The latest news surrounding Nintendo ain’t good, I’m not even going to lie. Hell, this is anti-consumer and if anything it should show that businesses don’t care about you. In a court case that wrapped up towards the end of December 2019, Nintendo’s lawyers have somehow convincingly argued that being able to cancel a preorder via the Nintendo eShop shouldn’t be a thing. And as silly as it sounds, the courts in Germany and Norway have agreed with them. Meaning that as of now, consumers will no longer be able to cancel a pre-order via the eShop in those countries.
Of course, as soon as it was ruled, an appeal was filed, which will take quite some time before that gets set in motion. Yet, it begs to ask why was this even a thing. If a product hasn’t released, especially a digital product, why shouldn’t a consumer be able to change their mind and cancel it? If a digital item isn’t downloaded, it should be still viable to be canceled. This ruling implies that once you preorder then you own the data, even if it is inaccessible. How that makes sense is beyond my comprehension.
Now, while this is only in Germany and Norway, one has to wonder if this is going to set a precedent and if we’ll see this start popping up in other locations. Can you even imagine preordering an item on Amazon or at Best Buy and then changing your mind, only to be told that you can’t?
Lastly, I can see this possibly backfiring on Nintendo. If I know I can’t cancel a pre-order, why even pre-order in the first place. Now, I’m not going to start with this “You should pre-order anything” nonsense, because how you spend your money is your business. Though in this instance, perhaps not doing so to send a message might be in order.
Nintendo, this is anti-consumer as hell and while you’re a business, this not the way to conduct yourself.
