Nintendo Labo Just Happened

Nintendo, a company with a history of searching for inspiration through hiring people outside of dedicated computer gaming culture just announced a line of software that makes use of cardboard kit peripherals. Here's the video used.

Naturally, this is a joke that writes itself.

Cardboard (and the corrugated fibreboard actually being used in this product) is easy to associate with efficiency, mass production, stinginess. Its flat brown tone is at best a signifier of creating new life from the earth. More often it's a sign of homogeneity and boredom. It's easy to apply these attributes in jokes about Nintendo. Just say it's lazy, cheaping out on hardware and so strapped for ideas that might actually be enjoyable that they're trying to commodify "children playing with packaging".

I... don't exactly disagree but think the project has a few merits. While yes, mulched wood is a low cost product, this allows for Nintento to make much cheaper peripherals for all sorts of gimmicky experiences. Since Gyromite allowed the company to sneak computer game consoles back into American toy stores after the industry crash in 1983 there has been a long string of plastic junk. Consider Hey You! Pikachu!, Yoot Saito's Odama, a camera and printer for the original Game Boy. Tthe Wii Wheel, Zapper and Vitality Sensor.  That's before we even get to madness like the Power Glove or my personal favourite:

Darbian got his last 8-2 skip with this I swear!

My point is, normalising a line of cardboard peripherals allows the company to cheaply produce as many goofy experiments as it wants and if they crash or overstay a user's welcome, the crash can immediately follow a literal burning.

More importantly though, if Nintendo dishes out access to the software and dev tools being used with this project other developers can do the same. Nintendo might want to charge $70US for a piece of cardboard, but some other bright sparks might use the Switch and its joy-cons to come up with all sorts of print at home materials. When I record audio, I use a papercraft pop filter. Who knows what people might come up with when they have software to add to their pulped wood?