Nintendo Is Reportedly Japan's Richest Company Of 2020

Puts the 10 billion yen in Yakuza 1 into perspective. Nintendo riding the AC money.

Now if they could only invest some of that in acquiring or setting up some more developers to help bolster their first party releases going forward.

@FragRed Why? Their output is fine. I can't afford everything as it is lol.

Damn Wii u days are long gone.
Yet somehow they are still going be "doomed" in hot take articles.

With their poor showing so far I’d say furukawa is riding his predecessors work! Let’s hope he can at least be half as decent as the ones who came before

Looks like they finally took Tom Nook's financial advice into account.

Now I think they could put some of those billions of bells into a full fat Direct! Pretty pweeeease!!

Now pony up and spend some of that dough on some exciting new IPs and hardware concepts :V

Making money isn't just about what comes in. The reason Nintendo is a financial success is because they watch the pennies they spend and get the most out of where they allocate funds.

As opposed to Xbox who are propped up by other sides of Microsoft's business....

@FragRed yes I agree
They should acquire imo:
1 (not more at this point) medium size phone games
At least 2 movie studios and get into that spectrum with their IP by themselves, 1 should be live action and one animated (can be more than 2)
Few game studios (doesn’t matter if they are buying or creating them)
And put some of this money towards more theme parks and stores around the world

They have the money to do all of that, and their business is more than strong enough to sustain it for 2 years until all of those will start making them money

That’s what I think anyway

@Samwise7 So much profit and so little to show :3

That's great, now let's see how they build that new theme park they promised a few years back. More millions will come if that works out as well.

@Tantani It is more wise to take their products to millions of people that had not the chance to experience it yet.

It is so wise that they started doing this already:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/08/the_nintendo_switch_is_officially_launching_in_brazil

And yet they can't pay to acquire more hunger driven developers to help to develop more first party IPS for their company. Greedy at it's finest.

I don't like it when Nintendo is rich, they get lazy and not in a hurry to make good games. When Nintendo was losing money, they innovate and gave all their best effort (BotW).

Let's make Nintendo poor again.

Yup, Nintendo is definitely doomed... /s

@Tantani Eh, I don't want Nintendo to start buying a bunch of other studios. I prefer their current approach of mostly just working with other developers as and when they need to (like Intelligent Systems, Game Freak, HAL Laboratory - none of those are owned by Nintendo). The last thing I want is for Nintendo to become a Disney-like monopoly (not that they're anything close to that at the moment, but I don't want them to start heading down that path).

@GrailUK Even Sony is always on the lookout for more studios to acquire. It’s good business practice to grow, especially when you are in such a healthy position as Nintendo are right now. It will help them in the long run. Remember Nintendo depends on first party games to sell hardware more than either Sony or Microsoft.

@FragRed And both comapnies you mentioned wished they had the first party sales. Nintendo are obviously doing something right lol. Not sure us lot should be giving them business advice.

'You are doing great Nintendo, but buy some more studios, inflate your operating costs and try to sell even more than you are currently doing.'

Honestly mate, that's how you get micro transactions / subscription services etc etc. Nintendo, unlike western companies, don't like to operate in debt.

They know what they are doing. Remember, it's Nintendo, they do have quiet spells while they are working on games. They aren't Activision or EA, that churn the same game out year after year.

@Dogorilla I am looking from both gamer and investor standpoint
They need to do something with the money
They can create everything I said instead of buying it, but when you buy a company, you can get their IPs as well which will be great for Nintendo

@GrailUK their output doesn't all appeal to everyone.

That's their biggest problem. They haven't released a single game this year from their first party line up that I have been remotely interested in.

It's been a dead year for a lot of fans.

You and other fans like you may be okay with this output but many fans unlike you are not okay with it.

Agree - they should look at purchasing more studios / developers like Sony has done. Selling Rare UK was a big mistake.

@FragRed agree 100% cashing in on wii u ports and your not telling me 51 games took 4 years and a massive team of devs.

