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Why are Sony and Nintendo so anti consumer?

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Topher

Gold Member
Sylvester Stallone Facepalm GIF
 

mr jones

Ethnicity is not a race!
There are alternatives. Become a retro gamer. You can mod the original Xbox, the Wii, and the PS3, and they're amazing. Clever folks have figured out how to get online play going with these old systems. Wanna play Mario Kart Wii, or Socom, or Crimson Skies online? You can. You can do Lan parties with the original Xbox, up to 8 players.

Otherwise, you can simply become part of the PC master race, and live your best life.
 

SeraphJan

Member
This is why competition benefits consumer.

Sony had Microsoft and PC space as competitor, Nintendo literally have no competitor in its handheld space. Many gamer that had a decent PC are hesitant about buying a PS5, but they will still purchase a Switch as a companion handheld device.

This is why Steam Deck is important
 
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I wouldn't put sony anywhere near Nintendo in this regard. You can get sony games for cheap not too long after release. Nintendo still have full priced wii u ports ffs. There's also only a £100 gap between switch and PS5 digital and the difference in technology is huge! PS5 digital is a bargain for what you get. Nintendo are overcharging for switch. In the end, they both release such high quality games and that's why they do so well.
 
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SHA

Member
Interest word sounds subjective and lacks clear logical reasons, 1st party games has different taste, 3rd party games aren't worse , but they take the realistic approach quite often cause you get for what you paid for and sometimes more ,and even let's say they aren't different and you treat them on equal terms , 1st party still get outclassed by variety , when this condition happens is when you start seeing price drops from both of them , the logical answer is you can't treat 1st and 3rd parties on equal terms otherwise you shouldn't have seen some of them take 10+ years in the making.
 
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Regginator

Member
Nintendo can afford to be shitty, because their amazing games aren't available elsewhere. Nintendo gives me regular whiplashes which made me distinguish them into two types: Nintendo software (developing/publishing), and Nintendo hardware (including storefront and overall digital). I love the prior, but I despise the latter.

But in Sony's case it's even weirder. Not only can you play the 3rd party games elsewhere on PC or Xbox, but recently they've also put their 1st party games on PC, so you could argue are they even in a position to do that?
 
imagine implying Nintendo doesn't make "fun mechanics" and chase "graphics"

isnt the next big thing from MS Hellblade?...talking about Fun Mechanics and low poly style?

Nintendo games are 40% good mechanics, 50% art style/ animations, 10% nostalgia.

Compare this to something like Fortnite, that has 0% engagement coming from art style or nostalgia.
 
Because they Japanese orgs. so unlike the west where "The customer is always right" attitude, Over in the east "The customer is always an asshole"

I'm pretty sure it's a reginal culture thing.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
The last pro consumer system was ps3.
The paid on-line is a scam
Death of physical is a scam too
 
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Goalus

Member
Imagine pretending Microsoft is "pro-consumer" when they:

- invented paying for playing online with original Xbox Live
- tried to force paying for playing online on PC gamers with Games for Windows Live
- use proprietary storage since the OG Xbox until today
- tried to force always online and no more used games with Xbox One
- force you to buy your own batteries for Xbox controllers
- buy studios to deny exclusive titles to other platforms
Triggered.
Try losing that inferiority complex, it will make you feel better.
 

Chastten

Banned
I really don't think OP understands what anti-consumer means.

Also, what's with the constant complaining about 'having to rebuy game xyz'? Just play it on the console you bought it for. No one is forcing you to buy anything. If you bought a game for the Wii, you bought it for the Wii. Not for Wii U, 3DS or Switch. It's a nice gesture if they make it available for free on newer platforms, but that's all. Nintendo has to spend money to make it work on newer platforms, it's not 'anti-consumer' to make the consumer pay for their services.
 

Mokus

Member
It truly hurts when you realize that big companies are trying to milk you from your precious money.
face crying GIF
 

Neolombax

Member
I think businesses try to be as anti-consumer as far as they are legally obliged to. This much should be pretty obvious.
 

Rhazkul

Member
So i bought a Switch Lite for portable gaming and was very disappointed that all their classic games are locked behind subscription paywalls. And it's just a tiny selection too. I remember you could buy GBA games on the 3DS for a few bucks. Not on the Switch for whatever reason. Damn me...should have done some research and gotten some chinese knock-off device for emulation. At least indie games are often on sale and so far i got 4 games under 20 bucks. But yeah, Nintendo doesn't seem to care and their first party games are never on sale and it sucks.
 
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They are anti-consumer because they price their games at what they think they are worth and they sell in their millions, therefore justifying their price point as it is deemed acceptable by the millions that bought the software?

I can’t speak to all the PS Classics, but all the ones I’d previously bought are available to me without extra cost.

Premium has been rather poor so far if you are looking for PS2 and PS1 classics, but it does have decent PS3 support. Overall it isn’t too bad, but it is getting better and it’s nice we are getting trophies for some games that never had them.
 

Kdad

Member
Just wondering why they suck so much.

Don't get me wrong, I like their actual products. The games they make are some of the best in the industry. Their hardware is always cool (love Sony's emphasis on cutting edge, and Nintendo's emphasis on novelty and new paradigms). Their stuff is usually so good I'll always buy it to play the Sony and Nintendo games that interest me.

