Nintendo Switch: Thread 2: The Drift

[Blinder Data]

Japan's infrastructure isn't suited to working in an office, let alone from home. I speak from gruelling professional experience there

RE: WFH in Japan, in the cities don't people live in tiny shoeboxes which leads to spending more time eating at restaurants and meeting people outdoors? It wouldn't surprise me that this also means no one's apartment is set up for home-working. Someone I know in Japan would rent karaoke booths to practise her violin because to do so in her own apartment might risk the wrath of all the tenants in the building, possibly even voting to kick her out. It sounds an oppressive way of living.

Yes, loving these stories, popcorn

[popcorn]

RE: WFH in Japan, in the cities don't people live in tiny shoeboxes which leads to spending more time eating at restaurants and meeting people outdoors? It wouldn't surprise me that this also means no one's apartment is set up for home-working.

Yep, this is very common. I lived in an apartment block of one-room units (they call them 1K apartments). My fridge was next to my pillow. Hardly ever cooked, just ate cheap noodles or ramen whatever every night. Great fun but working from home wouldn't have been.

[Chedney Honks]

Look, tell us about the ladyboys.

[popcorn]

Regarding this:

endless meetings in which senior managers would literally go to sleep,

Was just reading this article about the virtual boy which says:

Lipsey gave his usual demonstration, which included a long slideshow of potential applications, with Jack Plimpton translating. The pair sat directly across from Nintendo Chairman Hiroshi Yamauchi. Near the end of the presentation, Lipsey heard a dull thud. He looked up and saw Yamauchi face down on the table. "His head fell on his hand, on the table, and he's sound asleep," recalls Lipsey. "Everybody else was just sitting there, nobody does anything."

On the way out, Lipsey turned to Plimpton and said, "Well, that was a waste of a plane ticket to Japan." Plimpton replied, "No, that was amazing! In Japanese business, that was the senior guy sending the message to his underlings that they could proceed. They didn't need him to be involved anymore–the project is a go!"

I don't actually believe this claim Lipsey made about "sending a signal in Japanese business". I think Yamauchi was just a sleepy old man who didn't care about the meeting, and was just around as a kind of grandfatherly figurehead. My company had similar sleepy old men. It is STUPID. They should be IN A HOME.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Yep, this is very common. I lived in an apartment block of one-room units (they call them 1K apartments). My fridge was next to my pillow. Hardly ever cooked, just ate cheap noodles or ramen whatever every night. Great fun but working from home wouldn't have been.

It sounds like a laugh riot.

[Kelvin]

Just a little curiosity, but Nintendo have revealed how much a few executives get paid, and also some info about their employees.

https://www.vg247.com/2020/07/23/miyamoto-nintendo-salary/

https://gamerant.com/nintendo-employee-age-wages/

President Shuntaro Furukawa is the highest earner on Nintendo's payroll, having brought home ¥258 million ($2.4 million) in the company's last fiscal year. Shigeru Miyamoto earned ¥192 million ($1.79 million), while Shinya Takahashi took home ¥132 million ($1.23 million).

Which we can all agree is a lot of money, probably more than any one person needs to earn in a year. It's quite amusing comparing it to some of their competitors, though:

For example, last year GamesIndustry.biz published a report on the most overpaid CEOs in the US games industry. Activision's Bobby Kotick earns an absurd $28,698,375 per annum – a whopping 306 times the salary of an average staff member at the company.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson earns $35,728,764, a figure for which 97% of shareholders voted in favour. That's 371 times the average EA staff member's annual salary.

The GamesIndustry report emphasizes the fact that the average CEO to worker ratio across the US' 500 largest companies is 142:1, indicating that Kotick and Wilson are not only overpaid by comparison, but grossly so.

Now, Miyamoto and the Nintendo executives are said to earn approx 27 times more than what some Nintendo employees earn, which is also pretty outrageous. But Andrew Wilson earning 371 times the wage of the average EA employee! Unbelievable.

The annual report covered Nintendo's financial year from April 2019 to the end of March of this year. According to the report, the company employed 2,395 different individuals. The average age of these employees was 39.2 years old, and on average stayed with the company for 13.9 years, making a mean wage of 86,583 USD a year.

That pay is a bit misleading, though, as it includes the executive wages.

Anyway, it's a small peek behind the curtain.

[Bazooka]

"Thanks to loot boxes, my family can take care of my funeral costs, after I'm gone"

[Goldentony]

imagine kicking miyamoto as hard as you could in the bollocks right outside HQ

[imitationleather]

Just did level B2 of Luigi's Mansion. I see what people mean about the levels getting more interesting as it goes on. I think my favourite so far has been Paranormal Productions. Just a really interesting puzzle combined with beautiful level design. I loved how looking through the camera makes everything appear different with special effects.