Use that to make some more games then please

@NoTinderLife When they were struggling with the GameCube they put out some of their most original and high quality software too... New and interesting experiences like Pikmin, Animal Crossing, Luigis Mansion, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, Metroid Prime, Eternal Darkness, Kirbys Air Ride etc... Maybe Nintendo has got a bit arrogant and complacent of late due to their success.

When you take out the games that are also on Wii U their 1st party lineup is rather weak this generation, let's be honest...

@GrailUK Completely agreed. So many people just don't understand and think that a simple comparison of what others do always applies or is justified, when it clearly doesn't/isn't.

More incentive to keep doing what they do... release old ports...

@ThanosReXXX Analysts thinking.

X is doing great. Y is really popular. X should make Y, it makes perfect sense. Such a profound lack of appreciation for anything outside of making a quick buck. Depressing.

@Tantani True, and I'll admit I don't know much about business so I'm probably not very well placed to have this discussion, but to me it seems like Nintendo is doing just fine as they are. It wouldn't be good for consumers if Nintendo bought, say, Square-Enix (perhaps a slightly extreme example) and made all their upcoming games exclusive to the Switch.

I'm very surprised that Nintendo is Japan's richest company of the year though. I would have thought the big tech companies like Sony who make all kinds of different products would be much richer.

I am a wise and intelligent man with penetrating insights into Nintendo’s financial and corporate strategies.

Look at this face I drew with just my keyboard.

W(`0`)W

@Roibeard64 Nintendo had billions on account after Wii U failure.
Nintendo need several flops in a row to be hurt economically.

and they are still not able to bring proper games for the Online service

I agree with the comments, invest in the next Platinum Games.

nIntEndO aLWayS rEleAseS tHe sAmE gAMes oVeR anD oVeR.

well, it works.

Still surprises me how entitled some users are on here.

They don't have to do a Nintendo Direct every few months just to please you. They don't need to release a game that you want every few months just to please you.

People like to forget that Nintendo has released a good amount of games already this year.

Nintendoomed?? No? No one?? Lol
Nintendo is gonna stay forever.

@Razer That's kind of one of the breaks you sign up for when you decide to be a gamer. There's been years when, even when their output was plentiful, where there wasn't much I was interested in, which I'm not sure I'd qualify as a Nintendo problem

@lighteningbolt79 "People like to forget that Nintendo has released a good amount of games already this year"

What, Animal Crossing and Paper Mario with just a (full price) Pikmin port to come?

I love my Switch and have a large back catalogue to play and am also interested in some of the new Indie games, but let's not stretch the truth... If it's due to Covid I think fans would be a lot more sympathetic if Nintendo put out a statement along the lines of "due to Covid there will be no more original games in 2020"

@GrailUK Well, analysts...
More like armchair critics.

@GrailUK Nintendo has first party that does staggering numbers like Animal Crossing New Horizons that's not disputed but PlayStation first party does just as well

Last of Us Part I 25m (PS3 and PS4)
Uncharted 4 16m
Spider-Man 13m
God of War (2018) 11m
Horizon Zero Dawn 10m

That's just rough numbers which you can find higher by looking how account have played the game which they may have done by buying used, PSNOW, Plus etc

That's the thing for Xbox, Sea of Thieves has had over 15m players

That all doing very well for first party stuff, just some have different approaches

@FragRed They already have a lot of 1st party and 2nd party studios. Maybe more than Sony and Microsoft combined.

But I think you may have a point that they could use a couple more because Microsoft and Sony don't rely on 1st party output as much.

Wow, so much negativity this morning, am I still on Nintendolife? We even a slew of business ideas for Nintendo, from EXPERT business insiders in the comments section, no less! I’m sure Nintendo is listening with pen and paper..........

It’s amazing how many people think that Nintendo OWE them or something. It’s also amazing how many people stopped caring about Covid and how it’s slowed down pretty much the entire entertainment industry.

Don’t worry, you’ll get your Nintendo games, kiddos. Just be patient right now, geeze!

