Nintendo Accused of Monopolizing The Gaming Industry - circa 1991

[@the_one_gio]

I feel bad for the game counselor that had to assist with Battletoads. "Okay, for the turbo tunnel the secret is to get good"

[@cavernadofilme5651]

@@pghdave420 I agree. If the kid could memorize the obstacles it wasn’t that hard. Me and my brother had written on paper the order of each obstacle and we would switch places practicing the stage until we mastered it and could always easily beat that stage in co op

[@reoire843]

git gud

[@megadriveleo]

I got to the final level in battletoads thrice and I just can't beat it

[@davidnec571]

The turbo tunnel was manageable if you can just make it to the warp. It allowed you to skip the most difficult part.

[@jx4219]

I NEVER made it past that stage. Not once. But i last played when i was like 10.

[@6piecechickenmcnuggets23]

“Nintendo controls 85 percent of the US video game market.” “Toys R Us is the biggest toy retailer in the US.” Crazy how times change.

[@tylerl4320]

I’m not shocked at that. I mean, this is before the Genesis came out.

[@BKDDY]

Nintendo still controls 65% of the market.

[@tylerl4320]

BKDDY you sure? lol.

[@marcozolo3536]

@@BKDDY 😂 oh yeh and Commodore, Atari and Sega control the other 35% lol

[@AB365_Official]

Tyler L this is after, you probably mean before Sonic.

[@Khan-bq8qc]

It's funny how in the end he compares the nintendo situation with a hypothetical situation involving Sony and video players, and basically predicts the whole blu-ray thing

[@ATTJ7628]

And literally no one used Blu-ray

[@Arbteron]

@@ATTJ7628 what

[@mutalix]

@@ATTJ7628 Huh? Lots of folks use Blu-ray, besides streaming its the only viable option for 4KHD movie watching.

[@Eidlones]

@@ATTJ7628 Before streaming your only way to watch recorded stuff in HD was Blu-Ray. The competitor for it, HDDVD, was beat out because a Blu-Ray player came built into the PS3. Physical media has dropped off cause of streaming (I predict it'll come back a bit with how streaming services treats it content lately), but Blu-Ray has been dominating since 2006. 17 years

[@emmettturner9452]

@@ATTJ7628 Where did you get that idea? It was never as popular as DVD but it is the dominant HD media format by far.

[@nypad5]

5:53 this is where Reggie learned how to use hand gestures.

[@wiishopchannel0175]

Sad reggie retired in April 15 2019.😥

[@pkbeat-redpile4108]

2000: am i a joke to you?

[@kseries1981]

Tengen and American Video Entertainment were developing unlicensed games for the NES. That's the reason Nintendo didn't want to play nice with them.

[@LUCKO2022]

Tengen TRIED to play nice with Nintendo at first. They even reluctantly agreed to Nintendo's bullshit limit of 5 games per year rule back then. But when Nintendo did that phony chip shortage stunt where they limited how many 3rd party carts will get made just so they can use the chips on their own games instead to make even more, Tengen got pissed off and went around Nintendo. Tengen even asked Nintendo if they got the chips themselves could they still get their carts made and they found a manufacturer in the US which could do it, and Nintendo refused then cut their supply even more. So it's hard to play nice when the main company was fucking everyone up the ass laughing at them.

[@jdigitalseven7]

Pixar The Great They still make false shortages of their product. Latest is the nes classic...just the way they are... Its why I dont buy anything nintendo

[@LUCKO2022]

Joseph Bentley I know. I have been saying that as well. Nintendo is a shitty company. I loved the NES but most of the games I love on that console are 3rd party. I don't like many of Nintendo made games.

[@RetroDeath]

That wasn't a false shortage, it was a limited product, as was intended.

[@TheRolling123]

You better like Zelda

[@KMFDM_Kid2000]

Don't worry, just hold out until 1995, it'll all balance out...

[@stryderblaze80]

Nikki Seven Nintendo messed up going with Panasonic.

[@KMFDM_Kid2000]

stryderblaze80 You mean Phillips.

[@stryderblaze80]

Yep, whoops!

[@MastaGambit]

Nice of the princess to invite us over for a picnic, gay luigi?

[@WellBeSerious12]

Saturn in 1995 North America?

[@Pan_Z]

1:51 *Giant SEGA logo in the back* Yeah let's focus on Tengen, Nintendo's true adversary.

[@SirS2pendous]

RIP Toys R Us. Many good childhood memories.

[@SnarkyRC]

They never went away in Canada.

[@dorpth]

Ha ha, back then as a kid I couldn't fully understand just how expensive those games were (since they were always birthday/christmas gifts). Holy shit though looking at it now. If you adjust for inflation, $50 in 1991 is $89 today. That was the accepted standard price. Imagine every console game costing $89 today. Other insane price milestones: -Phantasy Star 3 for Genesis was $100 in 1990, $186 today -Final Fantasy 3 (US) was $70 in 1994, $115 today -The Neo Geo system was $650(!) in 1990, or $1210 today -Neo Geo games were $200(!!!!) each in 1990, or $372 today $372 each for games!!!!

[@DKingd88]

Yes, but the video game industry provided high-paying jobs. Now the programmers are H1B visa or overseas programmers being paid nothing and the game is still expensive.

[@cooltu2000]

stf turbo cost 69.99 1994

[@lmcgregoruk]

@@cooltu2000 I remember Mega Drive games costing around £39.99 each, when all the previous games I bought for my "ZX Spectrum +2A" were about £4.99 maximum. Those WERE budget titles(or re-releases) but I didn't know that at the time. I can't remember the Mega Drive having a budget label, not until the PS1/N64 had budget games again, Platinum for the PS1 and Players Choice for the N64.

[@frankbandera6591]

5 years later and it's now $110

[@telesniper2]

The REAL reason to get a Nintendo was because of blockbuster rentals. You couldn't rent computer software. Actually they specifically made computer software rental illegal, but exempted video games. And you guessed it, Nintendo lobbied at the time to include video games in that law.

[@lsodiumoverdosel]

Hands down Nintendo saved gaming. Their rules helped keep the product up to par (for the most part) and stopped the watering down of their titles, is the reason console gaming was brought back to life. All the things atari did to kill it, Nintendo stopped.

