This may not seem like a big deal
to most people. In fact I’d say that this news story came and went without much
hubbub. And it seems that one big reason is because it’s kind of a predictable
story. It involves Nintendo acting in a way that anyone would probably
expect. Business as usual, you know? But me? I’m not able to let this one slip
so easily. To me, this is a big deal. My job is talking about video games.
Ultimately the stakes are pretty low here. The gaming industry is really important,
the medium is an important art form, games mean a lot to people, but I do try to
remind myself that at the end of the day, none of this should affect me TOO much. There’s
rarely a reason to get TOO upset about anything. But I’m not gonna lie. This one got to me.
This is one of those stories that genuinely makes me a little bit mad. It’s true! Look
at me! Look at my face! I’m a tiny bit mad! I’m not gonna go on a huge tirade and
start a petition and all that stuff, but at the very least I need
to talk about it here, because, well…I mean this is my outlet. This is therapy
for me. This is how I process my feelings. For a brief recap, a few years ago some rumors
starting going around about Samus showing up in Fortnite. Especially after Sony gave Epic the
rights to create a Kratos skin and Microsoft lent them Master Chief, all eyes were on Nintendo to
follow suit. Characters from all over the gaming sphere and beyond were being added to the game,
it was turning into a humongous collaboration between all entertainment mediums, a veritable
“everyone’s here” of pop culture itself. So if everyone was playing nice, would Nintendo follow
suit? And if they did, who would they add? Well, it seemed that the obvious answer was Samus.
Metroid is one of Nintendo’s oldest and most recognizable series, and, perhaps more
importantly, Samus already shoots guns, in a sense. Thematically, Samus in Fortnite would
be more fitting than say, Mario or Link or Pikachu (as much as I’d like to see ALL of them).
So everyone sat back and waited for Nintendo to get in on the fun. And the announcement simply
never came. Then in 2021, during the massive court case between Epic Games and Apple, some documents
were revealed which included fan art of Samus, suggesting that her inclusion was discussed
internally at Epic. It’s possible that this was simply a case of wishful thinking on the part
of some Nintendo-loving employees, or maybe there was a real conversation, maybe even with Nintendo
themselves. It did make sense that SOMEONE at Epic would try to get a Nintendo character
in Fornite. But whatever the case, nothing came of it. The years passed and it seemed that
Samus in Fortnite was just not going to happen. Well, recently Donald Mustard, Chief Creative
Officer at Epic Games, left the company. And in an interview with Game File he finally revealed
why Samus never made it to Fortnite. Apparently Epic did indeed talk with Nintendo about the idea…
*sigh* But Nintendo didn’t want to do it unless the Samus skin was exclusive to the Switch.
Well, Fortnite doesn’t do exclusive skins, and as far as I know, no one else has
demanded exclusivity. Not Sony with Kratos, not Microsoft with Master Chief. So Epic simply
said sorry, I guess this isn’t gonna work. Now, again, this is par for the course for
Nintendo. They are fiercely protective of their IPs, and they want to keep those IPs on their own
systems in order to incentivise people to purchase those systems. Even the idea of bringing Mario
and company to smartphones was something that Nintendo had to warm up to over several years.
Nintendo properties belong on Nintendo platforms, period. And we’ve seen this kind of console
exclusivity before. The Samus car in Rocket League is exclusive to the Switch, and even way
back in 2002 the only way to play as Link in Soul Calibur 2 was to play the game on Gamecube.
There is absolutely a precedent here. According to Nintendo’s own philosophies, a Samus skin
in Fortnite would HAVE to be Switch exclusive. Okay, this is going to sound like an aside, but
I promise it’s relevant. In fact you might laugh at how unnecessarily deep I go with this whole
thing, but this is just how I work! Over the last few years I’ve been realizing a lot of stuff about
myself. And one huge thing has been realizing how much my own anxiety has kept me from many great
things. This is something I absolutely see in other people, as well. All too often we make snap
decisions. We tell ourselves that things have to go a certain way, and that’s final, no exceptions.
Sometimes this means that a great opportunity might come along, but you have this preconceived
notion that stops you from actually considering the opportunity. You don’t even realize you’re
doing it, it just comes automatically. You say, “No, I can’t do this thing, it’s simply
not possible, because of all these reasons I’ve already drilled into my brain.”
Looking back on my life, I keep seeing these branching paths where I took what I felt was
the safer, more logical route, but I see now that I was actually letting my fear prevent
me from truly growing, from accomplishing big new things that were a little too scary. I would
automatically assume the worst outcome, I would rationalize why something wouldn’t work before
actually giving it a good hard think. I would focus so hard on the downsides–or even POTENTIAL
downsides–that I was completely blind to the fact that the upsides were tenfold. The potential good
DRAMATICALLY outweighed the potential the bad. Nintendo is an old company run by old, very
economically conservative businessmen. It’s taken them a very long time to break free
from some of the nonsense logic bringing their company down. In some areas they have
been successful in this regard, and in other areas they still struggle. And knowing that
they turned down the opportunity to put Samus in Fortnite simply because Samus couldn’t be
a Switch exclusive is EXCEEDINGLY FRUSTRATING. No doubt, I’ve realized through
the course of writing this script, because I see myself in this decision. I
understand it all too well, and it BUGS ME. Now, let it be known that I have no love
for Fortnite, and I VERY MUCH have no love for Epic Games. They’re yet another company that
manipulates kids into emptying their piggy banks, abuses their employees, etc. etc. I PERSONALLY
do not care to see Samus in Fortnite, or any Nintendo character for that matter,
because you won’t catch me touching the game with a ten foot pole. I won’t fault you for
playing it, but just know that I have no real stake in this on the Fortnite end of things.
