Nintendo's released a smattering of paid DLC before, of course, from its early experiments with New Super Mario Bros. 2 up to the large level and character packs for Mario Kart 8 . It learned from Skylanders to introduce the wildly popular Amiibo figurines ; it agreed to let another company with more experience in online gaming design its version of Xbox Live or PlayStation Network; it released heavily online games in the form of Splatoon and Mario Maker and it introduced free-to-play titles. Sure, there have been a couple of missteps with free-to-play - Pokémon Shuffle is just the worst - and some icky Mercedes-Benz tie-ins for Mario Kart and Mario Maker , but its DLC add-ons have for the most part been just that: add-ons. It certainly took its time to get the ball rolling - the thought that it would support games with online updates for this long was unthinkable even two years ago.