I don’t think it’s a niche market, personally. But of course I could be wrong, it would be neat to do a study. I assume Nintendo adults like us with kids makes up a noticeable number of sales. Sure, there’s probably a larger market in New kids in general, but I wouldn’t discount this demographic completely.

But I agree wholeheartedly with you that Nintendo’s stance towards its customers is abrasive at best.

Nintendo sells stuff for children of all ages, and I would bet that a significant customer base is adults who want to continue their childhood hobby. Not enough to make a console unprofitable, but surely enough to make a dent. And I have to say as an adult Nintendo kid who is an unabashed pirate, I actually still own a significant amount of switch games. Pirates don’t pay for everything, but not every pirate pays for nothing.

Yeah, I wouldn’t count on emulator developers being paid out. That feels like either bait, or maybe even Nintendo buying the emulator to use on the switch 2 for backwards compatibility.

Allegedly, not all switch games will be backwards compatible, leading to people assuming it’s emulated rather than similar architecture. Either way, it’s an ARM CPU, an Nvidia GPU that’s probably DLSS capable and maybe even capable of framegen. It sounds like it may be tougher to emulate, but definitely still possible on more modern hardware. It’s gonna be neat to watch.

They’ve got a perfect storm building here. Significant price increases, a recession thats likely to officially hit sometime just after release, tariffs, and a growing disdain for Nintendo’s anti piracy efforts.

They better hope that the performance increases make it technically prohibitive to emulate.

That’s kinda what I meant, and its something I’m rather worried about.

This shit is somewhat agreeable now, because Pal World is so similar, but once this door is opened, it’s never going to let developers have the freedom to invent and innovate, because crusty old bullies want to use the legal system to punish anyone that dares resemble 2-3 decade old game mechanics.

Should platformer games pay royalties to Nintendo for having the first character to jump twice it’s height?

Video game companies rent seeking for “game mechanics patents” on old shit is just ironically anti fun.

I kind of did the opposite. I assumed the change would be negligible or in the customer’s benefit based on Valve’s track record. I hope this never changes.

Yeah, short sightedness seems like the biggest defining factor of the anti union mindset.

I know a generally wonderful human being, taking care of his disabled parents, scraping by at a manufacturing job. He is hardcore against unions, says that he can negotiate for himself.

We’re fucked.

If you have any interest in playing a good Pokemon game, Pokemon Legends Arceus is excellent. Palword may be just a bit better, but if you have a lingering nostalgia and a desire for some fresh and well executed mechanics in the Pokemon universe, PLA slaps.

I would love to see Valve allow refunds. This was not an agreed upon stipulation at the time of purchase. If they pull the game from you now so soon after purchase, is it not grounds for a refund? Give Sony the choice to backtrack or lose money.

Already out my man, it’s called Palworld, and it’s great.

As pessimistic as it sounds, I think you’re right. There’s likely some back pay they will have to give to the workforce they fired, which is a pittance compared to what they stand to earn as they milk their purchase dry.