Amiibos are Bullshit and I Called it Day One

[Tsuujou]

So I was talking to a friend about Metroid: Samus Returns. It's a great game. I'd sure love to thoroughly finish this game and all of it's content. Normal mode, Hard mode, and it's even harder Fusion mode. Oh wait! I can't play Fusion mode because I don't have the $15 Amiibo it's locked behind. 

And this is exactly what I knew was going to happen when they unveiled these back during the Wii U days. Everyone was defending it with "Oh it's just cosmetic fluff and random goodies and you get a little collectible figure!". And for a while it was just that and it would have been ace if it -stayed- just that. Well, surprise. It ain't anymore. :l
Now actual full game modes are being locked behind these fake ass Nendoroids. And it's not going away anytime soon because these things literally covered the deficit of the Wii U's failure. Holy shit do they make a ton of money.

A common thing I often say when discussing things ol' Nintendo does is "any other game...".
Any other game that puts something, anything, behind a paywall gets lambasted to Hell and back. Street Fighter 4. $5 cosmetic DLC packs for a character. Everyone loses it. Evolve. Monster DLC. Everyone loses it. We shat on Skylanders when it was amiibos before amiibos. But that was just one series of games with a central gimmick for kids. But people still thought it was scummy.

But Nintendo?  "Oh we're gonna lock a full game mode behind a $15 Happy Meal Toy with an NFC chip in it." And the crowd goes wild!

"We're also going to intentionally understock it to create artificial demand which will make prices skyrocket and inconsistent making the content not worth the money/effort to get it or just straight up impossible to get at all. And in some cases, like Zelda, we're gonna make sure the amiibo only gives you certain things at random on a 24 hour timer...for $15." Even though the shit in Breath of the Wild is cosmetic, the fact that you pay $15 for each amiibo but you don't get instant gratification for your money is just insane to me. I dare the next Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed to try that.

I know games are expensive and difficult to develop and that some stuff needs to be paid for in a higher premium to recoup costs of great games. So I'm not even complaining that the stuff is paid content at all. I would pay a reasonable price for Fusion mode, happily. It doesn't bother me in the slightest to pay $5 or so for it and further support the good people at Mercury Stream for this amazing game. That goes for anything Nintendo has behind any extra expenditures be it cosmetics, art galleries, or game modes I might like that are traditional DLC. Because at least the price is guaranteed to be what they say and I can get it anytime I want not worrying about it going UP in price.

For all the shit people fling at DLC, season passes, and preorder bonuses, Nintendo is doing the absolute most dickish of them all. But Nintendo's allowed to do it because Nintendo. :l

(There's also the minor issue that I don't need to have all this plastic crap all over the damn place just to get digital shit when I don't even want the figurines themselves but that's really just a personal thing)

 

[WileyWarWeasel]

First they came for the cosmetic items but I didn't care because cosmetic items weren't a major issue.

Then they came for the minor random goodies but I didn't care because random goodies weren't a major issue.

Then they came for the DLC but I didn't care because games are expensive to develop.

Then they came for the game modes but I didn't care even though those same game modes were available in older games in one neat package.

Then they came for me but there was no one left to defend me ;(

 

In other words, if some "AAA" games are now so expensive to develop/market that devs/publishers "must" resort to scammy tactics then that's a good sign that their whole development and marketing process is bloated and inefficient and needs to be rethought.

I suppose paying more and more to get less and less is the sort of "progress" that we have nowadays, and not just for video games.

[Vae]

Samus Returns, itself, was fantastic. Full props to the developer, because even the mechanics I was iffy about turned out to be really well done and fun in gameplay.
I hope this game gets some good scores, because I really want the classic Metroid line to develop upwards from these new elements. And I want more classic-style Metroid games just in general.

I thought things like Fusion mode, the art galleries, and the sound test would be unlockable either EARLY by the amiibo, OR by beating the game.
Nope. You need both.
You need to beat the game, and then use the amiibo.

God, get fucked Nintendo. Who charges $12 for a sound test? Those have been free in games ever since the NES days.
Hell, there was also free unlockable art in Prime 2. It gave you incentive to complete more of the game, because then you unlocked more art. You know, unlockables? Those incentives for replay value?

Fusion mode would not bother me as much if the amiibo were actually obtainable and not shoved into a $20 retail price set pack. And also did not have their own unique game endings.
So if you want all 9 of the game's endings, you need to pay $20 (minimum) now. GG.

The Zero Suit amiibo should have unlocked a suitless game mode instead of a fucking sound test of all things.

It sucks, because these shitty practices are attached to such a stellar game. Between this and the fact that the US market got basically nothing, not even a special packaged amiibo set as a higher-priced preorder option, the marketing side of this game has basically been a giant shitfest that doesn't know what it's doing.

It just offputs me from buying any of the newer Switch or major title 3DS coming out, period, because it just convinces me that these kinds of practices will continue the longer they're supported.

[Imperial Impact]

16 hours ago, Tsuujou said:

Street Fighter 4. $5 cosmetic DLC packs for a character. Everyone loses it.

You're wrong about that. SF4 only had two DLC packs for characters plus roster balancing and other shit.

 

Now DLC costumes are thing people shat on them for.

