Critical Miss: The Bad News...

[Saltyk]

Damn. Why couldn't I have been there? I probably could have sold that jet-pack to pay off my house. What..?

You forgot the most baffling part of this to me, a CEO lowering their pay-check in stead of taking it out on employees. It's bizarro world!!

That actually baffles me completely. How much were Nintendo expecting to make off the 3DS that the company president would chop his salary in half? Or is it a combination of factors that led to it?

 

[GeorgW]

Damn. Why couldn't I have been there? I probably could have sold that jet-pack to pay off my house. What..?

You forgot the most baffling part of this to me, a CEO lowering their pay-check in stead of taking it out on employees. It's bizarro world!!

That actually baffles me completely. How much were Nintendo expecting to make off the 3DS that the company president would chop his salary in half? Or is it a combination of factors that led to it?

It's a combination, but the big reason was the 3DS. Considering the DS's success, I can see why they had high hopes for it...

 

[AbstractStream]

I would be pissed off if Iwata bought me a jetpack too! I asked for a space ship dammit! I will not be satisfied with anything else!

 

[Eternal_Lament]

I feel conflicted about this comic. On the one hand I do agree that people being angry at Nintendo for apologising for the price drop are just being unreasonable at that point, but I disagree with the sentiment that Nintendo shouldn't have had to apologise. Maybe it's just me, but when I saw that they apologised for the price drop, I didn't see it as "We are deeply sorry about the price drop because it affects those who bought our systems before the significant and early price drop", but rather "We are deeply sorry about the price drop because it represents us trying to make up for the failed expectations and cancelled potential with our recent system, issues that have affected you the consumer for purchasing a system that has yet to hold up and is slowly loseing the the features that made you interested in it in the first place". Thats how I viewed it anyways, and because of that I think had Nintendo just announced the price drop (or hell just implemented it with no warning) without any sense of regret for doing so, it would've seemed to me, and probably many others, that Nintendo wasn't owing up to what it was that had placed them in that situation, which is perhaps the worst thing a company can do.

So sorry if I say Nintendo had to apologize, but frankly if they didn't it would just seem like a major "Fuck you" to their fanbase, because had they not apologized it would seem like that Nintendo didn't trust their fanbase with staying on when they showed weakness or admitted failure, which would bring to question why one should continue placing trust in a company that clearly didn't trust them. Did them apologize make me want to buy a 3DS? No, at this point there is nothing on the horizon that would make me want a 3DS or even the WiiU, but at least because Nintendo apologized I have respect for them admitting weakness, respect that would've turned to spite had they not owed up to their failure.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Im not sure if its happened yet, but I wonder how long it will take those facebookers to say he should apologize for Pearl Harbor.

anyway, eh. Fans will be fans. thats abut all you can say. its human nature. Its never MY fault it has to be YOUR fault.

 

[Dragonforce525]

I agree with the last panel, that is complete and utter bullshit, Iwata promised them strawberry milkshakes when they are clearly holding chocolate milkshakes, there is no death painful enough to rectify such dishonesty!

 

[Dragonforce525]

Sorry for the double post.

 

[bchampnd]

I think this comic encapsulated the situation perfectly.

Early adopters are always putting themselves in a situation where they may end up disappointed. When they paid $250 for the 3DS, they had to know that they were paying more than the console was worth because Nintendo always makes a profit on the hardware. Spending that money to get their hands on the console on the day it came out (or shortly thereafter) was akin to paying $60 for a new release game. You know that the price will eventually go down but you've decided that you want the game, or device in this situation, so much now that you are willing to spend the extra money rather than wait around for the price to drop. With games, the price often drops to $40 within a couple of weeks from release. So in both cases, you have the price dropping by about a third of the initial price.

The big difference here is that Nintendo has taken it upon themselves to apologize and offer early adopters some kind of consolation prize (though it's value is debatable). You don't see publishers offering what would otherwise be paid-DLC for free to people who purchase a game early when a few weeks later the game doesn't receive high review scores or sell as well as was anticipated.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Whenever you buy a product at launch you're paying a premium for early access. Those who wait are trading time with the product for potential cash savings. If any early adopters out there are somehow offended by the fact they're being consistently put out of pocket by those dastardly market forces, the solution is simple, stop being an early adopter.

The difference is that usually a console is on the market for about a year before any sort of price drop can be expected, and even then it's usually a smaller drop. The 3DS, on the other hand, is getting cut nearly in half, less than half a year after it's been out... and when nothing impressive has been done with the system. There's no real reason to own a 3DS right now, which means that there's no bonus to being an "early adopter" to it. I've paid a premium price for... 20 GBA/NES games.