[@fringeelements]

That, is a myth!

[@lsodiumoverdosel]

@@fringeelements no it's not. It's just your beliefs that it is. Nintendo never grew old with me. I quit playing their systems after the 64. I do know what it did because I was there to live it myself.

[@fringeelements]

@@lsodiumoverdosel - Nintendo did not inventing licensing, in fact Atari figured out licensing and royalties, nor was "quality control" ever a problem for the 2600, it was retail glut. The failure of Atari, Mattell, Coleco or Phillips to make a proper successor system for the 82-85 window was down to bad management and a cascade of specific errors at those companies, which did not occur outside of the United States.

[@marcosdheleno]

@@fringeelements exactly, people talk as if the library of the Nes wasnt at least 70% complete trash.

[@daleva187goligo]

LJN would like a word with you xD

[@pineapplepeanuts]

"Imagine if Sony tried to do this and that" Oh, the irony. But if its any consolation, my poor downtrodden fellow, Nintendo would become their biggest trophy. I also fondly remember the tip lines I saw in Nintendo Power and the like where you could get answers. What a job that would be. Too bad the internet came calling.

[@mohammedganai9636]

@soulfulsilver4917 Actually Sony tried to shaft Nintendo first with the contract for the CD-ROM add-on, which stated that all software royalties would belong to Sony. Nintendo wasn't even interested, but were convinced that Sony wouldn't use it for games. They just forgot to have it put in writing, and soon enough, Sony had already started their first game studio.

[@briansilva3765]

4:00 to 4:20, funny how this hasn't actually changed, Nintendo still doesn't lower their prices at all.

[@mutalix]

Correct! The dreaded "Switch tax" is an actual thing.

[@daleva187goligo]

sega showed everyone that nintendo was not invincible by punching them in the face and making them stumble a bit, then that left the door open for sony to come in and deliver the knockout blow, for them it was personal, they now control the market

[@t3hpoopsmith]

Sony did. Nintendo is dominating once again though.

[@illuminatioracle]

0:34 behind all your childhood magic are a room full of skincrawling OCP types

[@ImTheKingOfHyrule]

Nintendo's help hotline was the original pay-to-win microtransaction, which is why they sued to keep Game Genie off of store shelves.

[@pika62221]

+Timstuff how is calling a (206) area code number a microtransaction? It wasn't a 900 number where you HAD to pay, it was long-distance, some companies even allowed free long-distance. Did you even call the number in the 80's or early-90's? It still exists today but is just a recording, it's [phone]

[@Talal_111]

+Jude Law it was not free

[@dorpth]

Hmmmm? The service absolutely was free. All you paid for was the phone call, which could still have been expensive back in the day when you paid extra by the minute for long distance calls rather than an unlimited mobile plan.

[@gandolmhubertus7666]

in germany the call was free. called sometimes... :D

[@onetwo6039]

@@pika62221 I need to call this number. Just for $41tz and giggles. 🤭 Just to see what happens in 2020.

[@eji]

Amazing how the tables have turned...

[@olimar1034]

And now the tables have turned again

[@TheYzeman]

Yup. The switch is killin it.

[@garbotoxins840]

the old double switcheroo

[@edgar8316]

Olimar103 Sony is still the king of consoles lol Switch will do great tho I have no doubt

[@demetriuspowell29]

TheYzeman lol the switch still have a long way to go buddy

[@writeronfire]

Reporter: "Do you see the price of games coming down?" Nintendo Rep: "In the future we will make this thing called the Virtual Console"

[@Pimpeaux]

Comments that aged poorly

[@doctor_burnsides915]

Then we will gatekeep our products to a streaming service but only what WE want on the service anything else we’ll sue.

[@Alexzw92]

9:40 Nintendo Customer Support Employee: "You wanna spear him in the middle of his body then cut his body in half..." "Is there anything thing else i can help you with today sir??"

[@FightersHeart]

Thanks for posting this. Love 80's and early 90's video game videos.

[@FlamingZelda3]

it's crazy how Nintendo was as ruthless back then as they are today

[@3xPin]

I guess they are just ignoring Sega and Atari. They weren’t monopolizing the gaming industry so much as monopolizing the Nintendo industry. Tengen didn’t have their own system. And if I remember, the other game producers made kind of garbage games.

[@devmiles]

This lasted until sony came in smiling after backstabbed by nintendo

[@pika62221]

+Ammer Reduron *cough* Sega took the American market from Nintendo in 1992, 3 years before Sony had a console in America.

[@devmiles]

+Jude Law They did in America but absolutely not in Europe. They smashed an enormous amount of money on the table to achieve that as well to later sadly struggle with very poor business decisions. I do miss SEGA .. with the dreamcast for me..they finally sort of reset their image, tons of great titles and stood for arcade style gaming with good devs supporting them. Too bad they lost so much in the market but deep inside i would wish that SEGA was still around with a modern nowadays console. The megadrive or genesis remains their most iconic though. Also eventhough a lot of stuff failed they were early innovators and inspiration for others as well. Back in the days i was lucky enough to have both systems.

[@PointReflex]

+Jude Law Also they won the 16-bit war in the United States since Sega still had 55% of the market when the 32-bits era started in 1995.

[@jaydenc367]

@@PointReflex eh...not really Im pretty sure they overall lost

[@PointReflex]

@@jaydenc367 Not really, on sales alone the Genesis/Megadrive outsold the SNES (during the 16-bit era aka 1988~1995) in the US, South America, Europe and Australia, the SNES though won a big one in Japan outselling the Megadrive by almost 16 million units. Wich is the reason behind the around 20 million units difference between the final sales on both systems. However in the final sales reports it is known that Sega didn't took into consideration some units sold by 3rd party manofacturers, so for the Genesis/Megadrive the final sales ain't exactly the real total, since there could be one or two million (or more) sold units undocumented by the company.

[@losttribe3001]

Half expected ED 209 to walk in on the guys in the boardroom...

[@RomanByTheRiverside]

The man in the thumbnail is "Mario".

[@Zwei4815]

That guy truly believed that there was a significant market for "Dudes With Attitude."

[@colinrussell2017]

Hey! Who doesn't wanna play an Intellivision quality game when the SNES just launched?

