Nintendo’s restrictive policies make perfect sense

 

Even if you are not a gamer you most likely know about Nintendo’s existence and position on the gaming industry, but the restrictive policies they are very fond of enacting are something of a less known fact outside the community, so lets have a small recap for the casuals out there.

As with every company Nintendo likes to protect their properties, but the gaming industry is one that heavily relies on the sense of community built by the players.

This goes back to the very fact that gaming consoles have always been relatively expensive, making people choose one and stick with it and whatever games and policies they come with. If not due to loyalty at the very least to validate their own choices.

Gaming companies have caught onto this and throw jabs at each other while making a statement of their own strong points, all in the name of building themselves as the best company.

If a console is too expensive the other companies will make a point of being cheaper, if one lacks processing power the others wil make a point of their own hardware.

If one its too family oriented the others are “hardcore and extreme,” if one is stagnating the others are innovative, and so on and on.

Then, why is Nintendo so focused on restricting their intellectual property?

Around the net there are plenty of fan games that are consistently targeted with Cease & Desist notices from the “Nintendo Ninjas,” the community name for Nintendo’s legal team.

The moment a company’s legal team has a slang name we know they are much more active than one would expect from regular companies, the Nintendo Ninjas not only target fan games but also personalized products sold on the net, and tournaments that use emulators.

For the non-gamer it looks very reasonable that companies use legal action to enforce their control over their intellectual property, but the gaming community is very handsy with the code of videogames. There is a whole section of fans dedicated to modify games to create extra content for free, all for the love of the art.

This creates a positive loop where the community gets interested in a game, and the modifications (Mods) keep the interest going on for months and years to come while generating tons of advertising via mouth-to-mouth, which is a particularly powerful way of advertisement becausee the players themselves have nothing to gain from the advertising, and are doing it solely for the joy of sharing something they like.

Just as movie studios have been trying to make every movie into a shared universe, so the gaming companies aim to create communities based around their products. Nintendo is no exception as this creates an ecosystem where their own products work as advertisement for the others, and the community encourages new players to give a try to other games from the same company

Then why?

What does Nintendo has to gain from threatening legal action against fans who create their own content and distribute it for free?

NOTHING.

Nothing really, that is mostly a misconception

For you see, while a community can create a positive feedback on a product it can also create a negative one. Plenty of gaming communities have become so toxic that new players are taken aback by displays of elitism and general assholery and simply abandon some games to avoid themselves the drama.

Nintendo is particularly mindful of that, to the point they limit the means of online communication during games.

While most online multiplayers games have live voice chat, Nintendo games use a roundabout way that requires a smartphone and an app. This seems overly convoluted and it is, precisely because the point is to discourage people from talking during their games.

This creates a sense of disconnection and the chat becomes an extra that people must go out of their way to obtain, and not a key feature of the game. Sure, some investment will be lost this way, but the upside is that it discourages people from being assholes online.

I mean, its one thing to connect to a videogame, get annoyed by other players and throw and receive some insults, but setting up a smartphone and an app to do the same feels like a waste of time. It feels like the player is going out of their way to get into the toxicity.

This is Nintendo’s goal, they are perfectly ok with losing some engagement from the community as long as they can keep it family friendly. Considering this is their end goal market it makes perfect sense, its like refusing to add a bar to your restaurant in order to keep the family restaurant license.

The same happens with fan content, Nintendo does not really care if they take down some projects made from fans out of love for their games, but not doing so leaves open the risk of people creating content that can muddy the image Nintendo cultivates.

Sure, some streamers playing Nintendo games would make for good advertisement, but some streamers being assholes while playing Nintendo games will make the company look bad.

Same with the fan games, same with the personalized products, the benefits gained from some extra advertising doesn't come close to the damage a brand can get if people are assholes while advertising them.

The open use of the brand seems to be the most important part, as the company usually doesn't care if someone is making clear knock-off products as long as they take the effort to make them non-official.

Take the joycons for example, this mini controllers have spawned tons of customizable carcasses and Nintendo rarely cares as long as they are not advertised as “Joycons,” which is their trademarked name.

The thing Nintendo really wants is plausible deniability, the ability to say “we have nothing to do with that weird thing you saw online,” and that's where many fans get it wrong.

Sure, modding, fangames, personalized accessories and emulators are a very common thing on the videogame community, but they are still illegal.

And, well.

WHEN DOING SOMETHING ILLEGAL THE OBVIOUS COURSE OF ACTION IS TO BE DISCREET ABOUT IT.

If you want to make a pokemon fangame don’t advertise it until its complete, then you can let people download it and claim you had nothing to do with it. And please don’t make a crowdfunding campaing.

If you want to use emulators for your tournament dont post it on the net, just e-mail people and tell them it will happen at a time and hour.

If you want to sell official-looking merchandise without a franchise contract just do it via personal request, don’t advertise in on the front page of your site.

The thing is, Nintendo relies mostly on traditional advertising, the commercials they can control and run as much as they want, so there is no real reason for them to risk their image just to get the backing of a few influencers.

Nintendo plays the long game, and there is no point on getting a small bump on advertising from fans if that risks getting a bad image on the long run. And they simply don't care enough to make a case-by-case review of all the stuff out there, be it by lack of staff or lack on interest, so its easier to send a Cease & Desist every time they come across anything weird instead of spending hours or days checking if its PG-13.

This is a case where the fans overestimated how much weight they have on the great scheme of things, or more precisely, they failed to see that they also can have a negative impact, not only a positive one.

Nintendo can be assholes about it, but so can the fans. Better not take any risks.

So, that’s it, if you want to make a Nintendo fan product just make sure you have plausible deniability. They don’t really care about you, they care about themselves, so don’t give them a reason to care.