Through its use of creative worlds, the lack of first-party games rated T or M by the ESRB, and the vast assortment of toys associated with its most popular characters, Nintendo has successfully cultivated a family-friendly image over the years. Unfortunately, the company's higher-ups aren't literal Jim Henson Company puppets. Like Sony, Microsoft, and every other player in the video game industry, Nintendo is staffed by ordinary people. This means that, despite its friendly facade, Nintendo isn't exactly perfect, as some may believe.
As a company that has been involved with video games since the late 1970s, Nintendo has a long, storied history that could fill several books. As such, the company is liable to have encountered a controversy or two. Not all of Nintendo's dust-ups have been the result of malintent, but others don't exactly paint the company in the best of lights, either. Here's a list of potentially shady incidents that may interfere with the wholesome image that Nintendo has maintained over the decades.
Good write up. Nintendo certainly do get a decent free-pass by gamers when it comes to a lot of this stuff.
I don't like and buy everything Nintendo... But I love their family friendly approach to good old simple colorful fun... I used to love more mature games like say the last of us but the second game made me quite depressed about the gratuitious extreme violence and suffering and I have been looking for lighter hearted games ever since. Ratchet and Clank plus Kena look promising on PS5 but Nintendo consistently produces fun and creative games over the years vs the emphasis on cinematic experiences and realism (all too often violent) by the competition.
The most recent Nintendo incident happened earlier this week with the Mario 35th anniversary pin set #1.
Nintendo advertises it, then only produces a small batch, even though they knew in advance that 80% of the people who bought Super Mario 3D All*Stars wouldn't get one.
Do they make more to satisfy demand? No.
Do they apologize to those left out? No.
Do they acknowledge that they basically scammed people into buying the game early to get a free pin set, only to end up not making good on their offer? No of course not.
Nintendo acts like their shit don't stink, and that's a problem. I thought the Wii U debacle would have humbled them a little bit, but they've seen amazing success with the Switch and they're back to their old selfish and ignorant ways.
Don't forget they pay off reviewers.
Let's talk about the shady side of Sony on this website.