This game has just been constant joy for me.

[Kelvin]

Just did level B2 of Luigi's Mansion. I see what people mean about the levels getting more interesting as it goes on. I think my favourite so far has been Paranormal Productions. Just a really interesting puzzle combined with beautiful level design. I loved how looking through the camera makes everything appear different with special effects.

This game has just been constant joy for me.

Yeah, some great puzzles in Paranormal Productions, probably the game's best floor - although there are still several bangers ahead. The rubber ring stuff in B2 is the game's low point, so if you're past that, the rest's a pleasure. 

[Kelvin]

Oh, by the way, pop back to Paranormal Productions later in the game.

[imitationleather]

I actually got past B2 problem-free! I'm pretty shit at games so I surprised myself. I could see that if I'd kept bursting the rubber ring over and over it would have been a nightmare. The sort of issue that has made me give up on games in the past.

[madhair60]

Luigi's Mansion 3 is a highly acclaimed title that is still somehow underrated. I love it.

The second one on 3DS is brilliant too, but obviously not AS brilliant

[Sheffield Wednesday]

Switch is done.

I've had enough of Covid and I've had enough of the fucking Switch.

See you for the next gen.

[brat-sampson]

You'll be back for SMTV you broody god-murdering reprobate.

For now though you may as well CartmanFreeze until 2021.

[popcorn]

After seeing SMTV mentioned on forums for weeks and assuming it stood for Super Mario something, like Super Mario TV or Super Mario Terminal Velocity, I have googled it and been disappointed.

[brat-sampson]

Not sure how anyone can be disappointed with Cat Deeley.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Not sure how anyone can be disappointed with Cat Deeley.

She named her first son Milo after the dog from The Mask.

[thelittlemango]

Some naked pictures of her and Patrick Kielty leaked a few years ago, which was quite off-putting.

[Pink Gregory]

Should have one by xmastime or nearabouts and I am excited.  I know that in theory I should wait until the inevitable revision comes out but I don't really play those kinds of horsepower-y games so I reckon I'll be alright.

I hope Bayonetta 3 actually happens.

[kalowski]

Shoponix has Switches for sale when they are unavailable everywhere else on the planet.
Anyone heard of this place or is it dodgy as hell?

[kngen]

No idea about the legitimacy of Shoponix, but there are definitely Switch supplies trickling back onto the market. I got one last Saturday (my local Gamestop got 4 in, and sold them in 10 minutes - had I arrived 30 seconds later, I would have missed out). I'm in the US, though.

[popcorn]

What is it about Nintendo and prices? I don't understand how Mario Kart 8, which came out 6 years ago, is £40 second hand in Cex.

[SavageHedgehog]

They've become what Disney were in the 90s, except as far as I know they haven't bought the rights to the Doug franchise (yet).

[Pink Gregory]

What is it about Nintendo and prices? I don't understand how Mario Kart 8, which came out 6 years ago, is £40 second hand in Cex.

I read something that implied that Ninty under-ship and presumably print far fewer copies than other publishers because part of their brand is a perception of a premium priced and valuable product.

Presuming that CEX price things based on a rarity/popularity ratio?

[Bazooka]

What is it about Nintendo and prices? I don't understand how Mario Kart 8, which came out 6 years ago, is £40 second hand in Cex.

Because the Wii U is still flying off the shelves.

[peanutbutter]

I don't really see the issue with Nintendo games retaining their value via whatever means it is they use. The rest of the industry's model of trying to harangue people into pre-ordering and buying as many copies as possible on launch resulting in the games being almost worthless within a few years doesn't seem like a great alternative and Nintendo definitely wouldn't survive pursuing it either.


MK8 is £12 for Wii U in CEX.

[popcorn]

MK8 is £12 for Wii U in CEX.

Obviously MK8 is a cheeky example because it's a port, but 1) it's difficult to find ports that are full price even at launch, because they're already old and 2) it's a port that came out more than three fucken years ago.

The Nintendo Store is an extraordinary racket too. Pretty much everything on it is more expensive than getting a physical copy which you can resell.

[brat-sampson]

The games hold value because they never really put them on sale and because they maintain their perceived value by being fucking good games. It's self-fulfilling, but if they were stinkers, it wouldn't work.

[Ferris]

Obviously MK8 is a cheeky example because it's a port, but 1) it's difficult to find ports that are full price even at launch, because they're already old and 2) it's a port that came out more than three fucken years ago.

The Nintendo Store is an extraordinary racket too. Pretty much everything on it is more expensive than getting a physical copy which you can resell.

I was gonna buy skyrim on switch ("ooh handheld skyrim, nice!") because we're moving and my consoles are going in storage for a bit but the fucker was $80 (50 quid?)

50 quid! For a game nearly 10 years old! Cunts