Probably so little kids don't eat them
Quoted post unavailable.
Uhh, ok?
Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
31–40 of 284 posts
Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
#32This type of coating is also on Duracell batteries.
Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
#33> “A bittering agent (Denatonium Benzoate) has also been applied to the game card,” the spokesperson said, adding that Nintendo recommends keeping Switch cartridges away from children “to avoid the possibility of accidental ingestion.” The representative also noted that denatonium benzoate is non-toxic. That was unexpected and interesting.
Note that non-toxic does not mean edible, as the FDA recently clarified due to many people being severely poisoned from eating cakes decorated with luster dust meant for crafting.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7043a2.htm
You would think that if something says non-toxic, licking it shouldn't kill you, but apparently not.
Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
#34I waited outside GameStop on launch day to snag a Switch with my friend. We had heard about the bittering agent applied to the cartridges by day two and immediately tasted them ourselves. Hard to believe the Switch is five years old…
I have a fond memory of camping outside a Target from ~10:00p to 6:00a when the Wii was launched. We hung out with a group of strangers in camping chairs, talked about our favorite games, and tried to keep warm. When the Starbucks bakery delivery came a few hours before the store opened the driver gave us all free pastries. The Wii ended up being a very disappointing launch experience IMO but we had a fun time waitin…
It had Twilight Princess which is good enough for me to call it a great launch. Wii Sports was fun too.
Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
#35You know what happens when you tell kids/teens not to do something, right?
Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
#36I learned about this when it first came out and Jeff Gerstmann just shoved one in his mouth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzw0rWubE_4
This is directly referenced in the article, there’s a gif of it too
Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sony is Japan’s Apple if anyone is. A company like Nintendo doesn’t seem like it has an American equivalent, and I actually can’t imagine a company like that surviving the ups and downs of the 80s/90s/00s tech cycles in the US, especially with our tendency towards M&A.
I don't get the Sony:Apple comparison at all. If anything, Sony is Japan's Microsoft: Do a gazillion things, many of them poorly, to such a unfocused extent that some of your divisions actually end up competition with each other. Like in Sony's case, how they've had internal battles for decades between the device side (that wants to make devices that are useful) and the content side (that wants DRM out the ass on eve…
It took them twenty years to give up trying to push Memory Stick, a product that was made irrelevant in barely four years by SD cards.
Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
#38You know what happens when you tell kids/teens not to do something, right?
But at least with such a taste left in their mouths, they'll surely not do it.
Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
#39You know what happens when you tell kids/teens not to do something, right?
No post body was provided.
Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
#40The same bitterant has been used in anti-freeze for about a decade now to help prevent poisonings of children and animals. It is also used in air duster cans, which I've found annoying because it can go from your keyboard to your fingers.
Given my friend's dog licked up a bunch of antifreeze a couple months ago, I'd say it doesn't work very well.