Nintendo's YouTube Video For Its Switch Online Upgrade Is Its Most Hated Video Ever
from the dislike dept
Well, this is moving fast. We had just been discussing Nintendo's announcement for a new tier of Nintendo Switch Online services. While there are several extras added in for the $50 per year tier, a 150% increase in cost from the base subscription, the real star of the show was supposed to be the Nintendo 64 games that are now included in it. As we discussed, however, the list of N64 games on offer is very limited and there are all kinds of problems with the games that are offered. Those problems include graphical issues, scaling issues, controller lag issues, controller mapping issues, and multiplayer lag. You know... everything. When you put all of that side by side with Nintendo's concentrated efforts to obliterate emulation sites from the internet, the end result is that Nintendo decided to deprive the public of pirated classic games in order to sell them a vastly inferior product.
But it's one thing for me, known Nintendo-detractor Timothy Geigner, to say all of that. What really matters is how the paying public will react to all of this. Well, if you're looking for a canary in the Nintendo coal mine, we can look to the video Nintendo put on YouTube announcing the new tier of NSO.
Well, it seems a lot of people don't like Nintendo's new Switch Online Expansion Pack based on the reveal trailer's likes and dislikes. The video, which revealed the pricing details for the plan, now has 104k dislikes on YouTube, overtaking the previously most hated video on Nintendo's channel: A trailer for Metroid Prime: Federation Force.
NSO's Expansion Pack costs $50 a year, more than double what the basic Nintendo Switch Online plan costs. That extra money gets you access to an Animal Crossing expansion (which can and should be bought separately) and 23 N64 and Sega Genesis games. It's not a great deal and making matters worse, the emulation quality of these games ain't great, with many complaining that the older games run poorly, lack proper control remapping, and feature numerous visual and gameplay bugs and glitches. It's just a big, over-priced mess.
Somehow, I doubt that when Nintendo dreamt this plan up, it wasn't going for "a big, over-priced mess", but that's absolutely what we have. That video has only been up for about two weeks now. At the time of this writing, the video has 17k likes and 141k dislikes. As far as decent market research on public feedback for a product, that's fairly clear-cut.
As are the comments on the YouTube page itself. Some examples include:
- "It seems like they are asking us to emulate their games SO MUCH."
- "I admire Nintendo's bravery. It takes guts to do something so idiotic and not back down when the hate comes."
- "Hats off to Nintendo for inadvertently reminding people that they can play their old favorite games on an emulator for free."
It goes on and on and on. Is Nintendo going to alter its plans based on this near uniform negative feedback? No, of course not. That's not how the company rolls. But it's also true that this sort of thing is the reason why emulation is never going to completely die. If a company cannot offer a product that is at least as good as the pirated product, how in the world can they successfully sell it?
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Filed Under: nintendo switch, nso, retro games
Companies: nintendo
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Rumors have been floating around that GoldenEye might make it to NSO+ at some point. I fail to see how even the re-release of that classic could stop people from being angry at Nintendo for its bullshit.
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Re:
GoldenEye would be nice, but I doubt it will ever happen with all the licensing and rights issues going on with that. Also if they don't fix the emulation issues, multiplayer (the only reason most would have to play it) would be a mess. I was somewhat excited for Ocarina of Time, But since I already own it on multiple platforms (N64, GameCube, 3DS), I'll just wait until I get my Steam Deck and play it in an emulator.
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The licensing and rights issues are a problem, but perhaps it wasn’t as big a problem for whoever got GoldenEye unbanned in Germany.
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It wouldn't. The emulation complaints people have wouldn't be fixed by a single new title unless there's some weird technical challenge that causes them to have to fix them by default. As far as I'm aware, the problems with that title are licencing rather than tech related, so that's unlikely.
In fact, it might just cause more complaints as people who haven't bothered signing up yet, but do it for that one title, will issue another round of complaints as they see the existing issues for the first time.
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Especially considering that they'll probably fuck something up similarly to Mario64 and OoT, and make people even more furious.