[@ExtremeWreck]

I mean, by the time the SNES was out in the US, the Atari 2600 only had like, 4 months until it was discontinued.

[@DKingd88]

Ironically, as this was airing, the Sega Genesis was taking the USA by storm. Sega had 65% market share by 1992, although it began to drop steadily. It was a 2-man race already before SONY came in.

[@zebunker]

That's not what irony is. But congrats on that GED

[@DeltathRiylaan]

@@zebunker "Irony, in its broadest sense, is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or event in which what appears, on the surface, to be the case or to be expected differs radically from what is actually the case." The irony is that the video makes it seem like there's no way to manufacture and sell video games without going through Nintendo, and yet the truth differs radically, as proven by Sega swooping in and having lots of success. Ironic. The Turbo Grafx also had modest success.

[@LilSkott]

When did Toys R Us start selling genesis games? Im curious how they went around Nintendo

[@DeltathRiylaan]

@@LilSkott They didn't have to go around Nintendo. The point is, Nintendo didn't actually have a monopoly. They weren't forcing other people out. All antitrust claims were false. Toys-R-Us already stocked Sega products before then, anyway. With the Master's System. Just Google Sega Master System Toys R Us and you'll see dozens of nationwide Toys R Us commercials for the Master System as well as print ads from '85-'90 showing electronic toy ads from Toys R Us showing the Master System and the NES both for sale on the same page, with games for both.

[@onetwo6039]

@@DeltathRiylaan damn....... Like a BOSS!!! TELL'EM. 😂

[@Grooveraider]

@james42519 - I dunno if there was more to this Frontline episode. Though it seemed complete to me.

[@willtaylor9091]

They're all comparing video games to movies and other forms of entertainment that can be used on virtually any device in that genre, when video games are so much different... I can't blame them though, gaming was new back then, and not everyone understood it...

[@moonlitegram]

Great example of how people are often short sighted and quick to call out monopolies when in fact it's just a finite window of success for a particular firm. Even when this came out, there were competitors to Nintendo; Sega Genesis came out in 89 and strongly competed against SNES in the early to mid 90s. And then of course we all know what happened when Sony got into the game and then Microsoft. And then of course factors in the market shifted like the growth of the internet and now we have a marketplace of online games, mobile games etc along with consoles. So that even if Nintendo was pressuring retailers like Toys R Us, these changes would have presented significant obstacles to that strategy in the long run. And considering that there were other competitors like Sega, and later Sony and Microsoft, I'm apt to wonder if we're getting the full picture when these other manufactures claim that Nintendo was pressuring retailers like Toys R Us. Not that its a stretch to believe that Nintendo might have tried to broker deals like that with retailers. But obviously retailers were still willing to sell competitors products even with that pressure from Nintendo. So something tells me if companies like Toys R Us were unwilling to carry these other guys games, it wasn't just their relationship with Nintendo that factored into it. My guess is if Toys R Us believed these other manufacturer's products were going to be competitive with Nintendo, they would have carried them as well, just as they carried Sega and later Sony & Microsoft. I figure Nintendo's pressure and influence only goes so far - at some point a retailer is going to act in their interest as well if they think a product is going to successfully sell.

[@DyoKasparov]

SEGA bought this TV show to talk shit about Nintendo nuff said.

[@spacedp]

Huge Fanboy over here.

[@DyoKasparov]

spacedp nah, I just heard that they were doing shit like that...

[@spacedp]

+Dyo Kasparov Oh.. sorry man.

[@DyoKasparov]

spacedp hah no probs mate ;D

[@Talal_111]

no, nintendo still do this shit. wii u games keep their day 1 price on amazon, until they're out of stock and their idea of digital sale is %10 or less, while steam, psn, xbox do %75 and even higher sales all of the time

[@starjoel882]

When reality destroys your childhood :/

[@KCgamester]

Thank you for posting the video. More people need to see this.

[@ViralZen]

Is it just me or does the guy from American Video Entertainment look like Mario? HAHAHAHAHA :'D

[@gamerdude612]

Now I just watch a play through if I'm stuck on a level like GTA or something like that I love the evolution of technology.

[@Phostings1]

Good grief, the comments. I did research on this and the reason why Nintendo used the seal of quality logo on their games is because they didn't want a repeat of the video game crash of 1983. Most of those companies were making trash games and the industry became over saturated with those poorly made games. Everybody was trying to make video games to cash in while it was hot. This is Nintendo way of keeping the same thing from repeating because consumers were afraid to invest back into video games. Hell, Nintendo was hesitant to use the words "video games" in the US. They name the unit as the Nintendo Entertainment System and changed the way it looked to match the likeness of an actual toy which is what Nintendo was known for; a toy manufacture. Rob the Robot was included in some bundles for the US to trojan horse their systems into the home market.

[@troywright359]

people prefer the narrative that nintendo are evil

[@DavidWonn]

4:45 I was a kid at the time, but did get the $5 coupon good toward another Nintendo purchase from the class action lawsuit. All you needed was a receipt that you bought a game during a certain time frame, though not everyone checked for it. Nintendo really got off easy on that one.

[@duane_313]

That was such bs I was laughing at that part. They had a lot of nerve!

[@ancientastronauttheoristss9345]

"Now your playing with power. Super power" damn Nintendo 😂😂😂

[@Irreve-rsible]

Nintendo truly was a giant back in this time. I will say, they did an amazing job as a company at that time from what i've researched.

[@deku812]

Don't think any company will hit that kind of market share again. Sony didn't. Actually Sony couldn't top their PS1 dominance either and at that time they did not have 85% of the market, closer to 60%.

[@DRCification]

Nintendo made good games and hardware. If these competitors made such great games, even though they were excluded from selling at big retail stores, word would have at least gotten out that they were good games. Then, the big retailers would like to hold their products.

[@HebrewGamer100]

Thanks for the upload. This was such a hit piece. The whole "price fixing" thing was stupid. a merchant can charge whatever they want. It's up to the market to decide whether or not the product is valuable enough to them to pay the price tag. Funny the "lack of competition" didn't stop Sega from challenging Nintendo and making them bleed and bleed badly. They cut Nintendo's market share in half within Nintendo alleged "monopoly". Winners make plans, losers make excuses.

