Home / Headlines / Headlines Opinion / Greedy Nintendo Wins the Right to Screw Customers Over in eShop
Gaming Opinion
3 min read

Greedy Nintendo Wins the Right to Screw Customers Over in eShop

Last Updated September 23, 2020 1:31 PM
William Worrall
Last Updated September 23, 2020 1:31 PM
  • Nintendo has won its lawsuit to prevent customers from canceling pre-orders.
  • This means they are legally permitted to prevent pre-order cancellations in Norway and Germany.
  • This is a terrible, anti-consumer move that shows just how little they care about their customers and fans.

Nintendo is awful. I know for a fact that’s going to annoy many people. But, hear me out here. They’ve been doing the same money-grubbing stuff that other companies are doing. They also think they can get away with it by claiming that they’re not doing it.

A little while ago I reported on a lawsuit they were fighting. Nintendo was basically being sued to force them into offering refunds on eShop pre-orders. They have since won that fight and are now legally allowed to screw over their customers .

Nintendo - UK Store
Nintendo can go on about choosing all they like, but when they’re removing their customers’ right to cancel a pre-order, they’re talking out of the side of their mouth. | Source: Nintendo 

Nintendo Clearly Doesn’t Want to Give You Options

Refunding is something that every storefront should be thinking about. In certain countries, your right to a refund is even enshrined in law. Clearly Nintendo wishes that it wasn’t. They don’t want you to be able to cancel an order, let alone ask for a refund.

To be 100 percent fair, what they are doing is technically not against the law. At least, it isn’t in Norway or Germany. That doesn’t mean that it’s morally acceptable. In my opinion, it shouldn’t be considered as such either.

This recent ‘victory’ for Nintendo has seriously made me reconsider supporting them by using their store. Hell, I don’t even think I really want to be buying their physical games either. It just feels so wrong to give money to a company legally fighting to stop its customers from getting their money back.

And Yet They’re Going To Keep Getting Away With It

Because it’s Nintendo, they’ll continue to get away with it. Despite what they’ve done, they’re going to be as successful as ever. This is mostly because they’re actually pretty decent game makers. The reason that Mario, Link, and Samus are so sellable is that most of their games have been decent.

That also means that they’ve built up an insane level of fan loyalty, even more than other game companies. People seem hell-bent on defending Nintendo, even when the company seems ready to trample all over them to make a quick buck.

I’m just yelling into the wind at this stage. Nintendo doesn’t care. As long as they keep making money hand-over-fist, they’re going to keep doing this sort of consumer-unfriendly practice. It’s stuff like this that made the R4 card feel completely justified .


Disclaimer: The views expressed in this op-ed are solely those of the author and do not represent those of, nor should they be attributed to, CCN.com.