How Nintendo bled Atari games to death

Nintendo’s Modern Strategy and Fan Backlash

• Several commenters see a shift from “quirky” to MBA-driven: aggressive IP protection, high prices, and nickel‑and‑diming that erodes goodwill.
• Others argue Nintendo is still relatively consumer‑friendly vs gacha/microtransaction‑heavy rivals, still selling complete games you “own.”
• There’s debate over whether Nintendo is truly “smallest and vulnerable” (no conglomerate fallback, dependent on games) versus “richest and debt‑free” in Japan; views differ on how that should affect behavior.
• Some defend charging even for small apps/demos: free perks create entitled customers and devalue work.

IP Enforcement, Risk Aversion, and Culture

• Longstanding aggressiveness around trademarks has expanded to emulation, rom sites, retro preservation, tournaments, and even noncommercial fan projects, turning some former fans bitter.
• Defenders frame Nintendo (and other Japanese firms) as extremely risk‑averse and protective of presentation, especially in competitive scenes tainted by scandals.
• Others see a broader pattern among Japanese companies: strong brand control, incremental products, and reluctance to revisit “abandoned” product lines even when there’s clear demand.

Atari’s Decline vs Nintendo’s Rise

• Multiple comments stress that Atari largely bled itself: underpowered or misguided follow‑up consoles (5200, 7800), bad controllers, failure to move beyond simple arcade ports while tastes shifted to deeper platformers and complex titles.
• Clarifications about Atari Corp (home consoles/computers) vs Atari Games/Tengen (arcade, NES carts) show the article conflates or glosses some history.
• Nintendo is praised for repeatedly pushing new genres and mechanics rather than “same game, better graphics,” which kept its platforms vibrant.

Lockout Chips, Litigation, and Reverse Engineering

• Several posts correct/expand the article’s account of the NES 10NES lockout: paired microcontrollers streaming bit patterns, patented mechanism, and copyrighted code lodged with the US Copyright Office.
• Atari’s copying of that code from the Copyright Office led to litigation; courts later affirmed that intermediate copying for reverse engineering can be fair use—highlighted as relevant to today’s AI‑training disputes.
• Sega–Accolade and Genesis/TMSS history is raised as a parallel: even when reverse engineers win, injunctions and delays can still kill small publishers.

Open vs Closed Markets and the Steam Era

• Commenters contrast Nintendo’s tightly controlled NES era with today’s near‑frictionless PC distribution: Steam’s $100 fee, ~19k new games/year, and many titles never recouping even that.
• Some praise this long‑tail explosion and niche support; others lament a “dumpster of trash with gold in between,” where discovery and meaningful revenue are extremely difficult.