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Author Topic: I hate Nintendo  (Read 15685 times)

level42

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I hate Nintendo
« on: December 04, 2011, 08:25:23 PM »
First a couple of years ago we bought a DS. Without ANY mistreatment the display broke. Response from Nintendo: You dropped it and so you will have to pay 100 Euro's to repair it. Their word against mine, only way to settle is an expensive court case.

Last summer we bought a 3DS in the US. It was just a couple of weeks before they dramatically lowered the price and so, we were pretty much screwed by Nintendo for the 2nd time.

Now....it's Sinterklaas here, and my son got the new Mario 3DS (FINALLY some decent 3D games arriving....). I paid almost 40 Euro's for the game, a pretty steep price in the day of excellent iPad games for just a couple of Euro's or less.....

Yippie, the package says in big letters that it's fully in Dutch, that's very nice for a 9 year old boy !

We put it in the DS and.....it doesn't work.  A look at the small print on the package explains it all:

This game is only for the European/Australian 3DS !!!!! WTF ??!?!??!?!

They never mentioned that on any of the documents of the system when we bought it. I thought this stupid region thinking was something of 10 years ago, but apparently it isn't.....

This means this 3DS is pretty much useless here now !!!!
So that's the 3rd time we got screwed over by Nintendo and that's one time too much for me. They will never receive a cent from me anymore.

I deeply hope the hackers will soon crack the 3D games so we can get them without them earning a cent.....stupid bastards....

They probably think they're pretty smart with all their "protection" but in the long run it will be their death for sure.

Imagine buying an iPad in the US and the apps not working here.....they are totally on the wrong way in Japan....future looking very grimm for them if they don't adept quickly (downloadable GOOD games for fair prices etc. etc.)
« Last Edit: December 04, 2011, 08:35:21 PM by Level42 »
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Blanka

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Re: I hate Nintendo
« Reply #1 on: December 04, 2011, 08:47:06 PM »
Very weird! In the past Nintendo was not like this. The early handhelds like Gameboy and Game Gear were region free. Only the consoles were region locked, and probably more because of the PAL/NTSC difference than any other reason.

But since it is probably a software thing, there must be a hack to fix it.
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level42

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Re: I hate Nintendo
« Reply #2 on: December 04, 2011, 08:50:24 PM »
Don't think it's already been hacked....

What I don't understand is simply, what does Nintendo care WHERE you buy their products as long as you BUY them ??
Now I buy an official system, I buy an official game and I get SCREWED for it !
They literally drive you towards illegal solutions that way !!!

Anyway, someone in the States willing to send me a copy of Super Mario Land 3D ? I can PayPal of course.

I'll go and try to return the game tomorrow...I can't have my son disappointed over this.....
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Muerto

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Re: I hate Nintendo
« Reply #3 on: December 04, 2011, 09:18:26 PM »
... Why do you think Nintendos salesfigures is so high? Because everyone hwo bought a system in a forigin country have to by the same system in their own country, so they will be able to play the games they buy!
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gyruss

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Re: I hate Nintendo
« Reply #4 on: December 04, 2011, 09:36:03 PM »
That really sucks!! You would assume that a portable system wouldn't be region locked.

Hope you'll get the game soon because it's truly great, one of the best mario's ever imo.

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level42

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Re: I hate Nintendo
« Reply #5 on: December 04, 2011, 09:40:28 PM »
Quote from: Muerto on December 04, 2011, 09:18:26 PM
... Why do you think Nintendos salesfigures is so high? Because everyone hwo bought a system in a forigin country have to by the same system in their own country, so they will be able to play the games they buy!
Well that isn't exactly true. The previous DS'es were not region-locked. The sell so very well because well....we all know the reason why they sell so well.......let's call it "availability of software".
The 3DS is a total failure in sales-figures until now, mainly because of lack of good 3D titles but that region locking is sure not helping !
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SeTTleR

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Re: I hate Nintendo
« Reply #6 on: December 05, 2011, 12:31:21 AM »
Well, the region restrictions are by far not the only bad thing about the 3DS. Theres a campain going on against Nintendo and their Terms Of Service for the 3DS.
Nintendo grants itself the rights to use all stuff that is created on these devices royalty-free and without restrictions. If you draw a picture, Nintendo has the rights on it.. That's way too much IMO!
You may want to read http://www.defectivebydesign.org/nintendo for more information.
I think they cannot do this in europe, but the fact that they write something is more than enough.
On the other hand: it's Mario and I love Mario :/

