How Nintendo Can Give Gamestop the Middle Finger

Nintendo, this is definitely your chance.




You can totally shove it in the face of Gamestop for what they did to your video game.




You can give them the business-infused middle finger.


Gamestop took thousands of copies of a rare game you released in the Western Hemisphere a couple years ago and are now selling it at its current ridiculous $90 price tag. This is extremely a slap in the face to the hardcore gamers everywhere that had fought to the death to bring the game into the United States and Europe. Not to mention, they are attempting to screw you over by collecting all the profits since its “used.”

But Nintendo, you can win back the hardcore crowd, get the attention of the industry, and gain some momentum for the Nintendo WiiU. The solution is quite simple:


Make it a downloadable game.


Personally, if I ran Nintendo and witnessed Gamestop taking two of my games and jacking up the prices unfairly to take advantage of their rarity, I would make them free downloadables on the struggling WiiU system. It would be a fantastic way to convince people to buy a WiiU---which is something that nothing outside Pikmin 3 and Earthbound has been able to accomplish. Xenoblade Chronicles being a free downloadable game on Nintendo’s internet service would be a great marketing move and an excellent prelude to the highly-anticipated release of X coming out in 2014.

But since few things in gaming life are free I would not expect Nintendo to pull off such a dramatic move, even if it would be a move that would provide nothing but benefits. Either way though, making it available digitally on the WiiU and Wii internet browser at regular price would not only send a message, but would also kick Gamestop right on the stomach as the anti-Gamestop campaign picks up steam.And trust me, I can see hordes of gamers willing to download this game, which has picked up lots of positive steam since its American localization.

This would also serve as a nice experience to see just how effective it would be to release a game just digitally and avoid the physical copies. Now that your only option to obtain a physical copy is to learn Japanese, have a European Wii, or fork over nasty amounts of cash on the EBays of the internet, making it downloadable would be a potential glimpse into the future of gaming.

However, Nintendo has a chance to truly become cynically evil while at the same time become a temporary champion to the hardcore crowd. Making the game accessible to the WiiU and Wii owners for free would be the perfect counterpunch to the rising ridiculousness of Gamestop. Xenoblades Chronicles can alter the course of the history of the WiiU history. The ball is in Nintendo’s court.


Time to take action.

Make Xenoblade Chronicles, currently one of the highest-rated Nintendo games in the past half-decade, fully available to the world again—in digital form.