10 CRAZIEST Things Nintendo Has Ever Done

Nintendo have a reputation for being the whacky toy-making innovators of the gaming industry, but with that eccentricity comes some serious backfires.

Sure, when they succeed, they soar higher than ever before thanks to their ingenuity helping them see a path to success that the other members of the gaming market's top tier were too blinded by their love of the status quo to see. But when they fail, not only do they fail hard, it's always in the most unexpected and frankly bug nutty ways imaginable.

From releasing consoles way too early, to ignoring business decisions that would have been nothing but upsides for their company, to some other stuff that I guarantee you won't see coming, Nintendo has made some downright baffling choices in its over a hundred year lifespan.

Some days Nintendo seems like the secret genius that everyone underestimates, and other days they seem like an outdated dinosaur barely keeping their operation running. It honestly flip flops depending on who you ask and on what day you ask them.

So let's see what crazy business choices led them to this weird place they have in the modern day.

When Nintendo released Splatoon, people rejoiced in a way that I don't even think Nintendo foresaw. Most of this came from the fact that it was an awesome game, but another part of it was that it looked like Nintendo were FINALLY acknowledging that current trends do exist and chasing one or two will not kill them.

But of course, Nintendo gotta Nintendo, so there was a bizarre-as-hell catch.

In both Splatoon and Splatoon 2, if you want to do online chat with your friends, you have to download an app onto your phone specifically meant for the console, and use that to chat with other players who also downloaded the app.

Now, anyone who played even a little Call of Duty or Overwatch might see the logic here: Nintendo's games are often meant for all ages, and the last thing Nintendo needs are several lawsuits from angry parents because their 7 year-old now knows every derogatory term known to man. Best to just hide the online chat in an app that they probably won't know about.

But the problem here is that if you're already having to download a whole app just to talk with your friends, you might as well just use Discord.