News Summary:
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Nintendo Badge Arcade launched in 2015, at a time when the company was experimenting with increasingly bizarre microtransaction models for downloadable 3DS games. StreetPass Salesbunny gives you hot sales pitches of prized Mii Plaza games, while Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball tells you the gory story of an unlucky dog dad bidding for off-the-shelf discounts. Real life for mini games. Game. .
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Loyal Nintendo Badge Arcade players on the 3DS were surprised to find the game unplayable, and while it may have been a temporary technical issue, the signs seem to indicate that the eShop is about to shut down. would be the death knell for this strange game.
With such an effort, the concept of the Nintendo Badge Arcade seems almost trivial. It’s basically a 2D crane game with a camera to shoot and hundreds of badges to collect. The idea, of course, is that you’ll be pouring real money into the game to get the badges you want – there’s a reason we called this Nintendo most cynically in 2015 – but free games every day make sure the game has an audience of people who like to sign up to slowly collect their collection day by day.
Nintendo Badge Arcade already has the ability to expire, as an update years ago added an in-game notification prompt that needs to be triggered when the game stops. You can see the full post on Cutting Room Floor, but this excerpt will give you the gist: “We regret to inform you that this establishment is closed. We sincerely thank all of you. You all have supported and patronized.”
But now those free games seem to be gone. There have been conflicting reports on the extent of it all, but many gamers have reported that their daily free games have suddenly disappeared. I was able to get bonus free games from the practice machine, although I’m not sure if that’s just me left over from not playing the game in years. Anyway, no daily login bonus shows up for me. Data miners have suggested that this could all be down to a mislabeled server configuration file, causing this week’s daily bonus to end a day earlier than the previous one. propose. Maybe a new, properly configured config file will land in a day or two and fix things correctly, but I’m not holding my breath.
Apparently, Nintendo is getting ready for the final closure of Badge Arcade, and it’s hard to imagine it surviving beyond the eShop. Your credit card can’t be plugged into the store, and with the store closing soon, you won’t even be able to use a gift card to get around this restriction. Can a game built almost exclusively to promote microtransactions really outlast your ability to invest your money in it?