Granted, I'm not harshing on Nintendo, I'm not about to march to their headquarters with a torch and pitchfork, but I can see why some people would. The 3DS is a horrid disappointment thus far. Outside of bringing it with me to my friend's place so we can ping our Street Passes, it's just been sitting on its charger collecting dust.

I feel that an apology is apt for such a drastic drop in price so very early in the life of a system that might be worth owning in a year or so.

 

[uguito-93]

I work for a phone company and when the price of one of our top-of-the-line phones dropped just after Thanksgiving last year (the phone launched in June, mind you), people had a **** fit. I had to deal with so many people who were totally **** off at me personally because they thought I was "ripping them off" and they demanded a refund for the price difference.


Our society as a whole has devolved (yes, evolution has been proven and we're now in the phase of going backwards). Most people have become self absorbed, selfish jerks who demand that everyone bow and bend to their every will. Companies aren't there to provide an innovative product, oh no, they're there to appease those greedy consumers who think the world revolves around them.

Glad to see that I'm not the only one becoming disillusioned with how materialistic and irrational society is becoming. I honestly do not see why the hell Iwata thought it necessary to apologies to the greedy douchebags failing to notice that nintendo's been offering them free stuff as a thanks for being early adopters.

 

[Alphakirby]

I'm sorry, but Nintendo are giving away 20 free games to people that already own a 3DS. What the devil do they have to apologise for?

Absofuckinglutly nothing. But people don't really care because "Zomgz,I has 20 free games,10 of which nobody else can have but they payed less money for there's so now I am going to ***** about getting free things to compensate for the extra money I paid!!!!11"

So yeah,the comic sums it all up pretty well.

 

[DJ Jack]

HAHA! This is hilarious! But seriously though, where's my jet pack?

 

[RvLeshrac]

I think we have a bit of a obligation to be upset. Unit has been out less than 6 months and its loosing 25% of its price. In return for our early support we get handed digital copies of gba games?

Yes I'm aware we didn't have to get anything, so don't bother pointing it out. Not giving out any kind of "apology" is bad marketing. Remember how pissed when the only thing announced for the ps3 outage was playstation plus?

In fact I'd have been a lot happier if they would have given me a list of games to choose from. Especially as I don't care about most of the games they have already listed as "ambassador" titles.

Just shows me that nintendo only has nostalgia to offer us.

The earlier you buy something, the more you pay for it.

That is a big part of how commodities are priced.

There is no excuse for not being aware that the price would drop. Just because t dropped sooner and by a larger margin than expected does not give you any kind of right to be annoyed. You were the one who bought something for a price it obviously isn't worth, knowing full well that EVERYTHING is priced higher when released earlier.

Do you also argue that the woman who walked through the alley shouldn't be upset when she's raped? I mean, it was clearly a possibility, made more likely by her decision to walk down the dark alley. And the skirt she was wearing certainly didn't help. She should've known better than to walk down that alley in that skirt.

Why is it OK to assign blame in one case, where an individual was wronged, but not OK to assign blame in the other case, where an individual was wronged?

Early adopters are what make the industry move. Without day-1 purchases of hardware and software, the industry loses ridiculous amounts of money.

Maybe we'll all finally stop buying products at launch, one day, and then you can whine about how our decision to stop spending money on broken or half-delivered products is hurting the industry.

 

[RvLeshrac]

Do you also argue that the woman who walked through the alley shouldn't be upset when she's raped? I mean, it was clearly a possibility, made more likely by her decision to walk down the dark alley. And the skirt she was wearing certainly didn't help. She should've known better than to walk down that alley in that skirt.

This is not relevant. This example is in no way similar to the case we're looking at. Not only that, but you're not doing yourself any favours with such an extreme comparison. Couldn't you have chosen something a tad more tasteful?

Why is it OK to assign blame in one case, where an individual was wronged, but not OK to assign blame in the other case, where an individual was wronged?

I was not talking about assigning blame. I was trying to say that in this case, the individual was not wronged.

Early adopters are what make the industry move. Without day-1 purchases of hardware and software, the industry loses ridiculous amounts of money.

I'm aware that an industry makes a lot of money on early purchases. We're also both aware that people who adopt early pay more. All I'm trying to say is that this 3DS case shouldn't be looked at any differently simply because the price drop was so high, so soon.

Maybe we'll all finally stop buying products at launch, one day, and then you can whine about how our decision to stop spending money on broken or half-delivered products is hurting the industry.

