Two Terrible Tastes That (Tentatively) Taste Teriffic Together

I've been thinking a bit lately about two of the more maligned things floating around the gaming world as of late; the growing trend of online passes, and the floundering state of Nintendo's 3DS eShop. The former seem to be mostly worthless*, not offering up enough content or incentive to really seem worth the price, and the latter seems to be rapidly treading down a path of offering piles of mediocre goods that no one in their right minds will purchase. At least not for $5, sir. However, it occurred to me that perhaps, were Nintendo to have just a brief moment of brilliance, they might be able to use one crappy concept to salvage the other.

As Jim Sterling proved rather vocal about in the latest Podtoid, most people in their right minds would prefer not to pay $1, much less $5, for most classic games. Given the selection they've started off with (i.e. fucking Tennis), Nintendo really seems to be pushing it when it comes to offering anything for which people would even pay that single dollar. So I was thinking, aside from a price slash, it might not be the worst idea to implement a subscription service, giving 3DS owners free access to a wider selection of games.



Given Uncle Ninty's track record for not doing anything right online, none of this is likely to ever happen, but it's nice to imagine a world where I can justify a few rounds of fucking Tennis since, after playing a few other games, it's only costing me a grand total of twenty-five cents a month.




* - The only pass I've heard of thus far that seemed at all worthwhile was the Mortal Kombat one, which was basically just a preorder for all the character DLC. Call Of Duty Elite just seems like an attempt to freemium a game people are already paying for, and/or do things that Bungie.net's done, free of charge, for four Halo games straight now. EA's sports thing seems a little less idiotic, but not worth $25 a year; the download time it would take for those preview versions is worth more than that already.