Splatoon Amiibo = $10 Pay Wall for Content???

[DaBoss]

I'm not clueless about how game development works either.

The times where day 1 DLC is not on-disc is very rare, and I'm not sure why that kind of day 1 DLC is being brought up in the topic cause it is irrelevant. Day 1 DLC is rarely ever made right after the game has gone gold and the discs have been pressed. They are typically on-disc with you having to download an unlock key. And any amiibo content is definitely being made along with the game if it is going to launch with a new line of amiibo. The budgeting for it is not going to be identical to post-launch DLC where it is much more expensive to make.

But in the end, we won't know how those ideas for the amiibo content came up regardless of how much they budgeted for it. Maybe they planned on having things in the actual game, but decided to have them tied to amiibo.

And that's just the business side of things which shouldn't matter much to us as consumers.

It's fine to not like it, but it's hardly exploitative, especially compared to what most of Nintendo's competition is doing. If any of the content that the Amiibo offered actually mattered to the overall experience, maybe. But the end result is a couple of unique skins and time-passing minigames to play during matchmaking.

As long as paid day 1 DLC feels exploitative by trying to get more money from consumers for people buying the game early in its lifecycle trying to maximize revenue, then it's hard not to view it as exploitative for consumers. In the case of amiibo, this doesn't matter those who are interested in the figurines, figurines, or whatever merchandise for the characters they want. I feel sorry for those people cause of the arguments that come from the content locked behind them.

The bolded is such a terrible argument. It's what fuels the stupid "it's okay if Nintendo does it" argument from the other side. It doesn't matter if Nintendo does it worse or less worse. If it's bad, it's bad regardless of how other companies do it.

Also, Day 1 DLC in other games is typically something that doesn't matter in the overall experience, but it still makes everyone disgruntled about it on principle.

I really don't feel like continuing this discussion as it seems it will go no where. I think I've made my stance clear.

 

[Ryuho]

People complained about the Sonic situation before too, just like people railed on Skylanders and Disney Infinity for hiding content behind figures. And tmk not a lot of games usually had stuff locked behind having savefiles from other games. And even then it's usually from products and games that were out for a while. They generally were actually little thank yous for sticking with their company through several products. Which really isnt the case here, even in the advertising here with them constantly pointing out that the amiibos are required and you can only get the content through amiibo.
And honestly, "the amiibo are helping pay for the content to be made" argument doesnt work for several reasons. One being the obvious fact that making it through a figure makes it MORE expensive. Another thing being that the content itself is either comprised of already in game assets(the missions are switching around weapons you already have in game) or adding content that with average DLC pricing would normally be priced around $1 each if that. :/

 

[DonkaFjord]

People complained about the Sonic situation before too, just like people railed on Skylanders and Disney Infinity for hiding content behind figures. And tmk not a lot of games usually had stuff locked behind having savefiles from other games. And even then it's usually from products and games that were out for a while. They generally were actually little thank yous for sticking with their company through several products. Which really isnt the case here, even in the advertising here with them constantly pointing out that the amiibos are required and you can only get the content through amiibo.
And honestly, "the amiibo are helping pay for the content to be made" argument doesnt work for several reasons. One being the obvious fact that making it through a figure makes it MORE expensive. Another thing being that the content itself is either comprised of already in game assets(the missions are switching around weapons you already have in game) or adding content that with average DLC pricing would normally be priced around $1 each if that. :/

Well at the very least we know last year was the first time Nintendo turned a profit in 3 or so years namely because of Pokemon and Amiibo coupled with other games such as Smash Bros and Mario Kart 8. Not that it really means a lot, but Amiibos are making them money as their consoles and handhelds continue to sell less than their predecessors (Sans the Wii and DS.)
They are a company and their main goal is to churn a profit and there really is no way for them to implement Amiibo in a significant way that justifies their price while at the same time making the content seem useless to people not willing to cough up the cash. There is no way to please everyone.