Techdirt. Stories filed under "reggie fils-aime" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "reggie fils-aime"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Wed, 9 Feb 2011 12:07:07 PST Nintendo President: The Free Market Is Not A Game We Like To Play Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110209/03101413020/nintendo-president-anything-bad-my-business-model-is-bad-everyone-else.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110209/03101413020/nintendo-president-anything-bad-my-business-model-is-bad-everyone-else.shtml used video games were bad for consumers (yes, he said that) and his latest, via Slashdot, is to claim that cheap games are a risk to the entire video game industry.

His main concern, it appears, are games for mobile phones that run a dollar or two. He's complaining that these games:
Create a mentality for the consumer that a piece of gaming content should only be $2
Darn those consumers for actually going where the market goes, when Nintendo apparently would prefer to keep things priced at what the market doesn't like. Welcome to the modern world, Reggie, where prices change, and businesses adapt. I'm sure the last laptop you bought cost a lot less than the one you bought a decade ago, but that didn't herald the end of laptops. It's a digital age: prices get cheaper, and the only companies that are really at risk are those who don't adapt and don't learn to be more efficient. Oh, wait... perhaps he's telling us something about his employer...

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]]> no-cheat-codes-in-the-real-world http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110209/03101413020 Fri, 3 Apr 2009 11:56:00 PDT Nintendo Boss: Used Video Games Aren't Good For Consumers Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090403/0212534367.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090403/0212534367.shtml highlighting the most ridiculous part of a VentureBeat interview of Reggie Fils-Aime, the president of Nintendo of America:
VB: Used games are coming up as a big issue again. Why?

RFA: More and more retailers are experimenting with the used game model. We don't believe used games are in the best interest of the consumer. We have products that consumers want to hold onto. They want to play all of the levels of a Zelda game and unlock all of the levels. A game like Personal Trainer Cooking has a long life. We believe used games aren't in the consumer's best interest.

VB: Because?

RFA: Describe another form of entertainment that has a vibrant used goods market. Used books have never taken off. You don't see businesses selling used music CDs or used DVDs. Why? The consumer likes having a brand-new experience and reliving it over and over again. If you create the right type of experience, that also happens in video games.
First off, it's rather stunning to claim that a vibrant used market isn't in the best interest of consumers. As studies have shown repeatedly, healthy second-hand markets actually help both consumers and original producers because it adds more value to the product. That's rather obvious once you think about it. If someone knows they can resell the product at a decent price later, then it both lowers the risk and increases the value of the original product. On top of that, the used market also helps better differentiate on pricing, again benefiting both customers and producers.

Second, it's quite odd to claim that there's no used book, used CD or used DVD market. A few years back we noted that the used book market had become a multibillion dollar industry, and you just need to look on, say, Amazon or eBay to see thriving sales of used books, CDs and DVDs. To claim that there's no such market either shows ignorance of the market or is an outright lie -- neither of which is a good thing.

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