[@satanspy]

holy shit here i am in 2023 and the fact that nintendo never does sales on its games is still true!

[@doctor_burnsides915]

There was a small period of time during the Wii era where main Nintendo games went on sale

[@grype83]

Love the dude in the warehouse with the Ramones shirt and unibrow.

[@DeathtoMAGA85]

I dressed up as him and I fucked my wife in the ass.

[@BadBoyBird]

Same

[@johnleone1996]

Literally watching that part right now

[@handlethis78]

I wonder if that warehouse worker has sver seen this program. Especially decades later. "Whoa man, I used to have hair!"

[@anthonyrossetti7509]

What about they head of the R&D team with the mullet and pork chops

[@AlucardsQuest]

Funny how they did this story in 1991, and they made virtually no mention of Sega Genesis or Turbografx 16, which by this point had both been out for almost 2 years. I guess Sonic hadn't yet come out.

[@mpacino1224]

Little did they know Toys R Us would close in 2018.

[@Justin-Hill-1987]

Still open in Canada: www.toysrus.ca

[@nightruler666]

oh the irony nintendo had a iron grip on third parties and now they cant get third party games on their platform lmao

[@lovesgibson]

Vampirerockstar pretty much their decision because they don't use the up to date technology

[@kwasiwilliams5014]

Yeah they started the trend of forcing 3rd party companies to make exclusives, it used to piss me off during the Sega/Nintendo wars. But during the Sega/Sony wars Sony started forcing 3rd parties to make exclusives and releasing games on the playstation earlier than other platforms. And even back then when the N64 came out it was very little 3rd party support. They basically set the trend and lost it in the same decade. Lmao karma is a bitch.

[@Martin-nw4sb]

yes but its a handheld not a console, they are not in the same league 😑

[@Rockets2024Champs]

and now they have their third parties back

[@primeministersinister4541]

Look how the tables have turned

[@spencerwilliams461]

Plot twist was that it was Sony who monopolized the video game industry in the long run. At least in Nintendo's case it was for the good of gaming.

[@Grooveraider]

@Se7enBeatleofDoom - Nearly a 20 year old report. I know, the quality is great ^_^

[@Watcher3223]

Nintendo's licensing regime wasn't merely because they wanted a monopoly; it was because of what Nintendo learned from the video game crash and their application of the lesson in their operations. Remember when Atari sued Activision for making games on the 2600? Atari had originally intended to be the only purveyor of games for their own system, but they had never anticipated third party publishers trying to get in on the business through Atari's own hardware so they never locked down their 2600. So when Atari sued Activision for making games on the 2600 and ended up losing the case, it set legal precedent that allowed anybody to make games on Atari's system, and pretty much anybody *and* everybody did, *especially companies that had no business being in the game business*. The result was a torrent of mediocre games, crowding out truly good games and diluting the overall value of the market to the point where people stopped buying. (Just one of several factors that led to the industry crash.) Nintendo understood that, thus their institution of a licensing regime, with rules that third parties had to abide by in order to be authorized to publish games on the NES, along with technological measures in their control decks and game paks (10NES) as well as the use of their industrial clout and considerable legal acumen to protect their business interests. It was a way to avoid that kind of a market glut that would seriously degrade the viability and profitability of the whole enterprise. That business model, albeit to a less dictatorial degree, is the standard that first party contenders in the industry still operate by today. Economies of scale works at reducing the price of goods with *objective* purposes, but it doesn't work too well when it comes to dealing with product that's as *subjectively* judged as creative intellectual properties, and that's primarily what the video game market is about in roughly the same vein as movies and music. The hardware is important (and, usually, the price of hardware does decrease over time), but it's the software that drives the viability of the market in the end and newly released games will always command a premium initially. Therefore, it's a stretch for AVE to make value-based arguments with regard to competition decreasing the price through economies of scale in this news report, especially as the bulk of AVE software was never very fun to play to begin with. The comparison between NES game paks and VCRs is too glib to the point where the argument falls apart upon critical thinking. In short: the games hadn't gone down in price because *new* games are different from *old* games despite all being built for the same system and for reasons that should be obvious. Plus, old games tend to go down in price as demand for them falls off in favor of new games. It's more akin to newly released movies on DVD being sold for a higher price than DVDs of older movies, despite them all being made for the same DVD format. Also, Nintendo isn't the only one that makes a profit on game sales; if it's a third party title, the third party makes a profit while also having to pay a percentage to Nintendo as stipulated in their license with them. The best way to compete against Nintendo back then was competing on *hardware* followed by games that make the competing system an attractive alternative. Considering how good Nintendo and the NES was overall, you needed a company that could match or exceed them on both hardware and software and be able to attract competent third parties, and that was Sega with their good Genesis/Mega Drive system and their own experience in making good games.

[@songcramp66]

Come on, nice write up in general but you know it's bullshit when we are talking about third parties. Why would Nintendo force third party developers to sign agreements that don't allow them to make software for other consoles for 2 years? What does that have to do with controlling quality on their console? It's pure greed. An attempt to force a monopoly on the videogame market. They sure came close in America but they made a huge mistake when they backstabbed Sony and then dropped the CD feature for the N64. Squaresoft even tried to convince Nintendo to no avail to include a CD drive.

[@segaunited3855]

@@songcramp66 It wasn't Nintendo per say. It was Nintendo of America and its then President Minoru Arikawa.

[@DKingd88]

Exactly. Nintendo was the only player after the video game crash and they employed a quality control system for software. SEGA was able to take the US market (briefly) from Nintendo by taking advantage of Nintendo's censorship policies. SEGA positioned itself as the cool adult system although with a family-friendly killer app (Sonic). That worked wonders

[@troywright359]

@@songcramp66 Look at the original deal for the SNES CD. It gave control of the SNES to Sony. Nintendo would have been stupid to take that deal

[@mohammedganai9636]

Plus, some games were becoming more expensive due to increasing cart sizes and memory mappers (see: Super Mario Bros. 3, Castlevania 3).

[@MizzahTee]

Nintendo was a Yakuza BAWSS! My how things have changed...