[Socketosis]

15 hours ago, WileyWarWeasel said:

In other words, if some "AAA" games are now so expensive to develop/market that devs/publishers "must" resort to scammy tactics then that's a good sign that their whole development and marketing process is bloated and inefficient and needs to be rethought.

I'm willing to bet most of the budget goes to people not directly involved with making assets or coding.

[Tsuujou]

5 hours ago, Imperial Impact said:

Now DLC costumes are thing people shat on them for.

Yeah, thats what I'm referring to.

[Imperial Impact]

1 hour ago, Tsuujou said:

Yeah, thats what I'm referring to.

Most of them were ugly as fuck because Capcom lost all their good artists.

[WileyWarWeasel]

5 hours ago, Socketosis said:

I'm willing to bet most of the budget goes to people not directly involved with making assets or coding.

True, the larger the venture or business the less percentage of the budget goes to the people actually providing the product or service. This money tends to go to executives, shareholders, bondholders, consultants, marketers, lawyers and the small army of admin personnel tasked with keeping the bloated machine running somewhat smoothly. This would be the same for video games.

[Nova]

My only problem with amiboos is the price.

15€/$ is way too expensive

7 or 10 €/$ is okay but 15 is legit overpriced.

 

[Tsuujou]

3 hours ago, Nova said:

My only problem with amiboos is the price.

15€/$ is way too expensive

7 or 10 €/$ is okay but 15 is legit overpriced.

 

On top of that, they fluctuate in price because Nintendo doesn't like to supply them properly thinking they're fucking First 4 Figures or some shit.

[Imperial Impact]

7 hours ago, Tsuujou said:

On top of that, they fluctuate in price because Nintendo doesn't like to supply them properly thinking they're fucking First 4 Figures or some shit.

That's Nintendo being Nintendo. Tho, you should be bitching about the scalpers.

[Tsuujou]

49 minutes ago, Imperial Impact said:

That's Nintendo being Nintendo. Tho, you should be bitching about the scalpers.

Scalpers either wouldn't exist or be a problem if content wasn't locked exclusively to the Amiibo OR if they were supplied consistently. It's entirely on Nintendo.
Just make the content easy to purchase like everyone else in this industry does.

[Vae]

9 hours ago, Tsuujou said:

Scalpers either wouldn't exist or be a problem if content wasn't locked exclusively to the Amiibo OR if they were supplied consistently. It's entirely on Nintendo.
Just make the content easy to purchase like everyone else in this industry does.

This.

If the company creates artificial demand, of course scalpers are going to flock to it like flies.

If enough supply exists, there's nothing to scalp.

[Tsuujou]

13 minutes ago, Vae said:

This.

If the company creates artificial demand, of course scalpers are going to flock to it like flies.

If enough supply exists, there's nothing to scalp.

Exactly. Nintendo being Nintendo is exactly my entire problem.

[Imperial Impact]

On 9/21/2017 at 6:39 PM, Tsuujou said:

Scalpers either wouldn't exist or be a problem if content wasn't locked exclusively to the Amiibo OR if they were supplied consistently. It's entirely on Nintendo.
Just make the content easy to purchase like everyone else in this industry does.

I'm pretty sure it was MS's Idea to lock out those things, not Nintendo.

I forgot to mention you could just import them.

[Tsuujou]

36 minutes ago, Imperial Impact said:

I forgot to mention you could just import them.

You missed the entire point again.

[Vae]

1 hour ago, Imperial Impact said:

I forgot to mention you could just import them.

K.

[Tsuujou]

43 minutes ago, Vae said:

K.

I didn't even bother looking up the actual prices because importing them at all is, again, part of the very reason I made this thread in the first place.
But holy mother of fucking Christ on ice, that is insane for some cheapo toys.

[Imperial Impact]

1 hour ago, Tsuujou said:

You missed the entire point again.

You either ;

a. don't complain and shrug it off

or

b. Stop supporting Nintendo and their games and let Metroid die again.

Because Nintendo doesn't care in the long run, Because this is mostly a problem NoA has, Not with just amibos But with everything.

58 minutes ago, Vae said:

K.

According to my friend who lives in the Philippines, They carry tons of them/get a batch of them every week. So obviously this is NoA's problem.

14 minutes ago, Tsuujou said:

I didn't even bother looking up the actual prices because importing them at all is, again, part of the very reason I made this thread in the first place.
But holy mother of fucking Christ on ice, that is insane for some cheapo toys.

Amazon isn't a good site to shop.

Hell, Yahoo of Japan sells them starting at 20,000 yen. 

[Vae]

30 minutes ago, Imperial Impact said:

You either ;

a. don't complain and shrug it off

or

b. Stop supporting Nintendo and their games and let Metroid die again.

I wasn't aware that buying and supporting the game required buying and supporting amiibo, thread complaints aside.

But lol okay, sure.

31 minutes ago, Imperial Impact said:

Because Nintendo doesn't care in the long run, Because this is mostly a problem NoA has, Not with just amibos But with everything.

According to my friend who lives in the Philippines, They carry tons of them/get a batch of them every week. So obviously this is NoA's problem.

Amazon isn't a good site to shop.

Hell, Yahoo of Japan sells them starting at 20,000 yen. 

The Philippines isn't America.
Or Japan.

It also doesn't negate that Nintendo should just stock these things well to begin with, which is what the thread's complaint is about.