This part doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I was merely trying to point out that everyone should be aware of how capitalism tends to work nowadays. I'm normally all for the strict regulation of business but I don't think that there is any huge fault that can be laid at nintendo's feet for this. Everyone buying at launch knew it would be highly priced. They saw it was worth and decided, for whatever reason, that it was totally worth the price they payed for it. I don't think they have a right to start complaining when other people spend less money on it for buying later on, not when that is how these things always worked.

At the end of the day, they were happy to hand over their money for an item. They decided it would be worth that amount. Why is there such a huge problem when the price for it drops over time?

As for whining, I'm not trying to claim I was scammed for something when I knew full well what it was and was not capable of and decided it was worth the early asking price, I'm simply trying to point out that this doesn't make sense. I'm not sure how this constitutes as "whining" or why you take such issue with my comment as to appear - and I apologise if this assessment seems unfair - personally offended by them.

And no-one is talking about anyone's decision to stop buying something, it's people complaining about the purchase they made. If the complaints were valid ones regarding a "half-broken, half-delivered" product, then I might understand. But at present, I'm afraid I don't see any valid reason for this kind of outrage.[/quote]

a) Extreme examples seem to be the only ones most people understand. They then take offence to them, but that's hardly *my* problem.

b) The 3DS was half-broken at launch. Advertised features were missing or non-functional.

c) When your point is that the people who FUND EVERY PRODUCT EVER are "getting what's coming to them" by purchasing early, you're implying that they don't *DESERVE* anything better than a partially working product.

d) People are rarely upset when a product drops in price, say, a year after launch. But having a product drop in price almost immediately after the release is a slap in the face. Especially when features missing at launch were *just added*.

 

[SD-Fiend]

I'm still waiting for the special pokemon edition 3DS

 

[Something Amyss]

I don't know, I didn't particularly find this one funny. I usually laugh even when I disagree, but apologising to people upset that they paid 80 dollars extra kinda...Makes sense.

It's honestly nice to see that Iwata is doing stuff no American executive would willingly do.

But I do object to these milkshakes.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

That is... I don't even... I bought the 3DS at launch and even I'm not pissed off about this. People actually complained about the lowered price. I could understand people that bought it at launch being pissed off. But why are so many other people pissed off about it?

 

[Asuka Soryu]

I think now, the only thing Nintendo fans can do, is to send an apology letter to Iwata each time they buy a game for any of the Nintendo systems.

So, the Nintendo Wii owners get out of having to send an apology letter?


Buh-zing!

I snickered.

nogaems meme 2.0: wii has no gaems

In honesty though, the Wii has the best 1st/2nd party exclusives and is the only system without a subscription model for it's online (although it replaces names with fucking 9001 digit numbers), pay-to-play P2P network (ahem xbox) or add-on bullshit beyond the plastic bats, wheels, or tennis rackets that don't cost much and are for the casuals. Wii Speak doesn't count because it's not bullshit and neither does the Classic Controller for the same reason.

However, the graphics are fail, you'd be missing out on 90 percent of this gen's gems if that was the only system you had, the online system is fucking horrible, shovelware, Wiimote motion/waggle is used as a gimmick in otherwise good games, etc. etc.

Nah, it did have good 1st and 2nd party games.

Now it's got dust with Skyward Sword being the only game of note coming out.

Maybe if you live in Japan, then sure. You can get the Wii games Nintendo won't bring to America. I had a Wii... I got rid of it, because all it did was collect dust.

Mario Kart? I'd rather play it on the older consoles.

Twilight Princess? I got tired of that game. Thank god of OoT 3D. :3

New Mario Bros Wii? I loved/preffere the DS over the Wii version. Wii wasn't as fun.

Metroid Other M? Please, god no. I didn't enjoy that game... it felt good, but the cutcenes with Samus talking were obnoxious. That dumb thing with you needing to find a speck on the screen before she'd do anything...


Best game to me, for the Wii exclusively was Super Mario Galazy and the game that came free with the Wii.
Gotta admit though, I did get more fun from

You had DCK, Metroid Prime, Super Mario Galaxy, Zelda, Goldeneye, Conduit, Red Steel 2 (1 sucked), Animal Crossing, MadWorld, Bit.Trip, A Boy and His Blob, Dragon Quest X, Contra ReBirth, SSBB, Trauma Team...

DCK - I didn't get that game. Never was a Donkey Kong fan. I won't deny that it's a good game, just not for me.

Zelda? Yeah, 2 Zelda games.

And Mario Galazy 1 and 2 were basicaly the same.

MadWorld? I guess that's... okay.

Conduit? Pfftt... ahaha.
SSBB? Eh, I'd rather the N64 version.

Never heard of Bit.Trip

(How could you not list Kirby's Epic Yarn?)

And in the end, that's all the Wii had really, and that's quite lack luster for how old it is.