I think a recount is needed. If it's true, imagine what the figures would have been if Nintendo had released a full quota of games.😁

@masofdas Oh, I didn't intend to turn this into some sort of competition. And neither Sony or Microsoft need defending lol. All 3 companies are doing great haha

@GrailUK To be fair its not all about you lol. Other gamers might have more time on their hands to get through the released titles or have different gaming tastes to you so what 1st party games have trickled out from Nintendo in 2020 might not be for them. With that in mind Fragreds comment was understandable and its one i can imagine many other Nintendo fans agree with. Being a fan doesnt mean we cant criticize or wish for better from the company we love.

@Scoopz "Being a fan doesnt mean we cant criticize or wish for better from the company we love"

Indeed... it's funny how people call those who expect better from Nintendo "fanboys" when those who defend everything they do are behaving even more like fanboys, lol...

@Clyde_Radcliffe

"If it's due to Covid I think fans would be a lot more sympathetic if Nintendo put out a statement along the lines of "due to Covid there will be no more original games in 2020""

What if they do have an original game out in 2020? Also, it would be terrible business practise to release that statement.

@Scoopz Hey, I have nothing against criticism. I just think more studios isn't sensible right now lol.

Maybe it’s time they start giving us some more games for free then. Would be nice.

@Clyde_Radcliffe Yeah its crazy. This isnt a cult. We are just fans of a brand. If said brand doesnt provide the products/service we expect, then as long as said expectations are realistic/reasonable then we as consumers have every right to be vocal about our disappointment. Its mad how some fans feel the need to defend against anh and all criticism like Nintendos a religion.

A Pikmin 3 port this im hoping is just an attempt to reacquaint audiences with the series ahead of a Pikmin 4 launch next year. Otherwise thats deeply disappointing given how near to completion Miyamoto said the sequel was.

Lets hope the rumours of a full Direct next month are true. Id love No More Heroes 3, the rumoured 3D Mario Allstars collection and Skyward Sword remaster this year. I think Bayonetta 3 and Breath of the Wild 2 will be their big 2021 titles with Metroid Prime 4 coming in 2022

@GrailUK Right now cos of the unpredictable environment Covid leaves us in then yh, but in the medium term, acquisition of other studios and increasing their development capacity is exactly what they need to do. Its help diversify their catalogue as well as the amount of titles released. How anyone can be against that i dont know lol

@Anguspuss 51 Worldwide Games only took around a year and a half it seems. Made by the same studio who made Super Mario Party in 2018.

Nintendo: Wealthiest company in Japan

Also Nintendo: Decides to quit while they are ahead and to never make another console or another game again.

@Scoopz Not against it, but which studio? Or just any lol.

Edit: OK so everything I wrote below is wrong, well maybe not the "class warfare" part, but I'm leaving it so others may learn from my mistakes, b/c I'm generous like that.

Japan has the most CASH ON HAND of any company in Japan. And at $8B it's doing great, even by greedy US standards.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/07/microsoft-apple-and-alphabet-are-sitting-on-more-than-100-billion-in-cash.html

Probably a combination of reeling from the Wii U bust and pandemic keeping them holding onto it for awhile before investors ask for a taste. Some more 1st, 2nd and 3rd party game development investment would be nice though.

Original post begins below:
Japan is doing a really bad job at the whole "class warfare" thing if the richest company in the country is worth only $8B. 😉

Here's a list of 8 US start-ups, ie companies just starting out, that were worth $10B as of 2017 when the article was written.

https://www.businessinsider.com/most-valuable-us-startups-2016-12#1-uber-8

Newer article, 2019, 30 companies worth $1B.

https://www.businessinsider.com/companies-unicorns-worth-1-billion-didnt-exist-10-years-ago-2019-11

Definitely different mindsets, should make you think.

This ones for you @NEStalgia 😎

@rjejr We’re not talking about the value of the company. We are talking about the amount of money they have in their current account.

Normal business practice when you have that kind of capital is to either invest it or return it to shareholders.

Then do something, Wii U ports arent enough anymore. Switch hás like four great games botw odyssey smash Bros AC the rest are old ports.