But I’m willing to set aside my feelings about the company and look at this purely from a
business standpoint, and also, I’ll admit, simply from the standpoint of a Metroid fan.
Nintendo, despite all their experience, despite all their collective business acumen,
have made such a DRAMATICALLY poor decision here. With any decision you’ve got to weigh the pros
and the cons. And I truly believe that in this case Nintendo was so blinded by their, for lack
of a better word, anxiety–their fear of change, fear of loosening their iron-fisted grip on
their IPs–that they have completely failed to see that the benefits of letting Samus be
in Fortnite VASTLY outweigh the downsides, by a factor I can’t even BEGIN to calculate.
Fortnite is one of the biggest games in the world, even several years after its launch, and ranks
among the most ludicrously successful games EVER. The game has become something of a platform
in itself, and it’s still only growing. It’s got a stranglehold on this generation of kids.
My poor nephew frequently laments that he just wants someone to talk to about the dozens and
dozens of Switch games he loves, but everyone at his school just talks about Fortnite all the
time. If it ain’t Fortnite, MAYBE Minecraft, or doodling AmongUs with butts (which seems to be
a big thing *laughs*), they just don’t care! Every single day Fortnite is played by millions upon
millions UPON MILLIONS of kids, and adults too, of course. It’s basically as popular as you can ever
expect a video game to be. I don’t know if it’s POSSIBLE to get an audience much bigger than this.
Metroid, on the other hand? Our dear Metroid is a drop in the bucket compared to Fortnite. Everyone
knows who Samus is, but historically very few people tend to buy her games. For whatever
baffling reason I cannot comprehend the series has never done well in Japan, and even in the west
the numbers tend to be disappointing. Granted, it’s not like Metroid has had a lot of
opportunities to sell in recent years, but even Dread, which was highly acclaimed,
exists in a time when Metroidvanias are more popular than ever, landed on a system with a
humongous install base, and has the honor of being the BEST SELLING METROID GAME EVER…didn’t
really sell THAT well at the end of the day. About three million is good for Metroid, but it’s a
modest success in the grand scheme of things. I don’t quite know why the series struggles as
it does. I guess I kind of feel like there are all these hurdles Nintendo keeps getting caught up
on. Releasing great games on unsuccessful systems, releasing questionable games on successful
systems, or releasing a great game on a successful system, but at a price point that
many probably feel doesn’t fit the game’s length. That’s my theory about Dread, anyway.
Whatever the case though, I believe that out of all of Nintendo’s many struggling IPs, Metroid
has the biggest potential. The gameplay and world are appealing, it’s more mature than their
other legacy IPs but doesn’t isolate the younger audience, it’s got loads of storytelling
potential–I just know that Metroid, if handled correctly, could be SO MUCH. And one thing any
struggling series needs is exposure. Sure, you and I may be intimately acquainted with Samus, but
the greater gaming population is not. A passing, vague familiarity is the best you’ll get with a
lot of people. When you want to grow a property, one of the best things you can do is get
eyes on it. Get people looking at it. Get people curious what it’s about. Just look
at how much Smash Bros. helped get people talking about Fire Emblem and the Mother series.
If Samus had a skin in Fortnite, we’re talking tens of millions of eyes on the character. And
not just eyes, either! This would be a chance for people to actually PLAY as her! Sure, they’d have
to pay, so it might not feel quite as organic as simply choosing the character in Smash Bros.
But if the skin is cool enough then I’m sure there will be plenty of curious newcomers trying
her out. And even just seeing her in the game, even just the pre-existing Metroid fans using her
would be such a good thing for the series. Oh, and the initial announcement and release would
drum up a ton of interest in Metroid all at once. Donald Mustard himself said that it would be their
biggest collab yet. Samus wouldn’t be the most popular character they’d ever introduced
into the game, but working with Nintendo would feel like that big of a deal to the people
who run Fortnite. Even humble little Samus would feel like that big of a win. Samus hitting
Fortnite would be an EVENT. And who knows, maybe when all was said and done this wouldn’t actually
translate to a considerable uptick in people buying and playing Metroid games. Maybe I’m making
a mountain out of a molehill here. But I’m of the opinion that it would at least be worth trying.
Impressing the Metroid series upon that many people is without a doubt something worth trying.
And even beyond Metroid, Nintendo itself could ALWAYS use the publicity! This
wouldn’t just be a good look for Samus, but for ALL of Nintendo! They’re doing just
fine right now, but more is always better! And they might be reaching more kids now than in
previous years, but like I said, schoolyard talk is still dominated by the competition! Get
all those Fortnite-playing folks looking at Nintendo characters and maybe even talking about
Nintendo. It’s literally just free advertising. All of this could have happened, EASILY.
