Nintendo’s greed this direct was insane, it was more prevalent then past directs even.
Galaxy ports at $40 each:
These are literally 2007/2010 Wii games. They’re not rebuilt from the ground up like Metroid Prime Remastered was, they’re just upscaled and maybe unlocked to a higher framerate. On Wii U’s Virtual Console they were $10 apiece. Splitting them and charging $40 each in 2025 is going to feel insulting to anyone who knows what Dolphin can do.
Paid DLC before launch:
It’s the same shit Ubisoft, EA and Activision use: announce an expansion pass alongside the base game so you can collect $100+ up front from the “superfans.” For Pokémon, a series already in a rough technical state, it just magnifies the feeling that content is carved off and sold separately.
Donkey Kong Bananza DLC:
When Mario Odyssey added Balloon World and other extras for free, it felt like goodwill. Selling a single new island and a rush mode for $20 is the opposite. It’s not that expansions shouldn’t cost money; it’s that the scope of the content has to feel like value.
Patent saga:
All of this is happening while Nintendo is filing and enforcing a patent on a decades-old mechanic, which makes it look like they’re protecting revenue streams rather than earning them with quality and screwing over the ENTIRE INDUSTRY because ONE GAME outdid them
It isn’t that people suddenly “hate” Mario or Pokémon; it’s that the business side is making it harder and harder to feel good about giving them money and that Nintendo hates you as a consumer and a fan
Nintendo messes up every other console generation or so and it looks like we’re heading into another flop era.
I want to go back to clamshell handhelds that fit in your pocket with games that cost 20$ less than home consoles.
The DS was the best.
I would actually think about buying a portable GameCube emulator that exclusively plays ports with barebones multi-player, but after the abysmal ports that the Switch offers for N64 games, I don’t trust Nintendo to pull it off. I essentially do have that portable in my Steam Deck, but multi-player would be cool.