactions, the kind that force you to pay to skip the wait/grind that was put in especially to nickle and dime users at every corners along with lootboxes that prey on a couple of whales with a gambling addiction/problem.... And they wonder why Nintendo doesn't want their reputation stained by these shitty mobile devs.

I'm 100% behind Nintendo on this. Thank you for not being the scum of the earth like so many other mobile game publishers and forcing the devs under you to respect your authoritah on this.

[Thaldor]

Not really surprising knowing Nintendos way of doing things. They might be little [the N-word for the German far right political movement] with their consoles and games being modded so far as lobbying laws against it and going full in with copyrights, but otherwise they are quite high with morality. Of course they have their dark sides like Pokemon Shuffle and Nintendo Badge Arcade coming to my mind first but they are still far away from the EA level lootbox-microtransaction-BS or even further away from majority of mobile developers. And it seems like Nintendo learned from them a lot about how to not make free-to-play games (especially with the Badge Arcade and all the threads around internet about how it's even worser than lootboxes because claw-game).

This also paints a lot better future for Nintendo. Not getting into the toxicity and "possibilities" of mobile games, even if their developers would so much want to milk the christmas chololates out of their players, and setting (and probably pretty much forcing) some moral guidelines into the platform which more or less has become even more darker than anyone expected gaming industry capable.

[CTR640]

Imagine all the crazy shit MTX on Super Mario and Donkey Kong. Pay $5 to receive 100 digital banana's in exhange or pay $10 to fuck up Bowser so he'll free the damn princess and never ever kidnap Mario's girl again. If he does, pay up $20 to kill Bowser.

 

Most of the MTX are digital cancer these days and the gaming industry has changed big time. Nintendo as being kinda one of a kind, they better not screw this up.

[EarthWormJM2]

18 hours ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

I'd argue this is more of a cultural thing.

• According to Japan Times, Japanese CEOs tend to be underpaid (https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/01/06/business/japans-ceos-underpaid-underwhelming/).
• The CEO of JAL is paid less than the pilots and takes public transportation to work (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-airline-boss-sets-exec-example/)
• When a news anchor for NHK was caught in some fraud valued at $1.8 million, the executives publicly apologized and at least one took a voluntary pay cut (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/embezzlement-scandal-at-japans-nhk-869048)

Whereas CEOs in America tend to get severance packages and or other perks when they fuck up big time, with their only public statement being "I'm sorry we got caught"

Agreed. There are no morals or values or even respect in american culture anymore, hence why everyone is suing everyone else or blaming everyone else for their mistakes. In Japan, there is pride in their work and schooling, regardless of the type of job or class. There are very limited public trash cans, but all the streets are extremely clean. They have the worlds biggest auto makers and some of the most successful tech companies. Hell, when the tsunami hit Fukushima, Japan just stepped up and took care of it themselves, there wasn't a mass call to the world to help them and they didn't glorify the destruction and fear like american media does. They are very resilient and it stems from their culture. The rest of the world could learn a thing or two from the Japanese.

[Hellion]

Not that I care about consols at all and despite many of nintendos anti-consumer practices they seem to be the lesser or the three evils.

 

They have historically proven that squeezing every last penny out of each customer is not their top priority in business as recently as the limited run mini emulation consols.

 

Either way, I'm still not sure how much weight this actually holds when looking at the big picture.

[Yoinkerman]

Nintendo is a family friendly responsible company, they have been for a long time.

 

They already do with with in app purchases in some of the 3ds games.

[sof006]

Because funnily enough.. Nintendo doesn't see gamers as walking money bags. They actually care about the games they push out and delay their games if they aren't to a certain standard. Nintendo will always be one of the most respected companies in my eyes, despite some of the questionable stuff they do at times.

[Drizard]

Good on them I've given up on mobile gaming it's becoming a joke how much people need to pay to play now