But why are these companies so anti consumer? Their policies are shit across the board. Terrible pricing for games (Nintendo refuses to drop prices, Sony led the charge to $70 games and is also starting to adopt Nintendo style lack of price cuts), bad online services (PS Plus Premium or whatever it's called is a joke, and Nintendo's online is like 1999 dialup level), bad backward compatibility records (both are so shitty and inconsistent at this), making you rebuy stuff you've already bought (Nintendo made you buy your VC stuff like 30 times, Sony refuses to honour PS Classics purchases, and also doesn't support cross-gen purchases, making you pay $10 to upgrade), not fully communicating with the customer (Sony hid the cross-gen status of several PS5 "exclusives" they announced to hype up the system until after people had already put in preorders, Nintendo had the audacity to charge $50 for their more expensive online service without telling anyone what's even on it).

Like, I love PlayStation and Nintendo consoles and games. But I hate their actual businesses.

P.S. before someone brings this up because I know they will 9000%, I have no shits to give for MS and Xbox here; Sony and Nintendo register for me because they at least make cool shit, I don't remember the last time MS did anything that interests me, so I don't even know or care if they are PS/Nintendo level bad with a lot of this stuff, they might as well not exist for me.
None of this is 'anti consumer'. Go play games.
 

yurinka

Member
The consoles and games of both sell a shit ton.
Sony generates the biggest revenue and Nintendo the biggest profit.
Both have a legion of supportive fans.

If they have a shit ton of consumers buying/consuming their stuff, means that what they offer is good enough for the consumers. And at least better than their (worse performing) competition.

So it's ok that you may not like something, but that doesn't make it 'anticonsumer' because consumers don't give a fuck and still consume it a lot. Companies have (huge) costs, so have to charge for their stuff and turn them into profit. They are not charities.

Games sell a hell of a lot more than they did in the past (and also have plenty more microtransactions etc), so they are actually making more money than they used to.
Only a small portion of full priced games sell way more units than what in the past they did sell, and most don't have microtransactions.

Adjusting inflation the price of the games was way more expensive in the past than now. In addition to this, in the past the games weren't discounted and price cutted as frequently and as aggresively as today.

In addition to this the game budgets of these titles skyrocketed and are now many times more expensive to make than 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. Meaning that excluding the few top hits of today, the many other full priced games are way less profitable (or in many cases aren't even profitable and in some cases cause dozens of millions in loses, or even hundreds) than they were time ago.

This is why they try to increase their revenue by rising prices, adding dlcs/IAPs/season passes or pubilsh their games in more platforms and try to make their IPs more popular with non-gaming related products.
 
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They are anti-consumer because they price their games at what they think they are worth and they sell in their millions, therefore justifying their price point as it is deemed acceptable by the millions that bought the software?

I can’t speak to all the PS Classics, but all the ones I’d previously bought are available to me without extra cost.
 

Calverz

Member
No big company is "pro consumer".
They are all profit driven and will do whatever they believe will make them the most money. Switch is ridiculously popular, Ps4 was one of the most successful Sony consoles and Ps5 is leading next gen. Sony and Nintendo have no incentive to be more "pro consumer" because the average consumer seems to be perfectly happy with what they are offering now.

The only reason MS is more consumer friendly in some aspects is that Xbox One lagged significantly behind Ps4 and Sony is still leading this gen. So being seen as consumer friendly is in their interest as it's a form of competitive advantage.

If Xbox Series X were to start significantly and consistently outselling ps5 you'd see Sony "magically" becoming more consumer friendly
For sure. Remember their ps+ instant game collection on ps3? That was a great deal and definitely set the tone for free* regular games etc.
 

Robb

Gold Member
Because they feel they can get away with it. The best Nintendo/Sony/MS is a struggling one.
 

Nautilus

Banned
People really need to stop confusing anti-consumer with them just looking after their business.

Sony (And now Nintendo) increasing their game prices to 70 dollars is them looking after their business and doing what business do, which is maximize profits. They know consumers will buy at that price and that they can get away with it, so they do that. Same for Nintendo (almost) never cutting the price of their games: Not only they know the quality and worth of their games, and so know that people will resonate with them at the asked price, but also know a basic trait of every human being: If you give a helping hand to someone, they will take the whole arm off. If Nintendo started doing deep cuts and people got used to it, not only the increased ammount of copies sold wouldn't offset the overall profits they got when their games were always full priced, but their clients(us) would get accostumed to it, to the point that not only more and more people would wait until the games took a nosedive to then buy, but they also would complain, to the point of really hurting the business(Because in that scenario, it would be a big of a whiplash going from the theoretical 20 dollar sales it usually got to full price at 60 dollars), if Nintendo decided that business model would be unsustainable and returned to doing what they always did.

I mean, just look at Ubisoft. How many of you stopped buying at launch, because you know that you can buy their games at 50% off just 6 months after release? I haven't purchased Mario + Rabbids 2 yet because I know I'll be able to get it 50% or less in a year or so, and I have the backlog to wait till then. And I want to play that game.
 

Lasha

Member
Price isn't "anticonsumer". Products and services have a price, and you may afford it or don't, you may think that's worth or you may not. It's about you really. If you live in the real world you should already know that.

I'm always baffled by obsession with Nintendo's prices. Nintendo doesn't discount games because games continue to sell at full price. Charging less than the market is paying is stupid.
 

Impotaku

Member
Lol if $70 is too much for you try getting a job or ask your parents for more pocket money. Every single one of the gaming companies are out to make money if you can’t afford it find a cheaper hobby.
 
They are pro consumer, even for wannabe beggars there are enough titles in a year.

Beside Nintendo, gaming has never been so cheap. EGS (and some gog) freebies, humble bundles, GP, PS+, occasionally EA and Ubi giving some games away. And while much of mobile is p2w junk it is quite often actually f2p and whales sponser that like they do on big PC and console F2P titles as well.
 
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