Just $8 billion? Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Elon Musk are worth several times that as an individual. Jeff Bezos alone is worth more than 20 times of the cash Nintendo has. Not saying $8 billion isn’t impressive, but there are a few individuals alone worth more than that.

There’s a lot to be said about a company that has such recognizable and mainstream IP. Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Pokémon, Kirby... I’m amazed Sony and Microsoft have so little of that sort of recognition considering the popularity of their brands.

Would be nice if they spent some of that money on a new F-Zero

Would any like to chip in with me and help fund an Eternal Darkness 2 prototype? I’ve got £5.

I fear the original was so good it trapped itself in eternal darkness. Maybe I died too many times and the darkness broke the fourth wall. Sorry my fault

@Wargoose I fear they did and then some genius (Miyamoto) who apparently doesn’t even like F-Zero said let’s put F-Zero in MK8. Boo! Let’s have a full fat F-Zero please!

@Don That's because America doesn't enforce anti-trust laws.

@Hobbesyall Well it is hard to tell when there is a global pandemic slowing down production and manufacturing of games.

@Don What someone is worth: the value of the houses, cars, stocks, shares and tools as well as any intellectual property that may hold. Is different from the amount of cash they have siting in their bank account.

@Ryall Thanks. I was working off of the first sentence in the article and apparently translated it poorly, from British to American.

"becoming the richest company of 2020 in the country."

All the articles I've found about cash in the bank always refer to it as the companies "cash on hand". If a company has more debt than cash on hand that may affect it being considered "rich".

But I guess that's what I get for trying to talk money, w/ my limited knowledge, on a gaming site.

Thanks again for setting me straight w/ the reply, going to go back and edit my original post now. Was going to delete it but my hubris needs to be put in it's place.

@Uncle_Andross Nintendo is having a shameful release schedule even ranking into account the pandemic

@UmbreonsPapa to be fair I'm not very bothered anymore. I've actually played more than enough games on my Switch, it's definitely in it's twilight for me at least, I've had it for nearly 3 years, got over 40 AAA games and quite a few Indies too, spent about 2500+ hours on various games and I still have a few I need to play. I've put more than enough time and money into it.

I'm about ready to move on to the new Xbox/PS5, I'll grab a Pro and hopefully BOTW 2 and Metroid Prime but the Switch is at the same stage the PS4 was at when the Switch launched - about ready to gather dust, which my PS4 has been mostly doing since Red Dead 2.

Edit: I do want to play Ghost of Tsushima though.

@rjejr It's still for me, even post edit. If only the very idea of "shareholders" could be vanquished to begin with, business would be...normal again.

@FragRed I would so love this. Imo, they should acquire small developers or at least work with them and make an online service worthwhile like Apple Arcade. Apple has or is reportingly willing to spend $500MM. Nintendo could easily do this.

@rjejr it would be interesting to see how much the WiiU impacted Nintendo. I thought I read that in spite of several quarters of losses, it eventually ended up breaking even or turning a small profit.

I am glad that whatever bad taste it left, has not kept Nintendo from experimenting.

Fans: why you not announcing new games??
nintendo: hahaha money printer go brrrrrrrr

@Razer You can’t appeal to every single person, and it’s foolish to try to

Would be nice if they invest a tiny bit into bettering their users online experience with the switch, though realistically I feel any significant change until the next console is rather remote.

Or perhaps keep AlphaDream from completely dying.

@electrolite77 a lot of people forget that there's a lot of people who don't care about any of that junk that has been listed there.

But you can only remind them so many times before giving up.

Nintendo was never near bankrubt, not even once poor. The can survive any storm eve 3x wii-u in a row. They earn more money then microsofts xbox an sony's playstation together.
With one simple trick. Make cheap hardware sell expensive and make great games with almost no price drop.

And this time they earn even more becausecthey are finaly accept any game for their system, and their team made some historical games.

To get absolute world domination in terms of users, they should release a very powerfull console and a great online system one year after the ps5vand xsx

@Hobbesyall Yes, Furukawa is riding on predecessors when he's part of Nintendo for his entire life and is president of the company since then. Also, I love how you think that a president does everything in a company as if a board of directors don't exist, neither other tons of different internal positions.

