Nintendo Restricts The Number Of Times You Can Play A Game Demo For Some Reason

from the restrictions-for-restriction’s-sake dept

Nintendo has never been shy about being exceptionally aggressive with all things Nintendo. In fact, there are times when they've appeared downright sadistic in how they "protect" their brand, including choosing the takedown bully route on fan videos uploaded to YouTube. Still, while you'll struggle to find an instance where we agree with this kind of aggressive protection, there's at least a ghost of logic involved in them. Whether the excuse is piracy, trademark protection, or stifling competition, you at least have something to point to in order to explain their otherwise disagreeable behavior.

I don't think the same can be said with how Nintendo apparently handles game demos on their latest consoles. Kotaku's Steve Marinconz notes his own surprise at a popup he received after downloading one game.

I downloaded the demo for The Wonderful 101, and was surprised to find this message pop up telling me that I would only be allowed to run the demo 20 times. Now, of course I don't plan on playing a demo more than once or twice, as I'm sure most people don't. Which is why I find it so odd that Nintendo would put this restriction in place. If any game is good enough that I would play the demo more than 20 times, then I'll be buying it to play the full experience before ever getting to that point.

It's hard to imagine how this even begins to make sense. As Marinconz said, what players out there are going to play a limited game demo that many times? And, even if such a person existed, why would they continue to play a game demo they enjoy rather than moving up to the full version? I've been running this scenario through my mind trying to understand under what circumstances would I possibly find myself replaying a game demo so often without buying the full game and I'm coming up with bupkis.

The only answer that seems to hold water is that a culture of protectionism creeps into arenas where it couldn't possibly be warranted. That would seem to jive with Nintendo's history, but it sure doesn't make a lick of sense otherwise.

Filed Under: demos, video games
Companies: nintendo