[@floralpoboop]

Price fixing is no longer a concern, neither is monopolies. You don't see blantin monopolies, and blantin price fixing to be a problem any more most of the people don't. I went to a computer store a few years back and they told me that all their prices were fixed and that they had no control over their own prices.

[@MizzahTee]

***** Some uneducated idiots on the internet don't understand facetiousness and hyperbole. And they also certainly don't know what monopoly means. Calm down unibrow.

[@sprites4ever482]

It was good that they lost their monopoly,though. We all know how unrivaled monopolies end:They would have stopped caring about the quality of their products and would have eventually died out and console gaming would have with them.

[@RG-27]

Mizzah Tee Haha there you are. I just came across this video. Yes on how times had changed

[@troywright359]

@@sprites4ever482 very unlikely

[@volerasphere]

"The price for Nintendo games have never gone down at all." gee, that's funny because it's still like that to this day, 27 years later. Nintendo games still never drop in price, and remain at the $60 price point even years after they're released. Not at all the case with PS4 and Xbox though, whose games usually drop to around $20 within a year of release.

[@cavernadofilme5651]

I guess nostalgia plays a part in that

[@troywright359]

nintendo games do drop in price. who told you they didn't? you shouldn't be paying $60 for Mario Kart 8 or Mario Odyessy today

[@leahneptune2886]

There's a reason, sales are determined by demand. Games go on sale when they stop moving, which happens almost immediately for Sony,walking simulators and all generic AAA sameface clutter.

[@787brx8]

Most game concepts came from one guy back then and still to this day. He created well over A thousand videogame concepts. He has retired but still has many game concepts in the pipeline and in storage.

[@myousickoflife]

Someone needs to make a TV show about those game tester/advisers. Seems like the best job ever.

[@nobeac]

Interesting stuff. I never thought that NES games were so high priced those days.

[@FumiyaSugawara]

nobeac oh yes i paid $59.99 when Super Mario Brothers 3 came out. It was still the same after SNES came out.

[@HidrogenoyMau]

Here's the thing, the original videogame industry crash was due to a lot of bad games flooding the market of the then very popular Atari 2600 (yadda yadda yadda, hundreds of E.T. game carts being buried in the desert), in order to prevent that Nintendo build the NES in a way that it could only play games that had built in a chip with software that was their intellectual property, called the 10-NES chip. Nintendo only allowed developers to put out 5 games every year so that they'd focus on making few good games instead of a lot of mediocre ones. This was completely legal and you could legally play unlicensed games if you modified your console or the person who made the game retro-engineered the chip and made their own code that didn't require the chip. Tengen was a subdivision of Atari that wanted to publish more than said 5 games a year, at first they tried to break Nintendo's code, but when they couldn't they went to the patent office falsely claiming that Nintendo was going to sue them for this and that they needed to see the patent of the code to make their legal case, then they flat out stole the code and started producing unlicensed games for the NES that contained code stolen from Nintendo. While they were settling that in court Nintendo told their retailers that if they sold Tengen products then Nintendo wouldn't sell them their's.

[@legendarygamer570]

Ironically Tengen games like Tetris, RBI baseball, and Gauntlet were superior than the NES versions licensed by Nintendo.

[@EarlFaulk]

BS. Nintendo had no problem letting companies like LJN, THQ, etc., flood the market with crap games. It was nothing more than a monopolistic setup to choke the competition, when the hot game made to the NES they were not allowed to release it for competitor's consoles.

[@HidrogenoyMau]

EarlFaulk if you can show me somewhere where it says LJN or THQ did more than 5 games a year or that they stole intellectual property from Nintendo and they let them publish anyway I'd say you're right, but like the old saying goes "pics or it didn't happen". Nintendo has always been a bully to third party and now they are paying for it, but as far as the Tengen business went they flat out abused the legal system to steal Nintendo's property.

[@EarlFaulk]

In 1992 onwards they released well more than five games for Nintendo's systems. Game Boy Beetlejuice January 1992 North America Game Boy Terminator 2: Judgment Day January 1992 North America NES T&C Surf Designs: Thrilla's Surfari March 1992 North America Super Nintendo WWF Super Wrestlemania March 1992 North America Game Boy WWF Superstars 2 August 1992 North America Game Boy The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (1992) August 1992 North America Super Nintendo Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball September 1992 North America NES WWF Wrestlemania: Steel Cage Challenge September 1992 North America Game Boy Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball September 1992 North America NES Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six October 1992 North America Super Nintendo Spider-Man and the X-Men: Arcade's Revenge November 1992 North America Game Boy The Incredible Crash Dummies November 1992 North America Super Nintendo NBA All-Star Challenge December 1992 North America Game Boy NBA All-Star Challenge 2 1992 Europe 1993 Game Boy Alien 3 January 1993 North America NES Alien 3 March 1993 North America Super Nintendo Alien 3 05/31/93 North America Super Nintendo WWF Royal Rumble June 1993 North America Game Boy Spider-Man 3: Invasion of the Spider-Slayers July 1993 North America NES The Incredible Crash Dummies 09/23/93 North America Game Boy WWF King of the Ring September 1993 North America Super Nintendo The Incredible Crash Dummies October 1993 North America NES WWF King of the Ring November 1993 North America Super Nintendo Terminator 2: Judgment Day November 1993 North America Game Boy NFL Quarterback Club November 1993 North America Game Boy T2: The Arcade Game 1993 Europe Super Nintendo T2: The Arcade Game 1993 Europe Game Boy Spider-Man / X-Men December 1993 North America 1994 Super Nintendo Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage September 1994 North America Super Nintendo Wolverine: Adamantium Rage November 1994 North America Super Nintendo WWF Raw November 1994 North America Game Boy WWF Raw 1994 Europe Super Nintendo NFL Quarterback Club December 1994 North America Super Nintendo Warlock 1994 The whole five game a year thing was specifically designed to stop or minimize competition.

[@MastaGambit]

Even back then, comparing video games to movies/cassettes/CDs just shows that we didn't quite understand that game consoles were never designed to be one-size-fits-all like with non-interactive media. That the technology between the two is vastly different.

[@james42519]

@17R3W the thing is i have a 4:3 crt monitor so i shouldn't see them. i have them on top,bottom,left, and right and video is in the middle.

