With the release of Mario Golf: Super Rush, the topic of Nintendo’s use of updates, or free DLC, has once more come up. With previous titles, such as Mario Tennis Aces and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Nintendo has used free, semi-regular updates as a way to roll out additional content and encourage players to return to the game. Some people posit that this also allows them to release a feature-incomplete game at launch. 

While Nintendo is well known for having highly polished games, they are increasingly experimenting with this update model that borders on games as a service. It’s understandable for any game to receive patches to fix problems and address balance issues, but the idea of drip feeding content at a fixed price feels new, and there doesn’t seem to be a consensus among gamers or consumers. The argument seems to have some merit that if a…