Nintendo Donating 50 Million Yen To Aid Japan's Earthquake Victims

But that's half of their profit margin off of kirbys cake racing, or whatever it's called, that's what I call selfless.

Im here to read the comments from the "its so little" crowd, come on guys, do not disappoint me

@EriXz Don't let her tell you differently, I'm sure it's a good size.

A busted up Switch would be the least of my concerns if I was affected by an earthquake but okay. Good to keep the kids occupied and not freaking out all the time, I suppose.

I hope for the safety and speedy recovery of all the victims of this natural disaster.

@TheBigK Homes along everything you own comes and goes, but a Switch is forever. Priorities my friend. Priorities.

Common Nintendo W

@Vyrn read the fist comment

Just under 350,000 usd or 315,000 euros

50 million yens is only around $30,000.00 USD, Nintendo made more than that with just Pikmin 4 alone. Maybe a second tsunami will hit.

Wait, I'm very confused--the article states the earthquake occurred "earlier this month," but then goes on to quote Nintendo twice as referring to the "2020 Noto Peninsula Earthquake." Is this a typo?

It's a nice gesture, but I can't help but find it a little comical that they're offering a free console repair as relief during these trying times. I don't imagine getting their Switch fixed would be a high priority for someone who just lost all their property in a natural disaster. Granted--I suppose they could use some levity in their life now more than ever. But does this mean the only way they can get their Switch replaced is if they go wading through the rubble of their home to try and find their broken system? Cause I could totally see Nintendo being like, "Sorry you lost your house, but if you don't have anything on-hand, there's nothing we can do. Also, the grace period just ended yesterday, it's been 6 months and 1 day. Have a nice day."

Always a good thing, wish nintendo had the same compassion with the many youtube careers they unfairly ended because of their bully tactics

Good on them! Certainly wishing all the people affected by this earthquake the best of luck. I couldn't imagine what it must be like.

@EriXz It's not that it's not enough. It's that nobody needed to know how much they spent. Posting that number on Twitter is just PR and it's sickening.
Wouldn't be the first time Nintendo uses disaster to promote themselves. I haven't forgotten "look at how strong our Gameboy is. It survived a bombing"

Whoever is under the illusion that Nintendo has good intentions when it comes to their money, is extremely naive. They're the worst kind of evil because they hide behind all these bright colours.

I agree with @Not_Soos
They'll probably expect the impossible from the people who were affected. There's no reason they would do this when they can't even replace badly produced joy-cons after four returns to customer service. You can be sure that they won't just give you a new Switch if it's somewhere in a hole underground.

Magnitude 7.6 earthquake kills hundreds and causes millions of dollars of damage.

“...”

Game company announces 50 million yen donation.

“Sickening. The worst kind of evil.”

@TruthisRare "youtube career" seriously lmao

Wow how pathetic there's always people bashing a company for doing something good by offering a gesture of good will, but won't moan about the other hundreds of companies that have donated nothing....

I don't see what people expect a Gaming company to do? Leave the search and rescue to the professionals, leave the rebuilding to the government, and everyone else provides whatever they can to help support victims no matter how small it is every little helps.

@PinderSchloss where was that energy when Square and Capcom donated? Besides, aren't you using this story of a disaster to do some point scoring right now? Lots of buildings totaled by an earthquake and you choose to shout at a building because it has the word 'Nintendo' on it. Stop shouting at buildings, you weird person who picks fights with buildings.

@Yalloo

You know what I mean, people that make their income promoting/talking/showing games.
You actually stand for bullies and tyrannts? Nice

@TruthisRare Hey, most people stand with trans-national mega entities and institutions that are literally bullies and tyrants (WEF and WHO for example). Welcome to the world.

@Not_Soos it is a typo, the earthquake occured on January 1st, 2024.

As little as it may be, every little help counts. Legit question: How much does it cost to build a building in Japan?

Now, I understand a Switch won't be in the essentials list for someone who had to evacuate due to a damaged building or a major tsunami warning, but the portability of it means that someone probably did take it with him/her and evacuated.

Red Cross seems a bit of a shady organization. All these low depth earthquakes also seem suspicious.

Well done big N. Fair play.

@Yalloo Yeah being a Youtuber can be hard work. I guess it’s fine that someone provides you with entertainment, as long as they don’t get paid for it?

Nintendo’s annual revenue for 2023 was $11.852B.
They donated 0.00422% (🤯) of that and made sure to let the world know. What a feat!

But yeah, go ahead and mock me for questioning their virtue signaling, I don’t care.
It’s working out well for them, apparently. 0.00422% and they get thundering applause. People can be so oblivious.

@PinderSchloss Well I think it’s fair to say that Nintendo’s attempt at virtue signalling was more successful than yours.

@PinderSchloss So the company donates, but it's bad because they publicized it? I want some of what you're smoking.

@PinderSchloss I didn't mean to hurt anybody's feeling or sensitivities. Are you a youtuber yourself?

I do recognize that some youtubers provide quality/professional content. And that requires much efforts. I hope that they can get proper payment for their work.
Now people stealing content from other companies without following the guidelines that these companies provide, to try and make a quick buck, I find that very childish.
In the end, the only people who do get rich with youtube videos are the people working at Google and their shareholders. I have read youtube's guidelines, and wanting to make a "career" out of being a youtuber is imo just not something serious. Therefore my comment.

Further I can add that I appreciate the solidarity people/companies show in Japan. Nintendo didn't have to give anything. They run a business, not a charity. It's like a tip, on its own it is not much, but together with all the other tips, it's a big help.

@RubyCarbuncle You are very much allowed to criticise multi-billion dollar corporations on here and it’s probably better if you do, but there’s wisdom in picking one’s battles:

“We have donated 50 million yen to disaster relief”

“That is bad and you are bad for saying so”

…just comes across as a bit silly, really.

