What Nintendo does

As news broke yesterday about the latest bed Nintendo has decided to shit in, targeting a longtime fan with DMCA strikes for sharing videos featuring their games, I was reminded of a few things.

This kind of hostile behavior is, unfortunately, what we’ve come to expect from Nintendo. Never mind the cute alarm clock or music app—they’re one of the most needlessly customer-hostile companies out there. Remember the Nintendo Creators Program? Or the restrictive guidelines they’ve enforced on Super Smash Bros tournaments over the years? So then why do we keep celebrating them every time they release something cute or nostalgic?

What’s particularly frustrating, as we've seen countless times in their battles against emulation sites, is that Nintendo themselves aren't interested in offering any legal way to play many of the games featured on Crandall’s channel, going so far as shutting down the virtual console back in 2019 and cutting off access to over 400 classic titles games.

As much as I’ve loved their games and hardware over the years (my first console was a SNES!), it’s hard to keep cheering for a company that refuses to work with its customers in any meaningful way, or worse, punishes them for their loyalty. Going forward, I’ll be thinking twice about my Nintendo purchases.

Nostalgia isn’t a free pass to treat your fans like shit.