NoA's CEO, Jack Bowser, was an EA vicepresident. Iwata, a game programmer, was succeeded by a banker and then an economist.
All the decisions they make nowdays, including adding more globohomo to their games, can be explained by this
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Pretty much why every company eventually comes to suck. The artistic and technological visionaries that build them up inevitably get replaced by bean counters who only ever want to see numbers go up.
Used to be that things would cycle. Either the old thing would die and some young upstart would come in and replace it, or there'd be a "rebirth," breathing new life and vitality into the elder, course correcting and being reborn.
Nowadays, old, dying things are kept on life support, so they don't even get the chance to be reborn. They just truck on like the shambling dinosaurs they are.
Sign of a decaying culture. Crippled by nostalgia, no innovation, constant rent-seeking, anything new is fake & gay
Car companies are probably the best example of this anywhere. 60 - 70 years ago, they were almost all founded and/or ran by people who were either racers or people who had built their first cars themselves by hand. Then they passed them to their sons, who did better or worse. Then eventually, the company goes public and some random retard ends up in control who doesn't give a shit about cars and just wants to make money.
GM is now ran by Mary Barra, a pure DEI hire with zero talent. Under her leadership, they killed Pontiac, then they killed Holden, then they killed the Camaro and I'll be stunned if they don't try to kill the Corvette next.
The cycle Honda has been going through since the founder passed.
They go through cycles of electing someone who wants Honda to go racing like they're supposed to, then some bean counter who says racing is too expensive and stifles the company.
They're the idiots to leave F1 multiple times with their Logo on a championship winning car after years of fighting... As soon as they make a fun new car the bean counters are quick to kill it.
I don't understand why we can't ever have companies that just want to see number be green. Why must number go up if the number is already green?
Legally, thanks to Dodge v. Ford, they must act in the interest of the shareholders. People who have usually little interest in the company as it exists or what it makes, only that their "investment" in it grows. If they do not work to make line keep going up, they can be ousted and replaced incredibly easily.
While that's only American law, globalization and international companies mean they often are forced to adhere to things like that in their biggest markets and operate accordingly.
They don't have to make line go up if they pay out dividends.
S corporations even have restrictions on making line go up, and must pay out in most circumstances.
Besides double taxation, dividends are boring and a sign the company peaked and can no longer innovate.
Meanwhile, growth companies are sexy and people get dopamine hits watching line go up, even if that growth resembles cancer than anything sustainable. Plus it gives the C-suite opportunities to pad their stock options before they pull the ripcords to their golden parachutes.
Don't forget mission creep. You can't just excel in your market, you need to excel in every market. If you make great high end sports cars it becomes lets all make mid level sports cars then low level. Sure, you're still in the same game but people at the high end get resentful and move on. Then it becomes "OH. Let's make family cars now!" And now your sports car development suffers.
Dodge v. Ford is not a Supreme Court decision.
Dodge v. Ford is a Michigan state court decision.
Yet no one challenges it
A lot of American "law" is just random Executive Orders, barely read bills, or state rulings that we all just play along with.
Its one of the reasons why Roe v Wade was able to be overturned, because no one bothered to actually put it into real writing. They just left it as it was, floating easily about to be destroyed with any effort by anyone who was willing to take the hit to their reputation.
Its also the reason why we sometimes see really retarded "Virginia outlaws slavery in 2011" ideas. Because its better to get that on the record than leave it in that floating state.
They replaced thinking with math.
That's a fantastic line. I'm stealing that.
it'd be nice if consumers actually get some fucking standards and stop buying the slop.
The only reason we're in this mess is we have too many retards with no impulse control
I’ll give credit to Reggie for supposedly suggesting that Wii Sports be made a pack-in game for the Wii, but really NoA got worse under him. Guy was a massive gatekeeper of games coming out in North America during his tenure and Nintendo of Europe repeatedly put Nintendo of America to shame. Not to mention how Nintendo’s localization team became a woke disaster under his leadership.
I still love that the NoA head is named the same as one of Nintendo's most iconic villains.
Name alone should have disqualified him.
Banksters are gangsters.
Also, they still use the Treehouse for localization. The same one that translated a 50-line dialogue about the morality of murder from the view of a set of professional spies, into "..." "..." "..." "..." END SCENE because ninjas quiet HAHA HAHA HAHA.
Nintendo died with Iwata, but it'll take soy-infused persons longer to notice.
What do I say to my kid that wants the new Pokemon game for birthday? I've already indefinitely delayed purchasing a Switch 2, and I can deny myself the new Metroid game, but how do I stick to principal for a reasonable request since it will work on our current switch?
Sometimes you just can't win in a way that makes everyone happy, not with children. One of the hardest parts of this culture war is denying them, who cannot understand the complexities and denying themselves.
For my part, I got my kids emulated versions of better games. Might not be an option for you though.
Honestly, if you've got a decent PC and/or Steamdeck (never tried it there, but the Steam page says it works) my vote would be Palworld instead (or, ideally, 2 copies of Palworld since it's half the price and then you (or other family members) can play with him).
Been a bigger and better game since the early access release, been getting continuing updates since then, and last week they announced it's coming out of early access in early 2026.
Is ''no'' not an option anymore? Most kids don't get such expensive gifts.
BEWARE : The new Pokémon games will require an online subscription to access relatively important parts of it, and will have DLCs / extra fees that your kids will demand you pay for.
When I was a kid it frustrated me but it's normal to deal with the frustration of not getting things you want but don't need.
I also suggest retro-emulation ; there are sub-$100 handheld consoles.
Ex : BATLEXP G350, you can find it for ~$40. It will run everything up to PS1 / PSP. Larger screen option, Anbernic RG40XX H at ~$75.
Check this video for some recommendations at different price points, but that video dosen't feature larger size budget options ( the ''king'' of that was the Trimui Smart Pro but price increased a bit, other options like Magmi Air X at $90 abound ) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJRVCQMzo-U
Same channel has alot more reviews. They have a website too, might be fun to check with your kids what fits in your budget. https://retrogamecorps.com/
They have full guides on how to set up your emulators depending on which console / OS you have. They only thing they will not provide or or link for are the ROMs, but those aren't hard to find.
Edit : It seems you can once again order the Trimui Smart Pro from various Aliexpress sellers for less than $50 ( do make sure the seller has ''AliExpress commitment'' and sold 1k+ units ).
People remember how lame their non-gamer parents were buying video games in past birthdays and vowed to be cool gaming parents for their own children.
Wait for reviews on the new metroid game. Aside from the gimmick motorcycle, the gameplay looks exactly the same as any other prime game.
You could also get your kid an affordable pocketable handheld that can run emulators, instead of a difficult to transport $500 tablet (switch 2). /r/SBCGaming/ over on reddit.
yup. everything good about Nintendo since Iwata's is death, namely the switch console in and of itself and splatoon, were all downstream from Iwata's vision. Nintendo has become further and further disconnected from that vision, and the high cost of continuing with Nintendo is the straw that broke the camel's back.
the writing was on the wall when the new Nintendo direct stopped featuring the CEO of Nintendo. Iwata put his reputation on the line by featuring himself front and center in Nintendo's advertisements. In a corporate way, it felt like an artist presenting his work. Now, the direct is nothing but a slideshow of corporate advertisements.
Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aheV8nY0zcM