@Razer Whoa, their output don't appeal to everyone? What a surprise! Here's a secret: The output of Nintendo won't ever appeal to everyone, neither will from any other company in this business. That's literally impossible.

You ignore the fact that there's things called resources be it in money or human resources and many companies nintendo contracts and Nintendo itself are responsible for franchises. If you're not interested in Kirby or Fire Emblem, they won't stop to make them because of you.

@Clyde_Radcliffe Nintendo released much more than this and you know it.

@Uncle_Andross I love, I just love how games don't count if they aren't on the few franchises you like. Nintendo released much more on Switch than just that but you just count a few releases. Amazing.

@Clyde_Radcliffe Yeah, when you take out Wii U ports (which are just 8) it's fairly weak. Wait, no, it isn't. Let's Smash Bros Ultimate, Astral Chain, Splatoon 2, BOTW, Arms, Snipperclips, Tetris 99, Ring Fit Adventure, AC New Horizons, Yoshi Crafted World, Fire Emblem Threehouses, Super Mario Odyssey, Xenoblade 2 and many more don't exist, I see.

Also, I love how Nintendo don't make new experiences on a console where they released Labo and Ring Fit Adventure, two experiences that are very traditional!

@Nemesis666 BOTW is on Wii U and at least 4 of the games listed aren't Nintendo developed (they're made by third parties) Fair point on Lobo and Ring Fit Adventure! I'd actually forgotten the former existed.

@Clyde_Radcliffe BOTW don't count, I see. So I guess Persona 5, Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami don't count as PS4 games as they launched on PS3 as well, same for Twilight Princess. Interesting.

Also, your notion of only counting Nintendo developed games is ridiculous man. All of those games are produced by Nintendo EPD, have producers, coordinators, directors

Why do you think Tanabe in Paper Mario has influence? It isn't because it's Mario, it's because it's a game published by Nintendo that has Nintendo staff on it. Why do you think that Kaori Ando is credited as director on Astral Chain when she's a nINTENDO employee? Nintendo has an entire section on Nintendo EPD from the time of Nintendo SPD where they work with external developed games. I recommend you to give a look at staff and credits because you only counting internally developed games is absurd when Nintendo always had more external developed games than internal ones, which is clear when Pokémon, Kirby, Fire Emblem, Smash Bros, Paper mario, Mario & Luigi and so many of their series were never developed by them but outside, with Nintendo overseeing.

I recommend you to give a look to this:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/nintendo-first-party-thread-ot3-internal-x-external-x-publishing-whats-cooking.116419/

If i was shareholder in Nintendo i would be happy. As a gamer i think Nintendo should invest some of that to offer even more products and games to customers or even cut some deals with 3d party publishers

@rockodoodle I would think they would have had some losses with the Wii U not selling, they got rid of the white 8GB pretty quick so probably wrote those off and sold them off to be bundled w/ Skylanders or Just Dance, I forget.

But the 3DS was going strong - we had 3 in our house - so the company as a whole, while I recall it being in the red once or twice, didn't suffer too much.

I also noticed a huge uptick in merchandising while the Wii U falters. I think the new presidents after Iwata were more into the "let's license Pikachu to Build-a-Bear" state of mind. And they were probably making money on all of those amiibo back in their hey day. Maybe not as much as the eBay scalpers, but they probably weren't selling them at a loss.

Nintendo may be "just" a video game company compared to Microsoft and Sony, but they were never just a Wii U company.

@NEStalgia As bad as shareholders may be, though they aren't all bad, just the big ones, some are just people, if you get rid of them aren't all you left with is the Bain Capitals of the world buying up companies then gutting them into bankruptcy with even less financial oversight than you have now?

I think the system put in place was ok when laws and regulations were followed. The real problem now is we live in a post class war society where the rich won, took over everything, and do what they want, flaunting the laws in broad daylight, live on TV, and nobody wants to or can do anything about it. Greed was so good in the 80's it won and destroyed everyone not in the club in it's path.

