Comments on: Points – The Hidden Money Grab http://nexfinity.net/video-games/points-the-hidden-money-grab/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=points-the-hidden-money-grab A blog about life, programming and games Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:00:32 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Tyrell Blackburn http://nexfinity.net/video-games/points-the-hidden-money-grab/comment-page-1/#comment-575 Tyrell Blackburn Sun, 19 Apr 2009 17:08:14 +0000 http://nexfinity.net/?p=103#comment-575 I see your point about buying pre-paid currency, and I guess you could make the same point about pre-paid mobile phones. Only the difference is that you lose your money to phone companies when your prepaid card is not recharged after a year, or if you decide to go with another company of plan deal and leave that prepaid money to them. You do however make a good point, and this could very well be why Nintendo have chosen to use this pre-paid system. Another possibility for their pre-paid system might have something to do with reducing the costs incurred by the “merchant service fee” they are required to pay to their financial institution with each visa transaction. Consider the money they would be saving through the purchase of a single 2000 point card as opposed to five independent 400 point purchases of NES games. Again, it is a case of the company benefiting over the customer, but what can you do, Nintendo have the monopoly on all things Nintendo! It's not like there is another company offering the Wii Shop Channel with a pay-per-game system. Still, these are good things to think about when it comes to online distribution of your own games. I see your point about buying pre-paid currency, and I guess you could make the same point about pre-paid mobile phones. Only the difference is that you lose your money to phone companies when your prepaid card is not recharged after a year, or if you decide to go with another company of plan deal and leave that prepaid money to them.

You do however make a good point, and this could very well be why Nintendo have chosen to use this pre-paid system.

Another possibility for their pre-paid system might have something to do with reducing the costs incurred by the “merchant service fee” they are required to pay to their financial institution with each visa transaction. Consider the money they would be saving through the purchase of a single 2000 point card as opposed to five independent 400 point purchases of NES games.

Again, it is a case of the company benefiting over the customer, but what can you do, Nintendo have the monopoly on all things Nintendo! It’s not like there is another company offering the Wii Shop Channel with a pay-per-game system.

Still, these are good things to think about when it comes to online distribution of your own games.

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