Anyway, I saw a german documentation about Nintendo, it's called the Nintendo Story and is available through the ZDF Mediathek. They are of the opinion that Nintendo will fail with their WII U because of the way the market developed... Downloadable content is a must have in these days and Nintendo simply doesn't care.. We'll see what will happen.
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`Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, `if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'

Sonic 1992

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Re: I hate Nintendo
« Reply #7 on: December 06, 2011, 09:25:44 PM »
I mentioned this before in another topic, about game carts! 
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Gerry

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Re: I hate Nintendo
« Reply #8 on: December 07, 2011, 02:33:42 PM »
Quote from: Level42 on December 04, 2011, 08:50:24 PM
What I don't understand is simply, what does Nintendo care WHERE you buy their products as long as you BUY them ??

Buying a game from Nintendo of America instead of Nintendo of Europe by a European customer prevents the exploitation of market segmentation.

Example:

Super Mario Land 3D costs $42.85 in the US and EUR 39,00 in Germany

By applying region codes for their soft- and hardware, Nintendo wants customers from Europe to pay the prices they made for (in my example) Germany. Without those restrictions  customers could buy the game in the US for a cheaper price. In both cases Nintendo would get the customer's money - but by buying games for a cheaper price in another region, Nintendo "loses" money worth the price difference (EUR 39,00 - EUR 32,07 (=$42.85) =  Euro 6,93).

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level42

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Re: I hate Nintendo
« Reply #9 on: December 07, 2011, 03:10:11 PM »
I dont think so. You have to consider that US prices are always indicated without sales tax. Some states, like New Hampshire dont have sales tax (thank you NH, that made my iPad even cheaper ;)) but others do. FI its about 9% in New York. Anyway, with European prices you alreadt have to deduct about 19% sales tax, of which Nintendo of course wil not receive anything. If you deduct that you already get very close to the US price, so no Nintendo does not earn more per game in the US than in Europe.

Further, costs for companies like nintendo are higher in europe than in the us. The US is one big market with one language, here we have lots of languages, local rules and also higher costs for employees, transport etc.
They made Super Mario 3d land in Dutch, a pretty rare effort for a small language market (about 20 million people) and something like that is actually pretty costly if they do that in all those countries.

@Sonic, shame I missed that before my holiday to the US....
So, with that very small price difference there is VERY litlle advantage for a consumer in Europe to buy in the US, esp. if you consider shipping costs, eventually import duties etc.

So, this cant be the reason really and it only makes my brain hurt even more WHY they dont allow me to buy the 3DS in the US and the games in Europe.

It must be something with certain games not being released on certain regions etc.
Settler is right IMHO: Nintendo is on the path to oblivion.

« Last Edit: December 07, 2011, 03:20:17 PM by Level42 »
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Blanka

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Re: I hate Nintendo
« Reply #10 on: December 08, 2011, 07:30:19 AM »
Just saw the ZDF documentary last night. Interesting one! I really liked the critical side of it. Pretty rare, as you consider the Nintendo guy speaking for some parts of the film, while being criticized the second after by market analysts. Fortunately for the inked couple: Mario and Zelda will stay legend, how bad Nintendo messes up the next few years.
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level42

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Re: I hate Nintendo
« Reply #11 on: December 23, 2011, 12:56:11 AM »
Ok, we succesfully returned the bought game here and got our money back (as an exception, good service from Eplaza).

Following I ordered it from the US on ebay, incl. shipping it was exactly the same price so that was great and it works fine of course.

That was after the required firmware update which naturally disabled the Acekard. But I think I already saw an update for that on their site.

Only played some of the first levels and it looks like fun, but I also got the feeling of getting my SNES from the attic and play the shit out of Super Mario World this Xmas holiday  ;D ;D ;D

I dunno, I guess Im just a 2D game player......(Dont tell my SW and HD ;))

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level42

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Re: I hate Nintendo
« Reply #12 on: December 23, 2011, 01:06:39 AM »
Oh and Settler, get a different avatar....this one sucks...
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Lee

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Re: I hate Nintendo
« Reply #13 on: December 23, 2011, 02:16:58 AM »
I was almost screwed by Nintendo today. I was getting a Wii points card ready for redemption, i scratched off one number, but it took me only 2 times to pick the right number.
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Lee

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Re: I hate Nintendo
« Reply #14 on: December 23, 2011, 02:19:54 AM »
Btw Level42 get yer old SNES amd play some Super mario World and Earthworm JIm. I have both SMW for my Gba and EWJ for PC and my Sega. They are both fun games!
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