We're adding Rabbids to everything, and the results are nightmarish indeed.
We've escaped Isle Delfino, and return to our normal show this week. Greg and James are both still early in Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. Yes, Rabbids are objectively terrible, but this XCOM-inspired strategy crossover is a quite a bit of frustrating fun. Jon has a quick look at a pair of Housemarque games: Matterfall and Nex Machina, both on PS4. Nex Machina is of particular interest, as it borrows liberally from Robotron and Smash TV (including their designer) and could wind up on Switch one day. Guillaume wraps up New Business with a look at Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, liberated from his local library.
With some time to spare in the first segment, the team does a quick review of the Nindies event on Wednesday, and picks out some of the most interesting titles. No, but for real, Travis is back.
After the break, it's time for Listener Mail. This week we're asked: what's the next Rabbids crossover, when can we expect to see Mario and Sonic at the Olympics at the Olympics, what's holding back the video game equivalent of the "cinematic universe", and what it would take for Nintendo to prove to us that they're serious about online. You can write us questions that are obviously just things you want to hear us read out loud by sending us an email.
But hearing the conversation really felt like Nintendo was being kicked for the past when IMO it's been FREE for so long.
But hearing the conversation really felt like Nintendo was being kicked for the past when IMO it's been FREE for so long.
Counter point - what better way to make a guess on how they'll handle their online services for the switch than looking at every past system they offered online for?
The only Wii U game I can think of that had good voice chat is MH3U.
Kobeskillz, bear in mind, i'm not trying to pile-on any criticism at you personally. And at some point, it's belaboring a point that isn't changing any opinions. I don't think anyone here is looking for everyone to have the same opinion, otherwise conversation would be pointless. That said;
Paying for a subscription for online services is a relatively new experience. For PC players, it's still basically unheard of unless you're doing so as part of an MMO subscription. Even when Microsoft did it for Xbox live on the 360, the trade-off was that the feature set and consistency of how well it worked was so much better than what Playstation 3 was offering with their free service that people could rationalize themselves paying for the service because the ecosystem was so much better than the alternatives that the value was worth it. It's also worth remembering that Playstation Plus didn't start as them charging for online as a trade-off to improve their service to parity with Microsoft. It started as a "free games" program where they gave subscribers a few free games a month on PS3 and additional discounts on other games. It only became a required service with the PS4, where the tools ARE better than what the PS3 were for online capabilities.
The question to me, given all this, is "What is Nintendo offering beyond what they currently have to justify gating online multiplayer behind a subscription?". We don't know for sure. But what they have revealed IMO isn't promising - that it's going to be relegated to a separate app rather than built into the system hardware itself, vague promises of a Netflix-like service for a selection of NES games. These, in my opinion, are somewhere ranging between a minor addition (NES games), an inconvenient system to enable online matchmaking (a separate app that hogs the usage of a separate mobile device), to big question marks (what does a netflix-style NES catalog mean for Virtual Console?). It doesn't inspire confidence to me personally that we'll be paying for something that's an actual net-addition to their online service, given the little bit of example we currently have.
I saw a rationalization for Microsoft and Sony charging for their services at the time they initiated them, I don't see the value-add justification from Nintendo, and it's partially a messaging fault on their end.
The core question in my mind - Which of the reasons is Nintendo starting a paid subscription service?
- Because they recognize the need for their online services to be closer in parity to their competitors?
- Because they know Microsoft/Sony are enjoying a revenue stream they currently aren't exploiting, and are trying to figure out how they can justify it to their customer?
Because they've waffled and tweaked what they said they're going to offer a few times, the cynic in me has started assuming it's the latter. And because that's the end from which I believe they're approaching this, I don't have much confidence in the outcome.
Sure, I see your points.
I think in respect to RFN, they've been playing Nintendo games, reporting on Nintendo, and chatting about Nintendo on a podcast for quite a while, which I imagine could add to the cynicism. Additionally, Jon Lindemann has expressed displeasure several times at the gulf between Nintendo's online services and every other one, so it's not necessarily surprising he's as down on Nintendo about this subject as he was on the episode.
Only other thing I'll say on this - I hope they don't look to give a "both sides to the story" mindset to all the topics they cover on the show. For the Super Mario Sunshine retroactive, they pushed hard against Jon and Soren's withering comments about the game and gave much more spotlight to the game's ardent defenders than the detractors.
I think that's a fair thing to do for a retrospective that'll garner a lot of people revisiting a game they love. I think the world demands too much "both sides to the discussion carry equal weight" mindset as it is.
Reminds me of the splatoon episode. The guys dumped **** on Splatoon and i came here and said the same thing about the negativity and it turned out splatoon was a great game that gave us great free content.
People got defensive in that thread too.
Sorry guys. Didn't mean to bring an opinion.
Reminds me of the splatoon episode. The guys dumped **** on Splatoon and i came here and said the same thing about the negativity and it turned out splatoon was a great game that gave us great free content.
People got defensive in that thread too.
Sorry guys. Didn't mean to bring an opinion.
I really hope you don't take this thread as people trying to criticize you for your opinion. We all love Nintendo here (why else would we be hanging out on a Nintendo-centric website?), but most criticism I've been trying to levy here has been from a position of wishing Nintendo could meet the potential of how good their ecosystem COULD be.
I mean, there's a decade of competent networks to draw best practices upon and mimic. Why reinvent the wheel when there's a standard that exists, that works well, and makes customers happy?