And I feel like things are better in Japan. Though the country did have 0 growth for like 30 years so it's probably just a "grass is always greener" wishful thinking kind of thing.

Oh, and thanks for not mocking me incessantly for the pre-edited post. I need to question what I read more, especially financial news on NL.

And who was saying a company needs a decent e-shop 2 survive these days, that place is literally a nightmare...haha...

@rjejr I don't think the problem is merely that "the rich won." Or that there ever was really a class war beyond politicians/media stirring that pot for power and dividing the masses so everybody's pointing fingers at each other instead of them. And it works. Oh, boy it works. Need a distraction while you unload the treasure out the back? Scream class war, race war, gender war - all at the same time! Everyone will kill each other in the streets for hating each other about the problems you caused!

I think the real problem is the total mindset of the population regardless of class. "Get whatever you can get while you can get it", "It's only wrong if you get caught", "Ethics are just opinions" - and the cornerstone: "I'd do that if I had that power/money/status!" It's not just the rich. It's that even the poor cheer on the rich for doing that because they not so secretly simply want to become them and be able to do that themselves.

Japan actually socially condemns unethical behavior at all levels of society. We socially celebrate it because we see ethics as shackles devoid of punishment and self serving abuse of others as the foundation of freedom. The social pain of becoming, basically outcast is pain enough in Japan to keep people ethical (usually, there's of course plenty of exceptions, humans are human after all...)

Maybe people need to start belting their kids for saying bad words or making funny faces at people again. Nuns with rulers. People learned to never say a bad word. Ever. Absolutely ever, at a very young age, and it carried into adulthood. Humans really do seem to couple fear of pain and punishment as the only constraint on their behavior. When they took corporal punishment away, those "kids" learned that whatever they do that benefits them is fine with little consequence. Wealth just means they can do that much more of it. Those kids eventually became Bain and destroyed everything in their path so they can upgrade their yacht's door handles to solid gold. Mostly just to feel superior because nothing can harm them.

Their yachts need nuns with rulers. "Save America! Belt your kids, Red, White, and Blue!"

I'm pretty sure we're gonna see black Jill, gay Leon and asian Claire

@Mambitos

I think your assessment is a bit harsh. I agree the 4 you mentioned are top notch, but there have been some other awesome releases. My personal favorite is FE3H....I love the series and this is easily the best in the series. I am going to count the platinum games as N fully funds them and publishes them so Xeno2 and Astral Chain are top quality. MRK is another example as even though Ubi made it, Nintendo made their flagship characters available and published it. LuigiM is awesome and Splat2 is hugely popular, and uhm seems like Pokemon still sells. Kirby, PaperM, Yoshi, Mario Tennis, and Arms all solid B side material. This is by far the best cycle of great games N has released since GC. I too want more, wish they would start a sports and racing game division and bring us a modern mario golf rpg (like gba) and imagine FZero as an open world racer with online racing leagues and true vehicle customization. Wave race and Excitebike could both use modern update as well. So I feel your pain as N has such great IPs that they could always do more, but in the end N is N and they do things their own way and in general its very effective. The Switch aint done yet and COVID has screwed everything up so lets just hope that the rumored Pro model for next Spring is true and that we get a slew of things held back now in 2021. Regardless of next year there is no way N won’t have a major release for Holiday 2020 as they do 1/2 their annual system sales in the 4 qtr.

@NEStalgia Guess I missed this one.

Good point about the class war not really being a class war b/c everybody feels that way regardless of their class, but I still think it's a class war b/c only certain people have the power to actually act on their feelings. But it's also a race war, and a gender war, and a religious war, b/c it's really about the rich white men vs everyone else.

Though if you want to argue there never was a class war, any more than there is a class war between cows and the farmers who milk them, or the sheep and the farmers who sheer them, well I can see that side of the argument as well. I suppose there never really was a class war, b/c the lower classes never knew they were in one, or could do anything about it even if they knew, short of revolution, which I think worked in France. and possibly the US in the early days throwing off the Kings rule before the rich ruled in his place.

