It's difficult to write a critical note against Nintendo, because... you know, it's Nintendo! Responsible for some of our best moments in front of the screen gamepad in hand. Pioneer of genres, inventor of new technologies applied to the world of video games best friend of our inner child. But... Nintendo, what the hell are you doing? It hurts, a lot, that you are the one who attacks—again and again—your own cultural heritage, because of a corporate blindness that doesn't let you see that you lose more than you gain by being the way you are. I would love to know what you think when you go after your own fans for games that, you know, should already be patrimony of humanity.
What pain to know that you never loved me as much as I loved you! I feel like that time I fell blindly in love with a girl who, although she accepted having a relationship with me, never could (or wanted to, or knew how to) reciprocate my affection the same way. But at least that girl was clear from the beginning: ours was going to be an asymmetric relationship. You made me believe you loved me as much as I loved you. But no, not even close. Why aren't you like Sega, your eternal rival, who not only takes pride when its fans preserve and use its licenses, but also rewards them by publishing them on platforms like Steam, with an official seal? It was true, then, that thing about "Genesis does what Nintendon't!", right?
But the criticism is warranted, Nintendo. Your corporate policy is not only aggressive with your own fans, like when you sue them for making non-profit tributes of your games, as has happened on more than one occasion, but against the very preservation of your own works. Or is it that they didn't catch you using ROMs made by others in your NES Classic? And now, because you went crazy, you come to take down ROM pages with multi-million dollar lawsuits? Don't be like that. What do you gain from that? If, in most cases, they aren't even games you are making money from. Worse, many aren't even your games, but games from companies that, in many cases, don't even exist anymore! What right do you have?
Moreover, if it weren't for so many people who worked to make all those games from your past available to humanity, maybe it wouldn't have been a business for you to release those collectible little consoles that did so well. Or don't you think the success of your Classic line was partly because we all wanted that piece of history because it was so present? Are you sure that if we hadn't had all those ROMs to download and play whenever we wanted, such a culture around your licenses would have been generated, with which you continue to make money year after year?
Because I, who am a grown man, remember having played The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on my beloved SNES, but the younger ones only knew it because they could have it thanks to a download link. Don't you understand how it helped your company that your old games were so available, so present in everyone's consciousness and not only in that of the old-timers who have followed you since forever?
Okay, okay, look, I understand that you have to protect your intellectual property, but the matter is more complicated and exceeds your corporate ambitions. It's not just about your stuff, we're talking about the preservation of video game history in its entirety. And you don't only attack the preservation of your games. By forcing the closing of ROM sites, as you've been doing, you make the ROMs of many other systems and companies "fall into the dragnet", as we say around here. Are you really that bad? Do you care so little about the culture that you yourself, in its time, helped build? Well, also set a dangerous precedent that other companies could follow by imitation, and done, who will want to preserve history if, by doing so, they could face a multi-million dollar lawsuit that ruins anyone's life?
You really break my heart, Nintendo. I thought you were my friend.
