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Kind of off topic, but it's a real shame that Nintendo is so aggressively proprietary and litigious. If you read the (excellent) book "Super Mario: How Nintend

Kind of off topic, but it's a real shame that Nintendo is so aggressively proprietary and litigious. If you read the (excellent) book "Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America" by Jeff Ryan, you'll see that Nintendo is that to its core and always has been, so I don't expect a change. But it's one of the big tragedies of the world IMHO.

pkaye 2y ago
Part of that was because of the video game industry crash of 1983. Companies would make all kinds of shitty games for the 8-bit consoles of that time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983
mywittyname 2y ago
So is Disney and Apple. Nintendo can't use strategies like IBM or Google to keep their revenue flowing. Aggressively protecting their IP and preventing people from distributing information on piracy is how they protect their business. For as large and old as Nintendo is, a bad decade could crush them.
- __loam 2y ago
  Nintendo has a massive war chest. They'd definitely be fine for a while. But I agree that that got there by protecting their most valuable asset: their IP.
vunderba 2y ago
You're not wrong, but most companies that achieve critical success eventually become rather protective of their IP. I wouldn't be so hyperbolic as to call it a tragedy of the world, it's just kind of a shame. I mean, read up on the history of Activision and how they got started. Atari did everything they could to stop them from producing cartridges for the 2600.
- freedomben 2y ago
  > I wouldn't be so hyperbolic as to call it a tragedy of the world, it's just kind of a shame. Thank you, and agreed, that's very fair analysis. It was pretty hyperbolic.
sircastor 2y ago
I think a lot of gaming and computer companies were like this, especially early on. If you read Console Wars (about Sega during the 3rd generation of consoles) you run into loads of aggressive practices while they all try to build out their market dominance.

pkaye 2y ago

Part of that was because of the video game industry crash of 1983. Companies would make all kinds of shitty games for the 8-bit consoles of that time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983

mywittyname 2y ago

So is Disney and Apple. Nintendo can't use strategies like IBM or Google to keep their revenue flowing. Aggressively protecting their IP and preventing people from distributing information on piracy is how they protect their business. For as large and old as Nintendo is, a bad decade could crush them.

__loam 2y ago
Nintendo has a massive war chest. They'd definitely be fine for a while. But I agree that that got there by protecting their most valuable asset: their IP.

vunderba 2y ago

You're not wrong, but most companies that achieve critical success eventually become rather protective of their IP. I wouldn't be so hyperbolic as to call it a tragedy of the world, it's just kind of a shame. I mean, read up on the history of Activision and how they got started. Atari did everything they could to stop them from producing cartridges for the 2600.

freedomben 2y ago
> I wouldn't be so hyperbolic as to call it a tragedy of the world, it's just kind of a shame. Thank you, and agreed, that's very fair analysis. It was pretty hyperbolic.

sircastor 2y ago

I think a lot of gaming and computer companies were like this, especially early on. If you read Console Wars (about Sega during the 3rd generation of consoles) you run into loads of aggressive practices while they all try to build out their market dominance.