[@MorimotoYTP]

Wheres Chadtronic

[@shuntarofurukawa5577]

Frick

[@ocgiggin]

This all started because Nintendo wanted QUALITY games to be on the NES. They did not want the system to be another ATARI leading to another crash in the game industry. Companies were churning out crappy games (cough, E.T., cough) by the dozens, this lead to crappy sales and the fall of the industry back in 1983. That’s why Nintendo imposed the 5 game per year per developer rule, to encourage (some will say force) companies to make good games that would sell, it would have been a win-win for everyone. Tengen did not like this and illegally tried to put out unlicensed games. I’m not saying Nintendo is a spot-free company, but many people fail to realize that this all began with Nintendos wanting to improve the gaming industry by only carrying QUALITY games. Of course, there will always be and there were crappy games on the NES, but at least the game industry survived to this day.

[@17R3W]

@james42519 To be expected. This video from 1991, long before 16:9 screens were out. Jump ahead even as far as 1999, and 4:3 was still common (think Dreamcast). It's really only been in the past 10 years that shows were filmed in widescreen, and even to this day some shows are still 4:3.

[@17R3W]

According to WikiPedia Sega had 65% of the market (some time between 1991 and 1994) but then it fell to 35% in 1994. But that just proves that Nintendo didn't have a monopoly in the 90's. They really had to fight for their market share.

[@Rekkless]

Oh I can just see that is South Park was around then it would be an episode similar to the Chinpokomon episode.

[@sprites4ever482]

Too good that Nintendo lost their monopoly at the U.S. courts. Big companies need to learn that competition is good for the business.

[@AdmiralBison]

and consumers. I highly recommend reading the book 'Console Wars', I'm a few chapters in and I can't put it down. It chronicles this very era of the video game industry and focuses a lot on the fight between Sega vs Nintendo. It also looks at the history of Atari during after the video game crash, how many of the significant players operated in the industry from insiders perspective. They are also going to make a documentary and film as well of the book. You'll never see your childhood past time the same way again. :)

[@allanmhanson]

Competition is good but fanboy wars are a cancer 😵

[@NotaPizzaGRL]

The ultimate goal of any company is to eliminate their competition. That means more profits and higher revenue for them.

[@creativecatproductions]

Sprites4Ever Entertainment government intervention isn’t “competition” either. It’s the rhetoric of free market, sure, but the effect is exactly the opposite. Want to break into the game industry? Start small and take a risk. These are all con men trying to get rich quick and they fought to make the magic happen for them. It’s bull

[@vibri_]

Yet people don't seem to bat an eye about Valve holding like 99% of PC games, hmmmm....

[@invisiblezero]

8:30 that dude is straight out of this era, no confusion there lol

[@andrewhudson7108]

Console Wars is a great book if you want to dive further into Nintendo’s monopolization and how Sega managed to take more than half of gaming sales by the early 90s.

[@DanielSong39]

Accusations were on point and played a big part in Nintendo losing many of their best third-party developers from the Nintendo 64 onward. Of course their use of non-standard storage media, controllers, programming languages, and developer's kits did not help either.

[@Morrigan101]

Plus giving Playstation a almost 2 year headstart into 3D graphics Ps1: December 1994 in NA N64:September 1996 in NA

[@southsidesaiyan8641]

@@Morrigan101 Ps1 came out in September 1995 in America.

[@Morrigan101]

@@southsidesaiyan8641 true but that's still a entire year given to the PS1

[@piratesmvp]

Funny how Nintendo effectively shut out competitors in the market at that time, and now they're the ones getting shut out of having AAA titles for their consoles.

[@cecilrivera8210]

Oohhh so thats what thats all about....hahhahahaaa

[@twincherries6698]

I'm sure they're really feeling the pain there after just outselling the PS4 and on its way to potentially outselling the PS2. They know what they're doing, they're just in a different game. If they wanted better hardware they could have it.

[@mordercainear9573]

@@twincherries6698 Yeah, out selling a discontinued console that just moved onto the next gen ps5. Their next console better can handle newer AAA games for a while, because as of right now, all that the Switch is a handheld indie machine with some great exclusives. Sure they can pump more exclusives but will miss out new AAA hits or have to downgrade those games. Not to mention the Steam Deck, it might be big but the ability to play demanding-AAA games on the go make it a balance choice for AAA games and portability

[@twincherries6698]

@@mordercainear9573 PS4 isn't discontinued lmao. God of War just came out for it. The rest of your post doesnt really counter anything considering how well theyre doing without those releases. It'd be nice if nintendo had better hardware and also could get more AAA on its next hardware, but it's far from necessary for them. The hardware is extremely dated, yes, but that hasn't stopped the switchs momentum much particularly, for better and for worse. Steam deck is great and I'm glad it exists, but if you think that is genuine competition for the switch in terms of sales then your whole post is a joke.

[@mordercainear9573]

@@twincherries6698 They discontinued in Japan, and barely anyone buy PS4 since the PS5 came out the only reason they still supporting ps4 for 3 more years since 2021 it;s because the lack of PS5 on the market, And what does GoW had anything to do with the ps4, it's still possible for games to release on a discontinued console at the end of its cycle, Ragnarok was made for PS5 mainly, they just didn't want to piss ps4 owners off. Switch momentum hasn't stopped yet because of Indies and portability and also that there's literally zero competition, even Steam Deck was experimental so Valve doesn't put out as many as the switch, if they really want to, then Nintendo really should be worried, and you seriously comparing the Switch which came out 4 years later than the PS4 which is at the end of its life so no one buys it any more, and the Steam Deck which was just recent, then of course the Switch it's gonna have the highest number, why don't you wait another 4 years then see what happen, it's probably peaking right now

[@DanceDanceNorth]

Toys "R" Us is still alive in Canada, but unlike other stores, it no longer carries new video games. I bought a GBA e-Reader and GameCube there. While I know that non-gaming toys are important for children, it's sad to see video games leave Toys "R" Us. Also, the Nintendo eShop for 3DS and Wii U closes this month, which is a further reminder of why competition and physical games are important.

[@karlcharron3350]

Games are a lot more affordable than they were back then, thankfully. I remember paying 90 bucks for Final Fantasy on the NES. In 90s money, that would probably be way above 120 in today money.