Samus could be in Fortnite right now. And maybe this really would lead to a huge
boon for the series. But Nintendo. Said. NO. They said no because they couldn’t have
things EXACTLY their way. They are so fixated on this perfect world they’ve dreamed up
for themselves that the idea of relaxing their control over their IPs JUST SLIGHTLY, EVER
SO SLIGHTLY, is simply out of the question. They’re THAT scared of the idea of letting
a person play as one of their characters on a box that doesn’t have their logo on it.
They feel that all of the publicity and what it could potentially do for their beloved
series that has struggled for nearly FORTY YEARS would simply not be worth the downsides.
But what are the downsides, really? Tangibly, practically speaking? What’s the worst case
scenario if Nintendo lets people play as Samus on their PlayStations? Let’s really look at it.
Well, in this scenario, the downside would be…Nintendo could no longer say that their
characters HAVE to stay on their platforms. Their perfect track record would be broken. They would
have to admit that sometimes, in some situations, exceptions can be made. That’s it. That’s the
worst outcome. They didn’t let Epic put Samus in Fortnite because they decided they simply CAN’T.
That would break the RULE. The rule that they made. The rule that should serve THEM, not the
other way around. Their decision was made entirely on the basis of upholding an outdated, ridiculous
rule that all along should have been more of, in the words of Captain Barbossa, “a guideline.”
Hey Nintendo, put Samus in Fortnite. No!
Why not? Because we CAN’T!
Why can’t you? Because we CAN’T!
But why not? Because it’s not a thing we do!
But REALLY why not? Because that would break the RULE!
And why does that rule matter? Because the idea of a Nintendo character being
played on another box makes us feel ICKY! WHY?
Because it’s just icky! It’s just wrong! But what about your mobile games!
That’s different! Why?
Because those are OUR games, so we CONTROL them! You could completely control how
they depict Samus in Fortnite. But then people would be playing our
character in a game that’s not ours! And how would that be bad?
It just would! Okay but like, ACTUALLY, what harm would that do?
How would that negatively impact your business? It would make people, uh, buy more of those
other games and boxes instead of ours! It absolutely wouldn’t.
YES IT WOULD. IT WOULD BE BAD. But if you logically look at what it could do for–
NO LOGIC! ONLY RULES! RULES KEEP US SAFE! And then Furukawa knocks the lunch
out of your hand and runs away. I get it, Nintendo likes their little ecosystem.
They like the idea that if you want to play a Nintendo THING, you gotta buy a Nintendo box or
at least a Nintendo game on your phone. But an ecosystem shouldn’t be CLOSED TIGHT. That doesn’t
allow room for it to grow. If you absolutely insist that the only way to experience Nintendo
is under Nintendo’s own terms, then you’ve got loads and loads of people who will just go on NOT
experiencing Nintendo. They’re happy to do it! You’ve got to ACTIVELY reach for those people.
You’ve got to break out of your comfort zone. Obligatory food analogy time, let’s say
you sell burritos. Is it better to say, “Anyone who wants one of my burritos has to
come and buy it from my restaurant, PERIOD! It doesn’t matter how much you want to try one;
if you don’t come sit right here under this roof, you’re outta luck! Because this restaurant–this
one location–being successful entirely on my terms is the ONLY outcome I will accept!” Or is it
better to say, “Hey, maybe we should find ways to reach NEW people with these burritos. Let’s
get in the truck and bring them to a venue, try to sell them to a whole new crowd. Let’s open
up delivery options so people from all over town can get in on them.” Which sounds like the better
strategy? Which sounds like the healthier mindset? And that’s what’s crazy here, Nintendo wouldn’t
even have to “get in the truck,” so to speak. We’re not even talking about crazier ideas like
selling their games on PC or anything like that. This would be small beans. They would barely have
to do ANY work! They would basically just say yes, let Epic do it, and sit back while their
character rakes in the publicity. They would probably even get a cut of the sales of
the skin! THEY WOULD EVEN MAKE MONEY! But…nah. They don’t want that. Free advertising
AND money? Not appealing in the slightest. To tie all this back to myself and my
own realizations over the last few years, I’ve learned that doing new things, easing up on
previously established rules, can be scary. You can’t help but worry about the potential damage
that could result. The ways that things could go wrong. But NOTHING is more damaging than missing
out on a great opportunity because you couldn’t find the courage to just TRY. Whether you’re one
person or a huge company, missing the chance to improve because you’re too scared of something bad
happening is just as bad as something bad actually happening. When you’re all caught up in your
own ruminations, trapped in circular reasoning, you’re so focused on what could go wrong that
you can’t see what could go RIGHT. And constantly choosing the wrong path, avoiding growth because
you’re so scared of damage, is in its own way a source of CONSTANT damage to your life and
livelihood that you might not even perceive. And this has been your daily therapy session
courtesy of Arlo. For further discussion on recognizing and overcoming a myriad of mental
illnesses, tune in to my streams! *laughs*
