Earlier this month, the Nintendo Museum opened, and it’s been praised by many who have gone there as a “true celebration of Nintendo.” As the man behind the project, Shigeru Miyamoto, noted, this place is dedicated to the true history of Nintendo, from its earliest days as a toy maker and card game company to its arrival in the video game industry and everything that’s led up to now. The museum is meant to be an interactive place where people can come in, have fun, and see all that The Big N has done up to now. There’s nothing wrong with that! But…
…certain people have gone to the Nintendo Museum and believe they have proof that The Big N isn’t using the standard consoles to allow certain demos of their games to be played. Instead, they believe they’re using emulators connected to PCs to do this instead. The tweet below has been making the rounds, and highlights a “device disconnected” screen that often appears on PCs after a key USB item is removed from the tower.
Why is this such a controversy? As you may know, Nintendo is the “king” of going after gaming pirates. As in, the ones who illegally port games via ROMs and emulators and attempt to make a profit from it. They have been numerous over the years, and Nintendo has gone after all of them without mercy. No, really, without mercy. They’ve put people in jail for gaming piracy, and they’ve taken others to court, winning millions in the process. Just this year, The Big N has gone after multiple emulators, leading to big court wins and the emulator projects themselves shutting down.
So…if the company is suddenly using emulators to allow its games to be played at the museum, that can easily be viewed as hypocrisy, and many are calling it that. It should be noted that Nintendo hasn’t commented on the situation, nor has it been emphatically proven that emulators are what’s being used there. However, it does appear that way, and unless Nintendo can explain why theirs is “different from others,” they’ll take some serious heat for this.
After all, gamers hate it when developers or publishers break their promises or attempt to “pull the wool over their eyes” with banter and wordplay.
While it likely won’t hurt the Nintendo Museum as a whole, as a large majority of people won’t care about this issue, it needs to be addressed.