[@joshjhutton]

Conveniently left out the part where Tengen created and sold unlicensed Nintendo games. They even lost a lawsuit against Nintendo.

[@LiEnby]

This was before the lawsuit I think ?

[@WhiteJarrah]

I can't help imagine those helpline phone calls being made today, being taken out of context by the NSA, and the next thing you know you're arrested for trying to "spear him midway through his body. Cut him in half, basically".

[@nyxi2189]

"don't forget to plant the b0mb under the pr3sident's chair"

[@WhiteJarrah]

Nyxi Imagine if the subject matter was The President's Run level in the Driver PS1 game. The tech support telling you how to evade the police and secret service with the President of the United States in the back of your car. Next thing you know, you're arrested for kidnapping the President.

[@ThunderFist1978]

It took them until the GameCube to realize that discs were the way to go, and letting the licensees manufacture the discs was a good trade off for what they could go with their games in that format. Even then, though, they chose to go with the mini DVDs, which in the end only held 1/3 of the data of PS2's single layer DVDs and 1/6 of PS2's and Xbox's dual layer DVDs. Nintendo has always felt the need to be different, but at least their Wii U discs have Blu-Ray equivalent capacity.

[@mohammedganai9636]

Licensing fees to the DVD consortium were a bit of a no-no to them.

[@holyflame2]

Well there were times Nokia controls 90% of the cellphone market... This just shows you that being the king doesn't last forever.

[@AdamAdamHDL]

Yea, Microsoft bought them, set them in fire and then sold them... I think 10,000 jobs were lost in the process.

[@CianODonnell]

Ironically the mustachioed fellow at 2:49 looks like a certain Nintendo icon.😀

[@RunaroundStar]

These comments are very intereresting. It's nice to see the less sanguine image of Nintendo in the business realm.

[@sprites4ever482]

People need to understand that they are a company and that they will go by any corrupt means to maintain their profit like every other company.

[@2528drevas]

I remember buying my boys the original Nintendo. There was nothing like it. Sega and Sony finally became big enough to offer something else. Now in 2023 Nintendo is no longer the top of the stack.

[@leahneptune2886]

Nintendo Switch is literally the best selling system on every region, month to month, constantly beating records with it's exclusives in both, sales and critiical acclaim. They're absolutely the top of the stack.

[@Wampaa]

That's a very mature, eloquent statement. You showed great intelligence in stating all those concise argument points.

[@bio2020]

That guy from "American Video Entertainment" is a scumbag. He's sitting there saying Nintendo won't allow him to sell his games. Well, no shit. He is making and selling UNLICENSED AND UNAUTHORIZED NES cartridges. The NES is Nintendo's console, and they want to control quality. That's what the whole "Nintendo Seal of Quality" sticker is about, the thing that saved the video game industry from the Atari video game crash. Companies were ripping gamers off with horrible games. Nintendo single handedly revived the industry and quality checked all their games. That guy is trying to make a profit with crappy games by making bootleg cartridges for a system that he has no access to.

[@Duskets]

The problem with that policy is that it locks someone with considerably less funds out from getting a shot at making their game. Buy-in is too high? Better luck next time, sucker. You license your cartridges directly from Nintendo, which gives them an incredible cut. Not only that, you're limited to how many games you can make yearly (again, quality control, but that's a load of hogwash -- the entirety of the AVGN's career is a testament to that) and on top of all that, they forbade developers from returning cartridges if sales fell short of expectations, meaning the developer shoulders all of the risk while Big N shoulders none. And this video already showcases them strong-arming retailers and fixing prices so I won't trod that path. Let me put it another way: there's a reason why Nintendo made a lot of enemies.

[@bio2020]

Hazy If you don't like it, build your own gaming console and make all the crappy games you want. You have no leg to stand on when you are trying to sell bootleg, unauthorized games on Nintendo's proprietary console. All games sold on their console, are a reflection of Nintendo, and they have a legal right to quality control all of the games sold on their console. A gaming console is not like a VCR or a Blu-Ray player. It's a completely different concept.

[@Duskets]

bio2020 If they had the funds to create their own gaming machine, to assemble an R&D team, to test, market, work customer service, I've no doubt in my mind they would have. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case. Remember: these are the same people that didn't have the funds to even license their cartridges through Nintendo. That fella in the video was able to sell his games for $20 and still make a "big" profit -- less than HALF of Nintendo's $50 retail price. But even then: who would carry their merchandise? Nobody with Nintendo threatening to drop the hammer on retailers who disobeyed their commands. It was scummy situation. And please don't misunderstand: I'm not arguing that selling bootlegs is right.

[@ixnine]

Thanks for clarifying, I'm watching the video thinking, "What about Sega", since Frontline did a poor job by not stating American Video Entertainment was in the business of making unlicensed NES cartridges, I was under the impression it was just another hardware manufacturer. Reading your post got me googling that company and now I get it.

[@JuicyPlayer]

bio2020 They could also make PC games ,if they wanted to sell games bad enough.

[@budewsama3881]

No one from Sega was available to speak to? By this point, the Master System and the Genesis were already available, not to mention the shitty 90s Atari systems.

[@troywright359]

The new Nintendo system costs twice as much as the old one! Imagine that!

[@17R3W]

@ShadowArtist Also, the comparison between VHS/CD etc, and the NES doesn't hold any water. If you want to produce a DVD player (or at that time a VHS or CD player) you HAVE TO pay a license to some one. In the case of VHS it was JVC who owned the license. Nintendo worked much the same way. PBS should have referred to AVE and Tengen as "pirate" or "black market" video game producers.

[@mcdonkey500]

4:00 lol that shit is still going on. Nintendo still stingy as fuck with any sort of discounts or sales

[@mcdonkey500]

@Marc Carran that doesn't matter when several year old games still cost $60

[@onetwo6039]

To this day not much has changed. Nintendo still penny pinching. I dont even recall the Wii U EVER going on sale.

[@troywright359]

It sold poorly, that's why. You never saw the neo geo on sale either

[@onetwo6039]

@@troywright359 well..... The switch is a success and it still hasn't gone on sale.