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OK... I read this immediately after I read an article on NSO group getting blacklisted by the US for its Pegasus spyware.
My first thought was: The NSO Group has a STREAMING SERVICE now? And what technological attack is GoldenEye? What does Nintendo have to do with all this?
Then I remembered what thread this was. Carry on :)
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There is that, but i'll admit that every time i see "NSO", all i can think of is "National Security Ostrich".
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I'm not sure people being angry in YouTube comments is as newsworthy as you think it is, Tim.
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It might make a bit more sense when you know that the ‘141’ dislikes is actually ‘141K’. It’s now at 158K dislikes to 18K likes. Nintendo is famous for its legion of tribally loyal vocal fans. They are not on board with this and that is dangerous for nintendo and might signal another bust cycle upcoming for them.
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It's interesting if this is a really out of the ordinary ratio for Nintendo's videos (which I believe is the case) and it's in line with a general negative overall feedback. I'm also not convinced when people use things like YouTube voting, Twitter comments, etc. as if they're newsworthy on their own, but I'm also not sure how you gauge overall feedback for something like an account upgrade option other than waiting a few months and see the subscriber numbers.
At least the quoted comments are somewhat more constructive than the average YouTube comment...
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Why do they keep looking for roms?!?!
Because your ports suck balls & you charge to much for crap.
guy tossed out of window
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Presumably 141k dislikes. Otherwise, wow, from 141 dislikes to 157,000 dislikes in the space of an afternoon!
There's viral. Then there's Nintendo. It's catching, but people are becoming immunized in record numbers.
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And another meme is born!
Trending in the comments to the video is:
For reference: Satoru Iwata was the 4th CEO of Nintendo for 13 years, until his death in 2015.
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Uh oh, now you’ve gone and done it!
Who knew Joe played?!?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/03/blacklist-placement-us-views-nso-group-gra ve-threat?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1
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nintendoomed!!!!
Weird how some sections of the internet can be so sure that Nintendo have blown it while their 4 year old handhold is still selling launch games at £60 a pop.
In the UK Mario Kart is the only thing that can keep up with GTA in terms of long term sales.
I think what I'm seeing is one of these internet echo chambers. It's got thousands in so it sounds deafening but there's millions more outside paying it no attention at all.
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Re: nintendoomed!!!!
"Weird how some sections of the internet can be so sure that Nintendo have blown it while their 4 year old handhold is still selling launch games at £60 a pop."
Because failing miserably in one area does not mean they don't profit in another.
Also, success in one area does not shield you from criticism from hilarious failures elsewhere.
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To wit: Which Microsoft- or Sony-exclusive videogame-only property is also getting a big budget Hollywood movie starring Chris Pratt? 🤔
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Re: nintendoomed!!!!
Criticism of a company isn't the same as suggesting that the company has "blown it" wholesale.
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Re: Re: nintendoomed!!!!
In Nintendo's case, it may be. The same people who look at this article and say "Nintendo is DOOMED!!!!" are also the same people who will claim the Steam Deck is a "Switch killer." They forget that Nintendo has a very niche market. That niche is what allows them to have positive revenues despite Nintendo's inferior hardware and lack of regular third party AAA releases. No-one is buying a Switch to play the latest COD or Halo, but they are buying it to play the latest Zelda or Pokemon game. That same limited niche however, means that Nintendo's profits are more susceptible to angry customers. Nintendo cannot risk upsetting them as much as Sony or Microsoft can upset their markets. Numbers like 141K dislikes on a major offering / policy change, means a lot more potential damage to Nintendo's bottom line than it would for Nintendo's competitors, and that will "kill" the Switch far more than the Steam Deck ever could.
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Just so you know, people also dislike the fact that Nintendo doesn’t lower the prices of its games over the lifetime of a given system.
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Small Typo
141 dislikes should be 141k. Otherwise it reads as though Google reset the dislikes.
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They're clearly demonstrating a sense of pride and accomplishment in the N64 ports; and Youtubers seem to agree even if not to the extent that Redditors did with Star Wars Battlefront II a few years back.
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