If you really want to bring down a corporation, a good place to start would be not buying its products and thereby lining its pockets. Lampooning it on a forum for giving away its own money (or… announcing this?) is an exercise in futility and an act of virtue signalling in its own right.

(To be fair, the same could be said of pretty much any public facing statement made via the internet. We’re all looking for some form of validation regarding something we deem virtuous, praiseworthy or just, otherwise we probably wouldn’t post at all.)

"But yeah, go ahead and mock me for questioning their virtue signaling, I don’t care"

Ok then. PinderSchloss has a point about the thunderous applause. It's not fair so I think we should all applaud them for making a comment. Clap clap clap Woooo! Yeah! Sock it the corps, you Pondland Russell Brand cheering and hollering PinderSchloss translates as 'nuthouse' a parade of dancers dressed as an obscure Addams Family character marches across the street as lively music blares C'mon guys, let's party or you might get called a shill or fanboy a float appears with all of your favourite 'I'm Not Afraid to Criticise Nintendo' YouTubers. They're waving to everyone because that strengthens the parasocial relationship between them and thier 'fans' Look! A choir are singing and wearing paper mache masks of the world's best special Nintendo Life commenter clap clap clap yeeeeeeah!

lol people are still doing this again “it was for PR!” or “this is lower then X” Who cares? I guarantee you even if the donation amount was anonymous some ***** would still go “I bet it’s so little they felt embarrassed to show it” or “Why they not transparent? Bad company!”

Money is money and every little bit helps. You think if your area was hit by a disaster that you would be picky on the motives of the money to help rebuild it? Sheesh privileged as hell takes.

Any contributions will be welcomed by the victims. Hope everyone gets back on their feet soon ❤️

Ouch, got me right in the Addams Family. How will I ever recover.

Look, I know the Nintendo name is attached to a lot of good memories for everyone. But you really need to separate the games from the people who run the company.
The world isn’t going to change if we all keep paying for lousy subscriptions without any features and keep gushing over them when they donate some peanuts.
How little would they have had to donate for people to agree with me, I wonder. The way you’re all acting, it’s as if you wouldn’t see a problem if they donated 1000$
You do all know that a yen isn’t a dollar, right? Have you seen the numbers I calculated? Anyway, good night everyone.

@PinderSchloss I mean. I get not liking them for saying the number they donated. But at the same time they dont even have to donate at all tbh so idk I dont really care about that but I can see why you think it makes them look bad for pr sake.

But the gameboy surviving the bombing is honestly just impressive. It was used by a soldier in that war (who I believe actually survived as well as his gameboy) So I dont see anything wrong with it. Infact its really impressive and it shows how good nintendos hardware (used to be) when it came to durability. I dont think the switch would survive such a disaster lol.

@PinderSchloss
Everybody: Awesome that Nintendo is helping!

You: Bad Nintendo, DO MORE!

You're in the wrong here, admit it to yourself and just move on.

@Pete41608 I won’t. And again, it’s not so much the amount but the fact that they mentioned that amount. That’s really nothing to boast about.

They could have said: We donated an undisclosed amount and encourage anyone who has the means to do the same. That would have made a huge difference and would make it seem like they actually cared.
This is the equivalent of buying a homeless person an orange and posting an Instagram story about it.

But don’t worry, I’ll stop insulting your gods now.

@Pete41608 The logical backflips keep getting more dizzyingly acrobatic.

Apparently less transparency is morally and ethically preferable in this case. It would have made a “huge difference” (…what kind of difference… to what?) if the company had decided to actively conceal the amount donated. This is opposed to being fully transparent so that people can, if they want, compare it to annual revenue and see that yes, it is indeed a relatively modest amount (though no doubt still appreciated).

It’s like giving an orange to a homeless person and then boasting on Instagram about how you’ve “helped erase poverty and would encourage anyone who has the means to do the same”. Surely it’s better to just say, “I gave an orange to a homeless person” than to imply you’ve done anything more?

Let’s recap the following options from worst to best:

3) Donating 50 million yen to disaster relief and fully disclosing the amount. — “Sickening”
2) Donating something but concealing the amount — Would make a “huge difference”, apparently.
1) Donating precisely ¥0 — Seemingly the best choice as this is the option that almost every other company in the world has chosen and been spared any criticism.

Might have the order of 1 and 2 the wrong way around, but it seems fair to say that neither of them would be considered “sickening”.

Seriously… the lengths that people go to drive home the bleedingly obviously point that: yes, Nintendo is not your friend, it is a multinational mega-corporation — one that just happens to make things that you like.

@PinderSchloss Gonna disagree with you. Nothing is wrong with a person or companies announcing how much they donate. I don't see it mainly as a "PR" move. I rather see how much they donated. Not a bland statement saying "we donated" and that's it. Most content creators/companies shows how much they donate anyways I believe.

(Plus Revenue does not = Profit. So technically they gave away a bit more percent of the money they actually have.)

The only thing people should worry about donations in my opinion, is that will that money actually be used for those affected by the disaster properly or will it end up being used improperly. (Disclosing the amount of donations can be important because of this reason.)

I wonder if soemone sends in a like NES or VirtualBoy if they'll still repair it

Classic Nintendo, one of the reasons we follow you.

@IceEarthGuard You make some good points.
Only the part about the need to disclose it to prevent fraud. You have no idea about private donations either, so that doesn’t seem like it would make much of a difference.
But I agree I might focus too much on the negative aspects of this company, because they’re not to be underestimated.
When I see people being oblivious to the dodgy business tactics they often employ, I tend to over-compensate.