Nintendo Fights Price-Fixing Fine

By Jorge Ba-oh 19.05.2008 14

Nintendo have told a European court that a fine levied by European Union regulators for price fixing in the 90s was unjustified.

In 2002 the European Commission fined Nintendo and 7 distributors 167.8 million Euros for colluding to raise prices of games consoles and software between 1991 and 1998. A lawyer for the company noted that "The penalty was unfair, illegal, even shocking" and that it remains "one of the biggest single fines in EU competition law".

Nintendo told the court that a 149.1 million euro ($232 million) fine was unjustified.

On the other hand, Xavier Lewis speaking on behalf of the commission told the court "This fine was for an infringement that was considered very serious."
The commission noted that it was a producers responsibility to prevent pricing problems with distributors � Nintendo's failure to do so merits a fine, and a hefty one at that.

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Is it me, or is sudenly everyone taking pot shots at nintendo? the other week another company was sueing for te use of spring feedback in gamecube controllers, and now this. Scince they are making a a lot of profit, people are taking libertys and gettign as much money out of them as possible.
Its fasicle in my opinion.

Nintendo's pricing is ridiculous though.

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their pricing is fair to production costs and everything, so what laws are they breaking anyway?

Its common knowledge that Nintendo were complete bastards in the late 80s and most of the 90s when they were the original big guns. Its only a combination of their temporary fall from the top and the expantion of competion that they have become more bearable as a publisher. I find it weird they complain. Except what you did and pay up. You can more than afford it. On a slightly unrelated note the fact that the xbox360 core is now cheaper than wii feels odd, doesnt it feel odd? yes the wii sells bucket loads in comparison and its a year younger but its still odd? Its barely the gamecube X2 yet pay more and you cant strongly argue that publishers are on board and that good AAA games are being produced across the board.

Nintendo have a history of people trying to make money out of them, this was not the first and surely shall not be the last.

Nintendo's pricing has changed alot over the years, at the moment their console price is fair. Their game pricing is fair when yu consider it would be easy for them to jump on the bandwagon of �60 games *cough*again*cough*. The peripherals, however, are not well priced. Though, as it can be said, it's our fault for buying them Smilie

However, this does raise the question, where is the fine for Sony...?Smilie

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This is something that happened years ago, why is it suddenly an issue again?

Echoes221 said:
the other week another company was sueing for te use of spring feedback in gamecube controllers,
Its fasicle in my opinion.

Did you read also that the company that did sue nintendo for that reason only got the patent in 2005, how could the get a patent for something that was invented years before and was widely in use in the GC and XBOX?

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This fine was a bit stupid.
Theres some things Nintendo are guilty of, but unless they have a tape of Nintendo talking to Sony and saying "hay, lets agree to keep all prices above this level" I dont see why they have the right to do this.

Sure, we all like cheaper games.
But it should be a companys right to charge what they want for what they make.
If we dont like that, we dont buy it.

If their saying "price fix" they have to say on what grounds and with what evidence.

Stateing a price as expensive has, frankly, nothing to do with claims of a price fix.

"On a slightly unrelated note the fact that the xbox360 core is now cheaper than wii feels odd, doesnt it feel odd?"

Microsoft make a lose on each unit sold.
So does Sony.
(even when it was 600, the ps3 lost them money. Its not so bad for them now).

Imho, saleing stuff for less then they cost is a "lose-leader" and a VERY bad thing for consumers in the long term, as it means the company will do everything possible to grab there money back.

Nintendo, by making profit on day 1 for every hardware they have released has;

a) Kept them in buisness.
b) Allowed them to take a lot more risks.


If you dont think the Wii, or anything else, is good value, dont buy it.
Personaly, I dont see the only important questions are;
"How much does it cost?"
VS
"How much entertainment will I get from it"

For the Wii, the cost of �250 plus a few games, has more then paid for the hundreds of hours of stunningly good entertainment(Zelda,Metroid,Zack & Wiki, MarioGalaxy)

Different people have different gametastes, but still, at the end of the day its COST vs FUN, and for me the Wii has won that.

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Their game pricing is fair when yu consider it would be easy for them to jump on the bandwagon of �60 games *cough*again*cough*

Are you retarded? Most people seem unwilling to buy Wii games for more than �30. And if that was a pot shot at 360/PS3 games then you\'re just wrong.

( Edited 20.05.2008 02:37 by knighty )

I think he means N64, not your preciiiooouuss. Then again even if it was to do with PS3/360 it\'s not really a dig.

As for N64 games though, they really were a joke. �60 for new N64 games was madness in those days.

( Edited 20.05.2008 08:47 by shiptoncraig )

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Well Nintendo we're assholes during the NES-N64 era so I'm not surprised.

My God the amount of stupidity said in this topic already makes me want to barrate each and every post that speaks about things they simply don't know about.

But I'll just go with this.

�54 for Perfect Dark. European games were overpriced, through price fixing. How is this? Nintendo TELLS the companies to sell the games at X pounds, everyone sell them at the same price so no one loses out. No price wars. Nintendo doesn't have to negociate with anyone, and can rake in a larger profit.

this happened years ago, under yamauchi. It was just, fair, and something Nintendo needed. Granted, I can see why Iwata thought "lets give it a shot, wouldn't mind getting $200mil back, but its not happening. Nintendo screwed up, they paid.

This fine is just plain stupid. As a producer you CANNOT be held responsible for the price a retailer asks for your product. You set a MSRP and THEN the retailer either agrees to it or doesn't. Nintendo 64 games used to be expensive? OF COURSE IT WAS LIKE THAT! The 64 used catridges and, therefore, costed more to produce. This is just a bogus fine and will probably be reduced to 1/5 of the actual amount... since the 7 distributors that CHARGED more for the games are only being fined less than 20 million euro and Nintendo takes a 149.1 million euro fine.

Next thing you know Nintendo will be held responsible for when a retailer discounts an old game on a Nintendo system to make room on the shelves for the new releases...

\"�54 for Perfect Dark. European games were overpriced, through price fixing. How is this? Nintendo TELLS the companies to sell the games at X pounds, everyone sell them at the same price so no one loses out. No price wars. Nintendo doesn\'t have to negociate with anyone, and can rake in a larger profit.\"

...ignore completely Nintendo are competting with other companys. (Sega,Sony ect).

If Nintendo is publishing a game, they set the price.
Retailers buy it from them, and they can sale it for whatever they wish.

THIS IS NOT PRICE FIXING.
You dont have \"price wars\" over your own games.

Price fixing is when *revil* firms make agreements not to undercut eachother.
Like if Nintendo agreed with Sega for no games on their system to be sold under X amount.


N64 games *did* vary in price. Nintendo charged a fair bit for the carts, but they did not force everyone to charge �60 for them.
Let alone, discuse prices with compeditors.
(as far as I know, if they did, then its wrong, but there needs to be evidence beyond \"its expensive\")

( Edited 21.05.2008 00:49 by Darkflame )

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