But I still have to stick w/ class war b/c it's what I know and it does adequately enough I think explain the situation. The rich land owners used to be like the working class in the US, there were no kings or warlords, everyone did start out on similar footing. And by everyone I of course mean white men. But eventually you had the robber barrons and others of their ilk just gain so much wealth they could write their own rules. And that's the problem, b/c the rules are supposed to be written to keep things more fair and even, but once you get money controlling politics it was only a matter of time. Social security, medicare, subsidized housing, SNAP, minimum wage, there was a time when politicians at least made the appearance of caring about the lower classes, trying to keep them alive at a subsistence living level. But now, let's just close down all the agencies, let disease kill them, let's tax the workers but not the owners, their is no pretense of caring anymore.

My only hope, even w/ the class war won this generation, is that women and minorities can come together and overthrow white man's rule. I know given enough time whoever rules will become corrupt, that maxim is inescapable, but maybe the US could have 100 or 200 years where we put the massacre aside and make an effort towards peace. I'm all in on The Squad. They're not perfect, but it's a start. We know how things are right now, how much worse can they make it? What was it that Tim Scott at the RNC said, a Socialist Utopia? Sure, why not give it a shot.

@rjejr Nah, all this "identity politics" tripe has got to go. It's the prison we keep binding ourselves into by design. There's really only one party entirely.....a corporate bought and paid monoparty that plays "sides" based on which corporate interest paid them the most. D/R, it's all the same party. They say different things, but they do the same thing, in complete cooperation (feigned disagreement aside.)

So candidate A is paid by the airlines and candidate B by the auto industry...they "compete" over conflicting corporate goals...but they're really the same candidate in service to the payments of their corporations.

A feudalism has quietly been rebuilt. Centralized corporate estates, always lead by the heirs of the same noble houses. To be noble born guarantees a slot at ivy league schools (where one can't actually fail unless born a true ignoramus) and a guaranteed career path wherever you choose. The life of the parents determines the life of the children. A caste system anew, but not overtly discussed. It's not about genders and races...it's about bloodlines and generational status, more than anything else, unless one is overwhelmingly gifted by chance.

The whole gender and race war isn't even just a distraction. It actively is conquest by division. Everyone splits evenly by gender, and then into sub-sects to fight out ancient grievances - taking the large body of people that are in the SAME boat....and instead having them paddle in different directions all at once, actively trying to flood "the other side of the boat."

Race? The racial divide, today, is primarily an economic divide more than a real social divide (some exceptions or locations apply.) It's one big group, regardless of race, being affected by the same factors above. But divide and conquer keeps everyone fighting each other rather than recognizing there's a common problem across all "groups" - and that it's not much about actual social stigma about race and more about stigma of wealth, even where race is one of many factors involved.

The only fix is to stop dividing everyone into sub-groups and to actually realize it's all one big group against an otherwise small group of hereditary status. Not just the Bezos's of the world but the many middle managers that maintain their pedistals for them. But that involves convincing everyone that "race x" isn't uniformly a bogeyman, and that the economics and status one grew up in have a lot more to do with outcomes than race or gender itself, or anything else. But that won't happen. Because people are comfortable fighting these side wars, because they feel much more approachable, and it's emotionally satisfying to beat dead horses where you can easily "see" and label the enemy rather than an intangible enemy like castes and heredity.

French revolution, indeed. The French revolution wasn't a revolution of peasants against an introverted aristocracy. It was the ring of second tier nobles and upper classmen who felt they deserved all the power rather than the hereditary royal court, who flared up the already desperate and enraged peasants to fight their war for them. Once handed the power they were "owed", the new aristocracy put the peasants back in their place. No doubt, the women were gathering as much of the jewels and wealth as they could all the while..... and the men were gathering it to buy the women's favor.

@Dogorilla bethesda just got bought by microsoft

@PALversusNTSC Yes, they have. In 1964, their stock price was a whopping 60 yens.
With inflation from 1964 to today, that's a whopping $2.65 today!
Ouch.