[@troywright359]

@@onetwo6039 could argue that instead they released a cheaper budget version in the Switch Lite

[@strykah92]

@ZeldaMaster408 Considering the Genesis (both the console and software) outsold the SNES in 1993 and the Sega CD had been out for well over a year at that point, I doubt it had anything to do with that.

[@stilts1003]

I had no idea there were video game coumselors, thats awesone!

[@natedoggcata]

"In 6 years the price hasnt gone down at all" Meanwhile in 2021, 3DS games still being sold at full price

[@BlackWolf207]

Sure, it hasn’t gone down… but it’s barely gone up. It’s hard to imagine games being $50+ back then, and now we are complaining about $60/$70 games. They are relatively way cheaper now, which explains why everyone has them now.

[@Eidlones]

@@BlackWolf207 *In america Nintendo games cost me 100$ up here in Canada

[@mat2000100]

1. How inaccurate: Retailers would not sell AVE's games because of licensing problems. why is there no discussion about that? 2. No comment from third parties who are licensed? (e.g. Capcom, EA, Konami, Activision etc) 3. No mention of SEGA? (maybe because this was made before june of 1991, when Sonic the hedgehog was released)

[@akumacornflakes]

It's not like it was illegal to sell unlicensed Nintendo games. If it weren't for Nintendo strong-arming them (or at the very least misleading them) they could have sold whatever games they wanted, from whoever they wanted.

[@Evild00k]

Akumacornflakes actually it is, the SDK for nes was a licanced software. So Tengen, AVE and wisdom tree were all pirating the SDK and breaking copyright laws in the process.

[@MrNamegame]

Evild00k Copyright laws have indeed existed for longer than anyone would think. I agree.

[@akumacornflakes]

Evild00k That's the developer's problem, not the retailers'. They only ever went after developers legally, not retailers. However, they did "threaten" retailers with slow shipments and artificial shortages, not just if they sold unlicensed games, but competing systems and games from Atari and Sega as well. All the tactics Nintendo used to maintain their stranglehold on the industry were a LOT more illegal than anything Tengen and AVE were doing. It's worth noting Nintendo never actually went after Wisdom Tree, and they were probably the most successful unlicensed developer on the NES. Nintendo was already getting plenty of heat from conservatives, so picking on Christian small business owners wasn't going to win them any friends.

[@Evild00k]

"they did "threaten" retailers with slow shipments and artificial shortages, not just if they sold unlicensed games, but competing systems and games from Atari and Sega as well." Really proof? I remember giving incentives to stores who sold more of nintendo product then other stores. I think your confused with what you think was going on in your head vs what was going on.

[@cgasucks]

I bet Nintendo really misses those days...they were the Samsung of video game consoles back then, now they're the Myspace of consoles..

[@smugcat723]

cgasucks the switch is super successful now tho

[@3rd-Wave_Rebel]

Samsung, when was Samsung a king of electronics? I think either Apple or Sony is appropriate for that definition!

[@ScorpioandSebek]

It's also funny how people would get game tips, like what if somebody was playing final fantasy and needed to reach another part of the world. Their phone bill would be through the roof since you have so many battles between getting to the next point and being where you are.

[@nonanimeprofilepic]

Back when nintendo was fucking boss. How the mighty has fallen.

[@nonanimeprofilepic]

Patrix Vids wii u is fucking garbage lmfao

[@nonanimeprofilepic]

nope, nice projection though

[@AdmiralBison]

not to take away from Nintendo's obviously horrid monopolistic practice, but they were not the first in the video game industry be like this. Atari was starting to somewhat become like, especially when Time Warner took controlling interest, and many of the original programmers left the company (which Ironically formed Activision and Apple). Sony I think could have done this too, if it didn't become a 3 way battle with Microsoft entering the market and I really, really have no doubt Microsoft would pull a "Nintendo" if things went their way. game companies love to play death-match just like many gamers.

[@NoelG702]

Nintendo is fine though. Thry make 18 billion dollars a year. They are in good shape.

[@Talal_111]

Patrix Vids​ CoD is better than you grown ass social rejects with your obsession with anything that looks like its made for 4 years olds now go play with your amiibos

[@ShadowArtist]

@therealhardrock yeah, this report is very one-sided...

[@somebonehead]

"Nintendo only became bad after Iwata died" - Literal children

[@Onyx619]

Read the book Console Wars people! If you're here chances are good you'll enjoy the read

[@tyrantcodex002]

nitendo could have made even more of a fortune if they had sales!

[@luisherrera2301]

Stock low and get higher demand (which means more consumer spending)

[@Asthenia64]

being a better competitor is not a monopoly, people will buy the systems or games they think are best. if you wanna talk sales, sony eventually came in and won over a significant majority of the market and then microsoft got in there too.

[@17R3W]

The trouble was there was no quality control before the Nintendo came out. Because of Nintendo's ruthless policies the NES succeeded. That isn't needed as much as any more, but in the late 80's it was necessary just to keep the industry alive. I'm hoping that the 3DS will be as open as the iPhone for development. We've seen what can happen when small developer get a shot at the Wii (World of Goo and Angry Birds).

[@james42519]

are you going to upload the rest of this show? be nice to see the rest.

[@Cawshes]

Video Games pretty much rotted kids brains away. And look where we are now

[@cesarcueto1995]

Lol

[@ThunderFist1978]

As big a Nintendo fan as I was in those days, their policies were pretty draconian. Even in the days of the N64, when their main competitors were both using the CD-ROM format to do more with their games, Nintendo stuck with cartridges for one reason - to have complete control over game manufacturing for their console.

[@TranscendingEuphoria]

And the N64 was crap. 😀

[@KK-eg3em]

I was a huge Nintendo fanboy back in the day. I was a teen during the console wars. When Playstation 1 came out, I was done with Nintendo. I got a N64 in 1997, but barely played it. My ex mother in law stole it from me, and I just let her keep it.

[@Shadow__X]

The reason nintendo keeps prices high, even today, is that they want people who buy early to not feel ripped off later. Because if prices dropped over time, customers would wait a while after a new game comes out, and quick buyers would pay more than others, leading to them feeling ripped off as mentioned

[@Kevin-sl3gk]

And it's still happening to this day with Sony as well.